theatreVOICE

One of the fringe benefits of my job as a translator is to see a play in a number of often completely different productions. After all, the quality of a text is defined by the variety of solutions it makes possible whilst still staying true to it. This was strikingly the case with […]

Usually there are two reasons for avoiding a play in future. Either you have seen it too often already and don’t care about it any longer or you are fortunate enough to have been at a definite production. At some time in my theatregoing life I decided I wasn’t too keen on spending […]

First the good news. I’m just rounding off a quick visit to the Dublin Theatre Festival (you can read the Telegraph round-up here) and I can confirm that the Celtic Tiger, although lying prone on the floor and bleeding profusely, hasn’t quite given up the game yet in the face of the Credit Crunch’s daily […]

The symposium on the work of Howard Barker held at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (the RSAMD) in Glasgow on May 24, 2008 (which is now streamed on theatrevoice.com) offers some important insights into Barker’s thoughts about his theatre, its international success and its neglect by the English theatre establishment. It also […]

Ford Madox Ford quite rightly advised that one should not meet one’s life heroes. Luckily for me with Michael Frayn, who is celebrating his 75th birthday today, this wasn’t at all the case. When I was introduced to him whilst working on the German translation of Democracy, he couldn’t be more modest and relaxed. Already […]

Whilst even big names like Tom Stoppard, David Hare or Alan Bennett are only rarely performed over here, Martin Crimp and Simon Stephens earn a big part of their income from German royalties. Stephens in particular gets pushed by the influential monthly magazine „Theater heute“ which prints practically each of his texts and follows this […]

365, the National Theatre of Scotland’s production at the 2008 Edinburgh International Festival, is a highly unusual project. Originating with its director, Vicky Featherstone (artistic director of the NTS), it found playwright David Harrower accepting a commission on a specific subject; the first time he has written an original play in this way.
   The play’s subject matter - young adults […]

Walking through the Stage Door of the National Theatre of Macedonia, Bitola I noticed that there are lots of ‘no guns’ notices displayed. At first I was slightly alarmed… just how dangerous is it to make theatre in Macedonia? However rather than being a clue that the seemingly friendly cast are secretly gun-toting maniacs, […]

Even big successes in the British and Irish theatre sometimes tend to get lost on their way across the channel. My absolute highlight of last years’s Edinburgh Fringe was Enda Walsh’s „The Walworth Farce“. Whilst the press voiced a few nit-picking reservations, in the Traverse Bar even from colleagues who normally couldn’t agree on the […]

It was quite unsettling to hear about Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s fear of appearing on a stage after 10 years as an actress in her TheatreVOICE interview ahead of the opening of Her Naked Skin on the Olivier stage.
When you watch actors performing, the last thing that you consider is that they may be overcoming a serious phobia […]