Review: Tao of Glass – a collaboration by composer Philip Glass and director Phelim McDermott
Matthew Paluch sees Tao of Glass – Phelim McDermott is a brave maker/performer, and he’s certainly putting himself out there in Tao.
theatre
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Review: Onyx Productions 360 ALLSTARS at the Peacock Theatre
Graham Watts sees 360 ALLSTARS – experts in either spinning themselves or something else – but yearned for 32 fouettés to be added to the mix.
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Review: Oedipus at the Old Vic – striking trees, but not quite a forest
Lucía Piquero sees Oedipus at the Old Vic with Rami Malek, Indira Varma and Hofesh Shechter’s choreography, but finds a disjointed feeling to the whole production.
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Review: Dimanche by Compagnie Focus & Chaliwaté – an absolute must see
Matthew Paluch sees Dimanche by Compagnie Focus & Chaliwaté: “a seriously important work that leaves a lasting impression”
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Review: Circa’s Duck Pond – the place in which The Ugly Duckling and Swan Lake collide
Graham Watts sees Circa’s Duck Pond – “although balancing was largely the name of the game, ironically the balance between circus and theatre needed a little more refinement”.
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Review: Jo Strømgren Kompani’s The Substitute at Oslo Opera House
Graham Watts sees Jo Strømgren Kompani’s The Substitute at Oslo Opera House, a work aimed at ‘children of all ages’.
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[Review] Andrée Bernard in ‘What (is) a Woman’ – intoxicating magic
Matthew Paluch sees What (is) a Woman: “Bernard has an undeniable major presence, and the project is a bold, brave move by an artist who has a story to tell.”
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Lina Sastri remembers Edoardo De Filippo – a privilege to share her magic
Neapolitan actress and singer Lina Sastri’s ‘Edoardo mio’ is a magnificent series of recollections, together with songs, of the great maestro De Filippo.
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Dario Fo – still relevant in today’s London
With Trumpets and Raspberries running in London, and Accidental Death of An Anarchist having just close, Dario Fo’s writing is as relevant as ever.
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Ferruccio Soleri – After 60 years and 2,283 performances, Italy’s Arlecchino bows out
On 13 May, a very important actor took his final bow. Goldoni’s Harlequin, servant to two masters, known in Italy as simply Arlecchino, has seen Ferruccio Soleri in the leading role since 1959. Now, aged 88, he has taken off his chequered costume and black leather commedia dell’arte mask for the last time. Goldoni’s play…
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Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo dies in Milan at 90
The Nobel Prize winning writer, actor, painter, composer and director died this morning in Milan at the age of 90. He was born on 24 March 1926 in San Giano, a small town on Lago Maggiore in Lombardy in the north of Italy. Performing and writing until a few weeks ago, even with a new television programme…
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David Ashley and the secrets of a pantomime dame
I am a three-bun wig, brown-booted, very large, maternal bosom sort of a gal. David Ashley is talking about his pantomime alter ego which has inhabited him over the Christmas period for 12 seasons. David’s successful West End career and occasional teaching saw a change of emphasis as he hit his forties with teaching taking…
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Meryl Streep to play Maria Callas in HBO’s film of McNally’s Master Class
Meryl Streep will play Maria Callas in a filmed version of Terrence McNally‘s play Master Class. New York Post’s Page Six reported that HBO would start filming in January of 2015. Mike Nichols – who directed Streep in Silkwood, Postcards from the Edge and Angels in America – will team up again with the Oscar-laden actress for this project….
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Milan celebrates one of its most-loved actresses as she turns 80
Giulia Lazzarini, one of Giorgio Strehler‘s favourite actress, and for decades a constant presence on the stage of Milan‘s famed Piccolo Teatro, is 80 and, rightly, it was at the Piccolo Teatro that her birthday was celebrated this week. Looking ten-years younger, she is continuing to work on stage, and will play the mother in…
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Photos: Baryshnikov and Dafoe in Robert Wilson’s The Old Woman
Robert Wilson‘s new creation, The Old Woman, opens at the Manchester International Festival tonight. Mikhail Baryshnikov and Willem Dafoe star. The Independent‘s Sarah Crompton went to Spoleto where the rehearsals took place to talk to the great dancer, who happens to love rehearsing: I respect process more than I actually like to perform. When you start to…
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Portrait of Kevin Spacey as Richard III goes on show in London
A striking new portrait of Kevin Spacey as Richard III will be one of several new works by Jonathan Yeo to be included in a major display of the artist’s work at the National Portrait Gallery this September. The large painting shows Spacey in one of his most acclaimed roles during his tenure as artistic…
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Franca Rame, actress, playwright and wife of Dario Fo, dies at 84
Franca Rame has died in Milan at 84. She was an Italian theatre actress with a talent for comedy, playwright and an outspoken political activist. She was married to Nobel laureate playwright Dario Fo who dedicated his Nobel Prize to her. Rame came from a theatrical family in the north of Italy. After making her theatrical debut in 1951, she met Dario Fo and they married in…
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The Italian Greta Garbo is gone: Rossella Falk dies at 86
Rome, 10 November 1926 – Rome, 5 May 2013 One of the greatest Italian stage actresses has died in Rome at the age of 86. Rossella Falk was a giant among Italian actresses, with a slightly arrogant air and regal poise which set her apart from many of her more earthy colleagues. The label “the Italian Greta Garbo” was well chosen, and…
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Anna Proclemer – powerful Italian stage actress – dies at 89
Anna Proclemer (Trento, 30 May 1923 – Rome, 25 April 2013) One of Italy’s greatest actresses died this morning on the eve of her 90th birthday. Anna Proclemer was primarily a stage animal with a searing presence and powerful voice, allowing her to dominate every stage she stood on. She was a larger-than-life actress, the like of which…
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Beppe Menegatti answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Directors’ Edition
Q&A When did you first go to the theatre? To see Rigoletto at the Teatro Comunale in Florence on 10 October 1939 for my tenth birthday, with Gino Bechi, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Lina Aimaro and the young Giulietta Simionato as Madelena. Why did you want to work in the theatre? In Florence, we give out presents for the Epiphany. When I was…
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Mariangela Melato: Milan, 19 September 1941 – Rome, 11 January 2013
Mariangela Melato was one of the finest actresses I have ever seen. Unfortunately, language restraints meant that her immense talent was largely unknown outside of Italy, but Melato was a rare creature indeed capable of moving with ease between Racine’s Phèdre and musical comedy, from Shakespeare to cabaret, the villainess General Kala in Mike Hodges’ film Flash Gordon to the Milanese…
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Adolphe Appia at La Scala: a new publication by the Amici della Scala
The Amici della Scala (Friends of La Scala) was formed in 1978 to promote music, art and culture in Milan and the Lombardy region, though the La Scala opera house is the focus of their activities. Activities of the Amici della Scala include scholarships for young talents; gifts of musical instruments to young soloists; lectures, conferences, television…
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Leading actor leaps from the stage to confiscate a persistent cell phone
At Milan‘s prestigious Teatro Strehler yesterday afternoon, esteemed actor Gabriele Lavia was negotiating the tricky array of emotions set out by Pirandello in his play Tutto per bene. Then the cell phones started ringing. Once, twice, three times… The matinée performance largely consisted of elderly ladies, not as quick as their grandchildren at switching off…
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Milan’s Teatro Franco Parenti celebrates its birthday with an orgy of Hamlets
One of the most respected Milanese theatres was born from an artistic collaboration between three pillars of Italian theatre: the director Franco Parenti, writer Giovanni Testori and up-and-coming young director Andrée Ruth Shammah. Together they formed the Salone Pier Lombardo which, since Parenti’s death in 1989, has been run by Shammah, and renamed Teatro Franco Parenti. This getting-together…
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Two Italian living legends together: Ferruccio Soleri, the greatest Arlecchino, and Carla Fracci, the greatest Giselle
Ferruccio Soleri (class of 1929) has played Arlecchino in Giorgio Strehler‘s legendary production of Goldoni’s masterpiece Servant of Two Masters (Arlecchino servitore di due padroni) for Milan‘s Piccolo Teatro since 1959. And he still is. He will be playing the role for the 53rd season this year, and on tour in Argentina. Here he is pictured with long-time friend…
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Filippo Timi can be excellent, so he shouldn’t be anything less: Romeo and Juliet in Milan
What to think of Filippo Timi? After the extraordinary success of his Amleto² (Hamlet squared) comes Giuliett’ e Romeo (a loose adaptation of Romeo and Juliet). There are just five characters: the Nurse, Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio and Cupid. Yes Cupid – it’s a very loose adaptation. As Cupid, Timi comes on as though Jason Bieber had been styled by…
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More Ziegfeld folly! Can you still be a Follies girl at 105?
Of course you can! Doris Eaton Travis was the last surviving girl from the Ziegfeld Follies. She joined the company in 1918 at the age of 14, and in this picture with her younger self is the remarkable Doris at 105. She died a year after this photo was taken, in 2010. In 1998 she returned Broadway‘s New…
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Amleto² engulfed by the outsize personality of Filippo Timi
Filippo Timi is a strange theatre beast indeed. An actor of power and fascination who attacks his projects fearlessly, careering from comedy to tragedy, from extreme campness to rugged masculinity, from classic to modern in his unique and utterly engrossing theatre creations. His plays appear to be casual experiments: he throws in a bit of…
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2,695 shows make this year’s Edinburgh Fringe the biggest ever. And the programme: 376 pages and weighs 605 grams!
A record number of shows will be staged at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, brushing off fears that the clash with the London Olympics would harm the Festival. A 6% increase on last year’s programme will see 2,695 shows take to theatres, pubs, nooks, crannies and gardens all over Scotland’s capital in August with 47 countries…
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John Malkovich’s World Theatre Day message
The 50th annual World Theatre Day, which is March 27, will see John Malkovich give the opening address which will make him the first American actor to do so. He will deliver this year’s message at the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris on March 22. Jean Cocteau delivered the first World Theatre Day message in 1962, and the list…
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