Theatre Kings Fund sets out a fairer future for care funding
16/03/2010
New, fairer funding arrangements, a review of the current settlement for older people and reforms to the benefits system are among the proposals put forward in a major new report on the social care system by The King’s Fund today.
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Can 'Love Never Dies' survive the bad reviews?
Love Never Dies is the sequel to Phantom at the Opera. The phantom is no longer in Paris. He’s on Coney Island in New York, running the fairground.
Impressive agility in 'Circa'
The Brisbane-based acrobatic company concentrates entirely on the physicality of their bodies, flinging themselves about the stage and at each other in a very lively manner.
Charming 'London Assurance '
The plays of the Victorian era are much neglected nowadays. Only Oscar Wilde, Gilbert and Sullivan and Arthur Wing Pinero are revived with any regularity.
So it’s good to have the opportunity of seeing a play by the prolific Irish-born Dion Boucicault. He wrote over 200 plays, including The Shaughraun and the Colleen Bawn.
Perfect acting in 'Sweet Nothings'
Liebelei (called Sweet Nothings by David Harrower in his translation) was much criticized at its premiere in 1895 for being too erotic, which did the box-office no harm. Robert Tanitch reviews Luc Body’s production.
Noel Coward’s 'Private Lives' brings plenty of laughs
Noel Coward’s best play, premiered in 1930, is the epitome of the flippancy and bitch among the smart set between the wars. Amanda and Elyot are not only trivial and superficial, but selfish and nasty with it. Their constant bickering bristles with vindictiveness. The dialogue, "jagged with sophistication”, has the unmistakable Coward stamp: brittle, clipped, staccato rudeness.
'The Elixir of Love' -brightly coloured, melodious fun
Gaetano Donizetti wrote 68 operas in 27 years. Two of his very best – Lucia di Lammermoor and The Elixir of Love – are now playing at ENO and what a contrast they are.
'The Gambler' - exciting and original
The Gambler was originally going to be premiered in 1917 but the performance was cancelled. Then, what with one thing and another, including a revolution, it wasn’t seen until 1919 when Prokofiev had rewritten it.
Get the measure of Shakespeare's dark comedy
Who sins the most? The tempter or the tempted? Shakespeare’s dark comedy is a Christian parable on sin and forgiveness and justice and mercy.
An Enemy of the People
After a two-year long, £15M spruce up, it's wonderful to see the huge thrust stage of Sheffield's Crucible offering impressive theatre-in-the-round entertainment once more. Ibsen's An Enemy of the People earns keen applause with its drama (reminiscent of Jaws), in which a town rubs its collective hands together as it anticipates raking in mega-bucks from health tourism to its wonderful new Spa facilities, until deadly bacteria and toxins are discovered in the water source, threatening total ruin. When the powers-that-be conspire to cover up this inconvenient truth to ensure financial gain, and the masses, out of self interest, gullibility or sheer ignorance, back them up, will the truth be told before it's too late?
Midsummer's Night Dream - big names direct and star at the Rose Theatre, Kingston
It's over 50 years since Judi Dench played First Fairy in Midsummer's Night Dream. This time, under Sir Peter Hall, she takes the part of Titania. But does it work? asks Robert Tanitch.
Donizetti’s opera Lucia Di Lammermoir, Coliseum
"Lucia gives her husband a big surprise on their wedding night. She murders him: the ultimate climax!" And this is just the beginning. Robert Tanitch reviews Lucia Di Lammermoir.
'Lord Arthur' fails to convince
A professional palm reader tells Lord Arthur that he is doomed to commit a murder. Arthur feels he has a duty to his fiancée to get the murder out of the way before the wedding and attempts to poison an elderly second cousin and blow up his uncle, a Dean.
'The Whisky Tasters' a entertaining satire on advertising
Robert Tanitch takes a look at 'The Whisky Tasters' at the Bush Theatre.
'Really Old, Like Forty- Five'
Soon there will be more old people than young people. There are currently 700,000 people with dementia in the UK. The financial cost is over £17 billion a year. If it were not for family carers working for nothing, dementia would cost the UK another six million plus. What can the government do to solve the looming crisis?
