Theatre review: Machinal

Richard Jones' production of Machinal was originally seen at the Theatre Royal Bath, something that's immediately apparent as Hyemi Shin's set clearly originates somewhere much smaller than the Old Vic: The sickly yellow wedge is very appropriate for conveying the claustrophobia of the story, a bit less ideal for the sightlines as it gets lost somewhere in the middle of the huge darkened stage, squeezed behind a pillar from where we were sitting*. Sophie Treadwell's 1928 play is considered a masterpiece of expressionism, something that's referenced in particular in the opening scenes as a young woman (Rosie Sheehy) travels on a packed New York subway train to her office, where her coworkers fuss and gossip about her being late. Adam Silverman's lighting throws their shadows onto the back walls to loom ominously over her.

Theatre review: Henry VI (The Wars of the Roses at the Rose Theatre, Kingston)

I don't know why, but I just get the impression that Trevor Nunn favours the white roses.

A Shakespearean epic in Kingston (Jamaica? No, she went of her own accord) as Trevor Nunn looks back at one of the most famous productions from the RSC's history - The Wars of the Roses. John Barton adapted the second tetralogy (first in order of writing) of Shakespeare's Histories into a trilogy, combining the three Henry VI plays into two, and topping off the event with Richard III. Nunn credits Peter Hall's original production with inspiring his own theatrical career, and so revives the sequence as a tribute both to him, and to Barton's editing work. The trilogy has been slightly overshadowed, deservedly, by controversy, as Nunn has deliberately eschewed colour-blind casting, claiming on the one hand that an all-white cast is more historically accurate, and on the other that audiences will find it easier to follow the complex family trees if all members of a family are the same race.