'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead' is another absurd play written by Tom Stoppard in 1966, and is about the story of two lesser known characters of Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'. In the parent play, the title of this play hides within a line when Hamlet, who was condemned to death in England, is saved as he replaces the letter meant to declare...
Absurdity is the conflict between the innate human desire to search for meaning and the inherent meaninglessness of our existence. Absurdism is the philosophy put forward by the likes of existentialists such as Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Satre that proposes ways to combat this. Camus, in his 'The Myth of Sisyphys,' looks at this and presents the...
Peter Brook was a director and theatre practitioner born in the 1920s who had a hugely influential style in the 20th century avant-garde movement (and has inspired others such as Alexander Zeldin, director of The Other Place amongst other plays) that was inspired by many different practitioners before him. His main doctrine was the ability of...
cool polish guy, poor theatre, minimalist, fits into the absurd genre
This Complicite production is a beautiful product of two different stories centered around the same themes but only separated by time. These notes are what I took whilst watching it on Digital Theatre Plus and are largely unhelpful and full of maths terminology but may still be an interesting reminder of the production itself here.
Frantic Assembly is a modern physical theatre company responsible for many amazing productions in recent years, such as Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime and an adaptation of Othello as well as Things I Know to be True, and are focused mainly on their devising style of theatre, using physicality and movement to portray meaning, mainly...
On the 14th November 2024, the collective Skinners' and TWGGs sixth forms went to watch a live recording of Prima Facie, a shockingly powerful one-woman play about the injustice of the legal system and how it affects one particular defence barrister when she one day becomes the victim. The play is features brilliant design features, a moving...
On the 7th November, 2024, we were fortunate enough to attend an A-Level Live Theatre conference of The Other Place, an adaptation of the plot of Antigone, a Greek tragedy repurposed by writer and director Alexander Zeldin for a modern audience. The play starred Tobias Menzies as the Chris (Creon) and Emma d'Arcy as Annie (Antigone).
Punchdrunk is a contemporary theatre company, created by practitioner Felix Barret, that specialise in immersive theatre, a form of promenade total theatre, focused on engaging all the senses of an audience. It was founded in 2000, and has since engrossed audiences for 24 years.
Steven Berkoff, born in 1937 in East London as the son of a family of Jewish immigrants, is a hugely influential theatre practitioner, famous today for his work on 'total' theatre, a style of theatre that uses all different elements to engage all the senses of an audience. Berkoff is not only a popular practitioner, but was also an actor,...