19th August 2013
Rehearsals for the Royal Shakespeare Company's new Richard II with David Tennant start a week tomorrow, Tuesday (the cast get the Bank Holiday off too). And we deep in the preparations for the Live from Stratford Upon Avon broadcast to cinemas
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12th August 2013
Time, I think, to start posting - initially on a weekly basis - about the preparations for Richard II Live from Stratford Upon Avon. This is the Royal Shakespeare Company's live-to-cinemas broadcast of the company's new
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23rd June 2013
Sometime after midnight: 'Sweet friends, to bed.'
The rain stayed away, the moon shone bright, Act V was played for us, and the iron tongue of midnight tolled on cue.
'So, good night unto you all.'
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23rd June 2013
So this is the easy bit. Easy to experience, that is, if you are in Stratford-upon-Avon, are lucky enough to have an invitation, and are prepared to be awake and alert at 2am. It's most certainly not easy to create,
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28th May 2013
After a good few months of preparation the Royal Shakespeare Company reveals today that it is to begin live cinema broadcasts of selected productions from Stratford-upon-Avon. The first screening will be of Gregory Doran's production of
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5th May 2013
Yesterday at BFI Southbank I saw a fine (although a touch short of immaculate) 35mm print of John Schlesinger's 1967 Far from the Madding Crowd. Marred by inconsistency in its central performances, this is nonetheless a magnificent film in many
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8th April 2013
These past few months I have spent a good deal of time in Stratford-upon-Avon, where I have been exploring further collaborations with the Royal Shakespeare Company. That's how I know that many of the company's leading lights, including artistic director
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29th March 2013
In the diary next week are two Hamlets. On Monday afternoon I am introducing the 1964 television Hamlet at Elsinore at BFI Southbank, and then on Wednesday I have a ticket to the Royal Shakespeare Company's new
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16th February 2013
I know I'm coming late to this, but Girl Walk // All Day (above) is a feature-length dance film that since late 2011 has been freely available to view online in twelve chapters. And its tale of a girl, played
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2nd February 2013
I have my colleague Todd Macdonald to thank for the weekend's first clip: a timelapse panorama of the courtyard observed by Jeff (James Stewart, above) in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954). Todd was laid up with a bug for much
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