Review: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

September is rather exciting, and here we have another event we want to show you, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. This is pretty special since this is historically one of Shakespeare's first plays and there hasn't been a full production of it at the Stratford -Upon-Avon stage for 45 years! Below is a nice four star review from the Daily Telegraph....

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By Charles Spencer (****)

This is one of the earliest of Shakespeare’s plays, possibly the first he ever wrote, and it has a lovely bloom of youth about it. Famously it is also the play with a dog in it, a subject much discussed in the new and wonderful production of Shakespeare in Love in the West End, which has a splendid hound of its own.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona is rarely revived — this is the first production on the Stratford main stage for 45 years - but it’s a delightful work, and for Shakespeare buffs absolutely fascinating as it contains the seeds of so much that he wrote later.

This is the first of his plays in which the heroine disguises herself as a boy to go in search of her beloved, the first in which the characters find themselves in all kinds of trouble in a wood, the first in which love and youth triumph over the opposition of hidebound and obstructive parents.

It all works a treat in Simon Godwin’s production, niftily designed by Paul Wills and set in modern Italy, with a dolce vita buzz of scooters, nightclubs and open air cafés.

The staging has a winning comic fizz but it also does justice to the play’s more complex feelings, which at times cut surprisingly deep. There aren’t many comedies in which one of the leading characters comes close to the object of his desire, and in Godwin’s deftly balanced staging the supposedly happy ending has a fascinating ambivalence about it.

Below is also a trailer of some of the performance highlights:


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Broadcasting Wednesday 3 September, 7pm
Tickets are £15 or £14 concessions and available to buy online, at the Box Office, or give us a call on 01584 878141

Interview with Helen Mcrory

On Thursday 4th of September, here at the Assembly Rooms we have a live screening of National Theatre Live's Medea. To give you an idea of what to expect, here's an interview that  Time Out's Daisy Bowie-Sell did with starring actress Helen Mcrory and her experiences with taking on the ultimate female role.

Over a lengthy career, Helen McCrory has played villains (Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter films), romantics (Rosalind in ‘As You Like It’) and goons (Cherie Blair in ‘The Queen’). Now she stars as the ultimate anti-heroine, Euripides’s Medea, in a new NT production. She explains why it is the role for women.

Is Medea a bit like a female Hamlet?
‘It is, it’s one of the greatest parts you’ll ever play as an actress. Except it’s the reverse of Hamlet because he spends three hours worrying and does nothing, whereas Medea takes an hour and 15, massacres the whole stage and walks off. But it’s great because she uses every shred of femininity that she has to do it, and she also has the complexity of guilt.’

Medea does some pretty nasty stuff:  filicide, regicide. Is she a villain?
‘Ben Power’s adaptation focuses on disenfranchisement, on what happens when this highly educated, powerful, manipulative, eloquent woman, is not allowed to be part of society. But it also looks at acts of extreme violence, which often come from long-term brutalisation – which is Medea. She’s a product of a warring society, which is very relevant to today.’

The play is almost 2,500 years old. Why has it endured?
‘It’s the same reason that people love crime dramas: you want to know how she’s going to do it and you’re wondering if this is some chemical imbalance. But it’s not. She basically says: I choose to take back my life. And, even in the twenty-first century, we’re not used to women speaking like that. Although, judging by the two Greek families I know, it’s clear women have always run that society.’

You and your husband Damien Lewis are pretty famous now. Has it been hard keeping your feet on the ground?
‘I have a six-year-old and a seven-year-old. There can be no illusions when one of them is shouting “I’ve run out of toilet paper mummy! Shall I use my hand?” It’s lovely to dress up and go out with your husband. But all of that is really just a by-product of the work we do.’

Is your plan to continue doing theatre? Or is more film and TV on the horizon?
‘I’m just constantly distracted by the next pretty thing in the headlights. I still see myself as building my career up. But I’d really like to do comedy next. I’d really like to do a comic film. Or a comic play, or comic TV, just comedy. I may just set myself up at the end of the street and tell a few gags.’

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Tickets are £15 or £14 concessions, and are available to to book online, by popping into our Box Office or giving us a call on  01584 878141

The life of a Marketing Intern at the Assembly Rooms.

Having joined the assembly rooms a little under three months ago, it seems poignant for me to talk about my experiences as a marketing intern as I embark on my next three months here. Kind of like marking an anniversary, I suppose.

Being a recent graduate, I know exactly what it’s like to have a degree in ‘the modern world’.  It’s pretty bleak, no one wants you because either:-

• a)      Employers know that you aren’t for keeps, and as soon as a better job comes round the corner, you’ll be off.
• b)      The old catch 22 with experience. You haven’t got enough, but you can’t get the experience in the first place.

In fact in the final weeks of my time at university, whilst handing in those remaining assignments, lecturers were quite blatantly telling us that there was no hope, at least not for a few months. 

That's why I’ve been lucky enough to grab this internship at the Assembly Rooms, especially since the initial 3 month contract has just doubled, so they must like me.

As the marketing intern it is my ultimate duty to make sure you all know about our amazing upcoming events (Seriously, they’re pretty cool, you should go check them out). What you probably won’t realise is that for the most part, it is my voice that you hear when reading about our activities (And also Tony, of course, our Marketing and Publicity Officer).  So in the three months that I’ve spent here already, I have learnt many marketing-y things from: making posters, writing press releases, audience feedback, communicating with the public through various means… and you’ve also probably seen me in town struggling to put up posters in those locked noticeboards (I have also learnt that the people of Ludlow are lovely).

 

Since being here, I have come to appreciate what it means to be in a great job. I enjoy the tasks, every day is different, the volunteers and staff in the office are friendly and most importantly, there’s always cake.   

Ludlow is very lucky to have a place that is so unique with plenty of history… and vice versa. That must be the reason why it works so well.

Here’s to the next three months! (And many many more for Ludlow Assembly Rooms – hip hip!)