A project documenting the World Shakespeare Festival, the greatest celebration of Shakespeare the world has ever seen.
Fresh from touring their radical Hamlet: The Clown Prince into the Hackney Empire, the Company Theatre return to London with a new interpretation of Twelfth Night for the Globe. Atul Kumar, their artistic director, is trained in the traditional Indian dance and martial art forms of Kathakali and Kalerippayattu, and is delighted to return to Full Article…
This momentous occasion will be the National Theatre of China’s first visit to the UK. The company, which stages work in three different performance spaces in Beijing, works with the finest playwrights and directors in China. Their trailblazing productions show the new face of 21st century Chinese theatre. This production of Shakespeare’s wicked horror-show of Full Article…
Yohangza means ‘voyager’, and this groundbreaking company has travelled all over the world since its inception in 1997. Their performance combines music, mime, song and dance to create an exhilarating adaptation of Shakespeare’s inventive and glittering comedy. Focusing on the story of the four mortal lovers and the spirits of the east Asian forest, Shakespeare’s Full Article…
The hybrid culture of Hong Kong informs this production of Shakespeare’s grisliest play from the eminent Hong Kong director’s outstanding and groundbreaking troupe. Described as the ‘alchemist of minimalist theatre’, Tang Shu-wing works with simple staging, voice and movement, to release the energies of classic texts. His ensemble has toured to Singapore and the US, Full Article…
Ashtar is a dynamic Palestinian theatre company with a global perspective, founded in Jerusalem in 1991. In 2010 the group performed The Gaza Monologues, a series of stories told by the young people of Gaza – an unprecedented theatrical project involving thousands of people and 44 theatre groups from around the world. This vital theatre Full Article…
From a land constantly troubled by water, enter Shakespeare’s mariners, wet and speaking Bangla. As well as pioneering new Bangladeshi drama, the Dhaka Theatre, Bangladesh’s most prominent theatre group, has staged The Merchant of Venice and Brecht’s The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui. Often called Bengali, Bangla is one of London’s most widely spoken languages. Playing Full Article…
This renowned company from Kyoto works under the direction of one of Japan’s most imaginative artists, Motoi Miura. Known for its minimalist vision, this company produces an expressive theatre rooted in the exploration of words, sound and the human body. Celebrated for their work on Chekhov, which has proved highly successful in Russia, they are Full Article…
Arpana mix live music, dance and acting in the style of the Bhangwadi theatre that originally catered for an audience of daily wage labourers in the 19th century. Since 1985 the company has staged many productions in Mumbai and across India, in a range of spaces including school yards, restaurants and public gardens. This bittersweet Full Article…
Theatre Wallay – KASHF presents a new production of The Taming of the Shrew, starring the Lahore screen and stage star Nadia Jamil as Katherine. Rich in colour and energy, the production explores the difficulties encountered by modern Pakistani women. With live singers and musicians, a thrilling bhangra jig rounds off this uplifting version of Full Article…
In 1999, Haluk Bilginer, an Istanbul star of stage and screen, built the pioneering Oyun Atölyesi. It has since become the leading light of the Turkish theatre scene, staging a thrilling and diverse programme, including Timon of Athens, Macbeth and Othello. Haluk returns to the UK as Antony in this new production, which also features Full Article…
The Habima is the centre of Hebrew-language theatre worldwide. Founded in Moscow after the 1905 revolution, the company toured the world before eventually settling in Tel Aviv in the late 1920s. Since 1958, they have been recognised as the national theatre of Israel. This production, of one of Shakespeare’s most controversial and most human plays, Full Article…
Roy-e-Sabs is a theatrical miracle. In 2005, the group performed Love’s Labour’s Lost in an ancient garden in war-ravaged Kabul, close to where the founder of the Mughal Empire lies buried. The controversial production saw men and women acting together, the women occasionally not wearing headscarves, and lovers holding hands – truly audacious things to Full Article…
Baghdad’s Iraqi Theatre Company create a version of Romeo and Juliet for a new generation, infused with Iraq’s rich traditions of poetry, music and ritual. This iconic play finds fresh purchase in the soil of contemporary Iraq, a country where sectarian strife between Sunni and Shia, ignited and fuelled from outside, has left the population Full Article…
Legendary director Yukio Ninagawa, renowned the world over for his visually powerful interpretations of Shakespeare’s work, brings this rarely performed romance tragedy to the Barbican Stage. With a career that has spanned over forty years, Ninagawa has most recently directed Henry VI, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Coriolanus as well as Titus Andronicus, performed as Full Article…