Tag Archives: howard brenton

The Blinding Light

Jermyn Street Theatre, London (****)

© Robert Workman, Jasper Britton as August Strindberg in extremis...

© Robert Workman, Jasper Britton as August Strindberg in extremis…

By coincidence, one of the last reviews I did last year was of a double bill in this theatre of two lesser known Strindberg plays, The Stronger and Storm, both involving women, wives and the theatre. Continue reading

#aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei

Hampstead Theatre, London

The Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei’s iconic face stares out of the Hampstead theatre programme. One of the most famous profiles in western Art, he has become a symbol for the struggle for human rights and freedom of expression the world over. Cultures seem to throw up personalities from time to time who personify their age. One thinks of Nelson Mandela, the writer Solzhenitsyn. Weiwei’s hooded eyes and beard etched in grey now looks marbled. Unmoving. Continue reading

Ross

Chichester Festival Theatre (****)

© Johan Persson, Joseph Fiennes as T E Lawrence

© Johan Persson, Joseph Fiennes as T E Lawrence

`Curioser and curiouser’ as Alice might have said is the myth behind the story of Lawrence of Arabia. T E Lawrence – or as William Boyd reminds us in his fascinating programme note, `Chapman’, not `Lawrence’ – took on many forms, Aircraftsman Ross being just one and later, alluded to in Howard Brenton’s recent Lawrence After Arabia (see last month’s Hampstead review), Private Shaw. Continue reading

Lawrence After Arabia

Hampstead Theatre, London (***)

© Alastair Muir, Jack Laskey as Aircraftman Ross

© Alastair Muir, Jack Laskey as Aircraftman Ross

This is a strange subject for Howard Brenton if only because T E Lawrence (aka Aircraftman Ross and later T E Shaw of the Royal Tank Corps) is one so indelibly associated with the film and the Rattigan play, coincidentally being revived next month at Chichester. Continue reading

Howard Brenton

Howard Brenton, extended Q&A interview for The Arts Desk

HOWARD BRENTON – THEARTSDESK – Carole Woddis    July 13, 2010

Howard Brenton (b: 1942) is always in the process of being `rediscovered’. Yet Brenton has been at the heart of British theatrical life for the past forty years, since his debut in 1969 with Christie in Love. True he has had the odd decade out of the theatrical limelight – `went out of fashion’ in his own phrase – when he just happened to pen some of the best, liveliest scripts on television with the BBC’s spy drama series, Spooks (2002-2005). Continue reading