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Propelling Edward III (Propeller) @ Wimbledon College of Arts
I was privileged this weekend to take part in an experimental two-day event at Wimbledon College of Arts with Propeller, a company on whom I’ve been working for some time (as well as providing talks for at Nottingham Theatre Royal). The event was designed as a collaborative venture between practice and research as part of the beginnings…
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Propeller) @ Sheffield Lyceum
The Bardathon has had a slow start this year, as writing and marking priorities haven’t given me a huge amount of time for theatre. New reviews will be further delayed as my first show of the year, Propeller’s wonderful A Midsummer Night’s Dream, was seen as part of a module trip. As many of my students…
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The Taming of the Shrew (Propeller) @ Nottingham Theatre Royal
I first saw Propeller in November 2006, when they contributed their Taming of the Shrew to the RSC’s Complete Works Festival in Stratford, which made this the most delayed return visit to a production I’ve ever had. Almost seven years later and with an almost entirely new cast, Propeller’s provocative and disquieting Shrew had lost none of its power…
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Twelfth Night (Propeller) @ Nottingham Theatre Royal
Propeller’s new season is their first with no brand new production, the company instead touring revivals of its acclaimed 2006-07 Twelfth Night and The Taming of the Shrew, the tour on which I first encountered them. Looking back over my backlog of reviews, Propeller have consistently been revelatory. Their all-male productions are no heritage gimmick, but reimagine the self-conscious…
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Henry V (Propeller) @ The Belgrade Theatre
Propeller’s ability to create community remains unsurpassed. Raising money for charity during the interval of last night’s Henry V, their rousing rendition of “The Wild Rover” was bolstered by a good hundred audience members, gathered in a cramped foyer space around a couple of acoustic instruments. The camaraderie between audience and actors – most dressed at…
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The Winter’s Tale (Propeller) @ The Belgrade Theatre
A second visit last night to Propeller’s The Winter’s Tale, now in Coventry, both affirmed and complicated the thoughts in my original review of the Sheffield performance. Once more, the play combined some truly superlative performances with a joyous depiction of Bohemia. Thanks to a far more culturally literate companion, I now know that the main dance number…
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The Winter’s Tale (Propeller) @ Sheffield Lyceum
Edward Hall’s company Propeller has always been playful. Whether entertaining audiences in foyers, offering grand guignol torture scenes or turning Portia into a drag queen, the company has delighted in its own performativity. In doing so, their shows tread a fine line between the parodic and the emotive. While elements of the farcicial and ridiculous occasionally threatened to…
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Richard III (Propeller) @ The Belgrade Theatre
In stark contrast to last night’s interval concert, audience serenades and jovial banter, Propeller last night erected a stony wall between the audience and the stage. As Richard Clothier’s Richard delivered his “Was ever woman in this humour wooed?” speech, he limped about the stage and then paused. A woman in the front row was using her…
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The Comedy of Errors (Propeller) @ The Belgrade Theatre
A roar of dissent rose in the foyer of the Belgrade Theatre during the interval of last night’s Comedy of Errors, as the tannoy politely requested that audience members resume their seats for the second half. The roar came, however, not from reluctant audiences, but from the theatre company themselves. The men of Propeller had followed…
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Propeller) @ Liverpool Playhouse
It makes a pleasing change to see a Dream during a hugely cold spell at the end of January, as opposed to in sweltering heat – which suggests to me a production that actually has something interesting to do with the play, rather than rolling it out to fill a quiet summer slot. This, the second half of Propeller’s…
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Dr Peter Kirwan 