Sitting In The Cheap Seats

The Aids epidemic that devastated New York’s gay community in the 80s has been a fertile ground for the arts, inspiring movies, music and notably the theatre. Big hitters like RENT and Angels In America, but long before it became a mainstream subject Larry Kramer ’s visceral, semi-autobiographical account of life within the community’s burgeoning activist organisations shed a light on the plight affecting so many.

It’s one of Hollywood’s great anachronisms, a movie that underwhelmed at the box office but came to define the burgeoning home video market, and all from a throwaway short story by an author better known for horror than drama. Can this new touring production from  Bill Kenwright live up to the version we all know and love?  Emma van Kooperen finds out…

the company of Much Ado About Nothing There’s something special about seeing a Shakespeare play for the first time – so the chance to see two, on the same day and in linked productions couldn’t be missed. A couple of years ago the Royal Shakespeare Company paired Love’s Labours Lost with Much Ado About Nothing (renamed Love’s Labours Won) in a gorgeous setting amidst the Great War to much acclaim. This year they’ve revived the production, with many of the original cast and have brought it to Chichester Festival Theatre .