Sitting In The Cheap Seats

Josette Simon and Antony Byrne. Photo by Helen Maybanks After the heated political tension of Julius Caesar , the Royal Shakespeare Company ’s Rome season continues with a foray into Egypt for Antony & Cleopatra . The mood here is, initially at least, much lighter than the previous visit to Mark Antony but there are still tensions in Rome!

Andrew Woodall as Caesar. photo by Helen Maybanks It’s an accepted cliché that, whatever the prevailing political mood there is a Shakespeare play that adequately reflects, comments on or holds a mirror up to it. Like all the best clichés it has become so ingrained in the consciousness of theatregoers because it is largely true. Thus at a time when we worry about the power of world leaders like Trump and the ability of political parties with extremist views to gain momentum Julius Caesar seems incredibly apt.

A brand new version of the Tim Rice musical comedy  Blondel (long a   guilty pleasure of those of us here in the Cheap Seats) ,  which follows the trials and triumphs of an ambitious minstrel in King Richard the Lionheart’s court, will get its London premiere at the Union Theatre from Wednesday 21 June – Saturday 15 July!

Alan Cox, Richard Wilson & Jenny Galloway Alan Bennett ’s Forty Years On is a curious play. His first outing as playwright (back in 1968) is charmingly eccentric, wonderfully witty and every bit a Bennett play. In fact it comes across as if the History Boys stumbled into a production of ‘Oh What a Lovely War’ and decided to join in the fun.

Here in the Cheap Seats we never used to be big fans of Titanic, but when we saw Danielle Tarento and  Thom Southerland ‘s sublime production last year our minds were totally changed (you can read our rave review  here ). Now we’re thrilled that this glorious production is coming back and will set sail from it’s spiritual home in Southampton! Read on for the full lowdown.

Following the recent success of their highly acclaimed production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at The Kings Theatre,  multi award-winning CCADS Theatre return to Hayling’s intimate Station Theatre and Portsmouth’s atmospheric Square Tower with two very different but equally compelling two-person shows – one musical and one play.

Southampton’s  Mayflower Theatre has been a top destination for touring musicals for longer than we can remember and in recent years they’ve added top class drama to their repertoire. We sent  Emma van Kooperen to check out  Curious Incident as it arrived on the south coast!