122 stories by "Matt Merritt"
Ian McKellen immediately makes the intimate space his own, the dialogue almost conversational and his Lear a warm-hearted soul with a twinkle in his eye. This is surely as good as it gets, a…
It's somehow fitting that the last Shakespeare of Emma Rice's final (summer) season is King Lear. A play that shows us how the established world can change based on one rash decision will ce…
Jez Butterworth and Sam Mendes are names pretty much guaranteed to make any theatregoing regular pay attention, both are synonymous with high quality productions (Butterworth's Jerusalem reg…
As a regular theatre goer I'm often asked by friends what plays and musicals I'd most like to see a production of… not the shows I just haven't had a chance to catch but the ones that don'…
Stephen Lowe's Touched is a curious play… flat on the page, it comes alive on the stage! Lowe's story of a trio of sisters, their friend and family and the curious time between VE day and …
There's a reason it's a lesser known play, all of the usual Tennessee Williams tropes are here; lust abounds, there are layers of manipulation and the sweltering south is almost a character …
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…
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 acros…
Having read the book a few years ago, I was quite curious to see how Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time would translate to the stage and Simon Stevens adaptation…
It's a rare thing, when you're a regular theatregoer, to see something that is truly fresh and wonderfully new! Matthew Bourne seems to have knack for it though and his adaptation of The Red…
Built around the acclaimed film and with music by Elton John, Billy Elliott seemed destined for success but I'll admit I was a little surprised to realise it had run for 11 years in London b…
Alex Waldmann is a veteran of the RSC and of Shakespeare productions in general so it was fascinating to get his insight - he's also the founder of theatre company SEARED, whose premiere of …
There's no better way to kick the post-Christmas blues than an early January trip to the theatre, so this year we decided to go an extra step and head to Stratford upon Avon for a short brea…
From Chichester to Charing Cross, the Globe, Southampton, Menier Chocolate Factory, the Union and the RSC - for those of you who've already read our roundup of our favourite performances fro…
The stage is largely bare when we enter the auditorium, three dolls houses are dotted across the space with a large window filling the rear of the space. It's a simple but effective way to s…
2016 is nearly over and, despite not getting to see nearly as much theatre as we'd like at Sitting in the Cheap Seats, we've seen lots of performances that we will long remember. We couldn't…
If you're an Ayckbourn fan, there's plenty to enjoy here, and if you've not seen his work before " well where better to start than at the beginning?
For many actors Lear is the ultimate role, hence the proliferation of productions that appear every year. In 2016 alone we've had Timothy West, Don Warrington and Michael Pennington all pop …
Kenneth Grahame's story of Ratty, Mole, Badger and the irrepressible Toad have been a favourite of many for longer than they can remember " I grew up delighting in the stop-motion version an…
I'll confess to being unsure how well audiences would take to a play that " on the page at least " is a complete mess with no discernible central plot. Thankfully, director Melly Still and h…
Long before it became a mainstream subject Larry Kramer's visceral, semi-autobiographical account of life within the New York gay community's burgeoning activist organisations shed a light o…
It must be daunting taking on characters so well known and trying to make them your own, especially when it comes to those from a movie as revered as The Shawshank Redemption. Thankfully thi…
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 acc…
Political turmoil. It's nothing new. And we are certainly reminded of that here! Set during the troubled Labour Government of the mid to late seventies, This House plays out, for the most pa…
So, retitled Imogen and set in modern London is the play really "reclaimed" as the publicity suggests? Well… no, not really. Cymbeline may be the title character but it's always been Imoge…
