MATTHEW HAWKINS applauds a psychotherapist’s disection of William Blake
King queen
GORDON PARSONS admires a version of Marlowe’s grim tragedy that strips it down to its gay essentials
PIETA: Evan Milton (as Lancaster) with Daniel Evans (as Edward) in Edward II
[Helen Murray] 
New releases from Christina Alden and Alex Patterson, Odette Michell, Clementine Lovell
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a very readable account of Britain’s involvement in South America
Strip cartoons used to be the bread and butter of newspapers and they have been around for centuries. MICHAL BONCZA asks our own Paul Tanner about which bees are in his bonnet
GORDON PARSONS acknowledges the authority with which Sarah Kane’s theatrical justification for suicide has resonance today
RON JACOBS welcomes a timely homage to one of the IWW and CPUSA’s most effective orators
Edward II
The Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE’S grim tragedy is, understandably perhaps, the least often featured of his plays on the modern stage. With our contemporary fixation with LBGT+ concerns, it is not surprising that the RSCS artistic directors should have decided that the time is ripe for an airing.
Daniel Evans, one of those directors, stars in Daniel Raggett’s new pared-down production.
It can be no spoiler for most people who will see this play to recognise that its focal point is necessarily the final horrific rape and murder of a weak and ineffectual king whose obsession with sexual “frolicking with his minion” at the expense of his country’s good brings about his downfall.
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GORDON PARSONS is filled with unease by the RSC’s offering of a brutal fairytale for Christmas
GORDON PARSONS hails a magnificent performance by a cast who make sure that every word can be heard and understood
GORDON PARSONS applauds a production which turns a Jacobean obscurity into a dreamlike journey
GORDON PARSONS relishes a Shakespearean comedy played at pace for sheer delight