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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Henry Hitchings's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Sam Mendes.
Cast: Simon Russell Beale, Michael Braun, Selina Cadell, Morven Christie, Sinead Cusack, Richard Easton, Rebecca Hall, Josh Hamilton, Ethan Hawke, Paul Jesson, Aaron Krohn, Dakin Matthews, Mark Nelson, Charlotte Parry, Jessica Pollert Smith, Gary Powell, Tobias Segal, Hannah Stokely
Description: Sam Mendes directs Shakespeare's tragedy of love and jealousy. Starring Simon Russell Beale, Ethan Hawke and Sinaed Cusack.
Trains: Tube/BR: Waterloo 
Phone: 0870060 6628
Website: www.oldvictheatre.com
Extra info: Food, Pub
Bridge too far? Ethan Hawke in The Winter's Tale
Captivating: Sinead Cusack with Simon Russell Beale in The Cherry Orchard
Directors: Kevin Spacey and Sam Mendes
Winter’s talent: Ethan Hawke with wife Ryan
The Bridge Project is a joint venture between Sam Mendes and Kevin Spacey, created to deliver Anglo-American productions of six plays over a three-year period.
In its first instalment, transferring here from the Brooklyn Academy Of Music, Mendes directs fully cross-cast productions of Shakespeare’s The
Winter’s Tale and Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.
The latter appears in a supple new version by Sir Tom Stoppard, based on a literal translation by Helen Rappaport. It’s a play well suited to the present moment, given its suggestion that our financial relationships are at least as important as our domestic ones.
At the same time, it makes the point that change (the loss of our property, both material and metaphysical) is inevitable.
Chekhov insisted The Cherry Orchard was a comedy bordering on farce, while Stanislavski stressed its tragic qualities, and Stoppard’s rendering conveys its mix of attributes — the light humour, nostalgia and moments of sombre realism — as well as introducing a few craftily Shakespearean touches.
Although Chekhov characteristically emphasises the ensemble, the key role is that of Lopakhin, and, as this frustrated and somewhat evasive former servant who’s now a rich entrepreneur, Simon Russell Beale gives a sensitive performance.
The juxtaposition of the two plays allows us to see the actors’ range, and Russell Beale, perhaps lacking a certain animal menace as Lopakhin, proves more completely suited to the Shakespeare. As Leontes, his intelligence illuminates every scene in which he is involved.
Rebecca Hall, powerful as Chekhov’s Varya, makes a dignified Hermione, while Ethan Hawke, who plays the roguish troubadour Autolycus as a cross between David Blaine and Tom Waits, brings a Gothic mystery to the “mangy” student Trofimov, and Sinead Cusack, a leonine Paulina in The Winter’s Tale, delivers a captivating performance as the extravagant matriarch Ranevskaya.
Contrary to expectation, the mixture of British and American accents doesn’t jar. But there is a sense of imperfect chemistry.
Both plays, for instance, contain pastoral interludes, and neither really works. The festive opening of the second half of The Winter’s Tale is weak — an embarrassing foray into erotic balloon modelling.
Anthony Ward’s sets, constrained by the demands of repertory, are spare but effective, and Paul Pyant’s lighting is excellent. Mark Bennett’s music, which makes haunting use of an aluminium harp in The Cherry Orchard, is atmospheric though far from euphonious.
Sam Mendes’s direction displays imagination, but sometimes lacks rhythm. At the start of each play the words “O call back yesterday, bid time return” are projected onto the set. The quotation, from Richard II, highlights the two dramas’ shared concern with transience, memories and dispossession. It’s a contrivance symptomatic of an approach which, in straining for significance, can appear fussy or obvious.
Without doubt this first chapter of The Bridge Project is a significant theatrical event.
But its logistical complications, described by Mendes as “a bit like a Rubik’s cube”, have resulted in a pair of productions that do not fully satisfy.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Sam Mendes has made a welcome return to the stage with 'The Winter's Tale' which does not disappoint; strong performances from the radiant Rebecca Hall and hugely talented Simon Russell Beale hold the play together though it must be said that Sinead Cusack's delivery was the more memorable, as was the hugely entertaining and charismatic Ethan Hawke as the guitar-strumming Dylanesque Autolycus.
I was not over impressed with the hillbilly style sheep shearing festivities scene which seemed an unnecessary import - but it's a small niggle in an otherwise wonderfully entertaining show. Recommended.
- Gary, London, London UK
I remain totally baffled at the good reviews Rebecca Hall is getting for these productions. Do all the critics have a case of the "Emperor's New Clothes"?
She was a limp, insipid and energy-sapping presence as Varya, and a miscast and out of her depth Hermione.
"The Winter's Tale" suffered from a tubby, camp and ridiculous Simon Russell Beale, and the final scene (an exquisitely moving moment) is rendered ludicrous as Hall towers over him - a foot taller and thirty years younger.
Ethan Hawke doesn't possess the comic ability for Autolycus, and the Bohemia scenes are just embarrassing (balloon penises, anyone?)
At least Sinead Cusack is present to contribute some much needed passion and dignity,
- Quentin, London
