A Midsummer Night’s Dream
It’s seven years since Emma Rice swung into Shakespeare’s Globe with this raucous version of the enchanted comedy, kicking off a stint as artistic director that never did run smooth. Her Dream is now on BBC iPlayer, serving as a useful chance to catch Ncuti Gatwa’s performance as Demetrius before he takes over on Doctor Who. The cast also includes Meow Meow, Zubin Varla and Anjana Vasan.
Edinburgh fringe
If you can’t make it to Auld Reekie this summer there are more than 40 festival shows to watch online, providing a kaleidoscopic mini-fringe experience. Eye-catching productions include the solo show Satan vs God, the double bill Verse which features the choreography of calligraphy and juggling, and mysteries spun from both Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes.
All’s Well That Ends Well
Her unruly lead performance as the RSC’s King John in 2019 confirmed Rosie Sheehy as one of our most compelling actors. There’s just one day left to see her performance as the orphaned Helena in another of Shakespeare’s lesser spotted plays. Blanche McIntyre directed the toxic comedy in Stratford last summer. On demand from Sky Arts until 2 August.
Vergil
Audible’s vault of audio theatre is full of surprises. A case in point is this nine-hour (!) mythological musical about The Aeneid, written by Maria Dahvana Headley, with a cast including Will Young, Derek Jacobi, Le Gateau Chocolat, Divina de Campo, Six’s Claudia Kariuki and Wicked’s Alice Fearn. Epic indeed.
10 Years of NYDC
“Young people always surprise you,” says Wayne McGregor in this documentary featuring the often astounding work from National Youth Dance Company’s first decade. McGregor and other guest artistic directors look back, along with young dancers who have taken part in NYDC’s summer holiday residencies. On the Digital Stage of Sadler’s Wells.
Whose Planet Are You On?
Last year, on the eve of Cop27, the Old Vic staged monologues by April De Angelis, Fehinti Balogun, Sonali Bhattacharyya and Benjamin Scheuer, exploring individual and collective responsibility for our planet. That quartet is now online alongside three new monologues written by participants in the theatre’s education and community schemes.
Nit Nurse
Headphone Story is a delightfully inventive set of new pick’n’mix audio dramas, each over half an hour long, created with evident care by Tom Adams. Among them you’ll discover Nit Nurse, a tender and funny musical ode to one of school’s indomitable unsung figures who “with love and care will comb the children’s hair” – and in this tale squares off with Margaret Thatcher.
The Becoming
Liv Lorent’s dance company celebrates 30 years with this performance, filmed in Newcastle, which is told in chapters around themes including birth, play and ego. It’s enthralling even before the dancers – including the pregnant Benedicta Valentina Mamuini – take to the stage. Driven by Murray Gold’s music, the performers soon shed their shirts and dresses, losing themselves in euphoric dance.
The Wife of Willesden
Zadie Smith’s debut play, a riotous relocation of Chaucer’s Wife of Bath to the novelist’s old stomping ground of Kilburn in north-west London, had two runs at the Kiln theatre. There’s much to savour including a pungent, sticky-carpeted pub design by Robert Jones and a stupendous lead performance from Clare Perkins. Now online from NT at Home.
The Swell
“Gasp-inducing” was our verdict on Isley Lynn’s decade-hopping tale of romantic entanglement, which was shortlisted for the Women’s prize for playwriting in 2020. Hannah Hauer-King’s intimate production has just finished its run at the Orange Tree in Richmond but is now available to watch on demand until 4 August.
