With its vivid flushes of neon pink and striking sans serif scene-setters, Tinuke Craig’s funky, punky and oh-so-camp The School for Scandal certainly lands its visual impact. Between Alex Lowde’s heightened, 18th century-via-Warhol aesthetic, Ravi Deepres’ video portraits and ripples of modernity injected into Brinsley Sheridan’s classic comedy of errors with mentions of super-injunctions, political disgrace and the like, it’s a decidedly post-modern affair. Think of it as Bridgerton by way of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, with a splash of Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette thrown in for good period measure.

Like Shonda Rhimes’ wildly successful Netflix period romp, scandal, gossip and social intrigue form the crux of School’s tale. Following a vogue-lite hybrid of high fashion runway and drag ball open, this stylish production flies out of the gate with a brand new preface. Siubhan Harrison’s delectably snide Lady Sneerwell, the grand dame of gossip mongering, seductively invites us in amongst her court of conspirers and malcontents, and for good measure instructs the audience to withhold their judgement.

We may all be about to witness a rabble of bitches and backstabbers, lies and deception, but we bloody love it.

Like many a Shakespeare farce, Richard Brinkley Sheridan’s romp is a melting pot of crossed purposes and collapsing ruses. Harrison’s Sneerwell relishes her role in architecting social scandal and disgrace, and has thrown her lot in with Joseph (Stefan Adegbola), one half of the Surface brotherhood, due to inherit a fortune from their formerly absentee uncle, Sir Oliver (Wil Johnson). His brother, Charles (John Leader) is a flamboyant, freewheeling playboy, yet shows flairs of kindness and joie de vivre by comparison to his more cunning, sentiment-preaching kin. Feisty, freewheeling young Lady Teazle (Tara Tijani), meanwhile, is slowly driving her kindly, older husband, Sir Peter (Geoffrey Streatfield) to despair, despite the duo having only recently been wed.

Confusion, paranoia and frustration all explode into a melange of plotting and subterfuge as this colourful group of characters begin to fall foul of their own ambitions, desires and machinations.

As mentioned, there are moments where Craig intercuts the classic piece with more contemporary comedy or perspective. They have great, knowing fun getting their characters to clumsily dodge the source of Sir Oliver’s fortunes, for instance, born of his history with a rather problematic merchant company of old. The fourth wall is routinely broken, with characters opining or darting commentary at the audience directly throughout. Joseph’s penchant for waxing lyrical is given angelic, almost revelatory accompaniment from above, and always gets its laughs.

It’s a bright, colourful jolt of fun, carried on performances that are writ as large as any of Lowde’s grand, decadent costumes. Adegbola is a standout as the charming, manipulative Joseph, though he is well met by his on-stage brother, a wonderful animated and buoyant John Leader, who injects Charles with an elastic and infectious exuberance. Streatfeild and Tijani are great fun as the warring Teazles, each in their own way lending the piece its few glimpses of real heart and growth.

“…a side-splitting, scene-stealing Emily Houghton, whose pompous yet underhanded Mrs Candour represents something akin to a grotesque Victoria Wood creation on steroids.”

Amongst the rest of the cast, Wil Johnson leans into the nudge nudge, wink winkery as his returning Sir Oliver adopts a variety of disguises to test the mettle and quality of his heirs, whilst Tadeo Martinez is every inch the odious bootlick as a transatlantic Mr Snake. And particular credit must also go to a side-splitting, scene-stealing Emily Houghton, whose pompous yet underhanded Mrs Candour represents something akin to a grotesque Victoria Wood creation on steroids. Houghton once again proves herself a formidable character actress, and her expressions and facial tics alone will lhave you yearning for more than her handful of appearances.

Funny, sassy and spirited, with high camp to spare, it’s nevertheless difficult to shake the sense that Craig’s adaptation isn’t perhaps quite as pacy or taut as it ought be. There’s an abundance of repetition and reacquainting the audience with key threads and relationships within Sheridan’s text that could quite easily be truncated, or excised altogether, here. For a show that looks and sounds like a pop music video, the periods where it languishes and plods through its more meandering beats only feel amplified.

“For a show that looks and sounds like a pop music video, the periods where it languishes and plods through its more meandering beats only feel amplified.”

And, whilst there are plenty of laughs along the way, it never quite hits the same uproarious levels of frenetic chaos or frequency of hilarity as its current counterpart, The Merry Wives of Windsor, which it plays in rep with at the RSC this summer.

With a new epilogue bolted on that juxtaposes Sneerwell’s salacious open, and ends the evening on a pleasant and affirming note, chances are you will walk away from School for Scandal suitably entertained and amused. Craig’s production is lavish and certainly eye-opening to look at, but much like Bridgerton before it, is never quite as revelatory or original as it may first appear.

And that, for some, may be perhaps the greatest scandal of all; rather than leaving one feel thoroughly debauched or invigorated as its optics and name may suggest, audiences of this light, frothy jolt of neon fun will have to settle for simply being tickled rather pink, instead.

As we see out the sputtering tail end of a general election and parliament dogged by scandals, dodgy advisors, disgraced lobbyists and furious back pedalling on environmental pledges all, it seems a particularly prescient time for the RSC and Good Chance Theatre’s Kyoto to land.

Writers Joe Robertson and Joe Murphy, the duo behind the critically-acclaimed The Jungle, reunite with directors Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot) and Justin Martin (Stranger Things: The First Shadow) for this sobering, timely and incisive recounting of the years leading up to the pivotal Kyoto COP summit of 1997.

On paper, it may not sound like particularly thrilling theatre to essentially bear witness to just shy of three hours of international diplomats and delegates squabbling – sometimes over things as inane as the appropriate use of a semi-colon or question mark, as an Act II free-for-all humorously depicts. Yet, its in the innate, shared humanity that it placed under its lens, and an undercurrent thread of the power of agreement versus the toxifying (quite literally) presence of vested interest that Kyoto finds its voice and theatrical purpose.

It’s all hung around a masterful and absorbing central turn from Stephen Kunken as lawyer-turned-NGO-lobbyist, Don Pearlman. Kyoto opens with the curtain falling on the Reagan years. Pearlman wastes no time in casting the nineties as a glorious heyday compared to the horrors of the contemporary. With the Berlin Wall down and Bush Senior proclaiming ‘a world refreshed by freedom seems reborn’, the scientific and political spheres are turning their attention to a new impending crisis – man’s impact on climate change. Fresh out of serving seven ‘glorious’ years in government, Pearlman finds himself headhunted by OPEC – the ‘Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ – to try and stymy the growing concern and outcry.

“…perhaps one of Kyoto’s greatest strengths is in showcasing how major ethical and existential quandaries can be sunk by, of all things, disagreements on grammar.”

Pearlman sets out to frustrate and essentially nullify a decade of international summits and meetings, from Geneva to Berlin and beyond. It’s here where, after a slightly unhurried start, Kyoto really finds its footing and hits its stride. A shrewd adept at backdoor dealings, twisting ears and a canny ability to root out and exacerbate geopolitical divisions, Pearlman plays his infuriating yet intoxicating merry dance of manipulation. Robertson and Murphy’s book is clearly deeply researched (though they are immediate in having Kunken point out that some artistic license has been taken) and perhaps one of Kyoto’s greatest strengths is in showcasing how major ethical and existential quandaries can be sunk by, of all things, disagreements on grammar.

Early on, Andrea Gathcalian’s spirited delegate of the small island state of Kiribati emphatically and powerfully challenges how rising sea levels will come to spell disaster for both her island, and hundreds of others. Within Pearlman’s web of mistrust and political machinations she falls, however, and even major players such as the US nevertheless water down their promises and wording.

With such a morally nebulous anchor around which the show pivots, all involved do a shrewd job in managing Pearlman’s journey and relationship with the audience. Kunken is, as mentioned, fantastic as the unapologetic, increasingly despairing Pearlman, and the dawning realisation that he is not so much an antihero so much as an outright villain is deftly and carefully charted. By the second Act, it takes the likes of Ingrid Oliver’s dignified but cunning Merkel, and the whirlwind arrival of Blair’s New Labour Britain in the form of Ferdy Roberts’ bullish John Prescott, to start tipping the balance in favour of unity and common good. All the while, Jorge Bosch’s animated, impassioned portrayal of COP President Raul Estrada-Oyuela begins to offer the heart and humanity lacking of our underhanded narrator.

Nancy Crane, meanwhile, gives a wonderful and layered turn as the United States’ delegate, ‘Sue’, who is at times obstinate, sarcastic and flippant. The USA’s inarguable clout is well represented here, and Crane does an admirable job reminding the audience that even in these binary times and in such heated situations, politicians are often varying hues of grey as opposed to explicitly forces of good or evil. Jenna Augen, similarly, does great work as Pearlman’s uncertain wife, Shirley, and it’s telling how even she struggles to find the positives in her husband’s line of work and stance. Augen is particularly moving in a powerful, if slightly overlong, denouement.

“There’s real kinetic energy and electricity in the conference sequences…”

Given Kyoto’s not-insubstantial running time, Daldry and Martin keeps things moving and engaging. There’s real kinetic energy and electricity in the conference sequences, played in-the-round with members of the public filling out some of the COP seats. There’s a surprising amount of comedy in there, too – from the more obvious, such as Prescott’s fist-happy exasperation at the lack of lunch, to some inspired interactions with those lucky enough to be part of the action.

Miriam Reuther’s set certainly makes for a grand spectacle, too – the imposing conference roundtable acting both functionally and as a stage at once. Strips of neon lights frame the RSC’s Swan Theatre as sparks or blossom shower down from above at key moments. Akhila Krishnan and Ian Syme’s video and projection work is bold and present, whilst also frequently steeped in distinctly 90’s low-bit character. It all feels premium, big-budget and striking.

In all, Kyoto manages to take an important, prescient era in modern political history, and craft it into a compelling, often gripping piece of entertainment that ebbs with warning and sobering insight. It’s a powerful, brilliantly acted treatise on the means and methods by which bad faith actors can squander progress, and a timely reminder of the sway and influence lobbyists and oil titans can still lever. Yet, despite being honeyed and overseen by a wonderfully machiavellian creation in Kunken’s Pearlman, Kyoto, much like its titular accord, ultimately sings with the promise of shared humanity and decency, and the power of unity over division, humanity over profit, and the future over just the here and now.

It isn’t uncommon for Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor to be given something of a modern makeover. After all, despite being amongst the somewhat lesser-known of the Bard’s comedies, it remains strikingly modern in its sensibilities and approach (trigger warnings of ‘body shaming’ and the like notwithstanding). Its zippy, domestic shenanigans – of double-dealing, scheming and paranoia as two housewives dole out some due comeuppance in the direction of a lecherous visitor – could easily be seen as the progenitor of the modern sitcom or farce.

Blanche McIntyre’s (All’s Well That Ends Well, Arabian Nights) spritely, colourful new production is leant extra immediacy, framed in a small English hamlet in the apparent midst of Euros fever – buntings of St George’s Cross interchangeably swapped out with the Bundesflagge (an often-omitted minor subplot regarding German thieves is kept curiously intact here, despite contributing little). Groups of youths bandy about in football shirts, and even burst into spontaneous eruptions of Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’. The Garter Inn, interpreted here as a fairly standardised country pub, is adorned with signs advertising screenings of ‘Pie Sports’, whilst its exuberant host (Emily Houghton) is the image of some ilk of punk/Brit pop hybrid, who appears ready to swing by Glastonbury after serving her regulars.

Into it all strides John Hodgkinson’s wonderfully repugnant (and rotund) Sir John Falstaff, who, a little down on his luck and penny both, casts his licentious gaze upon both Mistress Page and her affluent – not to mention similarly-married – bestie, Mrs Ford (Siubhan Harrison). When the duo catch on to Falstaff’s double down and scurrilous intent, they plot their revenge, and put into action a plan to teach the boor a lesson or three…

“…a canny reminder that Merry Wives often has its women calling the shots and holding the aces.”

McIntyre directs what is already a funny, witty piece with a punchy vibrancy. The abundance of cross purposes, mix-ups and manipulations come thick and fast, and it’s all set against Robert Innes Hopkins’ gorgeous, green staging. Characters are writ large and uniformly funny. Shazia Nicholls’ delightfully cockney and expressive Mrs Quickly, who has the ear of many in the town, busies about scenes like a hyperactive quasi-narrator, a canny reminder that Merry Wives often has its women calling the shots and holding the aces. Frank Ford is excellent, sympathetic and snivelling all as Ford’s desperately paranoid husband, who adopts an alter-ego in an effort to uncover his wife’s infidelities.

Of the two scheming wives, stage and screen veteran Spiro brings a little more dimension and spunk to her Mistress Page, where Siubhan Harrison’s Mrs Ford is a touch more levelled and demure. Given that the play occasionally alludes to notions of spousal abuse and domestic violence, and the occasional discomfort of Mr Ford’s overbearing suspicion and rage, it makes sense. Still, when the two women’s scheming takes flight, the chemistry between them is excellent. Scenes of the pair cracking up as they take devilish delight in their increasingly ridiculous bouts of revenge are utterly infectious.

“…amongst the most riotous, laugh-out-loud moments in recent RSC history.”

At the heart of all the mischief and mayhem is a bravura turn from John Hodgkinson as Falstaff. Imbued with a sense of self-importance, yet daring to tease edges of actual nobility and even sympathy, this is a bombastic, robust take on the character in every regard. Hodgkinson delivers a comedic masterclass, with some of the later sequences of Falstaff attempting to evade discovery by the town’s husband amongst the most riotous, laugh-out-loud moments in recent RSC history.

Depending on sensibilities, Wives may occasionally falter for some. As mentioned, much is made of Falstaff’s size in particular, and to contemporary audiences such regular, unabashed use of ‘fat’ as an insult may prick a nerve. It similarly shows its age come its forest-bound finale, which is fiendishly difficult to translate to a modern setting – though Hopkins and McIntyre give it a damned good go; positing its rabble of faux fae folk here as something akin to a toss up of youth mob and performance art both.

“…the laughs come thick and fast, but there are trickles of pathos in there, too.”

Whilst by no measure an especially deep or provocative piece, Wives does contain the odd moments that poke at deeper resonance and darker subtext. That it is delivered here by such a fine company, and with such fantastically realised characters means the laughs come thick and fast, but there are trickles of pathos in there, too.

Keenly directed, winningly performed, and sharply transforming what is one of Shakespeare’s most accessible and timely pieces into something of a riotously funny sitcom on stage, The Merry Wives of Windsor proves a delectable continuation of a strong year for RSC comedy, after their wondrous Midsummer Night’s Dream and the recent Love’s Labour’s Lost.

A superb, side-splitting slice of summery, suburban silliness, catch Merry Wives until September, as it shares the season with the upcoming School for Scandal.

On paper, it’s something of a curious starting pistol for the RSC’s new joint artistic directors, Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey, to be launching their tenure with Love’s Labour’s Lost. For a start, it ranks amongst the lesser-known and least played of the Bard’s outings, and to pitch a slightly more muted, grounded comedy so soon after the fantastical elation of perhaps the definitive Shakespeare comedy, with Eleanor Rhode’s raucous reimagining of A Midsummer Night’s Dream so fresh and recent in the memory, posits the risk of looking like an also-ran.

And yet the bedevilment is in the details, and whilst Emily Burns’ production may not have the high-concept bells and whistles and high fantasy of Midsummer, it carries itself with a lightness, whimsy and, yes, silliness all of its own. It also boasts some wattage – the big pull and poster boy (quite literally) for the piece being Bridgerton’s Luke Thompson as the charming Berowne. And, bookended with some geopolitical and emotional heft, this slightly truncated version of the text does a terrific job of bringing the tale’s sensibilities and ideas onto a distinctly contemporary footing.

The central thread of Lost interweaves the tale of a young princess (Melanie-Joyce Bermudez) seeking to reclaim her dying father’s land, with that of three friends who have made a vow of learning and abstinence to its current king (Abiola Owokoniron). Perhaps inevitably, the four young men, sworn to take neither company nor pleasure from the fairer sex, each become immediately smitten with one of the princess’ court (or in the case of King Ferdinand, said princess herself), and the expected hijinks ensure.

As touched upon, Burns and her team pitch this take firmly within a modern framework. Navarre itself is handsomely realised as something akin to Apple Park via a Pacific spa resort, with the four men at the heart of the tale seemingly equally plucked from Silicon Valley. Mobile phones are commonplace, with Brandon Bassir’s Dumaine a hostage to both the selfie and possibly even a TikTok or two, and the ladies holding their judgement court and hearsay via, naturally, a few swipes of social media. And, fittingly for a tale that sets its female minds as the superior power players, Bermudez’ princess and her entourage are themselves pant-suit wearing, golf-buggy commandeering women on a mission.

“In an age of Tates and Musks, it’s a canny pitch…”

In an age of Tates and Musks, it’s a canny pitch. For whilst Thompson and co’s oath-breaking, cupid-struck band of bros are fairly harmless – and often quite hilarious – in their attempts to win over their lady loves (brace yourselves for Backstreet Boys on the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre…), the undercurrent of female empowerment that ebbs through Lost, and a refusal to yield to more infantile notions of love and lust lends it a refreshingly blunt and, again, contemporary edge.

If that all sounds a touch preachy, then fear not. Whilst it is innately a less punchier and altogether more contemplative affair than, say, Midsummer or Twelfth Night, with something of a stop-start jolt to some of its character rumination and interludes in particular, Burns does a strong job keeping the comedy rarely a beat or two away.

Particularly funny are this production’s take on the outlandish Don Armado (Jack Bardoe), a larger-than-life, tennis playing and short-shorts wearing Spaniard vying for the affections of young worker, Jaquenetta (Marienella Phillips) and a down-on-his luck Costard (Nathan Foad). Bardoe is particularly animated and a whole lot of fun in a hilarious, ridiculous role, that bounces well off of Foad’s deliciously dry and camp put-upon. Elsewhere, Tony Gardner makes for a gloriously stuffy and self-important Holofernes.

Of its leads, Melanie-Joyce Bermudez brings gravitas and dimension to her Princess, particularly strong in her scenes as political strategist and regent in waiting. Ioanna Kimbook lends a venerable warmth to her Rosaline, feeling the most grounded and ‘real’ of the almost Desperate Housewives power foursome. Speaking of which, Burns and the company inject plenty of sass and even occasional venom into the ladies’ circle, casting down even entire Nations with derisory asides. But even at its most seemingly vicious, it’s consummately entertaining cattiness.

“Luke Thompson delivers an impressive RSC debut, injecting plenty of charm and fun into what could easily be quite rudimentary or even mawkish passages…”

Luke Thompson delivers an impressive RSC debut, injecting plenty of charm and fun into what could easily be quite rudimentary or even mawkish passages with a likeable, roguish Berowne. The previously mentioned Brandon Bassir, too, is a terrific, energised and suitably laddish Dumaine.

A funny, likeable, mature retelling of one of Shakespeare’s less prolific pieces may have been something of a roll of the dice for the new captains of the good ship RSC. And yet, glancing over the forthcoming 2024/25 season, with a number of less obvious choices given the star treatment and being brought front and centre, it’s clear that there is a vision and direction to pluck at every thread and string of the Bard’s catalogue and see what gems can be unearthed, or even forged.

As a litmus for what’s to come, this funny, charming, surprisingly modern revisit to Love’s Labour’s Lost is a strong, confident start, and pitches this new era for the RSC as one very ready to be still and contemplative in living art, and a court more than a little Academe…

It isn’t difficult to spend considerable chunks of Isobel McArthur’s postmodern riff on The Fair Maid of the West feeling the slightest bit, well, tipsy.

For starters, the RSC’s Swan Theatre (which, incidentally, housed a Trevor Nunn staging of the same show as its inaugural production back in 1986), and its surrounding foyers and antechambers have all been given something of a tavernous makeover. Stalls seating plucked out and replaced with pub benches, chairs and tables (complete with branded beer mats, naturally). Hand-scribbled posters put out calls for karaoke nights, grand re-openings and details of ‘tonight’s special’ (‘booze’). Ana Inés and Jabares-Pita’s wooden, earthy staging interlocks and wheels about to form not one, not two, but three different drinking joints (not to mention a ship!) over the course of the show.

There’s a palpable sense of place throughout. Honest-to-goodness, dirt under the nails, pre-gentrified boozers of a maritime slant and coastal flavour (bandying, as the plot, does between Plymouth and Cornwall mostly). The key narrative beats of Thomas Heywood’s renaissance rom-com play out moderately intact (if knowingly sillier), as intrepid barmaid Liz (Amber James) sets out on a journey of self-determination and entrepreneurial flare after an attempt to court her by a kindly well-to-do (Philip Labey) backfires spectacularly.

It’s from here where the fidelity mostly freewheels into the beer cellar, though. If McArthur’s take on Fair Maid knows where it’s set, its giddy whirlwind of comedic interjections and modern flourishes throw up a dogged middle finger to any strict nineteenth Century trappings of time. Fifties-style jukeboxes place alongside bags of Scampi Fries and mentions of WKD, whilst regular musical interludes see the talented cast blitz their way through everything from Queen to ‘Viva España’.

McArthur certainly has form here. Her Olivier-winning, similarly bonkers take on Pride & Prejudice recently finished up a successful and acclaimed UK tour.

And yet, as she cheekily acknowledges in an early audience address from the show’s resident narrator (Richard Katz), Heywood’s Fair Maid is no Austen in terms of ubiquity and cultural capital. In a splash of mildly-Brechtian reflexivity, Kurtz’s ultimately quite important ‘metaphysical’ overseer reads out a letter from the playwright herself saying, essentially, ‘well nobody’s even read it, so balls to fidelity!’.

It certainly preps the audience for some of the madcap tomfoolery to come, though it’s hard to shake the sense that Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of)’s inspired approach – of having the whole thing essentially be a metafiction improvised by a group of cleaners – still feels like a tighter and more motivated approach than what McArthur and company opt for here. Tonally, structurally and in regards to focus, this Fair Maid veers about wildly in the first Act in particular.

“It crackles with an energy of what feels at times like a theatrical love letter to the boozer…”

Still, it’s irrepressible, silly and routinely funny throughout and, like any good time down the ‘local’, plenty buoyant and colourful. It crackles with an energy of what feels at times like a theatrical love letter to the boozer and its denizens; littered with characters and types you could find propping up the bar at practically any pub in the land. Matthew Woodyatt is a hoot as a sensitive singleton still reeling from his wife having shacked up with his brother, whilst David Rankine lights up the periphery as both a Glaswegian wino and human jukebox early on.

And as Liz quite literally sets sail with a cadre of colourful companions come the second act (after a jolting, sobering close to its first half), McArthur’s penchant for weaving the surprisingly emotive and powerful in amidst the farcical eventually takes root.

Revelations surrounding tertiary characters land with surprising heft, and there’s an undeniable universality to its overall messages and ideas of retrospective carpe diem, regret and self-determination. Liz herself proves a wilful, steely yet flawed core, with a neat feminist streak that never registers as obnoxious or forced. Her wiles and skills as a woman and barkeep both are put to the test and pit her as leader, pioneer and diplomat all.

If it all descends into a finale that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Monty Python skit – unapologetic cultural stereotypes and all – then Fair Maid’s second half has at least afforded us enough time and development with Liz and her fellowship to become surprisingly invested in seeing their quest succeed.

Much of this is courtesy of a stellar cast doing great work. Amber James is the beating heart and implacable anchor around which the high-concept hijinks can pivot. She does a terrific job keeping it mostly earnest and straight, even as barbershop quartets, bare-all poets and foppish, effeminate Spanish royalty spring up about her. It’s a confident, grounding and moving turn that James pulls off masterfully.

“Amber James is teriffic… handsomely supported by what must surely be two of the finest comedic talents currently treading the boards”

Cutting sillier, she’s handsomely supported by what must surely be two of the finest comedic talents currently treading the boards. Emmy Stonelake, recently fantastic in McArthur’s own Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) is exquisite throughout as predominately Liz’s brash, fiery confidante, Clem. And the seemingly elastic Tom Babbage, also recently great as a skittish Professor Plum in Cluedo, steals scenes left, right and centre in a panoply of roles, most prominently an overly talkative postal worker who professes to have seen, done and even spoken it all.

Whilst it may lack some of the cohesion and ironic polish of Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of), and it mostly eschews much of the overt swashbuckling that some past interpretations have leant into, McArthur, James and company ultimately deliver an infectious romp for the festive season. Like some of its wobbly-legged characters, it’s an unpredictable, scattershot, even haphazard beast, occasionally registering as something more akin to a bemusing hangover fever dream than renaissance literature.

In many ways though, that’s sort of the point. It isn’t high art, nor does it profess to be. Instead, the RSC and McArthur invite you to pull up a chair and join James and friends for a Christmas and New Year of bawdy, boozy fun at a time when they’re perhaps needed more than ever.

We’ll drink to that.

You’d be forgiven for presuming that the first playwright to have their work performed on the Royal Shakespeare Theatre upon its opening in 1932 (monikered at the time as the ‘Shakespeare Memorial Theatre’) would have been a certain namesake Bard.

The honour, in fact, fell to Poet Laureate John Masefield, who had penned a poetry piece in honour of the RST’s predecessor, which had been consumed by a fire in 1926.

There is history and resonance aplenty, then, in the RSC turning to one of Masefield’s classic publications, festive fantasy The Box of Delights, for their 2023 Christmas offering in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

It’s far from the first time we’ve seen an adaptation of the novel, which offers up echoes of the likes of Narnia and early Harry Potter (despite predating both) with its biscuit-tin Christmas aesthetic and thoroughly English sensibilities (“now my wallet is gone, I have’t a tosser to my kick”, its lead disparages early on). A six-part, BAFTA-winning tv adaptation in the Eighties, whilst aesthetically dated by modern standards, remains a classic for many, with Den of Geek recently naming it “one of the most magical Yuletide dramas that the BBC has ever made.”

A multitude of radio and stage incarnations have since followed, most recently featuring Olivier-winner Matthew Kelly on dual-role duty as the tale’s warring wizards at London’s Wilton’s Music Hall. But now is the hour of the RSC to house the old favourite (Box, that is… not Kelly).

In many ways, this will be a deeply familiar Box to those who experienced the fantastical playground conjured up at Wilton’s. It is once again using writer Piers Torday’s imaginative, characterful translation of the book to stage, and a particular coup sees the return of Tom Piper’s glorious design wizardry and set magic.

Its whimsical story follows the low fantasy adventures of young orphan Kay (Callum Balmforth), as his much-anticipated holidays and otherwise normal world are interrupted by a clash between two time-travelling sorcerers. One, naturally, good… the other less so.

When wise, venerable ‘good’ wizard Cole (Stephen Boxer) spirits himself away to avoid the clutches of the villainous Abner Brown (Richard Lynch) and cronies, he leaves Kay in possession of the precious, titular macguffin, which is said to yield both wondrous yet also potentially disastrous power. It’s up to Kay to take off on a genuinely magical adventure peppered with puppetry, flying cars, dazzling phoenixes, witches and wizards and even animalistic transformations, all to save his friends, his townsfolk and, more importantly, Christmas itself. We’re ominously warned that ‘the wolves are running’, people are disappearing, and of course there’s the ever-looming threat of getting ‘scrobbled’.

“Balmforth is a spirited and likeable lead… but it’s the fantastic line-up of supporting characters that keep Box’s fantasy hijinks firing on all cylinders.”

Fortunately for Kay, along for the ride and festivities are the Jones children – feisty, gangster-loving, gun-toting Maria (Mae Munuo) and nervy, fussy Peter (Jack Humphrey). It’s here where Box conjures up amongst its greatest of magics. Balmforth is a spirited and likeable lead, an earnest grounding rod around which the spectacle and wonderment can ebb, but it’s the fantastic line-up of supporting characters that keep Box’s fantasy hijinks firing on all cylinders.

Munuo is terrific fun throughout as fearless, sardonic tomboy Maria. Quick to anger, fiercely defensive and always ready with a side-splitting one-liner or put-down, when confronted by is-she-isn’t-she witch Sylvia Daisy Pouncer (a similarly-impressive Claire Price), Maria naturally challenges her to a pistol repairing contest. She’s beautifully complemented by her ‘plank’ of a brother, Peter, a retiring, disapproving yet kind-hearted sort of Eton boy in-waiting. RSC favourite Jack Humphrey gives one of the finest and most routinely hilarious turns of the night, as his finicky yet lovable Peter bemoans the whole affair for being ‘the purple pim’ or giving him ‘the fantods’. The Jones duo are utter joys of characters and performances both.

“The Jones duo are utter joys of characters and performances both.”

Elsewhere, Stephen Boxer is a venerable Gandalf or Dumbledore-esque figure, with a glint in his eye and occasional spring in his step as the goodly Cole, whilst Samuel Wyers’ puppetry beautifully brings to life his canine companion Barney (amongst others). Credit to Alex Cardall, Tom Chapman and Rhiannon Skerrit for their impressive work here throughout. Stage veteran Annette McLaughlin is a hoot as the children’s easily-exasperated yet mild-mannered guardian, Caroline Louisa, Timothy Speyer pitches his animated Bishop perfectly for the tone of the show, and Melody Brown is another side-splitting scene-stealer as a shrill, passionate yet bolshy Mayor. Janet Etuk, meanwhile, brings a noble and calming presence amidst all the fluster to one of the show’s most fantastical characters and sequences, as Herne the Hunter.

Thanks in no small part to its vibrant cast, Box is wholesome, effortlessly entertaining and brilliantly executed family fun throughout. It’s also, beat-for-beat, one of the most unexpectedly funniest treats of the year. Sure, the villains, particularly Lynch’s Abner, get slightly shorter shrift, and it’s here, with its cheese-gobbling rodent henchmen and heightened climactic showdowns where the show veers closest to panto campness. Still, younger audiences in particular will likely appreciate a clear, suitably boo-hissable ne’er-do-well to rally against, and big set pieces such as the watery finale.

“…rich with flourishes of wonderment and fancy throughout.”

Piper’s design work is rich with flourishes of wonderment and fancy throughout. From the offset, Box’s towering, clockwork staging presents levels, hidden passages, hidey holes, trapdoors and all manner of verticality and surprise. Whether presenting a dusty, abandoned attic, a foreboding snowstorm or even more ambitious footing such as a flooding underworld or magical forest scape, this is an opulent, regularly dazzling production, with its chameleonic set bolstered by some stunning projection, video and lighting work. It’s comfortably one of the most transportive and immersive festive adventures you will likely see in a theatre this Christmas.

And speaking of Christmas, replete with humour, spectacle and bedazzlement aplenty, Box of Delights cements itself as another festive cracker for the RSC. It takes a much-loved classic and brings it to light with gorgeous production value, imaginative staging and a wealth of loveable, hilarious characters all winningly realised and vibrantly performed.

If it’s family fun you are after this holiday season (and make no doubt, it is very Christmassy), this Box of Delights is a joyous must-see, and does and is exactly what it says on the (festive biscuit) tin.

If you’re in the market for regicidal power couples cutting their teeth on one of the Bard’s offerings de rigueur, then 2023 is offering up a panoply of riches.

One can hardly swing an eerie, Cabbage Patch-like doll (just you wait for them…) without hitting a production of Macbeth. Hardly a first, perhaps, but some of the wattage lighting up the current and upcoming offerings is notable. Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma head up an international tour that kicks off in Liverpool in November. David Tennant and Cush Jumbo take to the Donmar in December. And if the Globe’s current production, running until Halloween, lacks any major billing, is nonetheless a jolting, youthful and uncharacteristically comedic take on the bleak tale.

It leaves this meaty yet fairly minimalist Macbeth, open now at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, with a tall order. For musical theatre enthusiasts (google ‘stagey’), the choice of Hamilton leading man Reuben Joseph will be a welcome and intriguing one. Yet, for the majority of audiences heading to Stratford-upon-Avon, it will be recognition of the show itself, rather than any individual company member or name, that proves the real draw.

Director Wils Wilson even pulls in some cheeky jabs at this – drafting in comedian Stewart Lee to pen a revisited take on the infamous porter scene. Alison Peebles caustically jabs out at the audience, mocking that they’re only there to appear cultured (we laugh because it’s true), whilst similarly dishing out some giggle-inducing barbs for the GCSE-age attendees. The immediate fourth wall breaking is where this new injection hits funniest and most sharp; when lending his ire to the likes of Boris and Carrie Johnson and even Huawei, Lee’s material falls flatter and feels more intrusive.

“The immediate fourth wall breaking is where this new injection hits funniest and most sharp…”

Outside of the postmodern interlude, this is Macbeth in fulsome presence. Bagpipes ring out alongside harrowing, occasionally discordant brass. The show’s witches – here feral, writhing, skittish things puppeteered by winds and energies about them – are quite literally birthed onto the stage. Dead birds fall hauntingly from the rafters, even from the off. Mists of rainfall provide a mournful backdrop. Grand curtains of gold cast across the stage or furiously torn down reflect Macbeth’s regency and mind both. Georgia McGuinness’ fusion of the medieval and the folkish with the mechanical feels somehow both stripped back and opulent at once.

And at just over three hours, there is very little left on the page (or the rehearsal room).

Whispers of cut musical moments and a good fifteen minutes having been recently shaved off of the run time hints at an even more imposing (indulgent?) beast, but the current form hits a solid balance between honouring the text, avoiding slightness and delivering a satisfying dip into its darker tendrils of murder and madness.

Sure, there are leaner Macbeths out there, and it’s perfectly possible to manifest it into a taut, pacy thriller, but tertiary characters and development are often the casualties in such instances. There’s still fairly short shrift for the likes of Siward (Thérèse Bradley, who also offers up a dignified, gentle Duncan earlier on) and others, but there’s an engaging earnestness to bit parts including Shyvonne Ahmmad as Malcolm, and George Anton as a grief-stricken Macduff. Ahmmad in particular does great grounding work, lending a hesitant and conflicted goodness to a Malcolm who becomes very easy to root for. Anton gets the showier moments, but together they make for an engaging pairing that shore up the looser focus of the latter stages of the show.

Elsewhere, Anna Russell-Martin is excellent as a droll yet perceptive Banquo, and leaves this particular reviewer with the quandary of wondering when we can finally get over having to even address the notion of gender-swapping. As was the case, for instance, with the RSC’s production of Julius Caesar earlier this season, which saw incredible gender-reversed turns from Kelly Gough and Thalissa Teixeira, it has become something of a (very welcome) norm, and nowhere is this more evident than here in Macbeth. Great performers giving fantastic, layered, nuanced turns wholly irrespective of the gender with which they identify.

“Kane is a transfixing presence throughout… a deliciously authentic turn.”

Some may grumble that the presence of so many female characters – including perhaps most notably, Duncan – robs Lady Macbeth of her individuality and agency. But they’d be wrong.

Not to mention outdated.

On the subject of Lady Macbeth, Valene Kane is a transfixing presence throughout as the prime mover behind her husband’s villainy (and later madness). First appearing barefoot in the rain, dancing with giddy, almost infantile glee with word of what awaits, Kane’s disarming whimsy soon gives way to a sensuous, more serious manipulator. And once ‘what’s done is done’, a tremulous, nervy edge creeps in as the character’s hold on events – and her husband’s sanity – begins to falter. It’s a deliciously authentic turn; Kane’s villainess depicted here as a haunted opportunist, later wracked with the anxiety of being undone, and a palatable fear of her deteriorating spouse. The bold reversal in physicality and control between the Macbeths over the course of the show even has you almost daring to feel sorry for her.

Joseph’s Macbeth, in fact, eventually becomes a thing of almost primal, unfettered rage. The final duel with Macduff is brutal, raw and protracted. Bounding about the stage, hollering and rhythmically beating his chest, it’s the crescendo of a turn that feels sharply cut for audiences of today. From the off, this is a Macbeth who is emotional, impulsive, sarcastic and even puerile at times. A literal mic drop moment offers hints at a now-towering ego.

Gone is the stoic, unmoving war hero of old who gradually unfurls. In its place is a man who offers glimpses of already being troubled in heart and mind. It isn’t so much toxic masculinity as almost noxious insecurity. Some theatregoers may again cry foul, but Joseph pitches the erratic turbulence of this emotional, torn man with plenty of gravitas and believability. As with Kane’s Lady Macbeth, you get the sense of an already damaged person, whose choices only sink them further into moral, emotional and mental turpitude.

If it may not bedazzle with the same star power as some of its seasonal competitors, this Macbeth gets the job done handsomely and effectively. It’s less sanguine than perhaps expected, and some sequences go a bit tonally adrift – the execution of Macduff’s children, for instance, is a quite disturbing melange of horror and likely-unintended humour (those dolls!). But overall, this is a slick evening of theatre that never quite feels its (substantial) length. It is stuffed with winning, mature turns and uniquely calibrated performances. It is dangerous and brooding where needed, and moody and evocative throughout. The jury will likely remain out on whether Lee’s reinvention of the porter hijinks are an improvement (or even necessary), but they certainly add a flavour of individuality.

In a year positively bursting with power-hungry Scots (no, we aren’t even going there, we’ll leave that kind of thing to Lee…), Fiennes, Tennant and co. will doubtless shift tickets and fills seats on name power alone. And yet, with Wilson’s nuanced, full-bodied showing, the RSC have pipped them to the post with a Macbeth that, whilst perhaps not definitive, takes a bloody good stab at it.

Outside of its ubiquitous ‘All the world’s a stage’, it’s fair to say that the pastoral whimsy of Shakespeare’s As You Like It doesn’t command the same cultural immediacy as many of the Bard’s heavier hitters. That is, to say, it lacks something of the brand recognition, identity (some would add, saturation) of a Macbeth, Othello or other such Shakespeare de rigueur.

For certain, it shares aesthetic and conceptual (if not exactly thematic) DNA with, say, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and fringes of The Tempest, whilst its melting pot of gender reversals, political treachery and self discovery are littered throughout much of the First Folio.

Yet there’s an argument to be made that staging a fresh production of As You Like It doesn’t necessarily demand the same stamp of individuality or high-concept thinking as some of its siblings. It’s comparatively lesser-known, so let the forest shenanigans and romantic tugs of war play out wholesale?

It’s what makes Omar Elerian’s 2023 staging of Like It such a joyful masterstroke. Pitched as a fictitious restaging of the production by a group of players some fifty years after they first performed it, Elerian has assembled a company that comprises mainly of septuagenarians and above.

“Elerian’s meta playground… builds layers into its post-modern nudge-winkery, yet is confident and sharply astute enough to never over-reach.”

Elerian’s meta playground, pitched in a rehearsal room as it is, builds layers into its post-modern nudge-winkery, yet is confident and sharply astute enough to never over-reach. It would be so easy for this concept to be positively bedecked with faked corpsing, endless audience interaction and other routine fourth-wall breaking.

Instead, Elerian and his wonderfully engaging company pick their moments to shatter the illusion carefully. Be it James Hayes’ metered frustration at his Touchstone’s increasingly technicolor and makeshift outfits (“James Hayes… classical actor”), Maureen Beattie alarmedly dodging a fellow player’s over-exuberant swings of a pitchfork, or knowingly stilted moments of fudged fight choreography, this As You Like It’s metadrama hijinks are fun and characterful, yet never overbearing.

Not that it shies away from mining the setup for laughs, though – there are giggles early on, for instance, where the play’s focus on youth and vigour become neatly ironic, and there’s something just infectiously funny about the giddiness and vim with which its characters prance about and engage in puerile mishaps when delivered by more venerable players – but it knows its bounds.

The core essence of the Like It text is winningly performed and spiritually intact, if streamlined. Arden itself notably plays second fiddle, here – be it out of necessity or rather the focus on its extra-narrative players – but it’s all leant a real air of gravitas in the hands of such seasoned and stellar performers. Their experience and affinity with Shakespeare is palpable and intoxicating throughout, and despite the initial absurdity, the romantic tussles are played, and register, with complete authenticity.

“Geraldine James is a soulful, steadying Rosalind, whilst no amount of quirky makeshift gowns and cheap tiaras can mask the comedic gold that is Maureen Beattie’s wonderful Celia.”

Geraldine James is a soulful, steadying Rosalind who masterfully bounces between flighty and formidable, whilst no amount of quirky makeshift gowns and cheap tiaras can mask the comedic gold that is Maureen Beattie’s wonderful Celia. Hayes is a terrific, suitably animated Touchstone, whilst Christopher Saul in the performance reviewed gave a commanding, dignified Jaques. David Fielder and Celia Bannerman, meanwhile, light up the lengthier second half as a deliciously fun, loveable pairing – lovelorn Silvius and an equally doe-eyed (albeit unrequited) Phoebe.

Ana Inés and Jabaras-Pita’s staging mostly rations the fantastical (but again, we’re supposed to be in a rehearsal room), leaving the occasional moment of descending light fixtures-cum-swings and sporadic musical numbers (including an inspired Act I closer) to deliver the odd injection of colour and vigour that some may expect from the title.

Not that it needs it, or is any way lacking. Again, the concept is king here, and this As You Like It feels to be as much an affectionate love letter to the performing arts, the rehearsal room and the collaborative nature of theatre as it offers up the base play’s rumination and explorations of love, loyalty, memory and more.

And Elerian signs off a tale that already bandies with gender roles and power plays with one corker of a denouement and mission statement.

As You Like It didn’t need this conceptual or idiosyncratic a treatment. And yet in doing so, this age-blind, metafictive repurpose channels a magic and spark all of its own. An inspired approach, beguiling company and impressive confidence (not to mention restraint) in layering its postmodern flourishes, results in one of the most refreshingly original, irrepressibly feel-good and unexpectedly poignant productions of the year so far.

Strange, eventful history, indeed…