OnOff Stage

20th October 1995, 1:00am

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OnOff Stage

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/onoff-stage-57
Congratulations to Shakespeare’s Globe for its Pounds 12m National Lottery win. The money will go towards building the outdoor theatre and all the ancillary buildings, including the indoor theatre and the libraryarchives. What that sum might have bought in Shakespeare’s day doesn’t really bear thinking about.

This term, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Willpower Project visits St Angela’s School, Newham, east London, along with others in Tower Hamlets and Gloucestershire. At St Angela’s, workshops on A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be held for 14 to 18-year-old students of English, drama and BTEC. The term-long project will involve computer software, cameras and other technology to create a multi-media approach to Shakespeare.

In the theatre world, if nowhere else, the war anniversaries carry on until the end of the year. Julia Pascal’s Holocaust Trilogy at the New End Theatre, Hampstead, features her three war plays, Theresa, set in the Channel Islands, A Dead Woman on Holiday, about an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials, and The Dybbuk, an adaptation of Anski’s Yiddish classic set in a Jewish ghetto in 1942. It runs from November 14 to December 9.

Complementing the productions are a series of post-show events, including an open discussion titled “Should we prosecute perpetrators of war crimes?” with panellists including MPs Barbara Roche and John Marshall, Rabbi Hugo Gryn and Lord Boyd-Carpenter (November 28) and “Songs of Ashes,” a concert by composer Julian Dawes on work inspired by the Holocaust on November 25. For a full schedule, ring the New End Theatre on 0171 794 0022.

A different perspective on the war is depicted in Rosie Blitz. Richard Pinner’s play returns to the stage of the Polka Children’s Theatre, joining the Evening Standard’s campaign to establish a memorial to Londoners killed during the Blitz. In 1940, Rosie escapes from a blazing building all alone to become an evacuee. With music and humour, Vicky Ireland’s production depicts the courage in the face of weariness and abrupt change that saw so many British children through the war. Rosie Blitz, aimed at children aged eight and over, runs until November 11. For bookings, ring 0181 543 4888.

Theatre Centre tours a very different play until the end of November. A Fine Example by Angela Turvey looks at the relationship between a mother and her daughter. Drawing on the lives and histories of black women and directed by Rosamunde Hutt, the play deals with love and conflict. For more information, ring 0171 354 0110.

London Bubble announces its Theatre of the Oppressed Season. Centrepiece of the season is visiting Brazilian theatre theorist and practitioner Augusto Boal, who is running a course next Monday to Thursday and delivering a public lecture on Tuesday, to be accompanied by a performance by homeless theatre group Cardboard Citizens. For more details, ring the London Bubble on 0171 237 4434.

As part of the Sixth British Festival of Visual Theatre at Battersea Arts Centre, south London, BAC’s Young People’s Theatre and Trading Faces Company present Strung Bead. John Wright’s production takes the form of a promenade performance, leading audiences through the rather grand BAC building.

The play, about a lollipop man visiting a relative in a hospital which is under threat of closure, is incongruously but intriguingly inspired by the legends of Perseus, the Graiae and Medusa. You can see it tomorrow and Sunday. For details of this and other shows in the Festival ring 0171 223 2223.

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