About

My blog has quite a lot of posts about Samuel West (Julius Caesar, On Chesil Beach and Darkest Hour) and Charles Edwards (My Fair Lady Australian tour and Henry IX).

Saturday 28 April 2007

Samuel West - Theatre - As You Like It

As You Like It by William Shakespeare
Crucible Theatre (Sheffield), 31 January - 24 February 2007
Director: Samuel West

Reviews

Guardian
"...Samuel West's radical revival brings out the magic, mystery and meta-theatrical strangeness of this highly familiar work..."

Observer
"...[Sam] alights on the theatrical elements in As You Like It... it catches the essence - what Jacques calls 'a most humorous sadness' - of Shakespeare's greatest comedy."

Independent
"...Samuel West's farewell production at the Crucible makes one wish he were staying longer."

Links
Sheffield Theatres 1|2
Interview with Sam [link]

The final performance of this production was dedicated to Steven Pimlott, who directed Sam in Richard II and Hamlet. From the journal Early Modern Literary Studies:
"...In the final performance of Samuel West's production at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, this elegiac quality was sharply underlined when West himself walked on in a black suit at the beginning of the show to announce that he had come straight from the funeral of [sic] Stephen Pimlott, who directed him in Richard II and Hamlet, and that the performance was dedicated to Pimlott. At the end of the play, Eve Best's Rosalind led West back on stage to take a final bow on this, his last appearance as artistic director of Sheffield Theatres..."


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