Reviews by Séamus Gregan
Mancbeth
Séamus Gregan
Mancbeth is the story of a haunting - but not the haunting you’re thinking of. The famous Scottish play is all about a hunger for a future foretold, and the scrabble to scourge the mind of the ...
3 days ago
Mancbeth
Indigo Giant
Séamus Gregan
“Confronting” is the verb Komola Collective use in the programme notes to describe how they hope the audience will interact with The Indigo Giant. It is the kind of play that aims to challenge ...
a month ago
Indigo Giant
Camille O'Sullivan: Dreaming
Séamus Gregan
The North Wall, in theatre configuration, with the wraparound
balconies and glittering disco ball, seemed almost built for a cabaret. The
audience and staff were doubtless glad of the bench ...
3 months ago
Camille O'Sullivan: Dreaming
The Cherry Orchard
Séamus Gregan
For a play about the angst of changing times, this production of The Cherry Orchard certainly knows what it’s about. Director Harry Brook makes the comparison to Succession in the show notes. ...
3 months ago
The Cherry Orchard
King Lear
Séamus Gregan
If madness is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results, then we are surely all mad. Not only is the maxim probably not an Einstein quote as conventional wisdom asserts ...
10 years ago
King Lear
Idylls of the King
Séamus Gregan
Staging the centerpiece production of an already ambitious and growing Arts Festival at the Oxford Playhouse sets a high bar for anyone. If anything, that bar has been raised even higher by ...
10 years ago
Idylls of the King
Jonny & The Baptists: Bigger Than Judas
Séamus Gregan
When you hear that an upcoming gig or show is ‘just down from Edinburgh’ or ‘coming off rave reviews at the Fringe’, it is often a slight disappointment. Not that the obvious ...
11 years ago
Jonny & The Baptists: Bigger Than Judas
Blood Brothers
Séamus Gregan
"I love the bones of ‘im" is a special phrase in my house. It tends to come out when my mum and my aunt have had a few glasses of wine at Christmas and get nostalgic for a simpler, ...
11 years ago
Blood Brothers
The Comedy of Errors
Séamus Gregan
Setting isn’t usually a problem when it comes Shakespeare in Oxford. In a town full to the brim with beautiful, acoustic, historic venues, all relatively amenable to the plight of a ...
11 years ago
The Comedy of Errors
Road Rage
Séamus Gregan
To be able to stroll around Wormsley’s grounds, to picnic at leisure overlooking the lake or cricket pitch, to sit in the magnificent pavilion on a summer’s evening and take in the green ...
11 years ago
Road Rage
The Taming of the Shrew
Séamus Gregan
I’m too young to get married, or so my mother says (her being far too young to be a grandmother, you understand), so I’m not personally familiar with the tropes and pitfalls of the ...
11 years ago
The Taming of the Shrew
Lord Of The Flies
Séamus Gregan
Adapting Lord of the Flies into a piece of musical theatre does make sense. From the first emergence of the choristers to the final, dark chanting, even the least charitable reader would concede that ...
11 years ago
Lord Of The Flies
Sir Patrick Stewart
Séamus Gregan
Sir Patrick Stewart is one of the most recognisable actors in the world, a knight of the theatre, Professor X, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Vladimir, and, most notably, a whole host of ...
11 years ago
Sir Patrick Stewart
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Séamus Gregan
There comes a point for most Brits, I think, where you realise how life just isn’t enough like James Bond for your liking. Not getting shot at, painful one-liners and mild alcoholism – ...
11 years ago
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
The Merchant of Venice
Séamus Gregan
There are three places where you can go and reasonably expect a very good rendition of Shakespeare, and they’re all linked in one way or another with a famous body of water. The RSC has the ...
11 years ago
The Merchant of Venice
The Firework-Maker's Daughter
Séamus Gregan
When you plan on beginning a review with ‘If you’ve been looking for an Opera to take your kids to – this is the one for you’ you inevitably end up playing to rather a small ...
11 years ago
The Firework-Maker's Daughter
The Glass Menagerie
Séamus Gregan
In a town with a little less going on, the student theatre scene that we have in Oxford would probably be a lot more celebrated. In the next few weeks, as spring peters into Finals season, ...
11 years ago
The Glass Menagerie
A Late Quartet [15]
Séamus Gregan
The title A Late Quartet is as semi-ambiguous as the plot of the movie, referring not to the timing of a quartet’s arrival, nor to a recent death, but rather a piece for a string quartet ...
11 years ago
A Late Quartet [15]
Oxford Wine Café (Summertown)
Séamus Gregan
A misted window is a rather wonderful thing. It’s a disconnect between out and in; from outside, it’s a sign of a warming welcome just behind a soon to be opened door; from within the ...
11 years ago
Oxford Wine Café (Summertown)
