Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

Theatre 295
solely for theatergoing, and those who do will find the
theatrical attractions on those continents far apart, and
hard to get to, one from the other. A theatre trip to Europe,
however, where dozens of distinct and dazzling theatrical
cultures are never more than a brief train ride away, is a
venture upon which more and more Americans embark.
Literally millions of Americans each year find their way
to England for this very reason. Americans often account
for up to one-third of the theatre audiences in London,
where they might see, in addition to revered classics and
extravagant musicals, new and provocative works by such
celebrated current English dramatists as Tom Stoppard,
Mark Ravenhill, Alan Ayckbourn, Charlotte Jones, Martin
Crimp, Martin McDonagh, Howard Brenton, David
Hare, and Caryl Churchill. Highlighting London’s theatre
scene are the government-subsidized National Theatre
(NT), which houses three stages in a modern complex
on the south bank of the Thames; the nearby Globe Theater,
a replica of Shakespeare’s original outdoor playhouse
that produces Shakespearean-era drama during
the summer months; and the West End theatre district
on and around Shaftesbury Avenue and Covent Garden,
which is comparable to New York’s Broadway in its mix
of musicals, new dramas, and classical revivals. There
is also a London “Fringe” of smaller theatres, roughly
comparable to off-Broadway, which includes the adventurous
companies Almeida, Cheek by Jowl, Complicite,
Donmar Warehouse, and the Royal Court. And in Shakespeare’s
hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon, little more
than an hour’s train ride away, you can see productions
A global team was behind the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2015 production of Othello, which featured black
actors in both of the lead roles: the Ghanaian-born Hugh Quarshie as Othello and British-Tanzanian Lucian
Msamati, as Iago. The play is set in today’s times (there’s a Venetian gondola, a rapping contest, and a tortuous
waterboarding scene), and created by an international team: Indian director Iqbal Khan directed and Irish Ciaran
Bagnall designed the setting and lighting. © Geraint Lewis