The time is 12pm and I have a sudden thought – Barclays Front Row tickets at The Donmar! I scramble to get the website up and hopefully click on the link to find…all performances for the next 2 weeks sold out. Dammit! Since The Donmar Warehouse started the front row scheme I have managed to successfully forget every week that I needed to log on at 10am on a Monday morning for the chance of a ticket.
I’m particularly desperate to see the current show, Phyllida Lloyd’s Henry IV – an all female Shakespeare production starring Harriet Walter which follows on from the success of the all female Julius Caesar performed last year (another one I didn’t get a ticket for!)
I’m always incredibly excited when an all female Shakespeare is performed, particularly at such a major venue like The Donmar Warehouse. The very first show Spearshaker Theatre produced was an all female Midsummer Nights Dream and since then I’ve always kept a look out for other same sex Shakespeare productions. It’s safe to say that all female productions have been rather thin on the ground (though I have heard excellent things about Smooth Faced Gentlemen – I must catch their next show)
The Donmar’s Henry VI is set in a women’s prison and, from reading the description and reviews, becomes a play within a play when the women of the prison stage a production of one of Shakespeare’s finest (and most male dominated) works. It is a concept that some reviewers have not taken too well to, and the word ‘gimmick’ has been whispered more than once. Of course I’m in no position to review a show before I’ve seen it, so will reserve judgement until I get my backside into gear and log on at 10am next Monday for tickets! Watch this space!
Spearshaker 