Latest news with #RobertHastie
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Now Hamlet issues trigger warning that Shakespeare classic contains 'coercive' behaviour
Theatregoers have been issued a trigger warning over William Shakespeare's classic tragedy Hamlet containing 'coercive behaviour'. Those visiting London 's National Theatre later this year to watch director Robert Hastie's adaptation of the iconic play have also been told to prepare themselves for themes such as suicide as well as depictions of madness and violence. The epic play, which is a cornerstone of English literature, centres around Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, and his mad descent after his father is murdered by his uncle Claudius, who usurps the throne and marries Hamlet's mother. It ends with a fatal duel that sees most of the principal characters - including the Prince himself - dead by the final curtain, prompting the theatre to issue a series of warnings. Under the play's 'suitablity' a note reads: 'This production contains themes of grief and death, including suicide and the loss of a parent, depictions of madness, violence, and coercive behaviour.' The show is set to begin with previews beginning on Monday, September 25 until Friday, September 30 - with tickets currently fetching anywhere between £20 and £64 for those dates. It will then run until November 22 out of the South Bank theatre in the English capital and stars Laurence Olivier Award-winning actor, Hiran Abeysekara, as the Danish prince. However, the trigger warnings attached to the show have sparked debate over whether they are necessary for a 400-year-old Shakespearian tragedy which is widely taught in schools. Previously speaking to the Daily Mail about the warnings, historian and author Roy Schwartz said it creates an unsustainable precedent. He said: 'A trigger warning is meant to alert that something contains potentially distressing material. It's gratuitous to include it in something that's well-known to have mature subject matter, and it's frankly ridiculous to include it in a classic like Hamlet. 'For that matter, why not have a trigger warning in every history book? Every Bible and Sunday sermon? Coddling audiences against reality only serves to infantilise culture. 'A trigger warning is fair when the audience might not expect something 'triggering,' not in the most famous play in history.' Agreeing with Mr Schwartz, writer Simon Evans added that trigger warnings are 'tiresome, infantilising and ultimately counterproductive' - a belief he said is supported by research and 'common sense'. Mr Evans continued: 'To attach one to one of the supreme works of art in the western canon, a play that contains the single most quoted lines in the language, let alone on the subject of 'self-slaughter', is risible in the extreme. 'Let all theatres bookshops and cinemas carry a single "trigger warning" henceforth. "Take Heed! - all human life is here. Proceed at your own peril".'
Glasgow Times
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Date revealed for award-winning musical's Glasgow premiere
Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical will be performed at Glasgow's Theatre Royal from November 10 to November 14, 2026. The show, directed by Robert Hastie, tells the wildly improbable and hilarious true story of the covert operation that helped the Allied Forces in 1943. Read more: Bosses urged to let workers finish early if weather reaches 20 degrees It has already garnered significant praise, having won a 2024 Olivier Award and a nomination for the 2025 Tony Awards. At the entrance to the United Nations in New York City on May 13, it was announced that the show will be embarking on a world tour, with Glasgow marking the show's Scottish premiere. The tour comes after the show's third Broadway extension through to February 15, 2026, and its fifteenth West End extension through to February 28, 2026. The show stars David Cumming, Claire-Marie Hall, Natasha Hodgson, Olivier Award-winner Jak Malone, and Zoë Roberts, who reprise their original, acclaimed performances for the musical's Broadway (American) premiere. Read more: Glasgow to bask in sunshine as temperatures to soar SpitLip, the musical's writers and composers, said: "Broadway opened the literal world to us, and we couldn't be more grateful for every unpredictable twist of this astonishing journey. "Most of all, we wish to thank the audiences who continue to carry this show with love and enthusiasm. "Operation Mincemeat reminds us that in uncertain times, the bonds between allies are more important than ever - and that message feels especially relevant as we consider all the great nations in which our show will now have the opportunity to play. "This show continues to be the adventure of a lifetime, and we're wildly excited about what's to come." Operation Mincemeat is produced on Broadway and the West End by Avalon (in association with SpitLip). It was commissioned by New Diorama Theatre, co-commissioned by The Lowry, and supported by the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat.
New York Times
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Operation Mincemeat' Review: The Stiff Who Saved Europe
In 1943, in wartime England, a homeless person dies in the street after ingesting rat poison. Given a fake postmortem identity by British counterintelligence officers — no effort to find his family is made — he is dressed in a military uniform, sealed in a cooler, then ejected from a submarine near the coast of Spain. The papers planted on his corpse eventually make their way to Hitler, convincing him that the Allies will begin their invasion of Europe in Sardinia, when in fact they plan to do so in Sicily. As a result, Axis troops are diverted to the wrong Italian island. In short, Operation Mincemeat, as this real World War II operation was called, works. But is it funny? Whether 'Operation Mincemeat,' the diverting if irksome musical comedy about the plan, works as well will depend a lot on your answer to that question. A hit in London, it has come to Broadway, where it opened on Thursday at the Golden Theater, having paid close attention to differences in accent, dialect and usage between British and American audiences. (Public school there is private school here.) But neither the authors, a collective called SpitLip, nor the director, Robert Hastie, appear to have given sufficient thought to our different senses of humor. Theirs you will recognize. It combines Oxbridge snootiness with panto ribaldry to create a self-canceling middlebrow snark. You may detect in the show's DNA elements of Monty Python, Benny Hill, 'The Play That Goes Wrong' and the Hitchcock stage spoof 'The 39 Steps.' But if those influences have made you laugh, even as much as they have made me, you may still experience diminishing returns in the nonstop tickling of 'Operation Mincemeat.' The Pythons kept their satire sharp and their sketches quick. Not so here. At more than two-and-a-half hours, the show is hardly svelte. Nor, with its aim so scattershot, is it clear what it is satirizing. At first it seems to want to mock the public school toffs and blustery brass who populate MI5, the agency that developed the plan. They are offered as idiots, freaks and over-entitled snobs. In the show's first song, 'Born to Lead,' Ewen Montagu (Natasha Hodgson) explains that 'fortune favors bravery and a fortune's what I've got.' His colleague Charles Cholmondeley (David Cumming) is a nervous Nellie and an amateur entomologist with bugged-out eyes behind big round glasses that make him look like a cartoon click beetle. The predominant trait of their colonel, Johnny Bevan (Zoë Roberts), is that he despises figurative language. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
