Bardwatching: Autumn Term 2 2019-20

Veteran theatre critic Michael Billington, who has been reviewing for the Guardian for more than 40 years, has caused a stir by criticising the current standard of Shakespeare productions in British theatre, in a Q&A with Judi Dench at the reopening of Croydon's Fairfi eld Halls.

Billington remarked that contemporary directors approach the plays ‘as if the audience is going to be bored and they have to fi nd ways to popularise’ them. Judi Dench agreed with him that there was an attitude among those mounting Shakespeare's works that they ‘have to do something different to it’, but representatives of the RSC and Shakespeare's Globe have since refuted the claims, with Gregory Doran telling The Stage ‘There are of course directors who want to use Shakespeare to say something, and interpretation is a very challenging and interesting thing. I employ directors who want to direct Shakespeare, but not like I direct Shakespeare. I want them to do it differently’ and Michelle Terry of Shakespeare's Globe responding that the bard's plays would ‘always struggle under the pressures of literalism and colloquialism and an expectation to be defi nitive and relevant.’