Luke Thallon as Hamlet and Kel Matsena as Horatio. Photo by Marc Brenner © RSC Hamlet - ★★★★★ - relentless RSC: Royal Shakespeare Theatre What more fitting way to christen a blog of this name than with a review of  Hamlet ?   Rupert Goold’s  Hamlet  at the Royal Shakespeare Company is a relentless powerhouse of a production, worthy of every cataclysmic metaphor one might throw at it —an avalanche, a freight train, a tornado, a hurricane— and presciently tied to the one from which it takes its concept: a sinking ship.    From its daring design and the acrobatic excellence with which the company handles the stage’s contortions, to the exceptional nuance of each character and the technical synergy that allows the audience to become immersed in its concept, this  Hamlet  delivers on every front, and is crowned with a shattering RSC debut from Hamlet himself, Luke Thallon. Luke Thallon as Hamlet. Photo by Marc Brenner © RSC The Danish city of Elsinore ...

Chef - ★★★☆☆ Review commissioned by and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Traverse:  Fri 14 Mar 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Sabrina Mahfouz’s  Chef , starring Rebecca Benson, plays the Traverse for one night only in a production that crackles with energy and is a showcase for Benson’s solo performance. Chef  premiered at Edinburgh Fringe in 2014, garnering several awards. Director André Agius’s touring revival of the piece for the Ayr Gaiety takes full advantage of Benson’s skill, taking her to emotional extremes in the performance of the character known only as “Chef”. Rebecca Benson in Chef . Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan Joining Benson onstage is BSL interpreter Yvonne Strain, who is integrated into the performance as one of Chef’s trainees in the prison kitchen where the show takes place. Sasha, who “doesn’t talk much” and only occasionally interacts with Chef, is fully part of her world. Strain brings flair and emotional impact to her rol...

  “Speak the speech as I pronounc’d it to you, trippingly on the tongue” —Hamlet, 3.2   Welcome to Speak the Speech.   If you’ve read any reviews on All Edinburgh Theatre in the last year by Rebecca Mahar , hello! That’s me. Speak the Speech as an independent arts and theatre criticism blog, designed to expand the scope of my arts writing and engage with productions and events in Edinburgh and beyond.    This doesn’t mean I’m leaving  Æ; on the contrary, I’m launching this new venture with the kind support of my editor there, Thom Dibdin. I’ll still be reviewing for Æ, and sharing those reviews here as well. Creating Speak the Speech means I can offer additional coverage to shows being reviewed by another member of the Æ team, as well as events that might be outside our general scope, or in other locations.    In addition to reviews, Speak the Speech may play host to longer form content, such as informal articles and discussions of artistic pract...