The best theatre to stream this month: Cloud Gate, Best of Enemies and more
Rice
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan bring a UK premiere to Sadler’s Wells at the end of the month. But Marquee TV is streaming their 2014 show, which celebrates one of Taiwan’s staple foods with projections, folk songs and of course the company’s superb dancers who rehearsed by harvesting in the fields.
RuneSical
After staging irreverent musicals about Timpson shops and the Scout movement, the Gigglemug Theatre gang present an interactive quest riffing on the fantasy-themed RPG RuneScape. Choose your own adventure by selecting different pathways at the end of each instalment. On YouTube.
Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me
Amy Trigg’s debut play won the inaugural Women’s prize for playwriting in 2020. Two runs at the Kiln theatre in London followed, as well as a regional tour for this lively, warm-hearted comedy starring Trigg as a twentysomething who, like the actor-writer, was born with spina bifida. Available from Audible.
A Cold Supper Behind Harrods
David Jason, Stephanie Cole and Anton Lesser reunite for a rehearsed reading performance of David Morley’s drama, which they first recorded for BBC Radio 4 in 2012. The trio play former special operations executive agents revisiting the murder of a colleague. From Original Theatre Company.
Meetings
Richmond’s Orange Tree, which had a triumphant production of Mustapha Matura’s Play Mas back in 2015, stages the late Trinidadian playwright’s 1981 comedy about a couple whose relationship to the island is explored through food. Watch online from 14-17 November.
The Seven Sins
Gauthier Dance’s portmanteau show finds seven choreographers each exploring a deadly transgression, such as Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui on greed, Sasha Waltz on wrath and Hofesh Shechter’s slow-motion study of lust. From Marquee TV.
Best of Enemies
William F Buckley Jr and Gore Vidal go head to head in a series of televised debates staged so dynamically it’s as if they’re toe to toe in the ring. There are mesmerising performances from David Harewood and Zachary Quinto, with a typically fizzy script from James Graham. Now on NT at Home.
Romeo and Juliet
Canada’s Stratford festival has programmed the star-crossed tragedy for its 2024 season, but here’s a chance to see its 2017 production by Scott Wentworth, with Antoine Yared and Sara Farb creating sweet comedy in the balcony scene. It suits the festival’s handsome thrust stage perfectly.
The View from Above
Leeds University presents a new digital play by its lecturer in writing for performance, Campbell Edinborough, exploring the impact of violence in storytelling. Tickets are pay what you can; runs from 2-18 November.
A Celebration of James Rado
Let the sunshine in: Joe’s Pub at the Public theater in New York toasts the life and legacy of Hair’s co-writer James Rado, who died last year, with an evening of performances and recollections. On YouTube (not all territories)..
