Globe season Summer of Love. And Emma Rice is leaving 2018

There was a new season announcement?

Every project I've worked on that turned into a monumental mess happened because various people took their assumptions for granted, and didn't think to articulate their expectations, because it was just so obvious to them that they didn't realise anyone else would do things differently. 

Sorry, I didn't think you were disagreeing!


It's just one of those things that seems to be inherent to human nature - and always causes forehead-slappingly-awful situations where you end up thinking, 'why didn't someone just SAY SO??!'

Sometimes things don't just work out. Rice was always a 'brave' appointment - not because of her track record about the use of technology as part of her theatrical toolbox but because she had never directed Shakespeare before.

This was always going to be an uphill battle - not helped by the fact that she admitted that she didn't always understand the plays.

To be Artistic Director of a company that was dedicated (in the main) to the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries without a track record in that area was, for me (and others), a step too far.

I only saw the broadcast of her Dream and found it overloaded with ideas and essentially a production that could have been at home in any other theatre in the UK. It didn't exploit the potential of the space.

The Globe has always balanced risk with historical investigation. And there is no reason why this should not continue going forward. It is the company that delivered both all male and all female ensembles, the three-person Tempest, projects investigation Original Pronunciation and much more. My first visit was to see Kathryn Hunter's production of Pericles - which was very far from being traditional.

We have many directors who have a deep love and knowledge of Shakespeare - and who take theatrical risks when it comes to staging the plays. Hopefully one of them will step forward and grasp the challenge of the Globe.

Rice is a talented director but was the wrong appointment. The board has moved as quickly as they can to move on from their earlier decision. That has taken a certain amount of courage. I don't think they have handled it as well as they could but it was necessary. Sometimes you have to put your hands up, admit errors and try to move forward - even knowing that you will get it in the neck from many angles.

Whilst I understand having Zoe Wanamaker on the board it does mean that it is always going to be difficult for any AD moving away from Sam Wanamaker's vision. I am sure she is a professional and as an actor interested in new work's but this was her father's project. I do wonder if anyone close to Sam is open to it changing.

ETA: Alternatively Wanamaker might be furious and want Rice to stay but my overall point is that when people are talking about a vision created by Wanamaker I am not sure having his daughter on the board is a great idea for moving forward. 

Hard not to laugh at this shambles reallly, especially at how pissed-off Lyn Gardner is. . Board appoints Rice based on some sort of pitch she made at the interview about her vision then fire her when her work is exactly what any moderately well-informed theatre-goer could have told them it would be like. As noted above Lucy Bailey would be a good replacement.

The parallels with Norris are intriguing though, he seems to have bent to his board's pressure by scheduling middle-brow crowd-pleasers like Amadeus.

Unfair! Direction by Michael Longhurst in his large-scale debut and design by Chloe Lamford. Two of our leading, recently emerged theatremakers. It's a serious production, and you're chronically blinkered to categorise any show purely by making a value judgment of its text.

On the other hand, you were probably just trying to wind us all up with a mock controversional comment?

The plays are chosen by Norris. Saying Amadeus is a middle-brow middle-class piece is hardly controversial, plenty of people (including several other playwrights and critics) have said it over the years.

In terms of theatrical news you rate this minor skirmish higher than the opening of the NT on the South Bank for example ?

Rylance ? Missed it. He did it with a Northern Irish accent ?

This is such an overreaction (though of course just the sort of sensationalist angle you expect from the Gruan).

As if it wasn't producing excellent theatre (at times) under previous ADs.