Review Roundup: ROUGH MAGIC Opens at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

Shakespeare’s Globe and Splendid Productions are presenting a brand-new family show, Rough Magic, in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse this summer.

Experience the world of Shakespeare’s magical characters as Macbeth’s wonderfully wayward Weird Sisters cook up a supernaturally silly adventure of their own.

The Globe’s Director of Education Lucy Cuthbertson (Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank: Romeo and Juliet; Midsummer Mechanicals, Globe) and Splendid Productions’ Kerry Frampton and Ben Hales (Midsummer Mechanicals, Globe) join forces once again to bring you a summertime show for all ages.

See what the critics are saying...

Christiana Rose, BroadwayWorld: Rough Magic is an absolute treat of a show, amusing adults alongside the enchanted children. The play has true heart, as we warm to Nona’s plight, working through the key message that mistakes are inevitable, but having integrity and working to resolve misdemeanours are key. Rough Magic is clever and bold, with brilliant performances by an infectiously charismatic and playful cast.

Chris Wiegand, The Guardian: Lucy Cuthbertson’s production, with additional direction by Frampton, is warm-spirited and well-paced. The young audience particularly enjoy when any potentially boring bits are fast-fowarded by the actors. Plays that close by extolling the wonders of drama can end up irritating instead. But Rough Magic concludes with a moving reflection on the spirit in which we make our entrances and exits at the theatre, and the wizardry that binds us in between.

Oliver Jones, The Stage: If thorny issues of free will versus devilish equivocation or the convolutions of the multiple Shakespearean narratives begin to bamboozle the kids, Cuthbertson and Frampton can be relied upon to supply some supremely silly stage business to quell the fidgets. We help the witches to conjure their sleep and laughter charms; two self-regarding actors from the ghost department, dressed in fright wigs and all-white doublet-and-hose, flamboyantly teach us their scare tactics. Illusion designer John Bulleid ensures that candles mysteriously extinguish and players vanish into thin air, and a Shadow (Frampton again, this time a Scarlet Pimpernel figure with an outrageous French accent) demonstrates how to suspend a dagger in mid-air. Descriptions of the murders of Banquo and, in particular, of Macduff’s family, sit uneasily within the tomfoolery. Otherwise, this show holds its young sorcerers’ apprentices spellbound.

Average Rating: 83.3%