Alexandra Coghlan

Shaw hand

Plus: wit and energy aplenty in Robert Carsen's Falstaff at the Royal Opera House - but where are the tears and pathos?

issue 11 July 2015

When is a rape not a rape? It’s an unsettling question — far more so than anything offered up by the current headline-grabbing William Tell at the Royal Opera House — and one that lies beneath the meticulous dramatic archaeology of Fiona Shaw’s The Rape of Lucretia. Unlike William Tell, however, there seems little chance of this attack starting riots.

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