2026: Shakespeare in Love - Mockingbird Theatrics

 

 

 Shakespeare in Love, adapted by Lee Hall from the Oscar-winning screenplay by Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman. 
Mockingbird Theatrics at Belconnen Arts Centre, Canberra, February 11-28, 2026.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
Feb 17

I had an argument the other day with a Richard III fanatic who blamed William Shakespeare for getting his history wrong.  But, I said, who is the more important to us today?  

Here’s the play that proves what Shakespeare can do for all of us – it shows how important theatre is in a play that can make us believe in love.  And don’t we need it in today’s fractious world?

But, you might say, Tom Stoppard was an absurdist – remember Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead?  How can we take him seriously?  Mockingbird is the obviously rightly named company to do the trick.

And they absurdly succeed in their riotous Shakespeare in Love, acted out in a small-scale living theatre with the immediacy actually more like backstage on the spot with Will in writing and rehearsing the Romeo and Juliet story than when watching the justifiably famous 1998 movie.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes are one thing on film.  Asha Forno and Tom Cullen are up to their mark on stage.  The movie is described as a “romantic period comedy-drama”, by the Shakespeare Network on Youtube, but I think Mockingbird’s irreverent farce is more true, not only to Stoppard but to us, sitting in amongst the action, laughing at the absurdity, while dealing with the issues of women’s rights (to perform as themselves equal to men), the nature of government (Liz St Clair Long’s Queen Elizabeth matches Judi Dench), sexist behaviour and funding for the arts.

I’m (privately) told director Chris Baldock, like several characters, may wave his arms saying “It’s a mystery” and “It’ll be alright in the end”.

And it is.  Highly recommended.

©Frank McKone, Canberra