The Provoked Wife (RSC)
The RSC finds nuance and poignancy in Vanbrugh's restoration comedy.
Criticks – BSECS online reviews
The eighteenth century was the first great age of criticism. In this spirit, the Criticks website provides entertaining, informative and provocative reviews of events and media that are of interest to scholars of the eighteenth century. These complement the reviews of books that are published in the journal of the Society, Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
Plays, concerts, operas, exhibitions, films, broadcasts and online resources are here considered in depth by experts in the field. If there is an event that you would like to see reviewed in these pages, or if you would like to review for us, please contact one of the editors below:
Criticks Editor
Criticks Subject Editors
Fine Art: Miriam Al Jamil
Media: Daniel Cook and Adam James Smith
Music: Brianna Robertson-Kirkland
Theatre: Katie Aske
Over to the Dark Side: Garsington Opera’s Don Giovanni (2019)
Mozart's opera in the age of #MeToo.
Venice Preserved
Otway's masterpiece loses its apostrophe and gains a noir aesthetic in the RSC's revival.
In Our Time: The Gordon Riots
A fine introduction to one of eighteenth-century Britain's most influential political events.
Handel Festival Halle 2019
Another excellent year at the Halle Festival.
Savage Satire: From the Pen of James Gillray
An impressive collection of prints, shedding light on continuities between Gillray's time and ours.
Souvenirs of Italy: An English Family Abroad
An impressively vivid account of the eighteenth-century Grand Tour.
The Cabinet of Madame Fanny du Thé
A fun performance inspired by the eighteenth century's female collectors.
The Stuarts and The Stuarts in Exile (BBC DVD)
Make Britain Great... And Stuart Again!
Oranges & Ink
Aphra Behn befriends Nell Gwyn in an intimately imagined drama.