Overview

Interior of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Circa 1808.

English 252: Theater in England. Scheduled for December 26, 2024 through January 8, 2025.  The course is restricted to 15 students and carries four credits. Students will see approximately 20 plays.

In recent years we have seen distinguished productions such as:

  • Patrick Stewart and David Tennant in Hamlet
  • Derek Jacobi in Twelfth Night
  • Michael Gambon and David Bradley in Pinter's No Man's Land
  • Ralph Fiennes and Clare Higgins in Oedipus
  • Mark Rylance in Jerusalem
  • Eddie Redmayne in Richard II
  • James Corden in One Man, Two Guvnors
  • August: Osage County
  • Matilda the Musical
  • Family Reunion, by T.S. Eliot.

 We always see several world premiers, and in years past have seen, David Hare's Gethsemane, Marina Carr's The Cordelia DreamZorro the Musical, Emma Rice's Don John, and, this year The Orphan of Zhao, sometimes referred to as “The Chinese Hamlet.” 

Experiencing in London

There will be ample time to do and see much besides plays. In the past students have:

  • Seen free music performances at St. Martin-in-the-Field
  • Attend services at Westminster Abbey
  • Sit in the choir in the Queen's scholars' pews
  • Visited the cultural sites like the Royal Academy of Art, the Courtauld Institute, the London Museum, and the Museum of Natural History
  • Seen historical sites like the Tower, Dickens' House, Parliament, and the Inns of Court.

Students can use one of the many public transportation options to get around the city. For more suggestions about what to do in London check out the London site seeing page

Accommodations, Travel, and Fees

We will stay at the Harlingford Hotel, 61-63 Cartwright Gardens, a couple of blocks from the British Museum and the new British Library. The fee will be $2,850.00, which includes tickets to all plays and housing.

Students must obtain passports and make their own travel arrangements to and from London.

Applying

Submit a completed application form to Katherine Mannheimer at katherine.mannheimer@rochester.edu. You need permission of the instructor to register.

Learn about Past Trips

To learn more about what students have seen in previous years, various aspects of the seminar are available on this website — the archive of syllabuses, student journals, information about the Harlingford Hotel, in Bloomsbury, where we always stay, and student photos of the London Theatre scene in general.