- Venue: Hampstead Theatre
- Date: 15th September 2022
- Directed by: Richard Eyre
A well-spent lockdown?
Just back from The Snail House at the Hampstead - Richard Eyre’s first full play, written, and quite obviously, during lockdown, which he also directs.
- Venue: The Old Vic
- Date: 7th September 2022
- Directed by: Katy Rudd
- Staring: Helen Hunt
Too PC for their own good?
Just back from a preview of Eureka Day at The Old Vic - set in 21st Century USA pre-Covid and a private primary school – with a very PC, agonisingly PC school council, the head an old hippie (and former part-time music teacher), the Chair of Governors (in effect) a formidable woman (an excellent Helen Hunt) who hides that well but not completely.
- Venue: Almeida
- Date: 12th August 2022
- Directed by: Rupert Goold
- Staring: Tom Hollander
Vlad the impaler?
Yesterday at Patriots at the Almeida - effectively The Rise and Fall of Boris Berezovsky as far as narrative arc is concerned. But, and perhaps more interestingly (hence the title) what ‘being a patriot’ might mean when your definition of what you are patriotic towards may differ greatly from other’s definitions.
- Venue: Sadler's Wells
- Date: 11th August 2022
- Directed by: Daniel Evans
- Staring: Julian Ovenden, Gina Beck
A modern take on an old favourite?
Just back from Sadler’s Wells and South Pacific (the Chichester Festival production).
This is in many ways a difficult musical for today. Not only are WWII US sailors and engineers (Seabees) not notoriously feminist in outlook (‘There is nothing like a dame’) but a main plot hinge assumes a natural dislike of miscegenation amongst white Americans (which is then, sort-of, overcome).
- Venue: Glyndebourne Festival Theatre
- Date: 2nd August 2022
- Directed by: Francesco Micheli
Mad as a box of frogs
Just back from Handel’s Alcina at Glyndebourne - a ‘mad as a box of frogs’ plot made far less clear by being re-set in a Variety theatre in post war (probably) Italy, both on and backstage.
- Venue: Playhouse Theatre (aka Kit Kat Club)
- Date: 28th July 2022
- Directed by: Rebecca Frecknall
- Staring: Amy Lennox, Fra Fee
Divinely decadent
Just back from Cabaret at the Playhouse Theatre after a nightmare journey – the Overground cancelled 5 hours before it had previously announced it was to be stopped.