Little Revolution by Alecky Blythe, Almeida Theatre, 30 August 2014

We so wanted to really like this one…

…and we sort-of did like it, but still felt a little let down by the piece. It could…we felt should…have been so gripping and exciting.

We loved Alecky Blythe’s verbatim piece a few years earlier, The Girlriend Experience – click here or below…

The Girlfriend Experience, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 20 September 2008

…so we thought a verbatim piece about the 2011 riots, complete with “community chorus”, would be a special evening of theatre.

Here is a link to the Almeida stub on the piece.

It all felt very different on arrival at the theatre, with the space transformed for this piece and entrances to the space where audiences normally fear to tread.

But the piece itself never really took off into the stratosphere as perhaps it should.

We heard a lot from the good-hearted middle class people who felt conflicted by the riots and/or tried to help those who got into difficulties during the chaos. We heard less from the rioters themselves.

To be fair on Alecky Blythe, she took the orthodox view on the play and stuck only to the verbatim material she could gather at the time, so I suppose that would be weighted towards those slightly safer situations…

…not least because people are not normally full of conversation while rioting…

…I imagine; not ever having been in the heart of a riot personally.

The reviews were a bit mixed – as Janie and I predicted when we saw the preview – click here for a search term that finds the reviews.

Below is the trailer:

The Giant by Antony Sher, Hampstead Theatre, 2 November 2007

On paper, this appeared to be a seriously hot ticket. So seriously hot we booked to see the first Friday preview. Antony Sher wrote it, Greg Doran directed it, Roger Allam starred in it…

…what’s not to like?

Well, in truth we didn’t like it at all. The plot revolves around the Florentine story of Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo competing for the same sculpture commission. The play might have been fine art’s equivalent of Amadeus – I suspect that’s what Sher had in mind, but we found the piece laboured, pretentious and dull.

We didn’t stick around after the interval for the second half of the play.

The reviews were not so special:

Wildest Dreams by Alan Ayckbourn, The Pit, 26 February 1994

My log reads,

Don’t remember this one too well, which says something.

I have managed to find a synopsis, click here, but it doesn’t really help me much.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for this play/production. Still only a vague memory.

I don’t think we liked it.

I don’t think we walked out at half time. I suspect the performances from that top notch cast kept us going. But I don’t think we liked the play.

I’ve managed to find an on-line review for this one, in the Variety archive – click here.

Here is the Michael Billington clipping:

Billington On Wildest DreamsBillington On Wildest Dreams Thu, Dec 16, 1993 – 34 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Here’s Michael Coveney’s clipping:

Coveney On Wildest DreamsCoveney On Wildest Dreams Sun, Dec 19, 1993 – 58 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com