Drawing The Line by Howard Brenton, Hampstead Theatre, 27 December 2013

When we saw Jacquie and Hils Briegal for Christmas, we discovered that we were all going to see this play on the same night as couple of days later, along with Brother-in-law/Uncle Bernard Jacobs.

Typically, Jacquie said that Janie and I should join the family at her place for some supper after the show which we did.

Frankly, the play was rather dull. It’s funny how Howard Brenton tends to either get it very right or very wrong for me. this one missed the mark.

Fascinating subject, the partition of India, but what an old-fashioned “tell don’t show” history play it was.

Click here for a link to the Hampstead resource on this production.

Below is a video trailer with cast interviews:

Below is an interview with Howard Brenton about it:

The show got mostly good reviews – click here for a search term that finds them – so Janie and I form a minority view in that regard.

I think we were the least impressed among the family too.

What the family readily agreed, though, was that Jacquie’s supper spread and the family natter was the highlight of the evening. Bernard was in especially good form that night. Sadly, he passed away just before new year 2018 – more or less exactly four years after this splendid gathering, which I’m sure he enjoyed, as did we.

Next Time I’ll Sing To You by James Saunders, Orange Tree Theatre, 12 November 2011

This is the sort of play/production that we like so much more in theory than we do in practice.

Here is a link to the Orange Tree’s excellent on-line resource for this production.

The idea of it is wonderful. It is an innovative 1960’s play exploring the meaning of life through the story of a successful man who decides to become a hermit.

Also, James Saunders had a long association with Sam Walters and the Orange Tree, which was being celebrated by this revival.

The play does have flashes of brilliance, humour and insight to it, but in truth we found it fairly hard going as an evening in the theatre. There is one heck of a lot of existential angst involved.

Here is a link to a search term that finds the reviews.

I remember being quite excited by the coincidence of the koi carp on the cover of the programme…

The Price Of Fish (still available at all good book outlets, including the one you can click through here and below) was first released that very same weekend, resplendent with its dollar koi imagery: