Judgment Day by Ödön Von Horváth, in a new version by Christopher Hampton, Almeida Theatre, 10 October 2009

We love the Almeida Theatre, despite the extra shlep involved in getting there from West London. At the time of writing (29 May 2017) we have just been again.

One really excellent thing about the Almeida is the quality of on-line resource they put up for the productions, with lots of information about the play, the creatives involved in the production, plenty of pictures and links to many reviews (the favourable ones of course).

Here is the Almeida’s on-line resource for Judgment Day.

The other really excellent thing about the Almeida is the quality of stuff it puts on. This play/production was no exception.

Ödön Von Horváth (imagine answering the “how do you spell it?” question with that name) has long fascinated Christopher Hampton. This seemingly small canvas German play, about the moral consequences of covering up the true reason for a deadly train crash, is in reality a pre-war allegory with the wilful blindness that led to Nazi power.

It was an especially good evening in the theatre; Janie and I both remember it fondly well. I also recently (when we saw The Ferryman) remembered that we had seen the excellent Laura Donnelly before, but didn’t at the time connect it with this play/production.

Most of the reviews – eight to ten of them included in the Almeida resource link above and here – are very good, but:

We thought it was top notch.

The Unexpected Man by Yasmina Reza, Duchess Theatre, 25 July 1998

Performed without an interval. Not special.

That was our verdict on this one.

Michael Gambon & Eileen Atkins couldn’t save this slight play for us.

Yasmina Reza was all the rage at that time, not least because of Art, so this play transferred for a while – indeed we missed it at The Pit, seeing it at The Duchess (but not WITH The Duchess).

Nicholas de Jongh in the Standard really liked it:

de Jongh Standard Unexpectedde Jongh Standard Unexpected 16 Apr 1998, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Paul Taylor in the Independent was less sure:

Taylor Independent UnexpectedTaylor Independent Unexpected 17 Apr 1998, Fri The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Let’s leave the casting vote to our friend Michael Billington. “A bit too self-consciously exquisite for my carnivorous taste.” So there we have it.

Billington Guardian UnexpectedBillington Guardian Unexpected 16 Apr 1998, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen, Olivier Theatre, 20 September 1997

Very good.

That was my vote…or should I say our vote?…on this excellent production of this oft-revived play.

I had seen it “back in the day” with Bobbie and Ashley Michaels…:

The National production in 1997 was more “classic” Christopher Hampton adaptation with an exceptional cast including Sir Ian, Penny Downie, Stephen Moore, Lucy Whybrow and many others, directed by Trevor Nunn. The Theatricalia entry lists them all.

Nicholas de Jongh seemed quite taken with it…just “quite”:

Enemy de Jongh StandardEnemy de Jongh Standard 22 Sep 1997, Mon Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Our friend Michael Billington found it a bit too “classic” for his taste:

Enemy Billington GuardianEnemy Billington Guardian 22 Sep 1997, Mon The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer, like the others, made much of the fact that this was Trevor Nunn’s inaugural piece for the RNT. While not damning it, he does use the word “flash”:

Enemy Spencer TelegraphEnemy Spencer Telegraph 22 Sep 1997, Mon The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Art by Yasmina Reza, Wyndham’s Theatre, 11 January 1997

Oh by gosh we enjoyed this one. I wrote in my log:

Great fun. Subsequently, the cast changed every five minutes, but we saw the “original” UK cast.

And what a cast that was: Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay and Ken Stott.

Unusually, it was Janie who booked this one. How do i know – because the details are all over her diary, not mine…and boy did Janie write down details. So I can report that the play was 1 hour 40 minutes without an interval and that we sat in K22 & K23.

While the play/production was a huge hit and ran for yonks, it was not universally praised by the critics.

Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard quite liked it:

Art Nicholas de Jongh StandardArt Nicholas de Jongh Standard 16 Oct 1996, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

My friend Michael Billington was not too sure about the take on art while accepting that it was an enjoyable night at the theatre:

Art Billington GuardianArt Billington Guardian 16 Oct 1996, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

While David Benedict in the Independent wrote:

Art David benedict independentArt David benedict independent 26 Oct 1996, Sat The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, Holland Park, 17 July 1993

There’s nothing like a good production of an Ibsen play…

…and this was nothing like a good production of an Ibsen play.

It seemed like such a good idea at the time.

Janie and I had not yet seen any Ibsen play together and Janie had never seen Hedda Gabler and it was summer and the idea of theatre in the park sounded lovely.

As it happens, I had seen a very good Hedda (Lindsay Duncan) at Hampstead a few years earlier, but I thought I could never get too much Hedda.

My log simply says:

It was so poor we walked at half time

This might have been the first time Janie and I “walked” together at half time.

On reminding Janie recently (December 2019) about this particular evening she simply said:

OMG it was dreadful

In truth, Janie and I had a tough search for a truly good Hedda. Richmond Theatre (previewing a West End Francesca Annis Hedda) in 1999 was a bit of a staid production. It wasn’t until 2005, Richard Eyre’s production at the Almeida (Eve Best as Hedda) that I thought Janie had seen a good enough production to be able to claim that we had both done Hedda.

So I’ve done four Heddas…in fact I think I might have seen a small town Hedda in my student days, making it five. As Judge Brack puts it:

Good God – people don’t do such things.