Fathers And Sons by Brian Friel, after the novel by Ivan Turgenev, Donmar Warehouse, 26 July 2014

The programmes hadn’t arrived, so (most unusually for the Donmar) we got a simple black and white printed A4 foldy. Standards.

The play was very good indeed, though, as was the cast. The usual high production values for the Donmar too.

Here is a link to the wonderful Behind The Scenes material which Donmar has now put on the web for interested folk to download.

A bit slow, but then this IS a 19th century Russian story and it IS Brian Friel, whom we like very much, btw.

The critics on the whole shared our enjoyment of it – click here for a link to reviews.

In short, this was a good’n.

There Came A Gypsy Riding by Frank McGuinness, Almeida Theatre, 13 January 2007

Janie and I are very keen on Frank McGuiness’s plays and this one is a good example of why that is so.

It sounds like the scenario for so many Irish plays – a family gathers to celebrate a birthday in a remote cottage in the West of Ireland…just take my word for it that this one is/was special.

Click here for the Almeida resource on this play/production.

Wonderful cast, superbly directed and produced – this is what the Almeida does best.

This link – click here – finds the reviews and stuff – mostly excellent ones.

I recall that we felt our year of theatre going was properly up and running after seeing this one.