Tag: Geraldine Alexander

The Empty Quarter by Alexandra Wood, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 25 October 2013

A strangely sinister play this one, about a young couple of expats in Dubai who get themselves into difficulties and fall foul of some older, exploitative expats.

The story seemed somewhat extreme, although apparently it is possible to get into extreme difficulties in Dubai and similar places and some young people do thus get exploited.

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

It had its moments but was not the best thing we’ve seen downstairs at the Hampstead – mind you we have seen some absolute crackers down there.

We didn’t regret our visit, but we were a little disappointed given the high hopes we now always take with us to the Hampstead Downstairs.

Below is the (very short) trailer:

No formal reviews downstairs, but what there is to be seen should be found through this search term – click here.

State of Emergency by Falk Richter, Gate Theatre, 7 November 2008

A short dystopian piece about lives in a gated community in some future or remote authoritarian place.  Here is a link to The Gate’s stub on this piece.

We have done this sort of play on a Friday evening at The Gate before (and since), because it is sometimes so convenient to see them and stay at the flat on a Friday, but heavy/dystopian drama is not my first choice of activity for a Friday night.

Anyway, beyond our temporal reasons for being unsure about it, the critics also seemed unsure:

The acting was top notch and as always we marvel at the way they manage to turn that small space above a pub into a proper space for drama. But Janie and I concurred with the reviewers about the play.

Not sure whether I cooked or whether we grabbed some Turkish food from the (now late, lamented) Manzara. As I’d delivered my Gresham lecture the night before and (it seems) gone off early on the Friday morning to see clients, I’ll guess the latter and jolly tasty it will have been too.