Tag: Hampstead Theatre

#aiww: The Arrest Of Ai Weiwei by Howard Brenton, Hampstead Theatre, 26 April 2013

Janie and I both loved this piece/production.

I’m not a great lover of Howard Brenton’s work; the best of it is terrific (e.g. Pravda, which he wrote jointly with David Hare), while some of his plays seem to me to be gratuitously violent, ponderous or both. But this one is excellent.

Here is a link to the Hampstead resource on this play/production.

A fabulous piece of design, trying to utilise Ai Weiwei principles without overdoing it, the set was eye-catching throughout.

A large cast, all good, led by Benedict Wong who was superb as Ai Weiwei – the fact that he really looks the part helps but would not have been sufficient – he is also a very good actor. James MacDonald is a very reliable director too.

Parenthetically, Benedict Wong SO looks the part that Janie mistook him for Ai Weiwei himself at the theatre a couple of years later – click here or below:

You For Me For You by Mia Chung, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 9 January 2016

This link – click here – takes you to a short BBC interview with Howard Brenton about the piece.

Below is a short vid showing the making of the urns for this production:

Here is a link to reviews etc for this play/production- mostly deservedly excellent.

Di And Viv And Rose by Amelia Bullmore, Hampstead Theatre, 18 January 2013

Janie and I really enjoyed this play/production.

We missed it when it was first performed downstairs; not sure why as the subject matter will have appealed. Perhaps it coincided with one of our holidays and/or a heavily booked period.

Anyway, the Hampstead knew a hit when it saw one and transferred the piece upstairs (and subsequently beyond).

Here is a link to the Hampstead resource for the version we saw.

All three performers, Anna Maxwell Martin, Gina McKee & Tamzin Outhwaite, were truly excellent. Extremely well directed and produced too.

Excellent reviews, deservedly so, can be found through this search term – click here.

Only Tamzin Outhwaite from the cast transferred to the West End with it. Here is the trailer for the transfer:

Well done Hampstead – this was a real goodie.

Old Money by Sarah Wooley, Hampstead Theatre, 7 December 2012

A quintessentially Hampstead Theatre piece…

…and in many ways that was the problem with it.

Here is a link to the Hampstead resource for this play/production. 

Well acted, directed and produced – of course. But a rather predictable, tame piece. Maureen Lipman and Tracy-Ann Oberman for sure could handle something more challenging – probably all the cast could have done – we certainly would have preferred more challenge.

Here is a link to a search term for the reviews – mostly luke-warm but one or two very good reviews.

The Trial Of Ubu by Simon Stephens, Hampstead Theatre, 20 January 2012

We normally love Simon Stephens stuff…

…but this was a stinker.

Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi re-imagined as an International Human Rights trial.

Technically it was very clever – the video/special effects were very innovative. Good cast too.

Great writer but this piece just didn’t work.

The subject matter is so grave that the arty, post-modern “trial of the fictional character” idea just didn’t work for us.

Nor did it work for the critics – click here for a term that finds the reviews. Don’t click if you were involved in this play/production.

The trailer is embedded below:

The Last Of The Duchess, Nicholas Wright, Hampstead Theatre, 21 October 2011

We quite liked this play. I recall it was an excellent production, very well acted and directed, but it had a slightly old-fashioned feel to it…

…perhaps that was the effect Nicholas Wright and Richard Eyre were after.

In truth, not really our sort of play. But it covered an interesting, almost comical, moment in history and we had the benefit of a superb cast to depict it.

So we were glad to have seen it, despite it not really being our type of play.

The reviews were pretty much universally good. Here is a link to term that should find all of them.

Ecstasy by Mike Leigh, Hampstead Theatre, 18 March 2011

Oh dear.

Janie said she didn’t feel 100% when she turned up at the flat, but I didn’t think too much of it, not even when she ate little at Harry Morgan’s before the show.

But about 40 minutes into the first half, she said to me, “I don’t feel well, I have to go to the cloakroom…you stay here”.  So I sat out the first half, not really able to concentrate and dashed out as soon as I could, to find Janie sipping water and attentive staff letting me know that she seemed OK.

It was early in the run and Mike Leigh was there that evening. He kindly came up to us to ask if Janie was OK; I think he was relieved when he learned that she was merely poorly rather than someone who had walked out in shock or horror.

The play is strong stuff and it was a full-on production, but Janie is not the “fit of vapours at the sound of expletives” type.

The staff said we could of course go back in during scene breaks in Act Two if we wished, and/or watch the second act on the screen they use to monitor the show from outside, but frankly we simply wanted to wait until Janie felt well enough to go home and then go home.

I bought a copy of the play text so I could read and find out what happened afterwards.

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

It is a real shame that we more or less missed out on it. Still, it could have been much worse. Janie’s indisposition turned out to be slight and temporary – we were back to the theatre the next night.

Canary by Jonathan Harvey, Hampstead Theatre, 21 May 2010

Well, by this time the Ed Hall era had started at Hampstead Theatre, but this one didn’t really work for us.

It felt to us like an “everything including the kitchen sink” gay saga. Angels in America without the sparkling wit, The Normal Heart without the heart-wrenching pathos. It spanned the decades from 1962 (a fine year IMHO) to the present day.

We really wanted to like it. We didn’t really dislike it. It just didn’t grip and/or move us.

Good troupe from the Liverpool Everyman – it was a shame really.

Here is a search term – click here – that finds you all the reviews and resources available back then.

There’s a YouTube trailer/interview with the playwright for this one:

We no doubt went to Harry Morgans for some comfort food before the show.

Amongst Friends by April De Angelis, Hampstead Theatre, 29 May 2009

We were more than a little disappointed with this one.

We’d fallen out of love with the Hampstead Theatre during this Anthony Clark era, so hadn’t been going there as much. But this cast looked terrific and the play sounded interesting…promising more than it delivered.

Here is the OfficialLondonTheatre.co.uk stub on the play/production.

What a difference once the Ed Hall era started.

Anyway I’m sure we enjoyed our dinner at Harry Morgan’s before the show.

Fast Labour by Steve Waters, Hampstead Theatre, 20 June 2008

We thought this was a good play and production, a rare hit in our view during the Anthony Clark era. Perhaps the fact that it was a West Yorkshire Playhouse import helped.

Topical then, topical at the time of writing this Ogblog piece (December 2016), the play is the story of a Ukrainian migrant worker and the exploitative gangmasters he comes up against.

Another of those plays and productions that shocked us and got us thinking all weekend. Friday evening again too, making it quite hard work after a week’s work but never mind. Janie and I had taken sustenance at Harry Morgans early evening before the play, as was our wont when going to the Hampstead in those days.

No Hampstead stub to be found from those days, but there is an Official London Theatre stub – click here.

An interesting interview with the playwright Steve Waters is available – click here or below:

We’ve enjoyed his work before, not least World Music at the Donmar, which is probably the main reason why we booked to see Fast Labour.

 

3 Sisters On Hope Street by Diane Samuels and Tracy-Ann Oberman after Anton Chekov, Hampstead Theatre, 22 February 2008

This one didn’t really work for us, despite the good reviews it mostly received.

It was one of those plays/productions that we thought we ought to have really liked, but didn’t much. We like Chekhov. We like Tracy-Ann Oberman (formerly of NewsRevue in our world, Eastenders in most other people’s). It was a superb-looking cast. Lindsay Posner is a terrific director.

The idea of transferring the Three Sisters to the large home of a relatively wealthy Jewish family in austere post-war Liverpool seemed to be up our street. But Hope Street is not our street; not three hours of it anyhow:

Hampstead Theatre stubs don’t go back this far…yet…but Liverpool Everyman one’s do – so there – click here for cast and crew details.

We no doubt ate at Harry Morgan’s before seeing this production, which would at least have got our bellies into the right mode for the three hour “Chekhov meets Wesker Fest” that followed.