Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation by Tim Crouch, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 14 September 2019

This is a fascinating and original piece of theatre.

The audience sits in a circle. Each member of the audience receives a book, which we are taken through as the performance goes on. At some stages of the performance, audience members are asked to read lines or passages of text.

If it sounds weird, that’s because it is weird. But it is a play; the performances are excellent and memorable.

The Royal Court’s resource on this play/production can be found here.

Tim Crouch

Tim Crouch is an interesting playwright and performer. We have seen his work before; Adler & Gibb which we really liked, plus The Author which we found impenetrable.

This evening’s short (70 minute) piece was not impenetrable but you did need to interpret pictures form the book as well as the words to get the gist of the story. I enjoyed that part of the process more than Janie did.

I was also quite comfortable reading out loud a bit, which I did, while Janie scrupulously avoided eye contact with the performers to be sure that she wasn’t picked for reading out loud.

I am glad that I bought a copy of the book – which is available in paperback to buy – not the hardbacks lent out for performance – because the illustrations as well as the words are a pleasure to look at again and again.

The reviews, from Edinburgh a few weeks earlier and subsequently The Royal Court have deservedly been very good – click here to find them.

Unusual and well worth seeing.

Adler & Gibb by Tim Crouch, Royal Court Theatre, 21 June 2014

Strange play, this one. I recall us both really liking the idea of it and the style of it…

…I even recall that we enjoyed the evening…

…yet afterwards we sensed that there was less substance to the piece than we had imagined…

…a bit like the modern/conceptual art world in many ways, so perhaps the play depicts its subject cunningly well.

Here is a link to the Royal Court’s resource on this production.

Below I have embedded an interview with Tim Crouch and Karl James, who explain the play rather well.

Here is a link to a search term that should find most if not all of the reviews – which were rather mixed.

The Author by Tim Crouch, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 26 September 2009

I only vaguely recall this one. Experimental theatre, with the cast sitting among us as the audience.

The Royal Court has only left scant details up – click here for those.

Tim Crouch himself is a little more forthcoming on his site – here.

Here are some rehearsal and preview extracts from the Royal Court:

Tim took this play to Edinburgh the following year – here is a two minute extract:

Post modern in a “theatre about theatre” way. An attempt to shake up the complacency of audience members like us.

It seems to have worked better on critics than it did on us:

Playbill: The Browning Version & Harlequinade by Terence Rattigan, The Royalty Theatre, 26 April 1988

The Browning Version is one of Rattigan’s best known plays, originally performed, as it was in the production we saw, jointly with Harlequinade. This Wikipedia piece explains all that background and has good links.

I have little recollection of this particular production and midweek evening at the theatre with Bobbie.

Starry cast, we saw, with Paul Eddington and Dorothy Tutin as the Crocker-Harris couple in The Browning Version. The same cast and crew performed/produced both plays.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for this production of The Browning Version.

Below is Steve Goldman’s Guardian review:

Steve Goldman on RattiganSteve Goldman on Rattigan Mon, Mar 21, 1988 – 32 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Kate Kellaway’s Observer review:

Kate Kellaway on RattiganKate Kellaway on Rattigan Sun, Mar 20, 1988 – 40 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

I think I concluded that Rattigan isn’t really my thing when I saw these plays. It all seemed rather old-fashioned in style, although I do also recall that there were interesting themes and the plays were well written.

Bobbie might remember more…but I doubt it.