Travel, Theatre, Music, Cricket, Tennis, Writing, Life
We went to see this play about 10 days before attending this talk/discussion:
Port by Simon Stephens, Lyttelton Theatre, RNT, 26 January 2013
The “platform” (as the RNT calls such talks) was held in the Lyttelton.
I think I asked an incisive question – Janie might even remember what it was about…I don’t.
Below is a short on-line interview with Elliott & Stephens – not as good as attending the platform, but still good.
This was an excellent play/production.
We’re really keen on Simon Stephens work and had high hopes for this play – high hopes that were indeed met.
The play is basically about Simon Stephen’s home town – Stockport.
This was a revival of one of Simon Stephen’s early works – we didn’t realise that when we booked it, bit never mind.
Years later, when Janie and I went to Southport, I had terrible trouble convincing Janie that they are very different places in the North-West with vaguely similar names.
Unfamiliar names in the cast but all did a cracking job. Superb design too. Marianne Elliott is such a good director.
Below is a trailer vid:
The piece had very good reviews – here is a link to a search term that finds them.
Below is a vox pop audience feedback vid:
Our vox pop – both Janie and I really liked it.
We went to see Marianne Elliott & Simon Stephens talk about the play 10 days later, which was interesting and good too:
Marianne Elliott And Simon Stephens On Port, 7 February 2013
I don’t normally go for adaptations of my favourite novels, but something told me this would be well worth seeing and also that Janie would like it. I was right on both counts. It was probably down to the fact that Simon Stephens was adapting it and also the stellar-looking cast and creatives boasted.
It was a fabulous evening of theatre. This adaptation deserved the plaudits it received in the press and the many transfers and re-runs that have followed.
There is even a Wikipedia entry to document the play’s progress – click here.
…and so on.
From our point of view, this was a cracking night at the theatre. It was also darned close to the 20th anniversary of our very first date, in August 1992, which happened to be at the Cottesloe. There’s cute for you.
So there’s more to Uxbridge than the cricket ground.
Seriously, Janie and I both really liked this play. Simon Stephens is one of our favourite playwrights these days and this one worked really well in the Cottesloe for us.
The eponymous lead is a big part; Lesley Sharp is a correspondingly big part actress who was able to deliver big time on this play/production.
Very shocking in parts and also very moving.