A Further Education by Will Mortimer, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 6 November 2015

Janie had a bit of a brainstorm ahead of this one, turning up ludicrously late for our arranged pre theatre meal at Harry’s having lost all track of time that afternoon.

Add to that confirmation in my mind that Harry Morgans has gone plummeting down hill since its recent take over (we have not returned since), we arrived at the Hampstead frazzled and just in time to get good seats together downstairs.

In short, bad start to the evening…

…but a good play.

It needs some belief-suspension on the part of the audience; I cannot envisage the bureaucracy in a modern era university enabling an interloper into classes…perhaps back in my day the scenario might just have been possible…but the bundle of issues that the slightly dodgy conceit throws up are interesting, as is the interaction between the characters.

I cannot find a stub for this one, so various “news stuff” will have to suffice – perhaps ahead of some archive rejigging at the Hampstead end:

Downstairs, so of course no formal reviews either.

Oughttobeclowns blogspot liked it. As did we.

Stella Gonet (hadn’t seen her on stage for years) in particular was excellent, but the whole cast was very good indeed.

Deserves more than a short run at the unreviewed (and now seemingly unarchived) Downstairs at Hampstead. Oh well.

 

Seminar by Theresa Rebeck, Hampstead Theatre, 27 September 2014

After such a wonderful theatre experience at The Gate the night before…

The Edge Of Our Bodies by Adam Rapp, Gate Theatre, 26 September 2014

…we were always going to be hard to impress the next night.

Another American play too. Very well done, good cast, including one of our favourites, Roger Allam in the lead…

…it just didn’t really sparkle for us.

Perhaps it was the play. A bit predictable. Some good lines. But not special for us.

Here is a link to the Hampstead resource on this one.

It got mixed reviews – which feels about right – click here for a search term to find those.

Looks like we’d started to switch from our Friday evening Hampstead habit towards Saturday evening at the Hampstead, which subsequently became our norm. Important titbit of information, that.