Tag: Peter McKintosh

Cuckoo by Michael Wynne, Royal Court Theatre,8 July 2023

Artwork grabbed for identification & to assist The Royal Court with this link

Janie and I really enjoyed this play/production, which we saw in preview. The acting was superb. The direction and design very high quality, as we have come to expect at The Royal Court over the decades.

This play was seemingly superficial, yet beneath its slight surface are some fascinating issues of our times. The “joke” that this family is spending its together time with each individual surfing their own virtual world quickly became tiresome – especially as some of audience members nearby were finding it hilarious. But that humorous conceit was soon revealed as a foreshadowing of some darker elements of the characters’ inner/virtual worlds.

Yes, as some of the critics have said, not a lot happens, but this particular “not a lot” is both amusing and highly thought-provoking.

OK, I have a confession to make.

When I booked this, my main criterion for booking it was a recollection that one of Michael Wynne’s previous plays, The People Are Friendly, had pleased us both a lot.

2002, we saw this at The Royal Court (not yet Ogblogged)

Soon after the start of Cuckoo, which shares a couple of the lead actresses and Royal Court production aspects with The People Are Friendly, I realised that we had not liked The People Are Friendly; we found it soap-opera-ish and not to our taste. I was confusing The People Are Friendly with Richard Bean’s England People Very Nice:

England People Very Nice by Richard Bean, Olivier Theatre, 7 February 2009

I shall revisit the play text of The People Are Friendly before writing up our 2002 experience, as it is possible that I will read more into that play now than we did 20 years ago.

Anyway, apologies to Messrs Wynne and Bean for the confusion. The word “People” in the title shouldn’t be enough for such a muddle really. I just jumped to a conclusion…

…and talking of conclusions, Janie and I both thought the ending of Cuckoo was really rather wonderful, both as a coup de theatre and also as a piece of stage design.

Here again is a link to The Royal Court resources on Cuckoo, which is running until mid August.

While this link should find most/all the formal reviews for you, if you like those and/or don’t trust our judgment.

The Knot Of The Heart by David Eldridge, Almeida Theatre, 16 April 2011

This was a challenging play about addiction and the impact of those with addictions/addictive personalities on their loved ones.

Lisa Dillon was superb in the lead; it seems the lead part was pretty-much written for her. As usual at the Almeida, it was a well-chosen play, extremely well acted, directed and produced.

Islington Almeida Theatre 2011
David Eldridge was very much on our watch list as a writer; we’d seen a few of his that we really liked, not least his adaptation of Festen at the Almeida.

I must admit though, we both found this a tough watch. Perhaps it was too soon after Phillie’s passing for us to be suitably sympathetic to a character whose misery and tragedy seemed largely self-inflicted. But it was undeniably an excellent evening’s theatre.

Here is the Almeida resource on this play/production.

Below is a good trailer with quotes David Eldridge and Michael Attenborough commenting:

The play and production were (deservedly) very well received by the critics – here is a search term that finds reviews and other relevant resources.

Extremely powerful stuff.

The Heretic by Richard Bean, Royal Court Theatre, 19 March 2011

After the previous evening’s debacle at Hampstead…

Ecstasy by Mike Leigh, Hampstead Theatre, 18 March 2011

…it was a very pleasant surprise that Janie felt better and confident enough to try the theatre the very next day.

A very interesting play about climate change, questioning orthodoxies and asking awkward questions about the links between the politics, science and personal beliefs around climate change.

A search term that finds the mostly good reviews and more besides can be found by clicking here.

Not sure what we did afterwards – probably got Janie home to bed pdq.

House Of Games by David Mamet, Jonathan Katz & Richard Bean, Almeida Theatre, 11 September 2010

We are big fans of Mamet and also big fans of the Almeida, so Janie and I were really looking forward to this one.

We indeed got a fabulous production, wonderfully well acted, directed and produced. But we were less sure about the piece itself.

Of course with Mamet you get more twists and turns than a country lane. Of course you get even riper language than an expletive-filled debate at our place after Janie and I have both had a bad day. And of course, with Richard Bean in the driving seat for the play script itself, you get some lovely stage devices and coups de theatre.

But the piece itself, based on a 1980’s Mamet film script, seemed surprisingly slight and it was unusually easy to predict the twists. I suspect the film worked better, but I haven’t seen it.

Still, with Alleyn’s School alum Nancy Carroll heading up a pretty impressive cast, plus Django Bates providing the atmospheric jazz music, it was an entertaining evening to be sure. Janie enjoyed it thoroughly, but also claimed she let the plot wash over her.

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

Sceptics might not trust the above resource to link to all the reviews – quite rightly, as the reviews were mixed. Here’s a helpful search term for your own deep dive – click here.

If you’d like to see the trailer, click below – it’s pretty cool:

Serenading Louie by Lanford Wilson, Donmar Warehouse, 20 February 2010

We had been big fans of the Donmar for some while; sometimes bemoaning the awkwardness of the place for parking/transport but on balance feeling that it was worth it.

Serenading Louie was one of a few less impressive productions that started to put us off the place.

Here is a link to the excellent Study Guide resource which Donmar has now made downloadable.

Of course it was well acted and well produced at the Donmar. But what a dud of a play. Why revive such a dull American play from the 1970s?

I think we stuck it out to the bitter end; I vaguely recall feeling that the second half was a mite better than the first half.

It didn’t get good reviews. This search term should find you plenty of reviews and stuff if you remain curious about it.

No doubt we supped on May’s Chinese food or Mohsen’s Persian. No doubt our moods needed lifting after a disappointing visit to the theatre.

 

Be Near Me by Andrew O’Hagan & Ian McDiarmid, Donmar Warehouse, 24 January 2009

We’re big fans of Ian McDiarmid. We think he worked wonders running the Almeida with Jonathan Kent and he is a fine actor to boot. He is also a nodding acquaintance of mine in Notting Hill Gate (although, writing in April 2017, it is a while since I have seen him around).

But in truth I don’t think this play/production did much for us. It all felt a bit grim. It sounded like it might be a bit like a Bergman movie, but ended up a rather drab stage equivalent.

The play/production is well described on Official London Theatre – click here.

No doubt this did well when National Theatre of Scotland took it touring north of the border.

No record of what we ate afterwards, but I’ll guess we went to May’s place (Shanghai Knightsbridge) to take away some yummy Chinese grub.

 

Waste by Harley Granville Barker, Almeida Theatre, 18 October 2008

This one turned out to be a bit of an Alleyn’s alum-fest, with Sam West directing and Nancy Carroll performing. But that won’t be the reason we booked it.

Janie and I have been Almeida members for donkeys yonks – indeed I have been going there fairly regularly since the late 1980s.

This looked like a cracking production on paper, so we’d have had no hesitation in booking it.

The Almeida is great on archiving its productions, so details of the production, some good pictures and extracts from the reviews are all there to be seen – saving me the trouble – click here.

We agree with all of that lot. It was a cracking production of a rather wordy play – Harley Granville Barker was a decent playwright but Ibsen or Strindberg he ain’t.

We were very glad to have picked this production. Seeing a lesser production of this play would have been a bit of a waste.

Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill, Almeida Theatre, 10 November 2007

This is a weird play. But then, it is Caryl Churchill. Indeed, by Caryl Churchill standards, it is not that weird a play.

But Janie and I had never seen the play and this, as it turned out, was a good production of this play. Thea Sharrock directed it; we’d been really impressed with her at The Gate and this production no doubt added to her rising stardom.

There’s a good Almeida stub for this production – here, although the reviews are just quotes.

Reviews to be found that can be read in full are as follows:

Enough evidence – this was good. We enjoyed ourselves and felt thoroughly sated with good theatre that weekend, having seen a super short play, Truck Stop, at the Hampstead the night before.

 

 

Blue Remembered Hills by Dennis Potter, Lyttelton Theatre, 25 May 1996

I’ve long been partial to a bit of Potter, as has Daisy.

I had seen the original TV film of this one and to some extent had my doubts about it, as I have never much enjoyed the conceit of adult actors playing the role of children.

Still, the chance to see a National production of a Potter won the day. Many members of this fine cast went on to bigger and bolder things. Steve Coogan, Nigel Lindsay, Debra Gillett, Geraldine Somerville. Patrick Marber directed it.

The Theatricalia entry for this play/production can be found here.

Michael Coveney in The Observer hated it:

Coveney on HillsCoveney on Hills Sun, May 5, 1996 – 65 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Whereas Michael Billington wrote highly of it, finding it more translatable from screen to stage than most Potter and describing it as “Potter at his best”:

Billington on HillsBillington on Hills Sat, May 4, 1996 – 26 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

We were both ambivalent about it. It was clearly a fine production. It pleased me more than the TV version. But that “adults playing children” thing still didn’t really work for me.

Below is an excerpt from the original 1979 TV film:

Blue Remembered Hills _ Scene 1+2 from rob blake on Vimeo.

Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, Lyttelton Theatre, 17 April 1993

I liked this play and production far more than Janie did. Where I liked the intellectual aspects of the content, Janie found them pretentious and at times confusing.

Wikipedia gives a decent synopsis of the play – here.

Janie has never much liked plays that jump backwards and forwards in time, although, coincidentally, we saw Emma Fielding in a similarly time-shifting play recently (autumn 2019) which Janie really liked.

Michael Coveney revewed it the day after we saw it:

Sun, Apr 18, 1993 – 57 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

I think that’s one-nil to Janie in the “confusing rather than clever” stakes.

Michael Billington liked it more, I think:

Wed, Apr 14, 1993 – 26 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com