Tag: Sean Mathias

Suddenly Last Summer by Tennessee Williams, Comedy Theatre, 10 April 1999

We do like our Tennessee Williams, do Janie and I. This is a rarely performed play and I have always been fascinated by it.

Indeed, we must have been very keen to see this one, as we booked for the first Saturday of the West End run. We tend to avoid the West End these days.

We loved it. I wrote in my log:

Superb. One of the best so far this year.

Sheila Gish was predictably excellent, but we were also much taken with a young Rachel Weisz; I think this was the first time we saw her. There was more to the cast than those two – see tags in this piece – the Theatricalia entry unusually lacks them. 

We were wowed; not much else that we can say.

Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard was also wowed

Suddenly Standard de JonghSuddenly Standard de Jongh 15 Apr 1999, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

But wait! Our friend, Michael Billington, didn’t like it:

Suddenly Guardian BillingtonSuddenly Guardian Billington 17 Apr 1999, Sat The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

We need a third opinion. Charles Spencer in the telegraph. Pretty darn positive:

Suddenly Telegraph SpencerSuddenly Telegraph Spencer 16 Apr 1999, Fri The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Les Parents Terribles by Jean Cocteau, Lyttelton Theatre, 4 June 1994

In theory this National theatre production should have been amazing. Alan Howard, Frances de la Tour, Sheila Gish, a young as yet little known Jude Law…

…but my log reads, “not bad. Not the greatest either”. That means we didn’t like it all that much.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for this production.

I think it was a little farce-like for our taste.

I cannot find any contemporaneous reviews for this one, so my vague memory will have to do…

..except that I do now have at least this Michael Billington clipping:

Billington On Les ParentsBillington On Les Parents Sat, May 7, 1994 – 28 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

…and this Michael Coveney clipping…

Coveney On Les ParentsCoveney On Les Parents Sun, May 8, 1994 – 71 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Our indifference to this production did not stop it from getting a West End transfer, nor did it stop Jude Law from winning “Outstanding Newcomer” awards for his performance, making this production seminal for him, if not necessarily all that special for us.

Bent by Martin Sherman, Lyttelton Theatre, 13 January 1990

I have very limited recollection of this one, other than finding it shocking and hard to watch.

My diary is ludicrously light on detail and I got confused between this one and another production I failed to get a programme for. In this case, I think we saw a preview and the programmes weren’t ready.

I dined with (presumably) Bobbie at the Archduke before the theatre and we then went on to Jilly’s place, presumably for a birthday party. The diary suggests we had lunch on Sunday also.

Fortunately for the theatre element of the weekend, there are Theatricalia entries and reviews to help me out. Here is the former – click here.

Below is Michael Billington’s top notch review of this production:

Billington on BentBillington on Bent Mon, Jan 22, 1990 – 38 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Michael Coveney in The Observer described it as “grim”. Hard to disagree.

Coveney on BentCoveney on Bent Sun, Jan 28, 1990 – 60 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com