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This play was good fun, as I recall it and well received by most critics.
But it was not, in truth, a great play, nor an ideal outlet for the immense talent on show, both cast and creatives.
Still, we had a fun evening at the theatre and the National had somewhat of a hit on its hands.
Here is a link to a search term that finds reviews and stuff – click here.
Below is a trailer:
Below is an interview with the playwright:
Below is a vid with cast and author interviews:
We both found this piece charming and entertaining. It is about the birth of the cinema in the late 19th early 20th century shtetl.
It doesn’t get full marks for historical authenticity and it is a very sentimental piece, but that’s not always so terrible.
Superb cast, very well directed and some wonderful effects with the use of film.
Nicholas Wright has previous on these history-based imaginings. We loved Vincent in Brixton for example. Also Mrs Klein – click here or below for that one:
Mrs Klein by Nicholas Wright, Almeida Theatre, 24 October 2009
Travelling Light got mixed reviews – click here for a search term that finds them. Several critics really liked it. Others felt the sentimentality and stereotypes were not for them.
We very much enjoyed our evening, while recognising that this is an entertaining play, not a great play.
Below is the trailer…
…and the following vid has mini interviews with the key cast and creatives.
We don’t book many classic revivals, but we tend to make an exception for Ibsen if it is a play one or both of us hasn’t seen before. Plus, if it is the Almeida, we tend to trust the place to deliver a classic well and with a modern enough feel.
As was the case with this superb production.
We were a little concerned that it might be a luvvie-fest for Gemma Arterton. But she proved well up to her task and the universally high-quality cast worked extremely well as an ensemble.
It was a well-pacey production; an-hour-and–three-quarters straight through, the extra pace worked well with this play. An object lesson for some of the ponderously long, drawn-out productions of early 20th century plays.
Here is a link to the Almeida resource for The Master Builder.
The reviews were pretty much universally good and most are linked through the above resource, but this search term – click here – should find reviews independently for you.
Weird play, this one. You never quite know what’s going on with Martin Crimp. This play is a companion piece to one named The Country, which we saw at the Royal Court in the summer of 2000 and rated as “very good”.
The Country was also weird, but The City was, I think, even weirder. Short play, though. I seem to recall it got us talking and thinking, which is good.
A young Benedict Cumberbatch, still emerging as a star, was in this one. Hattie Morahan and Amanda Hale were also very good in it.
Janie and I both carry fond memories of this play/production, although it was a long play and is the sort of play that we sometimes dislike.
Howard Brenton has a tendency either to pull off this type of history/personality play with aplomb (as he did with this one and the Ai Wei Wei one) or leave us stone cold, as he did with his play about drawing lines across India at the time of Independence.
Jeremy Irons isn’t my favourite; he’s always sort-of Jeremy Irons. But Jeremy Irons is sort-of Harold Macmillan, so that aspect worked.
One element of the play that I recall really working for me was the notion of the young Harold, played by Pip Carter, moving the narrative on, even in the later years when Harold was becoming an old duffer.
There’s a decent Wikipedia entry for this play – here – which also provides the links to the main theatre reviews (saving me the trouble), which were very favourable on the whole.
Having said that, Wikipedia’s critics list is short and perhaps selective:
Official London Theatre kindly archived its synopsis and list of cast and creatives, saving me a lot of typing. Thanks for nothing, RNT, which, with all its funding, provides far less past production archive than most half-decent fringe theatres.
I’m not sure we were quite in the mood for a triple-bill of British Absurdist comedies. I’m not sure we’d have been in the mood for these plays even if we had been in a more appropriate mood.
Billed as being a precursor to Pythonesque comedy, the only python-like thing in the 1960s N.F. Simpson material was talk about a neighbours snake. His plays were certainly more English whimsy than European absurdism.
The Michael Frayn was a modern piece, but lesser Frayn in my view.
Great cast; it would probably seem worthwhile watching Peter Capaldi paint the ceiling. Douglas Hodge directed this production – he seems to have a good eye and ear for this sort of stuff. It’s just not really our sort of stuff.
The critics weren’t too sure either:
A rare visit to the theatre on a Thursday on my own. Janie hates Restoration comedy but I had (and at the time of writing, more than 10 years later, still have) an idea for a very thorough updating of one of those Restoration plays, so I very much wanted to see this modern production of a Restoration classic.
I thought it was very well done. Rory Kinnear was exceptional, as was most of the cast, including Alleyn’s alumna Nancy Carroll.
This was before Nick Hytner found his way off my Christmas card list by forgetting where his loyal audience comes from and becoming far too much of a jobsworth cum corporate lick-spittle when running the National. So hats off to him in this regard – Hytner can direct.
I rated this production very good indeed at the time, but it was not the sort of modernisation of a Restoration play which I have in mind…
…which is a good thing…
…if I ever get around to implementing my own cunning plan. But I digress.
Click here for a link to a search term that finds the reviews, which were mostly good but not great.
Below is the trailer, which is really quite snazzy without giving away much about the show. It has a fair smattering of Nancy Carroll, which might please my fellow Alleyn’s alums…or indeed anyone who watches the vid:
Janie and I were very taken with this creepy three-hander at the Royal Court. I remember us agreeing that it was Pinteresque at the time – without the influence of reviews I hasten to add.
I think this was our first sighting of a Martin Crimp play and for sure we were intrigued enough to seek out his work several times subsequently.
Owen Teale, Juliet Stevenson and Indira Varma, directed by Katie Mitchell. All people who had impressed us before and/or since.
My friend Michael Billington in the Guardian shared our fascination with this piece and also saw the Pinter parallels:
Billington on Crimp’s The Country 17 May 2000, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Charles Spencer in the Telegraph, on the other hand, adjudged the play “pastiche Pinter”, while applauding the acting and the production:
Spencer on Crimp’s The Country 18 May 2000, Thu The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Clearly the photographers thought that Juliet Stevenson jiggling car keys in Owen Teale’s face was the memorable image of the production.
I’ve never been sure about Shaw, but we thought we’d give this a try because it was The Almeida and because top flight Shaw productions were few and far between at that time.
Great cast and crew – see Theatricalia entry – including Emma Fielding, Richard Griffiths, Patricia Hodge, Penelope Wilton, Malcolm Sinclair and Peter McEnery, with David Hare in the director’s chair.
Despite all those good people, this one added to my/our sense of interminability, which had already been piqued by Suzanna Andler the previous week, which was soon followed by wall-to-wall coverage of Princess Diana’s tragic demise, which took ceaselessness to new levels.
Anyway, my contemporaneous words on Heartbreak House, speaking for both me and Janie:
Seemed interminable in the second half. Had “moments”, but all too few.
Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard liked it a lot:
Heartbreak de Jongh Standard 04 Sep 1997, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Paul Taylor in the Indy also loved it:
Heartbreak Taylor Indy 05 Sep 1997, Fri The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Kirsty Milne in The Sunday Telegraph at least nodded to the idea of Shaw being wordy.
Heartbreak Milne Telegraph 07 Sep 1997, Sun Sunday Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Like Milne, Michael Billington did a compare and contrast between Shaw and Wesker:
Heartbreak Billington Guardian 06 Sep 1997, Sat The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
So maybe it was us, not them. Or maybe Shaw is/was simply too wordy for our modern eyes and ears.
No equivocation from us nor the critics on this one. While my “very good” report on many pieces covers a range of satisfaction, for this one I wrote:
One of the very best…
…which is not something I wrote often. I very clearly recall Janie and I walking out after Closer saying “wow” to each other.
Patrick Marber himself directed it and we were skilful/fortunate to see the original cast at the Cottesloe as this production upscaled in the light of rave reviews, multiple awards and huge audiences. We saw Liza Walker, Clive Owen, Ciaran Hinds and Sally Dexter. Here is the Theatricalia entry.
Here are the pick of the reviews.
First up – Charles Spencer in the Telegraph raving about it:
Closer Spencer Telegraph 30 May 1997, Fri The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Michael Billington in The Guardian described it as a triumph and a great play:
Closer Billington Guardian 31 May 1997, Sat The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
David Bennett in The Independent was perhaps a lone unequivocal voice, who saw it as essential viewing but dangerously autobiographical:
Closer Bennett Independent 31 May 1997, Sat The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Yet Robert Butler the next day in the same paper was very excited about the play/production:
Closer Butler Indy 01 Jun 1997, Sun The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Janie and I both just so remember that “wow” feeling and still remember this as one of the very best plays/productions we have ever seen.
