We were tending to book RNT things in preview or very early in runs, so this was an unusually late visit to see this one – perhaps we couldn’t get the seats we wanted until later or perhaps we missed it in the first block of dates.
Anyway, we thought this was “very good”.
One of our favourite troupes, Théâtre de Complicité, was responsible for this one. Juliet Stevenson played the lead along with Simon McBurney who also directed. The Theatricalia entry can be found here.
This was the first of those “in the round” productions that the RNT did at The Olivier while it was being refurbished.
Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard was not too keen on it:
Caucasian de Jongh Standard 22 Apr 1997, Tue Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Charles Spencer in the Telegraph imagined that his cordial loathing of this show would be a minority view:
Caucasian Spencer Telegraph 23 Apr 1997, Wed The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Predictably, then, our friend Michael Billington loved it:
Caucasian Billington Guardian 23 Apr 1997, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
But Robert Butlet in The Independent didn’t much like it either:
Caucasian Butler Indy 27 Apr 1997, Sun The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Oh well.
just looking this up now — I really really do not like Brecht at all, and this was the best production of any of his plays I have ever seen. I still remember some scenes vividly. The role of Adjak in particular was incredibly memorable.
In my experience, Germans mostly cannot stage Brecht, it becomes didactic and insufferable. This London production was a triumph.