This production was credited as “Donmar Warehouse at the Albery” and everything about it was Donmar Warehouse, but playing away from home. This production had received glowing reviews and awards the year before at the Donmar. We missed out then but were not about to miss out on it now.
Excellent cast, Nigel Lindsay, Sarah Woodward, Stephen Dillane & Jennifer Ehle leading, with David Leveaux directing.
Here is a Theatricalia entry link for this one.
No notes in the log, but I remember it as a very good production and I am pretty sure that Janie warmed to it.
Our “Donmar Warehouse at The Albery” experience was a more relaxing evening and a very fine production. Janie doesn’t really warm to Stoppard, but she did warm to this one.
I won’t overdo the reviews, as they are from the original production 9 months earlier, but here’s just a couple of examples of the raving – the first from our friend Michael Billington in The Guardian…
Real Thing Billington Guardian 03 Jun 1999, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
…followed by a fairly rare example of Charles Spencer in the Telegraph lining up with Billington to praise the same production to the rafters:
Real Thing Spencer Telegraph 03 Jun 1999, Thu The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
I think Janie must have sourced these tickets, because her diary notes that we’ll be sitting in the fifth row. Great diary detail, 25 years on, that one.