In truth we don’t remember much about this one. I made no notes in my log about it. I think we quite liked it, but it felt like fairly standard Hampstead Theatre fare.
The Hampstead was still in the portacabins back then, so small, chamber-style work was all the place comfortably could do. Still, we liked the place and went occasionally.
We saw it on a Friday evening, so no doubt, in those days, we went to Harry Morgans in St John’s Wood for some crazy=cracing-J-food on the way to the theatre.
I had been a fan of Athol Fugard for many years by then and was very keen to see his long-time associates, John Kani & Winston Ntshona, perform. A set up that can lead to disappointment, but in this instance my enthusiasm was fully justified.
This play/production was hugely hyped and got rave reviews when it opened a few week’s before we attended. I think we applied for our tickets before the show opened, opting to wait until good seats were available. Even then, we needed to opt for a Friday rather than a Saturday to get what we wanted. Such was the pull of the West End, not least Maggie Smith…or rather “Dame Maggie”…in those days.
Despite Janie’s reservations about Dame Maggie, we were drawn in and actually rather enjoyed this production. The play is a little contrived and mawkish, but the performances, especially Dame Maggie’s, were excellent, as was the intriguing van-themed set.
I learnt of Ivan’s passing a few days later, I believe.
I recall John Random phoning me and also asking me what I thought he should say in the Independent newspaper obituary piece he had been asked to write. I remember saying that I thought the irony, dying while undertaking activity to try and get fit, would not have been wasted on Ivan. I was chuffed that John used that idea at the start of his obituary – transcribed in the biography above and scanned, with thanks to John Random, below.
John has also, kindly, scanned one or two other obituary pieces:
Along with several other fellow NewsRevue writers, I attended Ivan’s funeral at Hoop Lane Crematorium. I remember the comedic touch of Ivan’s trademark hat sitting atop the coffin. I remember feeling so very sad for Elspeth, Ivan’s partner.
I remember how awkward everyone felt; we were a comedic lot, struggling to deal with a tragic situation. To what extend could/should we make light of any part of the event? To be sure it was not a time for mordant or sardonic humour. I concluded that many comedy writers are, at heart, amongst the most maudlin people on earth.
Yet a magnificent thing emerged from this tragedy.
A few week’s before his untimely death, Ivan sent an e-mail to the few of us who were already e-mail friendly, suggesting that, although several of us had started to drift away from the regular NewsRevue gatherings, it would be nice to meet occasionally in any case, perhaps dine together, perhaps watch the show or perhaps both.
A few of us at the funeral concluded that we really must implement that lovely idea. John Random picked up the mantle and we have met several times a year, every year, since.
The first was, I think, around May 2000. I’ll write it up in the fullness of time. I have written up most of the more recent ones – see above link (repeated here). The next one (at the time of writing) is scheduled for early April 2020.
Ivan would have loved those events. He would also have loved the idea that he initiated and caused them.
This production blew us away. It was shocking and also intensely gripping drama.
We trusted the Almeida in those days, so we booked a preview of this one, “on spec”, although we were unfamiliar with Neil LaBute’s work and also unfamiliar with the imported cast and director.
We were right to trust!
Bash is a collection of short plays, rather than “a play”. All were excellent in our view. The last one was the most shocking, but all were shocking in their own way. Brilliantly well acted by Mary McCormack, Zeljko Ivanek & Matthew Lillard. Joe Mantello directed. Here is the Theatricalia entry for this production.
I’m pretty sure the critics tended to be with us in admiring this one. Let’s see.
Yup, Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard waxed lyrical:
Possibly the least said about this one the better. Naturally Janie and I would have been with the Duchess. Naturally she will have treated us to her theatre tickets (comps), while Janie and I will have done the interval drinks and dinner.
My log reads:
tame – we left at half time.
This will have been a collective and unanimous decision. It was quite a long play – Janie had booked Gascons for 10:30 – possibly with a bit of persuasion for the late booking. In any case, we were probably all ready for our din-dins after 90 minutes or so of Genet.
The Questors, being the Questors, has all the details, including a downloadable scan of the programme, available for all to see – click here.
I don’t think the meal afterwards was redemptive of the evening. Neither Janie nor I can remember much about Gascons in Ealing. The Duchess was probably in a foul mood because she hadn’t had value for (lack of) money out of those three Questors comps.
Crumbs, Janie and I went to the Wigmore Hall to see a lot of baroque concerts that season. Here’s another one we rated as:
superb.
Kontrabande were terrific. Had they been 1970s rock rather than 17th & 18th century baroque they might have been described as a supergroup. Dig this list of great names:
Charles Humphries,
Clare Salaman,
Jane Norman,
Katherine McGillivray,
Richard Campbell,
William Hunt,
Laurence Cummings,
James Johnstone,
Elizabeth Kenny.
This is what they played that night:
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Concerto for strings and basso continuo in D minor RV 128
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Cantata “Vestro Principi divino” RV 633
Antonio Caldara – Sonata a tre Op 1 No 5
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Stabat Mater RV 621
Antonio Caldara – Cantata “Soffri, mio caro Alcino”
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Concerto for Lute in D major
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Cantata “Nisi Dominus”
I couldn’t find any YouTubes of Kontraband on-line, but the following one of Caldara sonatas and cantatas is very pleasing to the ear – I’d forgotten how much Caldara’s music pleased us that night:
I didn’t make any notes in my log about this one. I don’t think we were overly impressed with it, but neither did we think it quite as awful as some of the critics. Still, I’d better let the critics do the job for me with this one, given that i wrote nothing.
A pair of baroque concerts over that weekend – Friday evening and Saturday evening. We chose to go and see both. It was part of a series named “Bach & His Contemporaries”.
I logged that Janie and I both described the concerts as:
superb.
On the Friday evening we saw/heard:
Johann Sebastian Bach – Trio Sonata in G for violin, flute and continuo
Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer – Chaconne in D minor for solo harpsicord
Diderik Buxtehude – Sonata in B flat for violin and viola da gamba Op 1 no 4 BuxWV255
Johann Sebastian Bach – Sonata in B minor for flute and harpsicord, BWV 1030
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber – Passacaglia for solo violin
Johann Sebastian Bach – Sonata in G minor for viola da gamba and harpsicord, BWV 1029
Johann Sebastian Bach – Trio Sonata from the Musical Offering, BWB 1079
On the Saturday evening we heard:
Georg Philipp Telemann – Suite in A minor for recorder and strings
Johann Sebastian Bach – Concerto in C for two harpsicords, BWV 1061
Johann Sebastian Bach – Sonata in G for violin and harpsicord, BWV 1019
Sylvius Leopold Weiss – Tombeau sur le mort de M Comte de Logy
Johann Sebastian Bach – Orchestral Suite no 2 in B minor
Trevor Pinnock, Rachel Podger and some of the others recorded the Bach trio sonatas that year. I have put together a playlist on YouTube Music which includes those lovely sonatas and some other pieces from the January 2000 weekend – click here to listen to that playlist. Don’t be put off by the strike through on the link – anyone can hear the playlist but you will get adverts if you are not yourself a YouTube Music subscriber.
If you prefer to just click the odd embed, here is one of the Bach sonatas we heard Trevor and Rachel play:
I wasn’t familiar with the work of JCF Fischer. Here’s Trevor Pinnock playing Fischer’s passacaglia, not the chaconne we heard. Still lovely:
Here are some other people playing (part of) the Telemann Overture/Suite that we heard:
The Weiss piece was a delicious listen. Here is Evangelina Mascardi giving it a go.
We heard William Carter play the Weiss at that January 2000 concert, long before Janie’s “mystery punter” evening at the same venue:
This “opus” was not Mike Ward’s finest hour as a comedy impresario.
For several years prior to this one…and indeed for many years after…the Actor’s Workshop would traditionally stage “New Year Revels”. Indeed, I met Mike early to mid 1990s, when his son, Adam, briefly wrote for NewsRevue and twigged that his dad’s annual show might benefit from material produced by NewsRevue writers. I contributed to the show for several years and visited it for the first time in 1997:
I have no idea why Mike decided to try something different in 2000. Perhaps it was because several of the NewsRevue “class of ’92” had all-but stopped writing sketches and songs by 1999. Possibly it was Mike’s irritation that so many of the sketches and songs that were written by young Actor’s Workshop folk for him to perform mocked his rhotacism. Septimus Gusset was, if I recall correctly, one of Mike’s “answers to that”. (Performing On The Waterfrontsome years later was another, no doubt, whereas Mike’s wonderful Casablanca The Musical, which literally brought the house down the following year, embraced that rhotacism).
In truth, Janie and I were not wild about the Septimus Gussett show and I don’t think it did anything like as well as “New Year Revels” in the matter of bringing the Actor’s Workshop community together for a celebratory show.
Still, Janie and I had a most enjoyable short trip up to Halifax. We stayed at the Crown, again and I am pretty sure that Lottie Ward treated us to one of her magnificent beef fillet feasts at Mike & Lottie’s place after the show.
Best Friend Taylor Indy 05 Feb 2000, Sat The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Best Friend Spencer Telegraph 27 Jan 2000, Thu The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Best Friend de Jongh Standard 25 Jan 2000, Tue Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
