Category: Theatre

Can We Talk About This? by Lloyd Newson, DV8, Lyttelton Theatre, 17 March 2012

Verbatim Theatre and Physical Theatre don’t seem, on the face of it, to be complementary genres.

But this piece, conceived by Lloyd Newson and performed by physical theatre company DV8, tries to combine the two, around the tricky subject of Islamic extremism, Islamophobia, multiculturalism, censorship, freedom of speech and hate crimes.

It sort-of worked, in that it got me and Janie talking about those subjects afterwards, but it didn’t really work for us, in itself, as a piece talking about those tricky subjects.

In truth, verbatim theatre about such tricky subjects would need more words and less dance.

I think the critics pretty much concurred with our view – here is a link to a search term for the reviews.

The vid link below gives you a reasonable idea of what this production looked and sounded like:

Can We Talk About This? by Lloyd Newson/DV8 Physical Theatre, Lyttelton Theatre, 17 March 2012

I remember surprisingly little about this evening.  I do remember it being short, physical and interesting, but nothing tangible about it really sticks.  I’m not sure that the complex subject matter and verbatim style lends itself to this sort of  physical theatre – the issues get buried or confused in the performance and visuals.

Still, you can read all about it here, the RNT resources on the production.

It seems that the Daily Mail got it and liked it; perhaps that explains my confusion.

Charles Spencer in n the Telegraph liked it too.

Michael Billington gives the show a fair review, I think.  I’m starting to remember it a bit better.

I might chat it through with Janie, see what she remembers and edit in some more thoughts.  If you are reading this paragraph, then I haven’t yet done that or drew a blank from Janie too.

In Basildon by David Eldridge, Royal Court Theatre, 3 March 2012

This was our first theatre visit after returning from Vietnam in February.

A really good one too.

Here is a link to the Royal Court stub for this piece.

We rate David Eldridge highly as a playwright. Here was a superb cast and Dominic Cooke himself directing.

We really enjoyed this play and production.

The critics on the whole loved this piece – click here for a search term that finds the reviews.

Below is a link to the trailer:

Travelling Light by Nicholas Wright, Lyttelton Theatre, 28 January 2012

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.

The Trial Of Ubu by Simon Stephens, Hampstead Theatre, 20 January 2012

We normally love Simon Stephens stuff…

…but this was a stinker.

Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi re-imagined as an International Human Rights trial.

Technically it was very clever – the video/special effects were very innovative. Good cast too.

Great writer but this piece just didn’t work.

The subject matter is so grave that the arty, post-modern “trial of the fictional character” idea just didn’t work for us.

Nor did it work for the critics – click here for a term that finds the reviews. Don’t click if you were involved in this play/production.

The trailer is embedded below:

Constellations by Nick Payne, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 14 January 2012

Just occasionally we don’t have enough positive adjectives to describe how we felt about a play/production.

Constellations by Nick Payne was such a show.

Here is a link to the Royal Court resource on this production.

Upstairs, but with a stellar cast – Sally Hawkins and Rafe Spall, this was a stunning piece of theatre that genuinely wowed us…

…and by 2012 Janie and I were not easily wowed.

In fact Janie doesn’t usually go for these “science meets love” type plays, but this one is truly exceptional, making her feel neither dumb nor condescended.

Here is a link to a search term for the reviews, which were pretty much universally rave ones – deservedly.

Charles Spencer’s rave review in The Telegraph includes a short vid interview with the stars – click here.

 

Collaborators by John Hodge, Cottesloe Theatre, 7 January 2012

I think I liked this play more than Janie did.

It was a fictionalised…somewhat fantasised account of encounters (which did occur to some extent in real life) between the writer Mikhail Bulgakov and Joseph Stalin.

We were blessed with Alex Jennings as Bulgakov and Simon Russell Beale as Stalin, with Nicholas Hytner in the director’s chair.

In truth, I don’t think it was a great play. It was a very good idea for a play with some very good scenes within it, but as a whole it didn’t quite work for me as an entire play.

But there was enough really good stuff going on to please me plenty, on  balance. Whereas I think Janie found it a little drawn out and confused/confusing.

The reviewers were more with me (on the plus side) than with Janie (on the “a bit muddled) side – click here for a search term that finds the reviews.

Below is a link to the trailer:

…and the following vid is an interview with John Hodge, the playwright:

Grief by Mike Leigh, Cottesloe Theatre, 26 December 2011

I don’t think we’d been to the theatre on Boxing Day before…nor have we (to date) since.

But the timing worked for us and we thought, “why not?”  We are very keen on Mike Leigh’s work generally. Also we wanted to make amends for the involuntary hoo-ha, in front of Mike Leigh’s very eyes, last time we attended one of his plays – a few months ago – especially as he had been so nice about it:

Ecstasy by Mike Leigh, Hampstead Theatre, 18 March 2011

But unfortunately, we didn’t think all that much of Grief.

It had a fine cast including several of Mike Leigh’s regular stars, headed up by Lesley Manville.

The play had been developed in ensemble – the Mike Leigh method if you will. But, to us, it seemed rather dated and lacked sparkle this time.

It got somewhat mixed reviews – click here for a search term that finds them.

Below is a sort of review vid about the play/production:

 

Reasons To Be Pretty by Neil LaBute, Almeida Theatre, 17 December 2011

We are very keen on Neil LaBute plays and the Almeida has (or had) made a bit of a specialism in them over the years.

While not quite his razor-sharp best, we thought this was a very good play and production.

Here is a link to the Almeida resource on this play/production.

The acting was excellent – all four performances top notch.

It was very well received by the critics on the whole – click here for a link through to the reviews.

Below is the trailer for the production we saw:

I remember us both really dreading the shlep to the Almeida just before Christmas and then both being so glad that we went.

We subsequently (four/five years later) saw a companion piece for it at the Hampstead, Reasons To Be Happy…

Reasons To Be Happy by Neil Labute, Hampstead Theatre, 8 April 2016

…which we didn’t think was anything like as good.

Haunted Child by Joe Penhall, Royal Court Theatre, 3 December 2011

We thought this was an excellent play and production.

We booked it on the back of Joe Penhall’s superb play Blue/Orange. We also got a fantastic cast, not least Ben Daniels and Sophie Okonedo.

Here is the Royal Court resource for this play/production.

The Ben Daniels character, the father, is basically being sucked in by a cult. On reflection at the time of writing (January 2018) it has a fair bit in common with My Mum’s A Twat – click here, which we saw recently, except the cult-ista in the more recent case is the mum and the storyteller is the affected child later in life.

Anyway, Haunted Child mostly got very good reviews – click here for a link term that should find them.

Below is the trailer: