Category: Theatre

The Wild Duck by Henrik Ibsen, The Questors Theatre, 15 October 1999

A successful night at The Questors with the Duchess (Janie’s mum). I wrote,

very good,

in my log, which will be a comment on the play/production rather than The Duchess’s conduct.

Janie and I subsequently saw a superb production of this play at The Donmar.

I recall having some reservations about seeing an amateur production of this great play, but actually The Questors had actors and creatives of sufficient quality to carry this work well.

Janie’s diary suggests that we went to eat at a place named Rastificia afterwards, on Ealing Broadway, at 10:30. Sounds like Jamaican food from the name.

Just what Janie and I will have needed on a Friday evening after a long week’s work. No doubt the waiters made a fuss of The Duchess and no doubt she wanted to stay for one more cigarette at the end of the meal, so we’ll have got home very late indeed.

Also, no doubt, the deal was that The Duchess did the theatre tickets, Janie did the interval drinks and I did the meal. [Note to historians – The Duchess got several pairs of guest tickets free each year with her membership of The Questors – I’m pretty sure we didn’t go any more often than the using up of the freebies allowed].

“Parsimony is the best policy” – The Duchess of Castlebar

Remember This by Stephen Poliakoff, Lyttelton Theatre, 9 October 1999

My log reads:

I got more out of this one than Janie did. Not SP’s best.

We saw a preview – the press night was about a week later.

Stanley Townsend is always good news and he didn’t disappoint as the charismatic lead. Good support too from Geraldine Somerville and others, directed by Ron Daniels. Here is the Theatricalia entry for this play/production.

It was the play that lacked coherence. Janie couldn’t see past the fragile conceits of the play.

Our friend, Michael Billington, in The Guardian, seems to have shared our reservations. He says that the plot “has more holes than a second-hand colander”…

…(does a new colander have fewer holes than a second-hand one, Michael?)…

Remember Guardian BillingtonRemember Guardian Billington 18 Oct 1999, Mon The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Nicholas de Jongh seems to have hated it. “Ponderous” is not a desirable adjective if you are Poliakoff:

Remember Standard de JonghRemember Standard de Jongh 18 Oct 1999, Mon Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Kate Bassett in the Telegraph described it as “chronically dull”:

Remember Telegraph BassettRemember Telegraph Bassett 18 Oct 1999, Mon The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

OK, OK, I’ve got the point. A rare dud from Poliakoff, the master.

Master Class by Terrence McNally, Richmond Theatre, 8 October 1999

The conceit of this play is basically a Maria Callas masterclass towards the end of the great diva’s life.

We saw this one on a Friday evening. This was a touring production by Theatre Royal Bath Productions that was starting off at Richmond for just a few days.

My log reads:

Janie got more out of this one than I did.

So there you have it.

I think I found the play not so interesting. The production did a pretty good job with the material, as I saw it. Jane Lapotaire played the lead and she was very watchable.

Here is a clip from the Surrey Herald as the productions et off on its merry way:

Masterclass Surrey HeraldMasterclass Surrey Herald 30 Sep 1999, Thu Surrey Herald (Chertsey, Surrey, England) Newspapers.com

Here’s Andrew Kersey’s review in Cambridge a few weeks after we saw it:

Masterclass Cambridge KerseyMasterclass Cambridge Kersey 02 Nov 1999, Tue Cambridge Evening News (Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England) Newspapers.com

Riddance by Linda McLean, Paines Plough, Lyric Hammersmith Studio, 25 September 1999

I wrote “very good indeed” in my log for this one, which means that we both must have thought it very good indeed.

Paines Plough tended to do good stuff and Vicky Featherstone knows how to direct. This long precedes her dystopian miserabilist phase at The Royal Court, of course, although it had traces of misery in it.

In those days the Lyric Hammersmith Studio was putting on quite a lot of good stuff of this kind and getting good notices in places that mattered too.

Here’s Kate Bassett in the Telegraph:

Riddance Telegraph BassettRiddance Telegraph Bassett 27 Sep 1999, Mon The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

This production had clearly taken the Edinburgh Fringe by storm, as the following preview from the Feltham Chronicle attests:

Riddance Feltham GauntRiddance Feltham Gaunt 16 Sep 1999, Thu The Feltham Chronicle (Hounslow, London, England) Newspapers.com

According to my diary, we ate at Riso in Chiswick afterwards. I cannot find anything about it on-line and cannot remember anything much about the place. My handy copy of the 2003 Harden’s suggest that the place was not so memorable. That might explain it.

Still, the play/production was memorable, which matters more.

Demons & Dybbuks by Isaac Bashevis Singer, Method & Madness At The Young Vic, 18 September 1999

The log reminds me that we ran into Rob Pay, Susan Pay & Jay Jaffe at that show. In those days, Rob & Susan lived very near to my place, but my place was a building site that autumn and I was staying with Janie in Ealing at that time.

As for the play, I recall that Mike Alfred’s Method & Madness project was a bit Complicité-like, without quite the oomph (and certainly not the longevity) of Complicité.

The piece was basically adaptations (by Mike Alfreds) of a few Isaac Basevis Singer short stories.

Nick Curtis in The Standard was not very impressed:

Dybbuks Standard CurtisDybbuks Standard Curtis 02 Sep 1999, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Paul Taylor was more charitable in The Independent:

Dybbuks Independent TaylorDybbuks Independent Taylor 02 Sep 1999, Thu The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

The diary suggests that it was a long/late-finishing show, so I suspect that we picked up shawarmas after this show on the way home. The diary also tells me that we went to Gary [Davison]’s birthday lunch the next day. The diary is silent on where we went but in those days Gary tended to hold that event at Lemonia in Primrose Hill.

Disposing Of The Body by Hugh Whitemore, Hampstead Theatre, 14 August 1999

In truth I remember little about this play/production. I logged it without comment, which doesn’t help.

Super cast and crew. Stephen Moore, Charlotte Cornwell, Gemma Jones and David Horovitch, directed by Robin Lefevre.

John Gross in The Sunday Telegraph gave it a modest review, which doesn’t help the memory much, 25 years later, other than making me feel better about the fact that I remember so little about it:

Disposing Gross S TelegraphDisposing Gross S Telegraph 01 Aug 1999, Sun Sunday Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Michel Billington went into more detail in The Guardian and on balance liked it:

Disposing Billington GuardianDisposing Billington Guardian 15 Jul 1999, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Nick Curtis in The Standard went into detail explaining why he didn’t like the piece:

Disposing Curtis StandardDisposing Curtis Standard 14 Jul 1999, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

I think, on balance, we were more Curtis than Billington about this one.

Home Body / Kabul by Tony Kushner, Chelsea Centre Theatre, 31 July 1999

I remember this play warmly, as does Janie. Kika Markham put in a superb solo performance.

I’m not sure how we came across this production – possibly Newsnight Review on the TV, which we were following in those days, as I don’t think we even knew of the Chelsea Centre Theatre prior to this.

It was well received by Susannah Clapp in The Observer.

Home Body Kabul Clapp ObserverHome Body Kabul Clapp Observer 25 Jul 1999, Sun The Observer (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Rachel Haliburton in The Indy also liked it:

Kabul Haliburton IndyKabul Haliburton Indy 31 Jul 1999, Sat The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

It seems that the thing we saw is only part of a longer Tony Kushner epic. Declan Donnellan revived the short Kika Markham element that we saw, at The Young Vic in 2002 – here is a link to Michael Billington’s review of that.

Eurydice by Jean Anouilh, Whitehall Theatre, 24 July 1999

In truth, I don’t remember all that much about this production. I’ve long been partial to a bit of Anouilh, which would have been the main reason we booked it.

Excellent cast, including Orlando Seale, Edward de Souza, Desmond Barrit, Ray Llewellyn, Roz McCutcheon, Amy Marston, Susan Tracy & Geoffrey Beevers.

Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry for this one.

Charles Spencer suggests that he unexpectedly liked it:

Eurydice Spencer TelegraphEurydice Spencer Telegraph 15 Jul 1999, Thu The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Dominic Cavendish also wrote well of it in the Indy:

Eurydice Cavendish IndyEurydice Cavendish Indy 14 Jul 1999, Wed The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Similarly, our friend, Michael Billington, seemed surprisingly pleased with it:

Eurydice Billington GuardianEurydice Billington Guardian 14 Jul 1999, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Look Back In Anger by John Osborne, Lyttelton Theatre, 17 July 1999

This was a very good production of this iconic play. I had been keen to see a decent production of it and was not disappointed by the National’s effort.

I don’t think we’d heard for Michael Sheen before this production; he was excellent as Jimmy Porter and Emma Fielding was also excellent as the long-suffering Alison.

Here’s the Theatricalia link for this production.

Patrick Marmion in the Standard liked it:

Marmion Standard AngerMarmion Standard Anger 16 Jul 1999, Fri Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Michael Billington chose to talk about the play’s importance rather than the production we saw:

Billington Guardian AngerBillington Guardian Anger 17 Jul 1999, Sat The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Susannah Clapp liked it in The Observer:

Clapp Observer AngerClapp Observer Anger 18 Jul 1999, Sun The Observer (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Dinner With The Family by Jean Anouilh, The Questors Student Group, 10 July 1999

To the Questors with the Duchess of Castlebar (Janie’s mum) to see a student production.

No danger that The Duchess had to fork out for our tickets (I think she only took us to shows of any variety there on guest freebies).

Anouilh comedies tends to be quaint and within the grasp of student drama groups, so I suspect that the production was pretty good, but my log is silent on the matter.

Here is a link to The Questors archive resources on that production.

I escaped the duty to reciprocate the freebie tickets with a dinner, because Janie and I went on to Rupert Stubbs’s 40th birthday do on Sailing Barge Resourceful in Chiswick.

Resourceful, now relocated to the estuary as a tea house

Given that we had fed the multitudes the week before for The Duchess’s birthday…

Dinner With The Family: A 70th Birthday Do For The Duchess, 3 July 1999

…she could hardly complain.