This was the third of just three productions Janie and I saw together in The Orange Tree Room (the original Orange Tree above the pub) before that super space closed down. For just a short while, the Orange Tree ran the purpose built theatre and the room.
Of the three, I for some reason I only retained the “programme” (sheet of paper) for The Belle.
This so frustrating, because this production of The Walls was superb – we were spellbound by it. But sadly (unlike Saigon Rose) it doesn’t seem to have been reviewed – or at least not by any resources available on-line.
I have managed, by detective work, to determine that the play we saw is a translation of Las Paredes by Griselda Gambaro.
By Sara Facio (Revista Argentina 1970) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
I have managed to find a review of a more recent production of this play in DC – click here or below:
That review gives you a feel for the play and the production we saw, which tried (with a very limited budget and space) to create that increasingly claustrophobic feeling and did so very well.
I wish I could record who was in it and who directed/designed the production at the Orange Tree Room because it really was excellent in our book.
Perhaps the Orange Tree has an archive into which I can delve at some point.
Janie and I saw this production just before we set off for our first big holiday, to China and Bali. I remember we talked about this play/production a lot and for a long time.
Of all the leaflets to mislay…but perhaps they had run out of leaflets. The Orange Tree Room was on its way out by then; what a pity.
If anyone reading this posting has any information about the production, please let me know through the comments or message system.
Postscript: Newspapers.com allowed me to find the following clipping from The Guardian – appropriately with a typo in the second word of the main text!
We took Pauline with us to this revival of Fay Weldon’s Mr Director at the Orange Tree.
I think we were all a little underwhelmed by the play, but never mind.
We went to Don Fernando afterwards. There’s a good chance we had paella there, as Janie made some notes in her diary about waiting times for same in Don Fernando.
I don’t think anyone argued or passed out or anything dramatic on this occasion.
We rounded off our evening with Chinese food from The Park Inn. Quite right too.
The diary suggests that we planned to have Marianne and Anil over for dinner the next evening, the Saturday, but Anil doesn’t get beyond a question mark and Janie is sure she has never met him, so my guess is that the whole idea fell though.
Yes, yes, yes! We thought this was a really, really good night at the theatre.
I’d long been a Pinter fan. Janie wasn’t really familiar with his work, but Janie made the running for this night at the Almeida, booking us the front row seats we craved for that place (still do) and jotting down all the details. 90 minutes without an interval. Seats A7 & A8.
This play/production was our first sighting of Pinter together.
I think we ran into Ivan Shakespeare again that night; volunteering for the Almeida selling programmes.
Michael Billington’s review was on the front page of the Guradian – how often does that happen? Along with a luvvie-fest piece (I’m glad we weren’t there that night and a continuation on Page 18.
Also in the Guardian, an Anna Massey interview about Moonlight. Anna Massey went on to become one of Janie’s regular clients, but Janie didn’t yet know her when we saw Moonlight.
I seem to recall we thought this play was a bit all over the place. It was very well received, but we thought it had glimpses of Miller’s greatness without being of Miller’s very best.
Still, well worth seeing, we felt. It wasn’t until Mr Peters’ Connections a few years later that we concluded that Miller’s light really had (excuse the pun) petered our.
By the looks of it, Ros Ellott was due to come and stay with Janie that weekend but in the end did not.
We had booked out a long weekend for the purpose.
I guess Janie and I found things to do, but none are recorded in the diary.
We both worked on the Tuesday – Janie working a very long day – then headed up to the Canal Cafe Theatre to see the Edinburgh show preview.
Elements of that particular Edinburgh show have been preserved for all posterity through a TV show named The Wire. The extracts even include one of mine – the Kate Adie Song.
The NewsRevue bit of the show starts at c7:00.
Top marks again to Janie in the stalwart stakes, coming with me to that show after a 12-13 hour working day.
This period of 1993 was “peak Random”, with John perennially, heavily involved in NewsRevue (where he helped to get my comedy writing career going the year before) and also his show Sex In My Anorak, which had played in June.
The theatre was a sort-of public hall in Hoxton, near to Annie Bickerstaff’s place. Janie and I went to see this play along with Annalisa and Annie. We all very much enjoyed the play. I think we ended up back at Annie’s place for dinner after the show.
These days (he says, writing more than 25 years later), I do most of the running with regard to booking theatre. But back then, Janie was more proactive.
There are notes in her diary from weeks before, working out when this was going to open and when we might be available. Then, for the day itself (as one might now find in my diary) notes on exactly which seats she’d booked (Row J) and how long the play might be (8:00 to 10:10).
For sure I would have been a willing participant in seeing the latest Mamet – I had been a bit of a Mamet fan for years by 1993. David Suchet and Lia Williams? yes please. Harold Pinter directing? just tell me where I need to go and when. Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry.
I remember it well ! Rory Bremner came along to the first show with unfortunately only about 10 other people!…
…so that’s Rory, Janie, me, Harriet and possibly six others. We might be anble to name the whole audience if we put our minds to it. Harriet continues…
We were asked to put on shows at a venue in Willesden by a big Newsrevue fan and after lots of deliberation could only come up with Bish Bash Bosh as a name. Unfortunately it didn’t take off 😢
I responded:
The place was a dive if I remember correctly. I must interrogate Janie about it and see what she remembers. I do recall her not liking the place and forming a strong view that Newsrevue wouldn’t work there.
Billington On Mother Courage Wed, Dec 8, 1993 – 28 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
Coveney on Mother Courage Sun, Dec 12, 1993 – 79 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
