Janie and I still say “my dear child” in the gnarley style that Alan Bates delivered that phrase in this production.
This was our first visit to the Almeida together and I have a feeling we ran into my NewsRevue friend Ivan Shakespeare on this occasion and indeed on more than one of our first few occasions at the Almeida. Ivan was a volunteer there and I think he did Saturday evenings whenever he could.
Of the three plays Janie and I went to see at the Orange Tree Room together, before that “above the pub” bit of the Orange Tree empire closed down, this is the only one for which I still have the “programme” – i.e. sheet of paper:
Ian Angus Wilkie of NewsRevue fame once again found his way into the cast; he must have found favour with the Orange Tree folk back then and for good reason.
I was gutted that Ian Angus Wilkie didn’t list NewsRevue in his recent relevant experience – it had only been about a year before – perhaps less ( I have a feeling he did Edinburgh or Christmas that 1992 year). How could he hold back on reporting that career highlight?
All I wrote in my log for this one was that I thought it was a very good play/production – which was the way I felt about all the things we saw in that Orange Tree Room…but in truth this was the least memorable of the three, for me.
Janie joined me (and I’m sure quite a few of my NewsRevue writer friends) for the opening night of this show, conceived by John Random.
I think the idea of it was to be a showcase for revue material that John and others of us sometimes wrote that was not ideally suited to the topical NewsRevue show.
I have a couple of pieces of paper about the show, one of which tells me that I forked out some dosh to angel the show.
I cannot remember how much, if any, of that cash came back to me. John might have information on’t.
Here’s the other artifact, which was a sort of interim newsletter which also gives some clues as to the conceit (if that is the right word) of the show.
I also cannot remember how many, if any, of my lyrics found their way into this show.
In fact, the item I remember most clearly about this show is an idea that John in the end didn’t use, which was the idea of performing Spike Jones’s version of the Hawaiian War Chant live.
It would have been wicked hard to stage well with four performers and one pianist. But John and I both still regret that the idea got…as it were…spiked.
I do remember one of John’s numbers, which I think was the closing number, named Living In A Cliche, which was a spoof of Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On A Prayer.
Gosh, yes, that track is simply asking for the John Bon Random treatment.
I wonder whether John still has running orders and/or other materials pertaining to Sex In My Anorak. I do remember thinking the show was rather good.
Postscript: a few months ago we had a discussion about this show and also about Bish Bash Bosh on Facebook in the NewsRevue group – click here for link. Nick R Thomas in particular remembered some interesting stuff about Anorak:
I had a co-written sketch about cats. If I remember correctly, the sketch I wrote with Bournemouth writer Gary Mitchell was about the Cats Protection League actually being a protection racket run by cats.
John had a wonderful running song sketch throughout based on 2Unlimited but featuring nuns, eg “No no, no-no no no, no-no no no, no-no sex before marriage”.
Come to think of it, this No Limit number was also simply asking for the 2Johnlimited Random treatment.
Once bitten but seemingly not twice shy, here was another evening at the Questors with Pauline, Janie’s mum. Quite soon after the previous visit to see The Real Thing:
On this occasion, I had been at a BDO Awayday on the Friday and overnight into the Saturday. This might have been the one after which Steve Taylor nearly lost his life in a car accident driving off to play cricket on the Saturday, but perhaps that was an earlier one.
I too was taking risks with my next day activities, but a different family of risks.
Anyway, according to Janie’s diary, she took work on the Saturday morning and gave blood that afternoon, before our evening engagement with her mum…
…that really is like giving blood twice in one day – not recommended.
Much like with The Real Thing, Janie and I got the opportunity, about seven years later, to see a tippy-top professional production of this fine play – in the case of All My Sons, one of Arthur Miller’s finest.
The Questors production was not at all bad, though.
No drinks at Pauline’s before this one – I think Pauline set into what became the regular pattern of “fairness”, which was:
Pauline did The Questors tickets
Janie paid for the drinks at The Questors
I paid for the restaurant meal afterwards.
I learnt some years later that, as a member of The Questors, Pauline got a certain number of free tickets for shows and I am pretty sure she calibrated her membership/invitations to ensure that she wasn’t actually paying for our tickets…ever.
Fair enough.
Janie’s diary reveals that we ate at Lisa’s after that particular show. Lisa served pretty good food on Pitshanger Lane, but my goodness did you get Lisa’s life story thrown in free of charge along with the food, especially if you were one of only a handful of late/after theatre tables.
Interesting stuff. It’s one of those nights at the theatre about which I remember little detail but it left a lingering impression on me nonetheless. I can still sort-of remember the sights, sounds and even smells of it.
Janie and I went threee times in a fortnight to see RNT Studio plays at the Cottesloe. This was the first of those three visits. It was a modern Liverpudlian play of the post-Thatcherism variety. We thought it was a very good play and really enjoyed (if that is the right word) this production.
Michael Church gave it a very good review in the Observer:
I liked this play and production far more than Janie did. Where I liked the intellectual aspects of the content, Janie found them pretentious and at times confusing.
Janie and I felt motivated to see a professional production of The Real Thing a few years later at the Donmar Warehouse.I recall the play working much better, especially for Janie, second time around.
Still, I don’t think the evening went too badly. I’m pretty sure I treated the pair of them to dinner after show, but I do not recall where and both our diaries are silent on the matter.
It almost certainly would have been either Wine & Mousaka, Lisa’s or Noughts & Crosses in those days. I don’t know why, but I think it was Wine & Mousaka that first time.
The “programme” – or rather the single sheet of printed A4 you tended to get at the Orange Tree Room – went missing for this show, which is a shame.
It was one of three plays we went to see in that room above the Orange Tree Pub, which they kept going as a second venue for a while but stopped using I think later that year.
This was Janie’s and my first visit to The Orange Tree together…my first visit there full stop.
I cannot reconstruct the whole cast and creatives list, but we can ascertain that the cast included:
Michael Higgs;
Henrietta Garden;
Mairéad Carty;
Ian Angus Wilkie.
Rachel Kavanaugh directed.
I remember really liking this play and the production and really liking The Orange Tree Room. It reminded me a bit of The Gate, a small fringe venue of which I was already fond.
Did they really make more money turning that prime space into hotel rooms?…
Billington On the Showman Wed, May 19, 1993 – 26 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
Michael Coveney On The Showman Sun, May 23, 1993 – 64 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
