Adrian Storey – Ian Louis Harris

Another Friday, another theatre visit. This time we had even booked for the Saturday, but switched to the Friday to accommodate Caroline Freeman’s engagement party on the Saturday.

Janie and I rated this Hedda Gabler as “good”.

Janie and I had seen a mediocre (or, in Janie’s words, “OMG it was dreadful”) Hedda in Holland Park a few year’s earlier…

Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, Holland Park, 17 July 1993

Even after this 1999 Hedda, I still didn’t feel that Janie had seen a good enough version, so we did it all again at The Almeida a few year’s later.

Anyway, this one was a West End preview with Francesca Annis as Hedda and other West End names such as Peter Bowles and Nyree Dawn Porter in tow. Frank McGuiness directed it.

This one started in Plymouth a week or so before we saw it in Richmond. Here is Leon Winston’s review from the Herald Express:

Hedda Winston Herald 23 Nov 1999, Tue Herald Express (Torquay, Devon, England) Newspapers.com

This production didn’t seem to make much sense to Charles Spencer in The Telegraph:

Hedda Spencer Telegraph 02 Dec 1999, Thu The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Becky Gaunt in The Feltham Chronicle liked it but felt short-changed by Frank McGuiness’s scaled-back version.

Hedda Gaunt Feltham 02 Dec 1999, Thu The Feltham Chronicle (Hounslow, London, England) Newspapers.com

Whose brilliant idea was it to pair The Real Inspector Hound with Black Comedy? Well, if I’m not totally mistaken The Bear Pit at Alleyn’s School did so back in the mid 1970s. It worked well then (I shall write up The Bear Pit production in the fullness of time) and it worked well nearly 25 years later, in the late 1990s, too.

Superb evening…

…was my take on it in my log. How could it not be – what a cast! Desmond Barrit, David Tennant, Nichola McAuliffe, Sara Crowe, Anna Chancellor…and Greg Doran directing.

Here’s a link to the Theatricalia entry.

We saw a preview at Richmond the week before the show opened at The Comedy Theatre.

Nicholas de Jongh voted it “good” in The Standard:

Real Inspector Black Comedy de Jongh Standard 23 Apr 1998, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Michael Billington in The Guardian was very keen on it:

Real Inspector Black Comedy Guardian Billington 23 Apr 1998, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

While The Independent previewed the event the morning after our visit wondering, over three pages, whose brilliant idea it was to pair these two short plays? (The Bear Pit at Alleyn’s School. Do you arts journos know nothing?)