Tag: Amanda Royle

Seven Year Twitch by David Lewis, Orange Tree Theatre, 25 May 2013

Perhaps the irritating pun in the title should have warned us off this one – but we like the Orange Tree and the cast included some excellent Orange Tree regulars so we went for it.

We found this a tame, irritating comedy on the whole. We stuck it out – it wasn’t that bad – but it wasn’t that good either and we felt it could have been so much better.

It is often a mistake for an playwright to direct their own play – especially with comedy – this one was an object lesson for that theory.

Click here for a link to the Orange Tree resource on this play/production.

Here is a link to a search term for reviews – which were middling on the whole.

Greenwash by David Lewis, Orange Tree Theatre, 21 February 2009

We rather liked this one, although more form the point of view of it being a well acted interesting piece on an interesting subject than it being great drama or great comedy.

You can read all about it on the Orange Tree site – here.

Janie and I describe silly or farcical comedies as being “a bit Vincent Golightly” (don’t ask, long/fictional story) and this was a bit Vincent for sure. But we enjoyed our evening in the theatre and topped it off with some Spanish food at Don Fernando, as is our Richmond habit most times.

 

 

 

 

 

Lips Together, Teeth Apart by Terrence McNally, Orange Tree Theatre, 12 December 1998

The end of a weird quarter, during which we only went to the theatre five times, all of those visits being in Richmond.

Anyway, we both rather liked this play/production, rating it:

A good one.

Very much an off-Broadway play, Lips Together, Teeth Apart worked really well in the round at The Orange Tree.

Nick Curtis was quite taken with it in The Standard:

Lips Curtis StandardLips Curtis Standard 17 Nov 1998, Tue Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

No doubt we ate at Don Fernando’s afterwards – we pretty much always did, although I seem to recall trying an alternative place (Italian I think) that proved less satisfactory on one of those five autumn 1998 visits to Richmond.

Sperm Wars by David Lewis, Orange Tree Theatre, 3 October 1998

My log is silent on this one. I think we quite liked it but clearly didn’t rave about it. Our diaries add nothing. Not even the fact that, almost certainly, we went to Don Fernando afterwards for a Spanish meal.

The local gazette papers had a rave review for this piece:

Sperm Harrison GazettesSperm Harrison Gazettes 16 Oct 1998, Fri Ealing and Acton Gazette (Ealing, London, England) Newspapers.com

Nick Curtis in The Standard was less sure:

Sperm Curtis StandardSperm Curtis Standard 23 Sep 1998, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com