In my log, we rated this one:
excellent.
Janie’s diary reminds me that we had dinner the night before with Jamil and Suad Amyuni at Home House, which was also a very memorable evening in its own way.
Janie’s diary also notes, beside Far Away
1/2 hour.
It was short, but not quite that short. I know we saw a preview, but I trust my memory and the reviews that, even the preview, ran to more than 45 minutes, but probably less than an hour.
I had first seen Linda Bassett in A Place With the Pigs:
There is a lovely interview piece with Linda Bassett about this production, which I found whilst rummaging for reviews:
Bassett Feature Standard 4 Dec 2000 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Fabulous cast – not only Linda Bassett but also Kevin McKidd and Katherine Tozer, directed by Stephen Daldry. I only realise now what a hot ticket this must have been and how privileged we are/were, as Royal Court members, to grab hot tickets like this before they all got grabbed.
Predictably, Charles Spencer didn’t think much of it – he didn’t tend to get Caryl Churchill:
Far Away Spencer Telegraph 5 Dec 2000 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Whereas Irving Wardle in the Sunday telegraph wrote highly of it:
Far Away Wardle Sunday Telegraph 3 Dec 2000 Sunday Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard got it:
Far Away de Jongh Standard 1 Dec 2000 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Rhoda Koenig was not so sure:
Far Away Koenig Indy 1 Dec 2000 The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Even giving the casting vote to our friend Michael Billington doesn’t really help, as Billy-o gives the production four stars but his review is somewhat equivocal.
Far Away Billington Guardian 1 Dec 2000 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Strangely, the productions that tend to float our boats the most tend to split the reviewer jury. I guess Janie and I like controversial stuff. And as the now late (25 years on) Jamil Amyuni once famously put it in a different context:
why the bloody hell shouldn’t we?