Tag: Annie Smart

The Skriker by Caryl Churchill, Cottesloe Theatre, 26 March 1994

A strange play, this. Here is a link to its Wikipedia entry. Writing about it 25 yrars later, it seems in some ways more relevant now than it did then, as evidenced by the several revivals of it in recent years.

According to my log, Janie and I both found the play and the original RNT production we saw very good. Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry for that production.

The wonderful Kathryn Hunter was in it. As was Richard Katz, who had, at that time, fairly recently done a grand job with my material in NewsRevue. I’m pretty sure it was Richard who belted this one, for example:

Designer, NewsRevue Lyric, 5 January 1993

I’m struggling to find reviews, but this preview from the Independent is interesting.

Here is a clipping from The Guardian:

Billington On The SkrikerBillington On The Skriker Sat, Jan 29, 1994 – 24 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

While here is a 79 page doctoral thesis about this play, which posits that our whole political and social system comprises patriarchal binary oppositions. So there.

And there was Janie and I thinking that we’d spent an evening seeing an interesting play by Caryl Churchill performed exceptionally well. What simple souls we were/are.

Black Snow by Keith Dewhurst, Cottesloe Theatre, 15 June 1991

I don’t really remember much about this one, which suggests it was not so memorable an evening at the theatre.

Bobbie might remember it better, but I doubt it.

Excellent cast of National Theatre usual suspects. Ron Cook, Marion Bailey, Sally Rogers, Paul Moriarty, Peter Wight, Gillian Barge, Karl Johnson and many others. William Gaskill directed. The Theatricalia entry for this one can be found here.

Michael Coveney absolutely loved it in The Observer:

Coveney on Black SnowCoveney on Black Snow Sun, Apr 28, 1991 – 56 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Michael Billington also thought it was well worth seeing.

Billington on Black SnowBillington on Black Snow Sat, Apr 27, 1991 – 21 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

I think there was just too much going on for me. Wonderful acting and all that, but I struggled to engage with it. My bad.

Man Beast And Virtue by Luigi Pirandello, Cottesloe Theatre, 7 October 1989

My log says “little recollection” for this one, so I guess it didn’t make a big impression. Bobbie was with me.

Pirandello is one of those playwrights whose work I want to like more than actually do like. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that I tend to enjoy reading his plays, because the ideas are fascinating, but many of them are difficult to produce in an entertaining way – at least to the eyes of the modern audience.

Man, Beast And Virtue is an early Pirandello, written in 1919 (100 years ago as I write in 2019), about two years before his breakthrough play, Six Characters In Search Of An Author.

A relatively straightforward, slightly farcical, love-triangle piece, there is a synopsis of the 1950s film version, in somewhat broken English at the time of writing, on Wikipedia.

Trevor Eve played Paolino, the lover, Terence Rigby played Captain Perella and Marion Bailey (best known for her Mike Leigh connections both professionally and privately) played Mrs Perella. William Gaskill directed. Charles Wood had written a new adaptation of the play fro this production. A fine supporting cast too – here is the Theatricalia entry.

So did all that research just now bring the experience flooding back to me? Ever so slightly yes…but basically no.

Probably not really my type of play. I do recall the setting being very imaginative and a sense that I felt entertained for the evening.

Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review:

Billington on Man BeastBillington on Man Beast Sat, Sep 9, 1989 – 21 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Michael Ratcliffe in The Observer thought little of it:

Ratcliffe on Man BeastRatcliffe on Man Beast Sun, Sep 10, 1989 – 46 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Perhaps Bobbie remembers something more about it?

The Father by August Strindberg, Cottesloe Theatre, 15 October 1988

Oh I do love a bit of Strindberg and this was an especially memorable production of one of Strindberg’s best plays. Not familiar with the play? – Wikipedia can help – click here.

A Saturday evening with Bobbie at the National.

I rated this one “very good indeed” in my log.

We saw a preview of this one. The press night is listed some 10 days after our preview, so we must have seen one of the first previews.

A fine cast – set out in Theatricalia.com if you click here. Alun Armstrong as The Captain. The late lamented Susan Fleetwood as Laura.

At the time of writing, strangely, I have recently seen Alun Armstrong again, I think for the first time in those 30 years, in The Cane at the Royal Court:

The Cane by Mark Ravenhill, Royal Court Theatre, 8 December 2018

But returning to the Father I remember the production and Armstrong’s performance clearly – both really were memorably good.

Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review:

Billington on The FatherBillington on The Father Fri, Oct 28, 1988 – 35 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Michael Ratcliffe’s Observer review:

Michael ratcliffe on The FatherMichael ratcliffe on The Father Sun, Nov 6, 1988 – 43 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com