Tag: Antonia Castle

The Good Person of Sichuan by Bertolt Brecht, Orange Tree Theatre, 3 February 1996

Janie had never seen this play before and The Orange Tree was on a bit of a roll with us, so we decided to give this a go.

Given the scale of the piece, I thought we’d try sitting upstairs rather than downstairs for once. It was just for once, because we didn’t find upstairs very comfortable – less leg room and peering down didn’t please us.

I had seen a cracking good production of “Good Person” with Bobbie at the National a few years earlier:

The Good Person of Sichuan by Bertolt Brecht, Olivier Theatre, 3 March 1990

In truth. the Orange Tree was probably biting off a bit more than it could chew attempting such a large-scale piece in the round, but Sam Walters obcviously wanted to have a go.

We enjoyed the production. I think Janie got more out of it than I did because she hadn’t seen the play before and didn’t have a big production with which to compare it.

No newspaper reviews to be found but I did find this interview/preview by Carol Woddis on TES. That piece is scraped to here just in case that link disappears.

Each Day Dies with Sleep by José Rivera, Orange Tree Theatre, 8 July 1995

We thought this was a very good production. José Rivera was not a well known writer back then, pre Motorcycle Diaries, but we chose this on the back of interesting sounding subject matter and the quality of stuff we were getting at The Orange Tree, which was on a bit of a roll at that time.

From the bowels of my memory, I recalled it as sort of magical realism…

…so I was delighted to see that Michael Billington used that term in the first sentence of his review. At one point Billington suggests that the production was as if Tennessee Williams had been done over by Pedro Almodovar. No wonder we really liked it.

Billington on RiveraBillington on Rivera Wed, Jul 5, 1995 – 83 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Retreat by James Saunders, Orange Tree Theatre, 3 June 1995

I rated this two-hander with Tim Pigott-Smith & Victoria Hamilton as superb at the time, so it must have been quite special.

I cannot find much about it on the web, but this page from the James Saunders website helps, with a good description of the piece and some nice quotes from the notices. If anything ever happens to that site, I have scraped the page to here.

So this turned out to be James Saunders’ last play and I think the only one of his that was premiered in the new Orange Tree Theatre by Sam Walters (several of the earlier ones had premiered above the pub).

It must have been this play that made me seek out James Saunders’ work subsequently, but in truth his earlier work, especially the absurdist pieces, were far less to my taste than this gripping, psychological two-hander.

Michael Billington reviewed it and really liked it. I say that with some surprise, as for some reason the James Saunders’ website doesn’t have a quote from Billington.

Billington on RetreatBillington on Retreat Wed, May 17, 1995 – 33 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

I’m so glad Janie and I saw this. I wonder whether it is due a revival; I’d need to re-read it but I sense it is in many ways timeless.

The Memorandum by Vaclav Havel, Orange Tree Theatre, 8 April 1995

Consternation! Consternation!!

The log says:

I quite liked it, but Janie and The Duchess hated it.

The Duchess is Janie’s mum, Pauline. You don’t mess with Pauline. If she hates a play, it is a hateful play. End of.

What was I thinking?

I recall it was a bit of an absurdist, farcical piece – Havel’s like that.

Not much to find about it on-line. No Theatricalia. No reviews…

…except for this newspaper clipping:


Kate Kellaway’s review, Observer, 9 April 1995 Sun, Apr 9, 1995 – 78 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

I believe I placated The Duchess by taking her and Janie to Don Fernando for a decent meal afterwards.

Temporary ceasefire, not armistice.