Blue Heart: Heart’s Desire & Blue Kettle by Caryl Churchill, Royal Court Downstairs At Duke of York’s Theatre, Followed By Dinner At Nobu, 4 October 1997

Our take on this:

Interesting (weird) evening. Programme missing – only insert sheet.

Actually the programme might turn out to be a play text which might turn up somewhere on my bookshelves.

I wouldn’t mind reading these plays again. This was Caryl Churchill in impenetrable mood.

Gabrielle Blunt, Jacqueline Defferary, Karina Fernandez, Bernard Gallagher, Valerie Lilley, Mary Macleod and Jason Watkins, directed by Max Stafford-Clark.

Paul Taylor in The Independent was impressed:

Blue Heart Taylor IndyBlue Heart Taylor Indy 25 Sep 1997, Thu The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Nick Curtis from The Standard reviewed it a few week’s earlier in Edinburgh, also finding it good:

Blue Heart Curtis StandardBlue Heart Curtis Standard 22 Aug 1997, Fri Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

We are all agreed them – weird but good.

Dinner At Nobu

Then on to Old Park Lane Nobu for dinner. That place was the latest “in place to dine” back then, so we were keen to try it. Who’d have thought that, 25 years later, the signature black cod in miso dish would be something we can obtain from our local (Japanese) fishmonger and serve at home?

This was a couple of years before the Old Park Lane Nobu became infamous for Boris Becker’s broom cupboard romp and many years before Boris ended up in jail.

In 1997, Nobu had just opened to rave reviews. Here’s Fay Maschler in The Standard:

Nobu Maschler StandardNobu Maschler Standard 25 Feb 1997, Tue Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Helen Fielding in The Independent also waxed lyrical in amusing fashion about Nobu

Nobu Fielding IndyNobu Fielding Indy 09 Mar 1997, Sun The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

That was a lot of sensory stimulation for one evening – Caryl Churchill followed by Nobu. My guess is that Janie was very keen to try the place but could only get a late evening booking, so it sort of made sense to go after theatre.

To add to the excitement, we did it all again (in terms of theatre followed by dinner out) the very next day:

The Fancy Man by Mike Stott, Hampstead Theatre, 17 August 1988

Hmm – I really don’t remember this one. A midweek visit to the Hampstead Theatre with Bobbie. Nothing in the log other than a record of the fact that we went.

And the programme.

Most Mike Stott plays have more “on the record”/on-line than this one. I’m going to guess it didn’t do so well.

A grim -sounding Pennines story about a young man who strangles his wife a year or so after they married. He was more a comedy man, was Mike Stott, but perhaps this grim story turns to comedy.

Ian Mercer and Julia Lane playing the leads.

No reviews to be found, just listings and this type of clipping:

Fancy Man Fringe clipFancy Man Fringe clip Mon, Aug 15, 1988 – 31 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

I couldn’t even find out that much about Mike Stott, apart from the fact that he was the author of Funny Peculiar – but I did find this obituary for him – click here.

I’m going to guess that we didn’t get a great deal out of this one. perhaps the diary will reveal more – e.g. why we went/whether or not we went with some other people that evening.