We were tending to book RNT things in preview or very early in runs, so this was an unusually late visit to see this one – perhaps we couldn’t get the seats we wanted until later or perhaps we missed it in the first block of dates.
Anyway, we thought this was “very good”.
One of our favourite troupes, Théâtre de Complicité, was responsible for this one. Juliet Stevenson played the lead along with Simon McBurney who also directed. The Theatricalia entry can be found here.
This was the first of those “in the round” productions that the RNT did at The Olivier while it was being refurbished.
Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard was not too keen on it:
Caucasian de Jongh Standard 22 Apr 1997, Tue Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.comCharles Spencer in the Telegraph imagined that his cordial loathing of this show would be a minority view:
Caucasian Spencer Telegraph 23 Apr 1997, Wed The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.comPredictably, then, our friend Michael Billington loved it:
Caucasian Billington Guardian 23 Apr 1997, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.comBut Robert Butlet in The Independent didn’t much like it either:
Caucasian Butler Indy 27 Apr 1997, Sun The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.comOh well.