Tag: Brendan Coyle

Battle Royal by Nick Stafford, Lyttelton Theatre, 11 December 1999

Our verdict on this one:

Had its moments.

That is not a rave review.

This production was awash with star names; Zoe Wanamaker, Simon Russell Beale, Gemma Jones, Suzanne Burden, Brendan Coyle, Matthew Macfadyen…

…directed by Howard Davies.

Here is the Theatricalia link for this play/production.

The production and talent on show was all very high quality – I don’t think the play did it for us.

It didn’t seem to please all the critics either. Nick Curtis in the Standard gave it the dreaded blob:

Battle Curtis StandardBattle Curtis Standard 10 Dec 1999, Fri Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Paul Taylor, in the Independent, also panned it.

Battle Taylor IndependentBattle Taylor Independent 10 Dec 1999, Fri The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

On the other hand, Charles Spencer in the Telegraph rather liked it:

Battle Spencer TelegraphBattle Spencer Telegraph 10 Dec 1999, Fri The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

But our charitable friend, Michael Billington, awarded it a rare mediocre two stars:

Battle Billington GuardianBattle Billington Guardian 11 Dec 1999, Sat The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

The Weir by Conor McPherson, Duke of York’s Theatre, 2 January 1999

With the Royal Court in exile, we missed the original “Upstairs” version of this at the Ambassadors. With all the stuff we had been dealing with in 1998, this one almost passed us by completely when it transferred “downstairs” to The Duke of York’s. So when the Duke of York’s production returned to that Royal Court “home in exile”, at the start of 1999, to kick off a major tour, we booked early and were there at the outset.

Excellent play and production

I wrote.

That was to say the least. It was truly memorable and awe-inspiring drama. No wonder many critics had fawned over it when it first came out in 1997.

Here’s John Gross in The Sunday Telegraph:

Weir Gross Sunday TelegraphWeir Gross Sunday Telegraph 13 Jul 1997, Sun Sunday Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Nicholas de Jongh thought that the Royal Court overdid Irish drama, but still liked this one:

Weir de Jongh StandardWeir de Jongh Standard 11 Jul 1997, Fri Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer thought it superb:

Weir Telegraph SpencerWeir Telegraph Spencer 14 Jul 1997, Mon The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

We saw a great cast and crew – most if not all the originals – Kieran Ahern, Brendan Coyle, Dermot Crowley, Michelle Fairley and Jim Norton acting, Ian Rickson directing. Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry for the production we saw. It was a privilege to have seen that production.