Tag: Chris Thompson

Of Kith And Kin by Chris Thompson, Bush Theatre, 28 October 2017

Another night at the theatre, another enjoyable evening despite a rather messy play.

We enjoyed Of Kith And Kin, especially once the narrative got past the rather sitcom meets soap opera first act. There were interesting issues and a nice mixture of comedy, tension and tragedy.

But my goodness did we have to suspend belief a lot at times. No amount of desperation, deep-seated psychological damage and troubled back story would, in my view, lead a solicitor to behave as Daniel behaves at times in the second and third acts.

The acting felt a bit patchy too. All three female parts were very well-expressed but the central (male) couple felt a bit weak at times. Perhaps it was the play. Perhaps it was the way the play was directed.

The Bush has published a trailer on YouTube:

The Bush anchor and details can be found by clicking here.

I’ll guess the play will get/is getting mixed reviews – this search term should find whatever is out there whenever you come to look.

Still, we had a good evening.

We met again the nice young chap who sat next to us and chatted with us at The Gate the other week, serving behind the bar at The Bush.

We tried a very tasty Thai takeaway from the Sisters Cafe in Pitshanger Lane after the show.

Albion by Chris Thompson, Bush Theatre, 13 September 2014

Gosh this was a powerful piece about a fictitious far right group in East London, centred around an enthusiasm for karaoke as well as unpalatable politics.

Really well written, excellent performers and well directed too.

It reminded us why we like the Bush so much…if for some reason we needed reminding.

Here is a link to the Bush resource on this play/production.

Below is the trailer:

The reviews were good, but the critics were not as unequivocally impressed with this piece as we were – click here for a link to a search term for the reviews.

This was a challenging piece that mad us think and question some of our preconceptions. Perhaps that made it harder for the reviewers. Me and Daisy – for sure we’re up for this sort of thing.

Corpus Christi by Terrence McNally, Pleasance Theatre, 29 October 1999

An unprecedented hat trick of evenings at the theatre concluded with this piece. Little did we know when we booked it that this to be a highly controversial play.

Here’s a newspaper clipping from the following day:

Corpus Christi FatwaCorpus Christi Fatwa 30 Oct 1999, Sat The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Perhaps we should have known, as apparently it had been hugely controversial when first produced in the USA a couple of years earlier.

In truth, we didn’t think all that much of the play and production.

Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard liked it:

corpus de Jongh Standardcorpus de Jongh Standard 29 Oct 1999, Fri Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

No-one else seems to have reviewed it. The other papers seemed obsessed with news of the play’s controversy rather than the play itself, which is a a shame.

I recall that we rather liked the Pleasance Theatre but not its location.

We had been traipsing around that day, having been to the City for a do (neither of us can remember) and then a stop off to see some oriental art at the British Museum before The Pleasance. Would we have the energy for all that 25 years later? Would we have the energy for a hat-trick of evenings at the theatre?