Tag: Christopher Godwin

This House by James Graham, Cottesloe Theatre, 22 September 2012

This was a bit unfortunate for us, as we were there for a preview and Phil Daniels had just been forced to pull out of the leading role, so we saw the understudy (Andrew Frame I think, although we might have had a temporary understudy our night) reading from the script.

Even so, I don’t think this was really our type of play.

The Cottesloe had been laid out like the House of Commons, with the audience on both sides forming the back benches.

The play is basically about the chaotic era of the hung parliament in the mid-to-late 1970s; not least the scheming of the whips to try to get some semblance of business done in trying times.

At the time of writing (March 2018) this seems like a hark back to halcyon days, but in 2012 I think we were supposed to be thinking, “thank goodness our 2012 coalition is so much saner and more stable – politics is just more mature now, isn’t it?”

Below is the trailer:

There were some amusing lines, but it was all a bit obvious and of course, as the case with all dramatisation of historical events, there was no suspense for us in the “what happens next” department because we lived through it all as youngsters.

As a play, it all felt a bit “tell” rather than “show”.

I have a lot of time for John Graham as a playwright but this one didn’t really do the business for us and I don’t think it was just the unfortunate understudy business – we’ve seen enough theatre to be able to adjust and allow for that.

We saw Beth (from downstairs) and her dad across the political divide; I discovered afterwards that they got more out of it than we did…

…as did most of the critics, who hailed the piece and the production – click here for a link to the reviews – so don’t listen to us.

The First Weekend Of 1986, Including Noises Off by Michael Frayn, Savoy Theatre

From The Daily Telegraph 13 January 1986, via my Newspapers.com subscription

Here’s the diary extract for that weekend starting with Friday:

Friday 3 January 1986 – Went in to the office this morning – finished Ashley’s files. Met Caroline for lunch – went to Effes [meaning Efes] – v pleasant. Had a lazy evening at home + a fairly early night.

I’d forgotten that I sometimes treated Efes in Great Titchfield Street as a lunch place in the Newman Harris Cavendish Square days. My recollection was as a “soak up the beer after work” place, as I said in my write up of the Z/Yen Seasonal Party there, many years after the 1986 visit:

Z/Yen Christmas Do At Efes Restaurant In Great Titchfield Street, 15 December 2000
Update: Caroline remembers Efes as a lunch place more comprehensively than I do – even recalling that her luncheon of choice was No 13- chicken shish. Extraordinary powers of recall, that.

Saturday 4 January 1986 – Lazyish day – went to the high road in afternoon to library etc after lazing for most of the morning. Petra came over late afternoon – went up to town – saw Noises Off – very funny evening, went for late Italian meal. Came back to stay + late night.

Despite having been going for best part of four years, Noises Off was still filling houses and still had an excellent cast: Christopher Godwin, Stephanie Cole, Hugh Paddick, Michael Cochrane, Colette Gleeson, Timothy Carlton, and others too numerous to make it onto the newspaper classifieds at the time. Probably my first sighting of those people and probably my first sight of a Michael Blakemore directed piece too.

I do recall finding the play very funny – especially the middle act. I am really glad to have seen the original production of Noises Off, albeit not the very first cast.

Sunday 5 January 1986 – Saw Petra off this morning – had a big Italian lunch with folks – watched an old movie in the afternoon and had a generally lazy time at home reading etc.

The old movie was The Four Feathers.