Cottesloe Theatre – Page 3 – Ian Louis Harris

Happy Now? by Lucinda Coxon, Cottesloe Theatre, 9 February 2008

Unusually, we took Phillie to the theatre with us on this occasion. It must have been a long prearranged thing; I think Tony was doing one of his long business trips in the far east, so we had Phillie to stay for the weekend and it was planned far enough in advance for us to book a good Cottesloe production for us all to see.

This was a very good play/production. Funny, thought-provoking and very well acted. Great cast; not least Stanley Townsend, Olivia Williams and Dominic Rowan. Thea Sharrock, who had impressed us so much directing at the Gate, was starting to get higher profile gigs; this being an early example of one of those.

This award-winning play and production has a comprehensive Wikipedia entry – click here, which includes links to some of the better reviews.

Phillie, bless her, unaccustomed as she was to the theatre, was a bit “west-end theatre-ish” at first, talking as if she was in her living room watching TV, until Janie gave her “the look” a couple of times. I think Phillie enjoyed that theatre trip very much.

I’m pretty sure this was the occasion that, afterwards, we went on to Zinc Bar and Grill in Heddon Street. Now gone, I believe, a couple of reviews of that Conran place survive:

Anyway, Phillie really enjoyed herself that evening – she got quite tipsy at Zinc, as was her wont by then, but the important thing was that she had a good time.

Statement of Regret by Kwame Kwei-Armah, Cottesloe Theatre, 22 December 2007

We really loved Elmina’s Kitchen and also enjoyed Fix Up, both by Kwame Kwei-Armah when we saw them at the Cottesloe, so we thought this one would be a “must see”.

In truth, Statement of Regret was nowhere near as strong as the other plays, although it was worth the trip. This one was about a black think-tank on the brink of folding. Interesting subject matter but the play was a bit all over the place.

Even Michael Billington struggled to like it, even though he wanted to, here.

Philip Fisher in British Theatre Guide agrees – lots of interesting stuff but not a coherent play, here.

Still, Ricky in NYC really enjoyed it, here, and who are we to disagree?

The Enchantment by Victoria Benedictsson, Cottesloe Theatre, 11 August 2007

My recollection of this one is extremely limited. We saw this on the Saturday evening between my father’s death and the funeral. The programme helps my memory, as does Janie’s recall (also dredged with the help of the programme) and the reviews.

Victoria Benedictsson was a Swedish writer who had a difficult time as a modern woman in the early days of women’s liberation. She killed herself relatively young, but not before writing this loosely autobiographical play in the late 1880s. The play is now seen as a precursor to Scandinavian works such as Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler and A Doll’s House.

I note from the programme that Nancy Carroll played the lead; I subsequently discovered that she is an Alleyn’s alum; good for her. She is an excellent actress. I also spotted in the programme that Paul Miller (now taking the Orange Tree Richmond from strength to strength) directed this production. In the round too; good training for the Orange Tree.

It was clearly one of those slow build, late 19th century dramas. Probably just as well given my/our state of mind that weekend; a frantic, high octane play such as Cyprus Avenue – the piece we saw the other night as I write – would not have gone down well in the circumstances.

Clare Bayley, who wrote the version of the play which was performed in this production, has a good page on this project, including interviews and stuff, on her site – here. She also includes some good quotes from the critics in her piece.

Indeed, it seems to have gone down well enough with the critics that matter:

The Five Wives of Maurice Pinder by Matt Charman, Cottesloe Theatre, 7 July 2007

We quite liked this play, although I think we were more taken by the excellent production and cast than the play itself.

I think that means that we basically agreed with Michael Billington’s take on it – click here.

British Theatre Guide was luke warm – here.

Ditto the Stage – click here.

London Theatre summarises the other, mixed reviews.

The Reporter by Nicholas Wright, Cottesloe Theatre, 17 March 2007

I remember us both finding this piece about low-level BBC shenanigans interesting and enjoyable – despite a suicide forming the denouement (that is not a spoiler). I suspect, given subsequent events at the BBC, it would seem tame and much beside the point today.

I think I picked up the terms “cruel spectacles” and “waning powers”, both of which I use a fair bit, from this particular show.

Great cast, with Ben Chaplin, Paul Ritter, Bruce Alexander, Angela Thorne and Leo Bill really standing out.

Well directed by Richard Eyre and produced of course to RNT standards.

Reasonably well received by the critics – click here for a search term to find reviews.

It was worth seeing at the time for sure.

Rose by Martin Sherman, Cottesloe Theatre, 29 May 1999

Janie and I remember being really impressed by Olympia Dukakis’s performance in this one woman play, while finding the play itself “a bit much”.

To be fair, we were a bit numb that weekend – we had attended Jenny Jamilly’s funeral the day before and were possibly not in the mood for high drama. Let alone uber-Jewish high drama, nach.

We saw a preview late May although the play didn’t receive its press night until some four weeks later.

The critics seem to have sided with us viz the performance and the play. Here’s Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard:

Rose de Jongh Standard 25 Jun 1999, Fri Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Our friend Michael Billington similarly liked the performance but not the play:

Rose Billington Guardian 26 Jun 1999, Sat The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Only Charles Spencer in the telegraph, amongst the reviews I can find, lauded both the performance and the play:

Rose Spencer Telegraph 28 Jun 1999, Mon The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Sleep With Me by Hanif Kureishi, Cottesloe Theatre, 24 April 1999

We rated this piece very good. We saw it very early in the run – just a couple of days after press night so before reviews were out.

Excellent cast, including Jonathan Hyde, Sian Thomas, Peter Wight & Penny Downie – here is a link to the Theatricalia entry for this production.

Nicholas de Jongh in the Standard really liked it:

Sleep Standard de Jongh 23 Apr 1999, Fri Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Our friend, Michael Billington, didn’t much like it:

Sleep Billington Guardian 23 Apr 1999, Fri The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer, on the other hand, absolutely hated it:

Sleep Spencer Telegraph 26 Apr 1999, Mon The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Guiding Star by Jonathan Harvey, Cottesloe Theatre, 9 January 1999

The log is unusually silent about this event. Especially unusual, as I was regularly recording my thoughts, even if just solo word, at that time.

I suspect this means that we didn’t think much of the piece/production but didn’t want to rubbish it.

Our diaries are also silent on what we did afterwards, other than a note in Janie’s diary to expect the show to end no earlier than 10pm. I suspect we picked up shawarmas on our way home.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for this play/production.

Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard was quite vocal in not liking the play:

Guiding Star de Jongh Standard 12 Nov 1998, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

John Gross was similarly unimpressed in the Sunday Telegraph.

Guiding Gross Sunday Telegraph 15 Nov 1998, Sun Sunday Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Pidgin MacBeth by Ken Campbell, Cottesloe Theatre, 1 August 1998

This was a preview of a show Ken Campbell put on at The Piccadilly Thetre later that year.

I loved Ken Campbell’s work and I seem to recall a very funny monologue in one of his earlier one-man shows when he talked about his fascination with the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) and vaguely posited the idea of performing MacBeth in pidgin.

In this piece, Campbell goes into far more detail about the language and his desire to establish pidgin as a world language, or Wol Wontok, which he believed could be achieved in just a few days as the language is so easy.

Here is Ken Campbell’s Guardian piece shown on the back of the programme note above, in proper clipping/readable form:

Guardian Wol Nambawan 22 Jul 1998, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

The first part of the prodcution was fascinating and funny, but, in truth, Janie and I found the delivery of MacBeth in pidgin less funny than the idea of it being done.

Never mind. An evening in the hands of Ken Campbell is never dull and I remember this evening more fondly than my log note suggests I would:

Not as much fun as we thought it might be – the idea is funnier than the delivery

Somewhat strangely, through work, soon after seeing this play, I met Patrick Ellum, who was a former Attorney General of Vanuatu. Through Patrick, I met one of that nation’s visiting Prime Ministers and his entourage. No, I didn’t try out my pidgin on them, although I did ask them about the deification of Prince Philip in Tanna. Hopefully I’ll Ogblog that event in the fullness of time.

But I digress.

“Prince Philip” in pidgin was, “nambawan bigfella emi blong Misis Kwin“, by the way.

I digress again, but no more.

Lyn Gardner in the Guardian gave Pidgin Macbeth a guarded thumps up, while signally failing to translate The Bard’s name into pidgin properly – it’s “Macbed Blong Wilum Sekspia“, dear, not Sekstia – typical Grauniad: