Bobbie and I had been blown away by The Pope’s Wedding before Christmas…
…we were very keen indeed to see the companion piece for this Edward Bond revival, Saved. I’m not sure how Bobbie managed to score tickets for this, but she must have found a way. Perhaps we queued up for the release of top notch cheap seats on the day, but I do recall that, once again, we were in excellent seats near the front and utterly absorbed by being there.
I waxed lyrical about the stellar cast in the piece about The Pope’s Wedding. Same cast for Saved, but different director – Danny Boyle no less.
And when I say “stellar cast” I really do mean stellar cast: Peter Lovstrom, Adrian Dunbar, Mark Wingett, Tony Rohr, Peter-Hugo Daly, Lesley Manville, June Watson, Gary Oldman, Joanne Whalley, Gerard Horan…
…here is the Theatricalia entry for this production.
To cut a long story short, we were blown away again. It is a truly shocking paly – no less shocking for knowing in advance what is coming in the ultraviolent ending.
Michael Ratcliffe in the Observer loved it:
Saved Ratcliffe Observer 23 Dec 1984, Sun The Observer (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
My friend to be, Michael Billington, also spoke very highly of this production:
Saved Billington Guardian 21 Dec 1984, Fri The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
John Barber in the Telegraph was less effusive but still very positive:
Saved Barber Telegraph 21 Dec 1984, Fri The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Milton Shulman in the Standard also concurred – this was great stuff.
Saved Shulman Standard 21 Dec 1984, Fri Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com