I should describe this as “the weekend of the playwright Rezas”, shouldn’t I, having seen Reza de Wet’s play Crossings on the Friday…
…we ventured to the Almeida for Yazmina Reza’s much anticipated follow up to Art…except it turned out to be an earlier play, not a subsequent one.
I wrote nothing in the log about this one, and sense that we weren’t overly impressed, but nor were we especially disappointed. I remember little about it other than it being a very high-end Almeida cast and production.
Paul Higgins, Amanda Root, Clare Holman, Claire Bloom, Matthew Marsh & David Calder were the cast. Howard Davies directed it. Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry.
Let’s see what the pundits had to say.
Susannah Clapp was not impressed, other than with Claire Bloom:
Burial Clapp Observer 17 Sept 2000 The Observer (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
On the other hand, John Gross in the Sunday Telegraph really liked it:
Burial Zinc Gross Sunday Telegraph 17 Sept 2000 Sunday Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Nicholas de Jongh also talks up Claire Bloom while damning the production with faint praise:
Burial de Jongh Standard 13 Sept 2000 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Casting vote to our friend Michael Billington, who liked its Chekhovian quality:
Burial Billington Guardian 13 Sept 2000 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com