Tag: David Fielder

Fathers And Sons by Brian Friel, after the novel by Ivan Turgenev, Donmar Warehouse, 26 July 2014

The programmes hadn’t arrived, so (most unusually for the Donmar) we got a simple black and white printed A4 foldy. Standards.

The play was very good indeed, though, as was the cast. The usual high production values for the Donmar too.

Here is a link to the wonderful Behind The Scenes material which Donmar has now put on the web for interested folk to download.

A bit slow, but then this IS a 19th century Russian story and it IS Brian Friel, whom we like very much, btw.

The critics on the whole shared our enjoyment of it – click here for a link to reviews.

In short, this was a good’n.

Our Country’s Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker, Richmond Theatre, 19 June 1999

This production began its life at The Young Vic in the autumn of 1998, wending its way to several regional theatres before returning to London in 1999, when we saw it at The Richmond Theatre.

Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry for this production.

In 1998, I was busy getting friendly with Nicole Kidman in the Blue Room while Michael Billington was reviewing Our Country’s Good:

Blue Room & Our Country's Good Guardian BillingtonBlue Room & Our Country’s Good Guardian Billington 19 Sep 1998, Sat The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

But I digress.

Fascinating piece about the production in the Telegraph by Charles Spencer. Joe White assisted Max Stafford-Clark directing this piece after release from Wormwood Scrubbs:

Spencer Our Country's Good Joe White TelegraphSpencer Our Country’s Good Joe White Telegraph 15 Sep 1998, Tue The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Janie might have got more out of this production had she known all that and had she known then what she knows now about rehabilitation of former prisoners…or lack thereof.

Our verdict on this piece/production at the time:

I liked it more than Janie did

Possibly it helped that I know (and like) The Recruiting Officer better than Janie does/did.

The cast no doubt changed over the year or so it toured, but we saw David Fielder, Stuart McQuarrie, David Beames, Fraser James, Ian Redford, Mali Harries, Ashley Miller, Sally Rogers and Michele Austin. Not bad.

I have no doubt that we ate at Don Fernando’s afterwards…and why not? Well, 25 years later, we couldn’t because the place has now closed down.