Drag-On by Emmanuel De Nasciemento & Local by Arzhang Pezhman, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 11 November 2000

This evening in the theatre was part of that year’s Royal Court “Exposure Young Writers 2000” programme. Janie and I were especially impressed by the second play we saw.

Dominic Cavendish agreed with our assessment, while being pretty impressed with all of it, including the pairing of plays we didn’t see.

Exposure Cavendish Telegraph Exposure Cavendish Telegraph 25 Oct 2000 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Rachel Thackray in The Guardian was less sure about all of it:

Exposure Thackray Guardian Exposure Thackray Guardian 21 Oct 2000 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Rachel Halliburton in the Standard pretty much agreed with us, liking both but especially liking Local.

Exposure Halliburton Standard Exposure Halliburton Standard 20 Oct 2000 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

We have subsequently seen a lot of plays on these subjects, but at that time the subject matter and style seemed, to us, very fresh and encouraging for British theatre.

The Novice by Jean-Paul Sartre, Almeida Theatre, 6 May 2000

Very good indeed,

I wrote, and no doubt it was. A fine cast, led by Jamie Glover, Natasha Little & Kenneth Cranham, directed by Richard Eyre, doing Sartre. Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry for this play/production.

Nicholas de Jongh wrote highly of it:

Novice de Jongh StandardNovice de Jongh Standard 11 May 2000, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Kate Bassett in the Telegraph also liked it:

Novice Bassett TelegraphNovice Bassett Telegraph 12 May 2000, Fri The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

But on this occasion, our friend, Michael Billington, disagreed with us, comparing The Novice unfavourably with a play at the Royal Court, Mr Kolpert, which we did not see, despite going to the theatre an infeasible number of times that May.

Novice Billington GuardianNovice Billington Guardian 13 May 2000, Sat The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com