Tag: Diana Hardcastle

The Argument by William Boyd, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 19 March 2016

We love the Hampstead Theatre Downstairs. We love the upstairs too, of course, but we really have seen some cracking stuff downstairs.

This piece doesn’t really make the cut as “cracking stuff”. I enjoyed it more than Janie did; she found swathes of it irritating.

There’s not a great deal of plot. Young couple, compulsive arguers about nothing, fall out proper when the shrewish intellectual snob of a wife extracts a confession from the strangely timid yet BSD husband that he has been having an affair with some trollop through work.

Then wheel in the best friend of each spouse plus both of her parents and watch every plausible pairing (and some implausible ones) argue. Some scenes were genuinely laugh-out-loud funny; others were a little “smug sitcom” for our taste. What little plot there is progresses quite slowly and predictably.

It was good to see Michael Simkins (aka Fatty Batter – one of the funniest cricket books I have ever read) on the stage. Last time I saw him in person was at a county cricket match at Lord’s 10 years or so ago; he was with Michael Billington and we three chatted very pleasantly for a brief while.

Plenty of good acting on show, as is pretty much always the case down there at Hampstead. Indeed, in some ways it was the high quality of the acting that irritated Janie. The characters were all unlikable and the actors did a terrific job of projecting that unlike-ability. It is difficult for a play to work if you really don’t care much for any of the characters.

Still, we enjoyed our evening and in some ways the slight disappointment was based on the very high expectations we have now when visiting the Hampstead Theatre – what a huge leap forward from a few years ago when the whole place was in the creative doldrums. Edward Hall has done and is doing a cracking job there. We look forward to seeing the new Neil LaBute upstairs there in a few weeks’ time. I think we saw Mr LaBute himself crossing the Finchley Road while we were on the way to the theatre; quite possible as that upstairs show is still in preview. There’s another fellow we haven’t seen in person for a decade or so.

 

A Delicate Balance by Edward Albee, Almeida Theatre, 7 May 2011

A stellar cast for this Edward Albee revival.

Here is a link to the Almeida resource for this production.

Of course it was wonderfully well acted and the production was excellent, but I recall not being too enamoured of the play. It was quite long and wordy. I think you are supposed to feel trapped by the play, much as the characters are trapped in their circumstances.

On the whole the critics loved it – here is a search term that finds reviews and stuff.

I have also found an interesting vid that shows how the Almeida team transformed the place from The Knot Of The Heart into A Delicate Balance:

Remembrance Of Things Past by Marcel Proust, adapted by Harold Pinter & Di Trevis, Cottesloe Theatre, 17 November 2000

We were such groupies in those days – we leapt in early and went to see the opening night (i.e. the first preview) of this one, on a Friday.

So keen were we to make sure that we were psychologically and spiritually ready for the experience, we both took that Friday off work. OK, maybe we had some other things to do that day, such as try to jostle Gavin along into finishing the long overdue work in Clanricarde Gardens.

Anyway, this piece is about Proust’s Remembrance, not my rambling memories. The conceit of this production was a film script that Harold Pinter had written in the 1970s, adapting Proust’s epic into screenplay. That movie had never been made. Di Trevis liked the screenplay and helped further adapt it into a three-hour play, which she then directed.

Fabulous cast – including Duncan Bell, Sebastian Harcombe, Julie Legrand, Diana Hardcastle, David Rintoul and a young Indira Varma.

There was a buzz in the theatre world about this one ahead of time and I think it buzzed on for some time. It certainly transferred to the Olivier, but I think that had always been planned in to the deal.

We loved the Cottesloe (now Dorfman) and were very keen to see this one early.

I remember being very impressed by it. Janie thought it a bit long…

…try reading Proust, love…

…and/but I suspect that our preview ran longer than the scheduled three hours as some material was probably cut between previews and press night.

Some of the press gushed. Here’s Nicholas de Jongh:

Remembrance de Jongh Standard Remembrance de Jongh Standard 24 Nov 2000 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Paul Taylor was not so sure – liking much but disliking the freeze frames:

Remembrance Taylor Indy Remembrance Taylor Indy 24 Nov 2000 The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Dominic Cavendish positively found the whole thing mediocre – which is faint praise indeed:

Remembrance Cavendish Telegraph Remembrance Cavendish Telegraph 27 Nov 2000 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Our friend Michael Billington was balanced, mostly positive about it.

Remembrance Billington Guardian Remembrance Billington Guardian 25 Nov 2000 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

I must admit, I’ve made do with having seen this production and reading some passages in translation. The full one-and-a-quarter-million pages of the novel will have to wait – almost certainly for another life.

Thanks Harold, thanks Di.

New England by Richard Nelson, The Pit, 11 March 1995

We were spending a fair bit of time at The Pit in those days – our previous visit to the theatre was also to The Pit:

Easter by August Strindberg, The Pit, 25 February 1995

Haven’t been there for years – the RSC does so little modern stuff these days.

But back then they were packing The Pit with top notch names to act and direct, quite often in modern dramas.

New England was “superb” according to my log. Peter Gill directed it. Several really good names in it; David Burke, Angela Thorne, Mick Ford, Selina Cadell, Duncan Bell, Diana Hardcastle and Annie Corbier to be precise.

I also noted that:

Richard Nelson was in the audience that night for some reason, as it was well into the run.

Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry.

It transferred to New York later in 1995 with a different cast, getting this NYT notice. But I can’t find an on-line review for the version we saw.

It was superb – believe us…

…or believe this Michael Billington clipping:

Billington On New EnglandBillington On New England Thu, Dec 1, 1994 – 35 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

…or this Michael Coveney clipping:

Michael Coveney On Out Of A House & New EnglandMichael Coveney On Out Of A House & New England Sun, Dec 4, 1994 – 77 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

The School For Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Olivier Theatre, 19 May 1990

I thought this one was very good and I am pretty sure Bobbie thought so too.

An amazing cast directed by Peter Wood. Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry – feast your eyes on that list of names. the big draw names were Jane Asher, John Neville, Prunella Scales and Dennis Quilly, but there is a plethora of fine actors and actresses on that list, several on the up with small parts in this production. Also notable was Richard Bonneville, who played Charles Surface, and is latterly very well known as High Bonneville.

Michael Coveney in The Observer was not so keen on this:

Coveney on ScandalCoveney on Scandal Sun, Apr 29, 1990 – 54 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Nicholas de Jongh in The Guardian seemed to like it a bit better:

de Jongh on Scandalde Jongh on Scandal Thu, Apr 26, 1990 – 24 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com