Tag: Dominic Cooke

The Low Road by Bruce Norris, Royal Court Theatre, 23 March 2013

Gosh, this one didn’t really work for us, although we thought it would. We like Bruce Norris’s plays and the Royal Court was serving up a stellar collection of cast and creatives.

Here is a link to the Royal Court resource for this production.

To some extent we were unlucky – we’d booked an early preview and the mechanically complicated set had encountered some technical problems. We were kept waiting 30 minutes or more for a delayed start…

…for a play that we knew was quite long anyway…

…and at that time we were more easily pleased by short, sharp (and possibly less challenging) pieces.

But the other problem I had with this piece was the rather obvious way that points about the financial crisis and subsequent political/economic responses were rather obviously rammed down our throats.

Also, the play latched onto one of my bugbears which is the misrepresentation of Adam Smith’s subtle body of work into an unkind representation of all that is coldly economic.

It all felt a bit “tell rather than show”, which detracted from the drama, which is probably why the Drama 101 text book suggests “show rather than tell”.

Below is the trailer vid…

…and below this line is a behind the scenes vid:

It was all very clever and the cast was excellent, but by half time – pushing towards 22:00 already, we decided to give the second half a miss. After all, I had the script in my hand and could pretty well work out what was likely to happen.

Decidedly mixed reviews – really divided the critics, this piece – this link will take you to a search term that finds the reviews good and bad.

In The Republic Of Happiness by Martin Crimp, Royal Court Theatre, 22 December 2012

Janie and I can do weird.

Janie and I can do Martin Crimp.

Janie and I can do Martin Crimp weird…

…but this one was just the wrong side of weird for us. Think impenetrable.

Super cast and beautifully produced, but what the blithering heck was it about?

Here is a link to the Royal Court Resource for this play/production.

Below is the trailer for the piece:

On the whole the critics didn’t get it either – here is a link to a search term that finds the reviews.

I have a copy of the play if anyone wants to seek enlightenment from reading that, let me know. I challenge you.

Tucked into my copy of the play is a short script for something else – I think it is a sample from one of Simon David’s pieces – quite impenetrable without context – clearly it was that sort of night.

In Basildon by David Eldridge, Royal Court Theatre, 3 March 2012

This was our first theatre visit after returning from Vietnam in February.

A really good one too.

Here is a link to the Royal Court stub for this piece.

We rate David Eldridge highly as a playwright. Here was a superb cast and Dominic Cooke himself directing.

We really enjoyed this play and production.

The critics on the whole loved this piece – click here for a search term that finds the reviews.

Below is a link to the trailer:

Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris, Royal Court Theatre, 4 September 2010

I was really taken with this play and production by the excellent Bruce Norris, about racial tension in a Chicago neighbourhood across the generations. It is witty and thought provoking in equal measure, tackling difficult topics with clarity and sensitivity.

Superb cast and this style of play marries well with Dominic Cooke’s style of direction.

Janie liked it too, but was a little less impressed than me.

Here is the Royal Court resource on this play/production.

It got rave reviews, west end transfer, revivals and all sorts – deservedly so. So you need to look through the reviews in the following link – click here – with care and choose the ones dated around September 2010 to see reviews of the actual production we saw – but you might want to look at reviews generally – in which case dip away with reckless abandon.

The Fever by Wallace Shawn, Royal Court Theatre, 4 April 2009

I saw Wallace Shawn perform this piece in early 1991, at the Cottesloe, with Bobbie.

The Fever by Wallace Shawn, Cottesloe Theatre, 9 February 1991

But Janie hadn’t seen it before and Clare Higgins is a cracking good actress.

Also, in the post crash times that were late 2008/early 2009 when we booked to see this production, I thought the piece might have a different, meaningful resonance.

In many ways it did.

Yet it wasn’t quite the same thing as seeing Wallace Shawn perform it himself. How could it be?

Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco, Royal Court Theatre, 6 October 2007

I’ve liked this play for almost as long as I can remember; certainly since school. Janie and I saw a quirky production of this at the Lyric Hammersmith years ago, but I thought this version at the Royal Court, translated by playwright Martin Crimp might have a bit extra. It did.

Benedict Cumberbatch was a young actor on the “one to watch” list in those days; now (writing in 2016) one might pay good money to avoid him – simply because of extreme overexposure to his manifest talent, you understand.

The above link (or click here if you prefer) takes you to the Royal Court archive, which has the who’s who and excellent reviews, saving me time and effort. But the absence of Michael Billington’s name in the Royal Court resource led me to suspect that Billi-o didn’t like it and I was right – click here for his review.

Philip Fisher in British theatre Guide (also unmentioned) did like it – click here.

 

 

The Pain and the Itch, Bruce Norris, Royal Court Theatre, 22 June 2007

We really enjoyed this play.  I think it was the first Bruce Norris play we saw and it certainly motivated us to look out for his plays.

We were due to see it on Saturday 23 June, but then realised that the only Saturday that made sense for a Worm family birthday celebration was that Saturday. The Royal Court very kindly swapped the seats for us at no charge, despite my insistence that the booking error was my fault. “That’s what friends are for,” was the response. I wish more arts organisations treated the term “friend” thus.

Excellent cast, with Matthew Macfadyen, Andrea Riseborough and Amanda Boxer perhaps the most memorable.

The Royal Court archive tells it all, including substantial extracts from the mostly excellent reviews – click here.

The Changeling by Thomas Middleton & William Rowley, RSC Swan Theatre, 29 October 1992

Here is the Theatricalia entry for this production.

This was the first of two plays Janie and I went to see on our first long weekend away together in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

I had seen The Changeling before, at the RNT in 1988, thought highly of it as a Jacobean revenge tragedy and thought Janie might like it. I didn’t yet realise that she was not so keen on classics/old plays. I’m not sure she realised it yet either.

My log reports:

Not quite to Janie’s taste – I rather liked it.

It was a superb production. Looking through the cast and creatives list you can see why. Cheryl Campell as Beatrice-Joanna, Malcolm Storry as De Flores, Michael Attenborough directing. Also a stellar list of youngsters who would break through in their own right later; Sophie Okeonedo, Barnaby Kay, Dominic Cooke (assisting Attenborough). Even Tracy-Ann Oberman (prior to her NewsRevue & SportsRevue days) puts in an appearance as an inmate of the asylum.

The Swan is an ideal venue for this type of play, much better than the Lyttleton. Very high production quality both times though – hard for me to rank one production above the other.

There’s a picture from The Swan production in a Guardian Gallery – click here and scroll down – but no on-line reviews of course.

Below is Michael Coveney’s Observer review:

Changeling, Antony & Cleopatra, Michael Coveney

Changeling, Antony & Cleopatra, Michael Coveney Sun, Nov 8, 1992 – 57 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review:

Changeling, Antony & Cleopatra Michael Billington