Tag: Dominic Fraser

Three Days Of Rain by Richard Greenberg, Donmar Warehouse, 13 November 1999

After a hat trick of theatre visiting evenings during a short break period at the end of October…

Corpus Christi by Terrence McNally, Pleasance Theatre, 29 October 1999

…nada for a couple of weeks. We went to Kim & Mickey for dinner on Saturday 30 October, but then seemed to lie low socially and culturally for a fortnight. Janie’s diary suggests that she was working full pelt. Mine suggests that I was on a major report writing deadline or two, as I saw few clients and blocked out several half days and whole days for writing.

Then we went to the Donmar Warehouse to see this beauty of a play/production, which we both rated as:

Very good.

Great cast: Colin Firth, Elizabeth McGovern & David Morrissey. Directed by Robin Lefevre.

It had enjoyed a short run at the Donmar earlier in the year; we caught its autumn return. Janie booked it, so her diary reports that we sat in seats A24 & A25 and that she parted company with £48 in total. Thems was the days!

Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard shared our liking for this play/production:

Rain de Jongh StandardRain de Jongh Standard 03 Mar 1999, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

David Benedict in the Independent was less sure:

Rain Benedict IndependentRain Benedict Independent 03 Mar 1999, Wed The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer in The Telegraph really liked it:

Rain Spencer TelegraphRain Spencer Telegraph 04 Mar 1999, Thu The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Lynn Gardiner loved it in the Guardian:

Rain Gardiner GuardianRain Gardiner Guardian 06 Mar 1999, Sat The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Antigone by Sophocles, The Old Vic, 28 October 1999

For some reason, stuff at The Old Vic rarely works for us and this production of Antigone was no exception. It had been bigged-up in the media on the back of a big name cast, headed up by Tara Fitzgerald alongside Jonathan Hyde, Anna Calder-Marshall, Zubin Varla and several others, under the skilled direction of (and adaption by) Declan Donnellan.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for that production.

Janie and I didn’t think that Tara Fitzgerald suited that part, or indeed possibly the stage, but what do we know?

Nicholas de Jongh in the Standard gave it a blob:

Antigone Standard Old Vic Antigone Standard Old Vic 12 Oct 1999, Tue Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

On the other hand, Paul Taylor in The Independent liked it a lot:

Antigone Taylor IndependentAntigone Taylor Independent 12 Oct 1999, Tue The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Our friend, Michael Billington, in the Guardian, absolutely loved it:

Antigone Billington Guardian 1 of 2Antigone Billington Guardian 1 of 2 14 Oct 1999, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com Antigone Billington Guardian 2 of 2Antigone Billington Guardian 2 of 2 14 Oct 1999, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

More often than not, if the critics are divided, we side with Billington (Guardian) over Spencer (Telegraph), but Charles Spencer panned this production (perhaps more vociferously than our view). I’ll let him have the last word:

Antigone Spencer TelegraphAntigone Spencer Telegraph 13 Oct 1999, Wed The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Good by CP Taylor, Donmar Warehouse, Followed By Dinner At Zafferano, 20 March 1999

By gosh, we seemed to be specialising in previews of Nazi stuff that month, having been to see Speer at the Almeida a couple of weeks earlier:

Speer by Esther Vilar, Almeida Theatre, 6 March 1999

My log comment for Good was less complimentary than that for Speer:

Didn’t quite do the business for us.

Great cast, with Charles Dance, Emelia Fox, Ian Gelder, John Ramm and several other stalwarts under the direction of Michael Grandage.

It might not have done the business for us, but it sure did for Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard:

Good Standard de JonghGood Standard de Jongh 24 Mar 1999, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer in The Telegraph shared our sentiments:

Good Spencer TelegraphGood Spencer Telegraph 25 Mar 1999, Thu The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Anthony Holden in teh Observer also seemed equivocal in his praise:

Goood Holden ObserverGoood Holden Observer 28 Mar 1999, Sun The Observer (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

We ate at Zafferano after Good. Zaffs was very good indeed.

The Blue Room by David Hare, (adapted from Arthur Schnitzler), Donmar Warehouse, 26 September 1998

By gosh there was a fuss in the UK press about this one, with theatre journalists falling over themselves to heap praise, in particular on Nicole Kidman, essentially for looking the part and being able to act.

We had tickets for the first Saturday, because back then, as members of the Donmar, that was the sort of thing we did, especially if someone as grand as David Hare was credited with writing a whole new version of a play.

The play, originally known as La Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler, was highly controversial when it was written at the turn of the 20th century. There are 10 characters. David Hare’s version at Sam Mendes’s request at The Donmar (subsequently transferred to the Cort Theatre in New York) was not the first time the play was staged as a two-hander. It starred Iain Glen and Nicole Kidman.

Janie and I thoroughly enjoyed our evening, but probably for all the wrong reasons. My log comment speaks volumes:

Nice bodies, shame about the play.

Having been wowed by David Hare’s wonderful solo performance piece Via Dolorosa the week before…

Via Dolorosa by David Hare, Royal Court Theatre At The Duke Of York Theatre, 19 September 1998

…Janie and I found The Blue Room to be comparatively thin dramatic gruel.

Still, nice bodies as I (and the fawning journalists) said, plus a bizarre moment for me personally. Janie and I were sitting right at the front at one of the sides of the stage, as oft we did at the Donmar. As the stars took their final bow and departed the stage, Nicole Kidman seemed to look straight at me and wave at me with her fingers. One of Janie’s patients was in the audience that night and came up to us as we were leaving the theatre in a state of great excitement, because she had seen Nicole Kidman waving at me. The patient wondered whether I knew Nicole Kidman personally, to which my answer was, “not until this evening”.

25 years later, all I can say is that me and Nicole, we go back a long way.

Here are some of the fawning newspaper pieces. The Standard, seemingly without irony, devoted its Page 3 to the news & review. Frankly some of the language used in this Standard page would not be acceptable 25 years later:

Blue Room Standard Blue Room Standard 23 Sep 1998, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer in The Telegraph was blown away by Kidman’s bravura performance:

Blue Room Spencer TelegraphBlue Room Spencer Telegraph 23 Sep 1998, Wed The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

In the Guardian, there is a gushing piece in The Arts Diary which, like the other papers, probably would get heavily edited or spiked today, while our friend Michael Billington did the worthy thing and reviewed Our Country’s Good at The Young Vic instead. (Janie and I went to see that the following spring when it came back from its tour.)

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

A Kind Of Alaska, The Collection, The Lover by Harold Pinter, Donmar Warehouse, 13 June 1998

This was one heck of a good evening at the theatre. A triple-bill of Pinter. I think it was Janie’s and my first visit to the Donmar Warehouse, not least judging by the detailed notes Janie wrote down while booking this, including the full address etc.

Janie paid £15 a ticket for Row C centre stalls. Not bad to say the least, even if £15 was real money in 1998. In those days, the Donmar was still regarded (and priced) as fringe. Janie noted the following timings:

  • A Kind Of Alaska 7.00 to 7.50;
  • Interval 25 minutes;
  • The Collection 8.15 to 9.10;
  • Interval 25 minutes;
  • The Lover 9.30 to 10.25.

What a cast…or should I say, what casts – as this triple bill had a separate cast for the first play and then one cast for both the second and third.

A Kind of Alaska starred Penelope Wilton, Bill Nighy & Brid Brennan.

The Collection starred Harold himself (always good value as an actor as well as a playwright & director), Douglas Hodge, Lia Williams & Colin McFarlane. The latter three also starred in the Lover.

We thought all three plays excellent and the whole production top notch.

Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard only really liked the first play:

de Jongh Standard Pintersde Jongh Standard Pinters 14 May 1998, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Our friend Michael Billington clearly liked all three, although he did share de Jongh’s view that three Pinters in one night was possibly a Pinter too many:

Billington Guardian PintersBillington Guardian Pinters 14 May 1998, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer also deemed three to be one too many, but unlike de Jongh, Spencer didn’t like the first and did like the other two:

Spencer Telegraph PintersSpencer Telegraph Pinters 15 May 1998, Fri The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Oh well. We were happy.

The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard & Black Comedy by Peter Shaffer, Richmond Theatre, 11 April 1998

Whose brilliant idea was it to pair The Real Inspector Hound with Black Comedy? Well, if I’m not totally mistaken The Bear Pit at Alleyn’s School did so back in the mid 1970s. It worked well then (I shall write up The Bear Pit production in the fullness of time) and it worked well nearly 25 years later, in the late 1990s, too.

Superb evening…

…was my take on it in my log. How could it not be – what a cast! Desmond Barrit, David Tennant, Nichola McAuliffe, Sara Crowe, Anna Chancellor…and Greg Doran directing.

Here’s a link to the Theatricalia entry.

We saw a preview at Richmond the week before the show opened at The Comedy Theatre.

Nicholas de Jongh voted it “good” in The Standard:

Real Inspector Black Comedy de Jongh StandardReal Inspector Black Comedy de Jongh Standard 23 Apr 1998, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Michael Billington in The Guardian was very keen on it:

Real Inspector Black Comedy Guardian BillingtonReal Inspector Black Comedy Guardian Billington 23 Apr 1998, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

While The Independent previewed the event the morning after our visit wondering, over three pages, whose brilliant idea it was to pair these two short plays? (The Bear Pit at Alleyn’s School. Do you arts journos know nothing?)

Hound Black Indy Butler 1 of 3Hound Black Indy Butler 1 of 3 12 Apr 1998, Sun The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com Hound Black Indy Butler 2 of 3Hound Black Indy Butler 2 of 3 12 Apr 1998, Sun The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com Hound Black Indy Butler 3 of 3Hound Black Indy Butler 3 of 3 12 Apr 1998, Sun The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com