Tag: Dominic Hill

The House Among The Stars by Michel Tremblay, Orange Tree Theatre, 31 October 1998

Our Richmond-fest continued with this Canadian (or should I say Quebecois?) play. My log was pretty clear on our take:

Dreadful, we almost missed it due to bad weather and road condition, but still left at half time.

Nick Curtis in The Standard was kinder than that, although still awarded it a blob:

Tremblay Curtis StandardTremblay Curtis Standard 28 Oct 1998, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

The local Chronicles spoke highly of it:

Tremblay Starr ChroniclesTremblay Starr Chronicles 05 Nov 1998, Thu The Feltham Chronicle (Hounslow, London, England) Newspapers.com

No doubt Janie and I enjoyed our Don Fernando dinner afterwards, despite the play.

Ivanov by Anton Chekhov, Almeida Theatre, 1 March 1997

We loved this play and production.

In those days, Ralph Fiennes was one of my buddies as Lambton Place…

…OK, what I really mean is that I’d quite often see him there and we were nodding acquaintances.

Anyway, Fiennes was doing great theatre work in those days, not least at the Almeida, which was having a heyday under the joint leadership of Iain McDiarmid (also one of my nodding acquaintances in the Notting Hill neighbourhood back then, as it happens) and Jonathan Kent.

I wrote in my log:

Very good production. Ian McDiarmid near stole the show the night we went understudying as Kosykh.

Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry, which informs us that John cater was supposed to play Kosykh.

Anyway…

Charles Spencer loved it in The Telegraph:

Ivanov Spencer TelegraphIvanov Spencer Telegraph 20 Feb 1997, Thu The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Nicholas de Jongh was less sure in The Standard:

Ivanov, de Jongh, StandardIvanov, de Jongh, Standard 20 Feb 1997, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Paul taylor spoke highly of it in The Independent:

Ivanov, Taylor, IndependentIvanov, Taylor, Independent 21 Feb 1997, Fri The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

While my friend, Michael Billington, loved it:

Ivanov, Billington, GuardianIvanov, Billington, Guardian 20 Feb 1997, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

…as did we (have I mentioned that yet?) – then we left the country for a few weeks.

Bodies by James Saunders, Orange Tree Theatre, 24 August 1996

Not especially memorable, this one…

…I noted in my log.

Janie and I were very keen on The Orange Tree at that time and on the whole the plays and the productions were excellent. James Saunders is not the easiest playwright, though.

Here is a link to the Bodies page on the James Saunders website.

We saw a revival of the piece, which had been an early effort at the Orange Tree back in the 1970s. Sam Walters had directed the original version; Dominic Hill directed our revival – no doubt mentored by Sam at that time. Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry for the version we saw.

Here is the review from the Independent.

Bodies Adrian Turpin IndependentBodies Adrian Turpin Independent 25 Sep 1996, Wed The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Here is Nick Curtis’s review from The standard:

Bodies Nick Curtis StandardBodies Nick Curtis Standard 03 Sep 1996, Tue Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Each Day Dies with Sleep by José Rivera, Orange Tree Theatre, 8 July 1995

We thought this was a very good production. José Rivera was not a well known writer back then, pre Motorcycle Diaries, but we chose this on the back of interesting sounding subject matter and the quality of stuff we were getting at The Orange Tree, which was on a bit of a roll at that time.

From the bowels of my memory, I recalled it as sort of magical realism…

…so I was delighted to see that Michael Billington used that term in the first sentence of his review. At one point Billington suggests that the production was as if Tennessee Williams had been done over by Pedro Almodovar. No wonder we really liked it.

Billington on RiveraBillington on Rivera Wed, Jul 5, 1995 – 83 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

The Belle Of The Belfast City by Christina Reid, Orange Tree Room, 5 June 1993

Of the three plays Janie and I went to see at the Orange Tree Room together, before that “above the pub” bit of the Orange Tree empire closed down, this is the only one for which I still have the “programme” – i.e. sheet of paper:

Just as well I have the sheet, because, unlike Saigon Rose – click here or below…

Saigon Rose by David Edgar, Orange Tree Room, 20 March 1993

…I cannot find any reviews on-line.

Ian Angus Wilkie of NewsRevue fame once again found his way into the cast; he must have found favour with the Orange Tree folk back then and for good reason.

I was gutted that Ian Angus Wilkie didn’t list NewsRevue in his recent relevant experience – it had only been about a year before – perhaps less ( I have a feeling he did Edinburgh or Christmas that 1992 year). How could he hold back on reporting that career highlight?

All I wrote in my log for this one was that I thought it was a very good play/production – which was the way I felt about all the things we saw in that Orange Tree Room…but in truth this was the least memorable of the three, for me.