Tag: Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa

Nightingale And Chase by Zinnie Harris, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 29 September 2001

Janie and I had been most impressed by Zinnie Harris’s Further Than the Furthest Thing the previous year…

Further Than The Furthest Thing by Zinnie Harris, Cottesloe Theatre, 7 October 2000

…so made a bee-line for Zinnie Harris’s next play – this time at the Royal Court.

The subject matter of Nightingale and Chase – a woman being released from prison, was very interesting. I’m not sure this one quite worked as theatre, though.

Mark Cook gave it a short plug in the Guardian:

Nightingale Cook Guardian Nightingale Cook Guardian 22 Sept 2001 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Jasper Rees, meanwhile, wrote an interesting piece about Zinnie and both plays:

Zinnie Rees Telegraph Zinnie Rees Telegraph 27 Sept 2001 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Zinnie explained all of this in her won words in the Guardian:

Zinnie on Zinnie Guardian Zinnie on Zinnie Guardian 29 Sept 2001 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Not many actual reviews, but you can trust our friend Michael Billington to give such a production the full works and to remind me why we wanted to like this one more than we actually did:

Nightingale Billington Guardian Nightingale Billington Guardian 5 Oct 2001 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Clubland by Roy Williams, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 23 June 2001

We are very partial to modern plays in Royal Court Theatre Upstairs and this play by Roy Williams did not disappoint.

I think this was our first sighting of a Roy Williams play – we started picking him after seeeing this.

Here’s Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard speaking quite highly of it:

Clubland de Jongh Standard Clubland de Jongh Standard 20 Jun 2001 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Jonathan Myerson in the Independent was not so sure:

Clubland Myerson Independent Clubland Myerson Independent 20 Jun 2001 The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Our friend, Michael Billington, suggested that this play was not as good as Roy Williams earlier material and that he needed to branch out a bit. I think he was probably right, as we really went for some of William’s later plays even more than this one, but it was good enough to get us hooked:

Clubland Billington Guardian better Clubland Billington Guardian better 23 Jun 2001 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com