What a super production this was. I remember being much taken with it, although, strangely, while I clearly recall seeing this with Bobbie, I did not recall Ashley joining us for this one. But the diary is clear:
What a cast and crew too. Here is the Theatricalia page for it. A young Tom Wilkinson and Connie Booth playing the big leads, with lots of good folk in support. David Thacker directed.
This was the Arthur Miller adaptation of the Ibsen play. WhatsOnStage.com listed this production as one of the six best Miller productions – with a tribute from Jeremy Herrin. So there.
I’m pretty sure this production was in the round and I remember feeling a sense of claustrophobia being so close to the action and the intense dilemmas and pain of the central characters.
This play, its morality and injustices came to my mind so many years later, in the late teenies, when the British gutter press started to brand anti-Brexit folk as “Enemies of the People”. Although I had seen a good production of the play subsequent to this 1988 production, it is Tom Wilkinson’s agonies, witnessed at close quarters so long ago, that sprang into my mind.
I’m struggling to remember the rest of the evening, but perhaps Bobbie and/or Ashley will recall it. I’m guessing that Ashley stayed with Bobbie on that occasion, as she was, by then, ensconced in her natty new pad in DuCane Court, whereas I was still plotting my imminent escape from my parents’ house – which I pulled off just a few week’s later.
We three won’t simply have parted company at the doors of the Young Vic, that’s for sure. I’m guessing we might have taken a late meal at the Archduke or perhaps RSJs at that time. Anyone remember?
Postscript: Ashley Fletcher has chimed in to deny all involvement in this particular evening. The Ashley mention must have been Ashley Michaels, my (by then former) colleague from Newman Harris. I’ll pick Bobbie’s brain if/when I get the chance, but I suspect she’ll do that, “I can’t even remember what I did last week” routine.
Fortunately my subscription to the clippings service yields some retained memory – here is Michael ratcliffe’s Observer review:
Ratcliffe on Enemy Sun, Oct 16, 1988 – 40 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
Michael Billington’s Guardian review is shown below:
Billington on Enemy Sat, Oct 15, 1988 – 36 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com