Afterlife by Michael Frayn, Lyttelton Theatre, RNT, 7 June 2008

This one didn’t really float our boat, although it should have done. Michael Frayn, wrote it, Michael Blakemore directed it, Roger Allam was starring in it, the full forces of the RNT were behind it…

…but it didn’t work for us.

It is basically the story of the turn of the 20th century German/Jewish impresario Max Reinhardt, retold as a morality play.

We saw a preview and wondered whether the production was not quite ready when we saw it, but the reviews seemed to share our reservations:

…you get the idea. A real shame.

As is the RNT’s wont, no on-line archive resource (inverse correlation between organisation’s size/budget and its ability to do sensible things on-line blah blah), but there is an Official London Theatre stub – click here.

 

My Best Friend by Tamsin Oglesby, Hampstead Theatre, 11 February 2000

In truth we don’t remember much about this one. I made no notes in my log about it. I think we quite liked it, but it felt like fairly standard Hampstead Theatre fare.

The Hampstead was still in the portacabins back then, so small, chamber-style work was all the place comfortably could do. Still, we liked the place and went occasionally.

Paul Taylor in the Indy liked it:

Best Friend Taylor IndyBest Friend Taylor Indy 05 Feb 2000, Sat The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer in the Telegraph also liked it quite a bit:

Best Friend Spencer TelegraphBest Friend Spencer Telegraph 27 Jan 2000, Thu The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

On the other hand, Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard described it as bland:

Best Friend de Jongh StandardBest Friend de Jongh Standard 25 Jan 2000, Tue Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

We saw it on a Friday evening, so no doubt, in those days, we went to Harry Morgans in St John’s Wood for some crazy=cracing-J-food on the way to the theatre.