Tag: Gary Lydon

The Walls by Colin Teevan, Cottesloe Theatre, 10 March 2001

We went to a preview of this one and decided…

…so awful we walked out at half time!

Very unusual for us and almost unheard of at The National. Fabulous cast: Toby Jones, Clare Higgins, Karl Johnson, Michael Culkin, Gary Lydon, Declan Conlon, Monica Dolan, Tony Rohr.

What went wrong? In truth, we don’t tend to recall the bad experiences unless they are bad for a memorable reason Let’s see if the reviews help me.

Twos tars from Michael Billington…”dated Dublin Ionesco”…that’s NOT good:

Walls Billington Guardian Walls Billington Guardian 19 Mar 2001 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Nicholas de Jongh tries to be balanced, but awards a dreaded blob nonetheless:

Walls de Jongh Standard Walls de Jongh Standard 15 Mar 2001 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer’s phrase, “as dire an evening as I have spent in a theatre so far this year” kinda sums it up.

Walls Spencer Telegraph Walls Spencer Telegraph 16 Mar 2001 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

It wasn’t just us, then.

The Cripple Of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh, Cottesloe Theatre, 1 February 1997

We were neither of us too sure about this play/production.

Granted, it was extremely well received. Granted, we recognised Martin McDonagh’s talent and said we’d like to see more of his work, which subsequently we have done.

But this particular play/production felt like a pastiche of a pre war Irish play to us and left us a bit cold.

Here is a link to the production’s Theatricalia entry.

Charles Spencer in The Telegraph shared some of our concerns:

Inishmaan Charles Spencer TelegraphInishmaan Charles Spencer Telegraph 09 Jan 1997, Thu The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Nicholas de Jongh similarly:

Inishmaan Nicholas de Jongh StandardInishmaan Nicholas de Jongh Standard 08 Jan 1997, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

While Michael Billington praised the work highly while also signalling that he felt McDonagh could achieve yet greater things:

Inishmaan Billington GuardianInishmaan Billington Guardian 09 Jan 1997, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com