Gary Waldhorn – Ian Louis Harris

Oh dear.

I was usually really partial to a bit of Tony Sher, but all I wrote in my log for this one was:

Dire.

I’m also partial to a bit of Mahler, so the subject matter should have pleased me. I suspect that Janie and I were like minded on this, as I tend to record a difference of opinion.

I must declare that we saw a preview, but I find it hard to believe that “dire” was rescued between preview and press night.

Let’s see what the experts thought.

Here’s the Guardian’s review of reviews. Not great, as I believe the system for this is out of 10:

Mahler Review of Reviews Guardian 13 Oct 2001 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

A rare two stars only from our friend Michael Billington:

Mahler Billington Guardian 3 Oct 2001 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer also didn’t like it:

4 Oct 2001 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Nicholas de Jongh in the Standard gave it the dreaded blob.

3 Oct 2001 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

My preview assessment – “dire” – seems to have summed it up in few but effective word(s).

Whose brilliant idea was it to pair The Real Inspector Hound with Black Comedy? Well, if I’m not totally mistaken The Bear Pit at Alleyn’s School did so back in the mid 1970s. It worked well then (I shall write up The Bear Pit production in the fullness of time) and it worked well nearly 25 years later, in the late 1990s, too.

Superb evening…

…was my take on it in my log. How could it not be – what a cast! Desmond Barrit, David Tennant, Nichola McAuliffe, Sara Crowe, Anna Chancellor…and Greg Doran directing.

Here’s a link to the Theatricalia entry.

We saw a preview at Richmond the week before the show opened at The Comedy Theatre.

Nicholas de Jongh voted it “good” in The Standard:

Real Inspector Black Comedy de Jongh Standard 23 Apr 1998, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Michael Billington in The Guardian was very keen on it:

Real Inspector Black Comedy Guardian Billington 23 Apr 1998, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

While The Independent previewed the event the morning after our visit wondering, over three pages, whose brilliant idea it was to pair these two short plays? (The Bear Pit at Alleyn’s School. Do you arts journos know nothing?)