This was a fun play with enough drama in it to keep us thoughtfully entertained.
Tracy-Ann Oberman (formerly of our NewsRevue parish – or at least the SportsRevue version is always superb value, as is Michael Attenborough, having a go in an even smaller house than the Almeida for once.
A strangely sinister play this one, about a young couple of expats in Dubai who get themselves into difficulties and fall foul of some older, exploitative expats.
The story seemed somewhat extreme, although apparently it is possible to get into extreme difficulties in Dubai and similar places and some young people do thus get exploited.
Occasionally an evening of theatre is so different and electrifying it sticks permanently in your memory as one of our very best theatre experiences. Janie and I both feel that way about A Human Being Died That Night.
The play is based on a book by Pumla Gobodo-Madikiezla, describing her work as a member of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission interviewing Eugene de Kock, who had been jailed for his murderous role in the apartheid regime.
We attended the first ever performance of this play, at the Hampstead Theatre Downstairs.
The downstairs lobby area is actually part of the performance space. We were told to sit around and wait, then the character of Pumla Gobodo-Madikiezla, played by Noma Dumezweni does a sort of presentation for us, explaining the background to her involvement and the effect that her interactions with de Kock had on her…
…then she invites us to join her to witness her experiences and leads us into the main downstairs studio space, which is an interview space in the prison where de Kock (played by Matthew Marsh) is incarcerated.
Below is a vid of an interview with the two main actors when the production was revived at the Hampstead the following year:
Below is a short, sharp vid of an interview with Noma when the play transferred to New York:
Janie and I saw this one the day after we got married…
…I’m not sure the thoughts of Gertrude Stein were entirely appropriate for that occasion…
…not that it was always possible to work out from these pieces what the thoughts of Gertrude Stein really are/were.
We really wanted to like this assortment of short pieces. Some of them were really interesting and/or enjoyable. But some were, I suppose predictably, very obscure indeed.
It was very well done – Katie Mitchell and a very strong cast. The downstairs had been transfromed into several performance rooms – the audience had to mill around as the scenes/performers moved from piece to piece. We liked all of that.
A rare (at that time) visit to the Hampstead on a Saturday. It was the start of a trend away from Hampstead Theatre Fridays towards Hampstead Theatre Saturdays for us.
Another Friday evening well spent at the Hampstead Theatre Downstairs.
Here is a link to the Hampstead resource.
This was a strange play in many ways; a drama about a pretty unpleasant, or at least dysfunctional, couple, who lost a child and desperately want to replace her…possibly with a clone.
There was weirdness and creepiness about it, plus some good lines and drama. It was very well performed and helped cement our view that the Hampstead Downstairs is a seriously happening thing.
This was one of the first plays/productions we saw at the Hampstead Downstairs, which helped to cement our view that the small house down there is a happening space.
In truth, this particular piece did not really float our boat – we’ve seen rather a lot of Kafkaesque pieces about absurd bureaucracy, yet there was enough in this one to keep us motivated and wanting to come back for more.
David Eldridge plays are like buses – you wait ages then two come along at more or less the same time – this was two David Eldridges in a row for us.
I think this was the first production we ever saw at the Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, quite early in the era of Ed Hall using that downstairs space for experimental works.
It was the evening of Good Friday; an unusual night for a theatre visit.
I remember we thought this was a very good production and made a mental note to seek out subsequently the Hampstead Downstairs, which, by jingo, we have done.
