Tag: Headlong Theatre

The New Real by David Edgar, The Other Place, 14 October 2024

Not to be confused with The Other Palace, in Westminster, which I visited with my old school pals a few days earlier…

“You’re Only Young Once But You Can Be Immature Forever”, Dinner With Fellow Alleyn’s Alums, Then Tink by Lizzy Connolly & Kat Kleve, The Other Palace, 8 October 2024

…this visit to The Other Place, in Stratford-Upon-Avon, was the excuse for me and Janie to take a short break in that wonderful town this autumn.

A Short Autumn Break In A 15th Century Cottage In An Old Market Town Part One: Stratford-Upon-Avon, 13 to 16 October 2024

We’re big fans of David Edgar’s plays. Indeed, this was our second David Edgar premier in the past few weeks – his plays seem to come along with the regularity of London buses these days (nothing for ages, then two together):

Here In America by David Edgar, Orange Tree Theatre, 14 September 2024

But in truth I cannot rave about The New Real the way I raved about Here In America.

There was a lot to like about The New Real. Terrific cast who all acted superbly well. Excellent production using the traverse stage and screen effects well. But the overall effect of this rather long play was a sense of over-stimulation by the end of it. So many ideas about politics. So many screen and stage effects. And relatively little human drama to illustrate rather than declaim the points David Edgar wanted to make.

Anyway, despite both coming out of the experience with headaches of over-stimulation, we’re both glad that we have seen this play.

Here is a link to the RSC resources on this one, which will tell you all about the cast and creatives and that sort of thing.

Here is a Google search which should find reviews for this play/production. I believe many/most reviews express a similar view on this play/production to ours…but perhaps with a bit more critical heft than I choose to muster.

Chimerica by Lucy Kirkwood, Almeida Theatre, 1 June 2013

Janie and I both really really liked this play/production.

In many ways not the sort of play we normally like. It was quite long and very broad in its sweep – spanning continents and decades.

But it was such a good play and so well done.

Fine cast; not least Claudia Blakley (who we think of as an Orange Tree regular), Stephen Campbell Moore (who I got to know quite well shortly afterwards at BodyWorksWest) and Benedict Wong (who we’ll forever think of as Ai Weiwei – or at least Janie will).

We liked Lucy Kirkwood’s previous play, NSFW...we loved Chimerica.

Click here for a link to the Almeida resource on this Chimerica production.

It subsequently transferred (pretty much intact, I believe) to the Harold Pinter that autumn.

Below is the trailer vid:

It got rave reviews, deservedly – click here for a search term that finds them.

London theatre at its very best.

The Effect by Lucy Prebble, Cottesloe Theatre, 10 November 2012

Our last ever visit to the Cottesloe Theatre – we had no idea at the time – but what a good one to have in our memories as our last visit there.

A fascinating play by Lucy Prebble, very well acted, directed and produced. the design was stunning.

Click here for a link to a Tumblr resource on this play/production, i think from Headlong.

Here is a promotional video – basically an interview with Billie piper:

Janie and I were really taken with this play/production. It was entertaining and kept us talking for much of the weekend.

It was pretty much universally well received – click here for a search term that finds the reviews.

A fine piece for me and Janie to say goodbye to the Cottesloe…except we didn’t say goodbye because no-one really told us it was going!

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by Stephen Adly Guirgis, Almeida Theatre, 29 March 2008

We had such high hopes for this one. We love the Almeida. We loved Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train by the same author at the Donmar a few years ago…

…but this one didn’t really work for either of us. The acting was good, but the play left us cold and disappointed. Perhaps we were expecting too much.

The Almeida provides a superb stub that explains the conceit of the play and sets out the cast and creatives – here.

There’s a good Wikipedia entry for this play and production too. It states that the original off-Broadway production was reasonably well received, whereas the Almeida production was almost universally well received. I’m not so sure about more-or-less universal: