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We saw this play/production in preview and I clearly remember both of us saying immediately afterwards how much it reminded us of Arthur Miller’s style. Unsurprisingly, that was also the verdict of the bulk of the critics.
We also thought it was a very good play and an excellent production…the critics were largely still with us on that aspect too.
Here is the trailer and interesting chat about the play/production:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY32zawMHWQ
In Janie’s diary for Sunday 14 November, but not mine, the following reminder – presumably based on me saying to Janie, “let’s not forget to listen to…”
The Attractive Young Rabbi. Barry Grossman. 11:30 Radio 4.
Word must have reached me through the NewsRevue community that Barry Grossman’s radio series, The Attractive Young Rabbi, was about to broadcast.
What do you mean, you missed it at the time and now can’t get hold of it?
What do you mean, you heard it at the time but can’t remember it?
It’s there to be heard on the Internet Archive if you now where to look. Click this link, for example, and you’ll find the first series.
Tracy-Anne Oberman was also a NewsRevue (or more specifically, SportsRevue) alum, so this series was definitely a tribute to our NewsRevue “Class of ’92”.
There’s Barry in the Guinness World Record photo, with specs, holding the award.
I enjoyed listening to The Attractive Young Rabbi again. It is quintessentially BBC Radio Four comedy.
Thanks Ian, except you and Janey [sic] must have missed it because it was actually on Friday, the 12th of November.
And there were no i-players, BBC Sounds or internet archives in those more innocent times. Perhaps you taped it on your reel-to-reel tape recorder the size of a house and listened to it on the Sunday.
I responded to Barry as follows:
Weird but clearly true that the broadcast was on the Friday not the Sunday, yet the note is unquestionably written in the Sunday section of Janie’s diary.
My guess is that Janie wrote the note there because the Friday page was completely crammed with patient appointments. The Saturday block is covered in notes about something completely different and unintelligible. So the only space for an additional note on that page was the Sunday block.
Quite right that there was no public domain technology to help us listen at an alternative time, but Janie did have a midi hi-fi thing in the maisonette that would enable you to record onto cassette from the radio. I was out visiting clients that day, but she would have been able to press the record button on her midi gadget at the appointed hour. My guess is that the note was a reminder to do that.
No gargantuan reel-to-reel tape recorder available at that time – that device lives in the flat and the flat was being refurbished that autumn. Probably just as well – Janie was reluctant enough to press a “record” button on a bog-standard midi system. My reel-to-reel would have seemed like something out of Mission Impossible to Janie…
… https://youtu.be/4y9NtHlJvbY …
…which would have made listening to the recording on the Saturday or Sunday…impossible.
The play is well described on Wikipedia here. We saw the UK premier at the RNT.
What a cast; Henry Goodman, Margot Leicester, Ken Stott…David Thacker directed it. Theatricalia has this record for the play/production we saw – click here.
Janie and I rated it “very good indeed” at the time. I do recall it being a very interesting play and the RNT production was top notch, as RNT productions were wont to be at that time.
Here’s Michael Billington’s review:
Billington On Broken Glass Sat, Aug 6, 1994 – 26 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
Michael Coveney hated it:
Coveney On Broken Glass Sun, Aug 7, 1994 – 68 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
Lots of Olivier Awards for the RNT production, including BBC Best Play Award.
Angels In America is a two part play. I can only talk about the first part, Millenium Approaches, which Janie and I both thought was very good indeed.
We were both due to see the second part, Perestroika, the next day, but I got a bout of the raging trots and was confined to my bed instead.
Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry for Angels In America, which covers both parts.
What a cast! Daniel Craig, Susan Engel, Clare Holman, Stephen Dillane, Harry Towd…directed by Declan Donnellan too.
I insisted that Janie go alone to see Perestroika and she told me at the time that it was not as good as Millenium Approaches. But was she saying that just to be kind or was she saying that because she got less enjoyment without me or was she saying that because actually the first part is the better part?
Here is the Wikipedia entry for both.
No on-line reviews from the RNT production back then, sadly. Here is a New York Times transcript from 1993…
…and here is Michael Billington’s review from 1992:
Billington On Angels Kushner Sat, Jan 25, 1992 – 21 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
This was a very interesting play about a meeting between Sigmund Freud and Salvador Dali. We both really enjoyed it.
Here is the Wikipedia entry for the play.
Here is the Theatricalia entry.
Super cast, with Henry Goodman as Freud, Tim Potter as Dali. Phyllida Lloyd directed this production, which was the premier.
The play has oft been revived since.
Here is Michael Billington’s review from the Guardian:
Billington on Hysteria Mon, Sep 6, 1993 – 25 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
Below is Michael Coveney’s review – not so keen:
Coveney on Hysteria Sun, Sep 12, 1993 – 49 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
We rounded off our evening with Chinese food from The Park Inn. Quite right too.
The diary suggests that we planned to have Marianne and Anil over for dinner the next evening, the Saturday, but Anil doesn’t get beyond a question mark and Janie is sure she has never met him, so my guess is that the whole idea fell though.
Bobbie and I were on a bit of a roll, theatre-wise, at the start of that year, seeing some great productions. This was certainly one of them.
Lindsay Duncan was a most memorable Maggie The Cat and Ian Charleson was superb as Brick; tragically Charleson died just a couple of years after this production. The cast also included Eric Porter, Alison Steadman, Henry Goodman…plus many other fine performers. Howard Davies directed.
Here is the Theatricalia entry for the production.
The Lyttelton is not my favourite place for this sort of play, but somehow this one seemed to work in that space. I seem to recall it received superb notices and for good reason.
Michael Billington loved this production – his review clipped below:
Billington On Cat Fri, Feb 5, 1988 – 18 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
Clearly Michael Ratcliffe liked it too:
Michael Ratcliffe On Cat Sun, Feb 7, 1988 – 26 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
There’s little on-line about this particular production, given its antiquity, but if you have no idea even what the piece looks/feels like, here is a clip of Paul Newman and Elisabeth Taylor from the 1950’s film version:
…while the following clip is from a subsequent National theatre production of Cat:
Anyway, the Lindsay Duncan & Ian Charleson version will live long in my memory. Bobbie’s too, I’ll guess. I’d better ask her.
