Tag: Howard Rayner

Battle Royal by Nick Stafford, Lyttelton Theatre, 11 December 1999

Our verdict on this one:

Had its moments.

That is not a rave review.

This production was awash with star names; Zoe Wanamaker, Simon Russell Beale, Gemma Jones, Suzanne Burden, Brendan Coyle, Matthew Macfadyen…

…directed by Howard Davies.

Here is the Theatricalia link for this play/production.

The production and talent on show was all very high quality – I don’t think the play did it for us.

It didn’t seem to please all the critics either. Nick Curtis in the Standard gave it the dreaded blob:

Battle Curtis StandardBattle Curtis Standard 10 Dec 1999, Fri Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Paul Taylor, in the Independent, also panned it.

Battle Taylor IndependentBattle Taylor Independent 10 Dec 1999, Fri The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

On the other hand, Charles Spencer in the Telegraph rather liked it:

Battle Spencer TelegraphBattle Spencer Telegraph 10 Dec 1999, Fri The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

But our charitable friend, Michael Billington, awarded it a rare mediocre two stars:

Battle Billington GuardianBattle Billington Guardian 11 Dec 1999, Sat The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

The Blue Ball by Paul Godfrey, Cottesloe Theatre, 13 May 1995

I damned this one with faint praise.

Quite good.

That’s not so good.

It was about astronauts, their lives, moon shots & stuff. I found it interesting but it didn’t work as drama for me. Janie was less interested in the subject matter but quite enjoyed the play in the round. (Did you see what I did there?).

Paul Godfrey wrote and directed it. It might have been tighter if he had let another director tweak and interpret a bit.

The Theatricalia entry for this play/production can be found here.

Michael Billington’s praise in the Guardian was even fainter than mine:

Billington on BallBillington on Ball Sat, Apr 1, 1995 – 30 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

While Michael Coveney was a bit kinder:

Coveney on Ball 1 of 2Coveney on Ball 1 of 2 Sun, Apr 2, 1995 – 77 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com Coveney on Ball 1 of 2Coveney on Ball 1 of 2 Sun, Apr 2, 1995 – 77 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com