Tag: Iain Mitchell

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

Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss, Olivier Theatre, 24 May 1997

Actually the play is titled:

The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade 

But for reasons of sheer laziness and delinquency amongst the arty classes, the title has been widely abbreviated to Marat/Sade.

Joking apart, we really liked this one. My log reads:

Very good. This was the Olivier “in the round” for renovations.

From memory, this was a reduced size of auditorium but with seating all around the stage, which worked very well for this play.production.

Jeremy Sams directed a fine cast including Anastasia Hille, Corin Redgrave, David Calder, Iain Mitchell and many others. The slightly bare Theatricalia entry can be found here.

Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard hated this production:

Marat Sade de Jongh StandardMarat Sade de Jongh Standard 15 May 1997, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Paul Taylor in The Independent was more impressed, although he found the production “over-light”:

Marat Sade Taylor IndyMarat Sade Taylor Indy 16 May 1997, Fri The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Michael Billington, like Paul Taylor, speaks well of the production in The Guardian, but not too well:

Marat Sade Billington GuardianMarat Sade Billington Guardian 15 May 1997, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer in The Telegraph hated this play/production:

Marat Sade Spencer TelegraphMarat Sade Spencer Telegraph 19 May 1997, Mon The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

But we said “very good” which rather puts a stop to the debate on my Ogblog!

The Madness of George III by Alan Bennett, Lyttelton Theatre, 30 September 1992

I believe we did a date swap for this one. It is in my diary for Saturday 17 October, but I ended up going to see Death And The Maiden with Janie, John and Mandy that night.

I think Bobbie had a problem with that October weekend and we arranged to swap with a friend of hers to see this production midweek, on 30 September.

My production log says:

Went with Bobbie. Very good.

So what else is there to say? I remember it being a very big, busy play, with an enormous cast of courtiers attending to the protagonists. I remember laughing quite a lot. I suspect I would find it a bit cheesy if I saw it again now.

Nigel Hawthorne was very impressive and I suppose it is “quite a thing” that I saw him perform live.

The Wikipedia entry links to rave reviews on both sides of the channel. The subject matter very naturally had appeal for the USA so it is no surprise that it was also a hit there and also made into a film.

I was probably quite tired that evening, as the diary shows I spent a long day flying up to West Lothian the day before on business – that will have been Sky with Michael – a memorable working day.

I suspect that this was the last time I went to the theatre with Bobbie. We probably had a post theatre meal, perhaps at the RNT itself or perhaps somewhere like RSJs or the Archduke.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for this production.

Below is Michael Coveney’s review from the Observer:

Madness of George III, Michael CoveneyMadness of George III, Michael Coveney Sun, Nov 24, 1991 – 59 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Michael Billington’s review from The Guardian:

Madness of George III, BillingtonMadness of George III, Billington Sat, Nov 30, 1991 – 25 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com