Neither Janie nor I remember much about this play/production. Nor did I write any comments about it in my log – just the details of the visit.
The play is about a Samaritan helping a desperate young woman and the Samaritan becoming emotionally entangled with her. Janie would doubtless look on the whole thing very differently 25 years on, having been a Samaritan since the pandemic – i.e. for over five years at the time of writing.
The leads were played by Julian Wadham and Claudie Blakely, both of whom we rate highly. I do recall that I had been to see Julian Wadham perform more than once “back in the day” with Bobbie and her work colleagues from the law reports, as Julian’s sister, Sarah, worked with them. I also recall that this theatre visit came up in conversation at Bobbie’s place a few day’s before we went to see this play, when Janie and I visited her for dinner the previous Saturday.
Thank goodness for some good theatre reviews, to stop me from waffling and to inform the passing reader about the theatrical event itself.
Michael Billington in the Guardian wrote pretty well of the piece:
Article from 13 Jul 2000 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England)
Charles Spencer thought the piece worthy but flawed:
Article from 21 Jul 2000 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England)
Paul Taylor in the Independent
Article from 22 Jul 2000 The Independent (London, Greater London, England)
Enough said.
