Tag: Jason Barnes

The Voysey Inheritance by Harley Granville-Barker, Cottesloe Theatre, 1 July 1989

I noted that this was a very good production and I’m sure that was true. Richard Eyre in charge of an infeasibly good cast in that intimate little Cottesloe Theatre.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for the production with so many top notch theatrical names on the list…

…David Burke, Michael Bryant, Jeremy Northam, Graham Crowden, Sarah Winman, Stella Gonet, Selina Cadell, Suzanne Burden, Wendy Nottingham… it was difficult to work out which names from the cast list to leave out from this highlights version of the list.

In truth I don’t think Granville-Barker is really for me. I find his plays stylised and very Edwardian – which is, after all, what they are.

This one is at least replete with interesting moral dilemmas but in truth it’s not Ibsen.

But I do recall really enjoying this particular evening in the theatre and I suspect that this is the best Granville-Barker experience I have ever had and ever will.

Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review:

Billington on VoyseyBillington on Voysey Thu, Jun 29, 1989 – 24 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Kate Kellaway’s Observer review:

Kellaway on VoyseyKellaway on Voysey Sun, Jul 2, 1989 – 41 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

I don’t recall exactly what Bobbie thought of it but I think she, like me, was much taken with the production. I also don’t recall what we did (i.e. where we ate) afterwards. Bobbie might just remember.

A Place With The Pigs by Athol Fugard, Cottesloe Theatre, 20 February 1988

I rated this play/production superb in my log – I remember it well and fondly.

Jim Broadbent and Linda Bassett were both outstanding – I think this might have been the first time I saw either of them in the theatre and it was, I think, my first experience of seeing an Athol Fugard play performed. If so, it was the first of many in all three cases.

Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry for this play/production.

No on-line reviews of the production we saw, of course, but there is an almost contemporaneous one from the Yale Rep in 1987, which you can read transcribed here.

Michael Billington didn’t much like it – below is his review clipped:

Billington On PigsBillington On Pigs Thu, Feb 18, 1988 – 21 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Michael Ratcliffe didn’t much like it either – pearls before swine this play/production – Ratcliffe’s review clipped below

Ratcliffe On PigsRatcliffe On Pigs Sun, Feb 21, 1988 – 24 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

The play is about a Russian soldier hiding in a pig sty for many years after the war and possible recriminations for his desertion are over. No doubt it is meant to be a parable with relevance to the Afrikaner position in South Africa.

Frankly, I found it hard to engage too deeply with the parable at the time, but did think it was an interesting and entertaining play, especially in the hands of the talented cast.

Unusually for productions that please me so much, Fugard himself directed this one – I’m not keen on the idea of playwrights directing their own work and usually detect some untrammelled egotism in such productions, but I think Fugard might be an exception to the “don’t direct your own plays” rule of thumb.

Did Bobbie enjoy this one as much as I did? I think so, at the time, but whether it stuck so long in her memory as it did mine is a question I’ll have to ask her.