Tag: Jason Watkins

Boy Gets Girl by Rebecca Gilman, Royal Court Theatre, 3 November 2001

We rated this one:

…excellent.

Memorable too, in its creepiness. Yet it somehow Boy Gets Girl doesn’t seem to have hit the radar of the enduring drama canon. The Wikipedia entry at the time of writing this (October 2026) doesn’t even mention the Royal Court production, just the original production in Chicago.

We were treated to a terrific cast for the Royal Court production: Demetri Goritsas and Katrin Cartlidge in the lead roles. Fine support from Nicholas Day, Jason Watkins, Lucy Punch, Karl Johnson, and Lolly Susi – directed by Ian Rickson.

Nicholas de Jongh rated it highly in the Standard:

Boy Gets de Jongh Standard Boy Gets de Jongh Standard 8 Nov 2001 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer was taken by the production and the ideas in it more than the play itself:

Boy Gets Spencer Telegraph Boy Gets Spencer Telegraph 9 Nov 2001 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Our friend, Michael Billington, also has some reservations about the play but praises the end result at the Royal Court highly:

Boy Gets Billington Guardian Boy Gets Billington Guardian 8 Nov 2001 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Stalking is a discomforting and difficult topic – perhaps that fact, more than anything else, explains why this piece has somewhat vanished from view in the quarter-of-a-century since.

Blue Heart: Heart’s Desire & Blue Kettle by Caryl Churchill, Royal Court Downstairs At Duke of York’s Theatre, Followed By Dinner At Nobu, 4 October 1997

Our take on this:

Interesting (weird) evening. Programme missing – only insert sheet.

Actually the programme might turn out to be a play text which might turn up somewhere on my bookshelves.

I wouldn’t mind reading these plays again. This was Caryl Churchill in impenetrable mood.

Gabrielle Blunt, Jacqueline Defferary, Karina Fernandez, Bernard Gallagher, Valerie Lilley, Mary Macleod and Jason Watkins, directed by Max Stafford-Clark.

Paul Taylor in The Independent was impressed:

Blue Heart Taylor IndyBlue Heart Taylor Indy 25 Sep 1997, Thu The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Nick Curtis from The Standard reviewed it a few week’s earlier in Edinburgh, also finding it good:

Blue Heart Curtis StandardBlue Heart Curtis Standard 22 Aug 1997, Fri Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

We are all agreed them – weird but good.

Dinner At Nobu

Then on to Old Park Lane Nobu for dinner. That place was the latest “in place to dine” back then, so we were keen to try it. Who’d have thought that, 25 years later, the signature black cod in miso dish would be something we can obtain from our local (Japanese) fishmonger and serve at home?

This was a couple of years before the Old Park Lane Nobu became infamous for Boris Becker’s broom cupboard romp and many years before Boris ended up in jail.

In 1997, Nobu had just opened to rave reviews. Here’s Fay Maschler in The Standard:

Nobu Maschler StandardNobu Maschler Standard 25 Feb 1997, Tue Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Helen Fielding in The Independent also waxed lyrical in amusing fashion about Nobu

Nobu Fielding IndyNobu Fielding Indy 09 Mar 1997, Sun The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

That was a lot of sensory stimulation for one evening – Caryl Churchill followed by Nobu. My guess is that Janie was very keen to try the place but could only get a late evening booking, so it sort of made sense to go after theatre.

To add to the excitement, we did it all again (in terms of theatre followed by dinner out) the very next day:

Look, Europe! by Ghazi Rabihavi, Almeida Theatre, Followed By Dinner At Granita, 5 October 2007