Tag: Jessica Hung Han Yun

The Glow by Alistair McDowall, Royal Court Theatre, 5 February 2022

Our first visit to the theatre for quite a while. The Covid pandemic stopped us in our theatre-going tracks back in March 2020.

Indeed we nearly missed out on this one. I had booked for us to see a preview on 22 January, but the week before the Royal Court wrote to me saying they had to cancel the first few previews due to…you guessed it…Covid.

I called to see if we could get decent seats to see the play relatively early in the run. I spoke with a helpful-sounding Royal Courtier on the phone.

Now let’s see. You were booked in seats E9 & E10 for the preview…

…I can offer you E8 and E9 exactly two weeks later, the evening of 5 February.

Problem solved, I thought. But mischievously instead I said:

…but E8 & E9 is not the same thing as E9 & E10.

I heard a gulp at the other end of the phone, so I thought best to put the poor fellow out of his misery quickly.

…joking! Problem solved.

Ironically, as it turned out, no-one sat in E10 on the evening itself and someone rather tall was sitting in front of E8, so we did, in the end, occupy E9 & E10.

But that’s not so weird a story, whereas the play is a seriously weird story. Here’s the teaser:

Here’s a link to all of the on-line resources at The Royal Court website.

I thought the play was wonderful and awe-inspiring. A sort-of pastiche of scary folk tales and fables, a sort of exploration into perennial abuse of women through the ages and the meaning of autonomy.

Alistair McDowall’s plays are a bit like that. Janie and I both absolutely loved Pomona…

Pomona by Alistair McDowall, Orange Tree Theatre, 15 November 2014

…whereas The Glow split our jury, as had X – the other McDowall we had seen at the Royal Court some five years ago. Janie found elements of The Glow disturbing and was disconcerted by the extreme time-hopping involved.

Janie was not quite as disconcerted as the young woman who was sitting in front of us, who nearly jumped out of her skin at the coup de theatre that signalled the end of the first half of the play. The young lady told us after the play that she had recovered herself and enjoyed the play as a whole.

Kate Wyver in the Guardian gave the play/production a rave review.

As did Sam Marlowe in The i...

…and Sarah Crompton in WhatsOnStage.com

Whereas Nick Curtis in the Standard is less sure about it…

…and Lloyd Evans in The Spectator votes it “the worst production of all time”, which only supports my general view that the very best6 plays/productions to some extent at least divide the critics.

This search term – click here – will find you plenty more reviews, including those above.

My own praise for the fascinating play also extends to the superb cast. Ria Zmitrowicz was truly excellent in the lead, ably supported by Rakie Ayola, Fisayo Akinade and Tadhg Murphy. Vicky Featherstone sure knows how to direct and produce this sort of play – who knew?

Not the easiest watch for those easing their way out of the pandemic, but if you want to see a full tilt piece of spellbinding theatre, The Glow might well do the job for you. It certainly did so for me.

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The Human Voice by Jean Cocteau, Gate Theatre, 14 September 2018

I read this play “back in the day” – when I was in my twenties – and had long wanted to see this Cocteau classic performed.

So when the Gate Theatre, one of our favourite places, announced that it would be producing this play, I was one of the first in metaphorical line to snap up tickets.

Here is a link to the Gate Theatre resource for this play/production.

When this play was first written, the telephone was a relatively novel medium, so the piece will have been seen as exploratory – what might it sound like to be a fly on the wall hearing one side of a telephone conversation between lovers whose relationship has very recently broken down?

Of course, these days you only have to travel on public transport or sit in a cafe to eavesdrop on one side of such conversations all the time. Perhaps with that contemporary reality in mind, this production is performed with a mobile phone, bringing in additional opportunities for call interruption business while eliminating the potential for existential telephone chord business.

Also, to accentuate the theatrical “fly on the wall” sensation, the action took place inside a room-like windowed booth which we, the audience, observed from two sides. The photos below illustrate how that looked, from our seats, before the actress appeared. We all wore headphones to hear the actress as she might sound talking into a telephone. For this play, done this way, I think these touches worked.

 

Leanne Best did a grand job as the grief and panic-stricken woman who is the only visible and audible character in this play.

Janie concluded that the man was a piece of shit who was trying to drive the woman to suicide. That was not my reading of the play back then nor of this production of it.

We both thought this was a cracking good piece of drama- perhaps too good for us on a Friday evening when we were both tired and not really desirous of being gripped by the emotional throat.

Still in preview at the time of writing, but the reviews should be found through this search term if you click here.

We thought very highly of the production – if you are reading this while the run is still on, you might need to book early to avoid disappointment.