Travel, Theatre, Music, Cricket, Tennis, Writing, Life
Very good indeed…
…was our judgment on this one.
Lynn Gardner in The Guardian wrote well of it:
Snake Gardner Guardian 23 Mar 1999, Tue The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Nicholas de Jongh did not get it in The Standard:
Snake Standard de Jongh 22 Mar 1999, Mon Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Quite a short play, this was, so we were able to eat at Harry Morgan after the show.
By gosh, we seemed to be specialising in previews of Nazi stuff that month, having been to see Speer at the Almeida a couple of weeks earlier:
My log comment for Good was less complimentary than that for Speer:
Didn’t quite do the business for us.
Great cast, with Charles Dance, Emelia Fox, Ian Gelder, John Ramm and several other stalwarts under the direction of Michael Grandage.
It might not have done the business for us, but it sure did for Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard:
Good Standard de Jongh 24 Mar 1999, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Charles Spencer in The Telegraph shared our sentiments:
Good Spencer Telegraph 25 Mar 1999, Thu The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Anthony Holden in teh Observer also seemed equivocal in his praise:
Goood Holden Observer 28 Mar 1999, Sun The Observer (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
We ate at Zafferano after Good. Zaffs was very good indeed.
Very good.
That was our verdict. We like Shelagh Stephenson’s plays and this was a stellar cast including Samantha Bond, Julie Legrand, Alison Steadman and Julia Sawalha, directed by Terry Johnson.
Here is the Theatricalia entry for the production.
Our Richmond preview came just after it previewed at several other places. The Cambridge Evening News reviewed it thusly:
Memory Singer Cambridge 27 Oct 1998, Tue Cambridge Evening News (Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England) Newspapers.com
It transferred to the West End with considerable success, if I remember correctly.
Good, but not his best…
…was my log note for this one. “His” referring to Stephen Poliakoff, whose best I rate very highly.
Janie and I saw this one as part of an extraordinary whistle-stop long weekend which took in three plays at Stratford (this the second of the three), a motorised hike to the Welsh Borders for lunch at The Walnut Tree before going on to Hay-On-Wye for some overnight- second-hand-book-buying on my part before stopping off for a long lunch at Raymond Blanc’s place (Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons) in Oxfordshire and then home. Friday to Monday. The other bits have been written up separately from this piece – click here or below.
I think we stayed in the Shakespeare for this trip. Janie booked it but only wrote down “Twelfth Night Room £115 per night” which I suspect in those days was a suite or certainly a superior room. I did the rest of the trip, including The Old Black Lion in Hay.
As for Talk Of the City, Poliakoff directed this one himself, if I recall correctly, which I think might have been (and often is) a minor mistake – i.e. playwrights, even if superb directors, can usually do with an external eye as director on their own works.
Great cast, including David Westhead, John Normington, Sian Reeves and a young Dominic Rowan. Here’s a link to the Theatricalia entry for this one.
Charles Spencer thought the play a muddle:
Spencer Telegraph Talk 01 May 1998, Fri The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Nicholas de Jongh didn’t much like it either:
30 Apr 1998, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Whose brilliant idea was it to pair The Real Inspector Hound with Black Comedy? Well, if I’m not totally mistaken The Bear Pit at Alleyn’s School did so back in the mid 1970s. It worked well then (I shall write up The Bear Pit production in the fullness of time) and it worked well nearly 25 years later, in the late 1990s, too.
Superb evening…
…was my take on it in my log. How could it not be – what a cast! Desmond Barrit, David Tennant, Nichola McAuliffe, Sara Crowe, Anna Chancellor…and Greg Doran directing.
Here’s a link to the Theatricalia entry.
We saw a preview at Richmond the week before the show opened at The Comedy Theatre.
Nicholas de Jongh voted it “good” in The Standard:
Real Inspector Black Comedy de Jongh Standard 23 Apr 1998, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Michael Billington in The Guardian was very keen on it:
Real Inspector Black Comedy Guardian Billington 23 Apr 1998, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
While The Independent previewed the event the morning after our visit wondering, over three pages, whose brilliant idea it was to pair these two short plays? (The Bear Pit at Alleyn’s School. Do you arts journos know nothing?)
Hound Black Indy Butler 1 of 3 12 Apr 1998, Sun The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Hound Black Indy Butler 2 of 3 12 Apr 1998, Sun The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Hound Black Indy Butler 3 of 3 12 Apr 1998, Sun The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
“Dinner with some chick”
…reads my diary entry for that evening…
“8:00 Valentine Night The Square Restaurant” 6 Bruton Street W1 Karine”
…reads Janie’s more helpful entry.
Janie’s diary also informs me that we went to Sound On Wheels in North Harrow that morning, where the indomitable Maurice & Ray will have sorted out the latest arrival in our household, my souped-down Honda CRX, Nobby, with a sound system.
25 years on, Sound On Wheels has gone. As has The Square, which presciently closed down just before the Covid 19 pandemic.
When we went it was all the rage, having relatively recently moved to Mayfair. It was in the process of collecting its second Michelin Star had it not done so already.
Janie remembers this as one of the finest meals we have had, with superb service too. It was a very special evening.
There had been a lot of hype about Juliette Binoche coming to tread the Almeida boards, so we were really looking forward to this one.
Our review:
Not as good as we expected – the critics were more convinced by Ms Binoche than we were
My recollection is that we found it hard to hear what she was saying despite the fact that we were sitting in the front row.
The critics fell in love with her, though. My friend, Michael Billington, going a little overboard. I agree with him about Juliette Binoche’s “eccentric inflections” and that Oliver Ford Davies put in a blinder of a performance.
Naked Billington Guardian 19 Feb 1998, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
David Benedict in The Independent leapt to Juliette’s defence, like a knight in shining armour, denying even the accusation that the inflections were eccentric:
Naked Benedict Independent 25 Feb 1998, Wed The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard hated the play but loved Juliette Binoche. I would agree that part of the problem was the play – not one of Pirandello’s best:
Naked de Jongh Standard 19 Feb 1998, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Unsurprisingly, Charles Spencer was star struck by Juliet Binoche in The Telegraph:
Naked Spencer Telegraph (for real) 19 Feb 1998, Thu The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
I stand by our own review – we couldn’t hear clearly what Juliet Binoche was saying in a play that, in any case, would have been a fairly difficult watch.
We ate at Pasha afterwards. Another once-excellent eatery that is no longer there 25 years later:
“Back in the day” when we didn’t mind going off to the theatre in the pre-Christmas maelstrom.
Also back in the heyday of the Almeida. I’m glad we went, as this was a very good production indeed.
Tom Hollander as Khlestakov, the civil servant mistaken for the Government inspector. My neighbour, Iain McDiarmid, performing as the Lord Provost (rather than directing this time), Jonathan Kent directing. There is a Theatricalia entry for this one – here.
Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard was more taken with the production than the play…I am inclined to agree, not being a great lover of farce:
18 Dec 1997, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
However, my friend Michael Billington in The Guardian suggests that it is the production, not the play, that, if anything, errs towards farce in this instance:
20 Dec 1997, Sat The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
John Gross in The Sunday telegraph seemed to like it, admiring its universal appeal:
Waste Land & Government Inspector Sunday telegraph 28 Dec 1997, Sun Sunday Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
My records tell me that we ate at Granita after the show. As far as I know Janie and I didn’t make any sort of deal there in the Blair/Brown style.
Had its moments.
That was my sole comment on the quality of this one in the log – I don’t think we were overly impressed despite the excellent cast. Niamh Cusack, Kerry Fox & Josette Simon, directed by John Crowley, initially at the Donmar Warehouse and then touring – we saw it at Richmond.
Previewed in the Standard thusly…
Maids Stringer Preview Standard 11 Jun 1997, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
I don’t think Nicholas de Jongh liked it much once it opened:
Maids de Jongh Standard 26 Jun 1997, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
David Benedict in The Independent liked it:
Maids Benedict Indy 27 Jun 1997, Fri The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Kate Bassett in The Telegraph was less sure.
Maids Bassett Telegraph 27 Jun 1997, Fri The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
I suspect we ate at Don Fernando’s again after this one. I also wrote:
No interval
…which might mean that we would have walked out had there been one.
I’ve never been sure about Shaw, but we thought we’d give this a try because it was The Almeida and because top flight Shaw productions were few and far between at that time.
Great cast and crew – see Theatricalia entry – including Emma Fielding, Richard Griffiths, Patricia Hodge, Penelope Wilton, Malcolm Sinclair and Peter McEnery, with David Hare in the director’s chair.
Despite all those good people, this one added to my/our sense of interminability, which had already been piqued by Suzanna Andler the previous week, which was soon followed by wall-to-wall coverage of Princess Diana’s tragic demise, which took ceaselessness to new levels.
Anyway, my contemporaneous words on Heartbreak House, speaking for both me and Janie:
Seemed interminable in the second half. Had “moments”, but all too few.
Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard liked it a lot:
Heartbreak de Jongh Standard 04 Sep 1997, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Paul Taylor in the Indy also loved it:
Heartbreak Taylor Indy 05 Sep 1997, Fri The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Kirsty Milne in The Sunday Telegraph at least nodded to the idea of Shaw being wordy.
Heartbreak Milne Telegraph 07 Sep 1997, Sun Sunday Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Like Milne, Michael Billington did a compare and contrast between Shaw and Wesker:
Heartbreak Billington Guardian 06 Sep 1997, Sat The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
So maybe it was us, not them. Or maybe Shaw is/was simply too wordy for our modern eyes and ears.
No holds barred it seems for my contemporaneous verdict on this one:
Interminable – I can’t imagine how we ever got round to returning for the second half – but we did.
To add to the interminable nature of the evening, it seems we had Pauline, The Dowager Duchess of Castlebar (Janie’s mum) with us that evening. We went to Don Fernando’s (25 years on, now late lamented) for a meal after the show.
Julie Christie will have been the draw for this show, but clearly she and the cast were not enough to rescue the thing. Here is the Theatricalia entry for it. Super cast, actually, when you see the names Robert Hickson, Aden Gillett and Julie Legrand alongside that of Christie.
Here’s what the Leatherhead Advertiser said of it when it transferred on to Guildford:
04 Sep 1997, Thu Leatherhead Advertiser (Leatherhead, Surrey, England) Newspapers.com
Nicholas de Jongh had said similar stuff when it was at The Minerva:
Andler de Jongh Standard 23 Jul 1997, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
John Voss in The Sunday Telegraph had also described it in similar terms:
Andler Voss Sunday Telegraph 27 Jul 1997, Sun Sunday Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Not the most successful evening we’ve ever had at the theatre…or at Don Fernando’s…or even with Pauline.
