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The programmes hadn’t arrived, so (most unusually for the Donmar) we got a simple black and white printed A4 foldy. Standards.
The play was very good indeed, though, as was the cast. The usual high production values for the Donmar too.
A bit slow, but then this IS a 19th century Russian story and it IS Brian Friel, whom we like very much, btw.
The critics on the whole shared our enjoyment of it – click here for a link to reviews.
In short, this was a good’n.
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:
Charles Spencer was taken by the production and the ideas in it more than the play itself:
Our friend, Michael Billington, also has some reservations about the play but praises the end result at the Royal Court highly:
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.
We went to a preview of this one and decided…
…so awful we walked out at half time!
Very unusual for us and almost unheard of at The National. Fabulous cast: Toby Jones, Clare Higgins, Karl Johnson, Michael Culkin, Gary Lydon, Declan Conlon, Monica Dolan, Tony Rohr.
What went wrong? In truth, we don’t tend to recall the bad experiences unless they are bad for a memorable reason Let’s see if the reviews help me.
Twos tars from Michael Billington…”dated Dublin Ionesco”…that’s NOT good:
Walls Billington Guardian 19 Mar 2001 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Nicholas de Jongh tries to be balanced, but awards a dreaded blob nonetheless:
Walls de Jongh Standard 15 Mar 2001 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Charles Spencer’s phrase, “as dire an evening as I have spent in a theatre so far this year” kinda sums it up.
Walls Spencer Telegraph 16 Mar 2001 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
It wasn’t just us, then.
My log is quite clear about our opinion of this piece:
It was dreadful. We walked out at half time.
But wait – look at the stellar cast. Here’s the Theatricalia entry for it. Kenneth Cranham, Karl Johnson, Elizabeth Estensen, Windsor Davis…
…and Di Botcher. Di Botcher who directed Newsrevue in 1994 and seemed so keen on my stuff. Where’s the mutual support?
Well, in truth I do think that Di Botcher can act. Her role in this miserablist piece, as far as I could tell, was mostly to stand around looking miserable. Di stood around looking miserable with aplomb.
Here’s what our friend Michael Billington had to say…and you know for sure that when he uses the phrases “important” and “not an easy evening” that misery must be part of it:
Billington On Cardiff East Thu, Feb 13, 1997 – 2 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
Michael Coveney in the Observer speaks more highly of it…
Michael Coveney on Cardiff East Sun, Feb 16, 1997 – 73 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
…perhaps we should have stuck it out to the second half after all. But we were about to fly off to Lebanon & Syria just over a week later, so time was at a premium…and they really know how to play for sympathy over there.
We didn’t learn our lesson about Peter Gill’s miserablist Welsh plays, because just over 10 years later we went to see a revival of Small Change at the Donmar and got precious little out of that one either:
Some folk never learn, mark you.
I don’t really remember much about this one, which suggests it was not so memorable an evening at the theatre.
Bobbie might remember it better, but I doubt it.
Excellent cast of National Theatre usual suspects. Ron Cook, Marion Bailey, Sally Rogers, Paul Moriarty, Peter Wight, Gillian Barge, Karl Johnson and many others. William Gaskill directed. The Theatricalia entry for this one can be found here.
Michael Coveney absolutely loved it in The Observer:
Coveney on Black Snow Sun, Apr 28, 1991 – 56 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
Michael Billington also thought it was well worth seeing.
Billington on Black Snow Sat, Apr 27, 1991 – 21 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
I think there was just too much going on for me. Wonderful acting and all that, but I struggled to engage with it. My bad.
Lots of memories from this one.
It was my “get out of jail” weekend. Michael Durtnall (my chiropractor) had insisted that I “lock down” for a month to enable my back to start healing – otherwise he wouldn’t treat me. More on that elsewhere, but basically this weekend was the end of my confinement and boy did I make the most of it with Bridge on Friday, this theatre visit on Saturday and a wedding on the Sunday.
I am very keen on David Edgar so we (me & Bobbie) will have long before booked to see this just after press night. I was very pleased to have negotiated my way out of lockdown to see this.
All I wrote in my log is:
Very good. Neil Kinnock and his entourage were there the night we went.
At the time Neil Kinnock was leader of the opposition. I don’t know whether he and/or his entourage took notes during this paly, but it was a political drama to be sure.
It is set in an unspecified former communist country that resembles the former Czechoslovakia.
Excellent cast; Karl Johnson, Stratford Johns and Katrin Cartlidge standing out in my mind.
Here is the Theatricalia entry for the production.
Michael Billington spoke highly of it in the Guardian:
Billington on The Table Sat, Nov 10, 1990 – 21 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
Michael Coveney in the Observer was also impressed:
Coveney on table Sun, Nov 11, 1990 – 62 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
Boy Gets de Jongh Standard 8 Nov 2001 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Boy Gets Spencer Telegraph 9 Nov 2001 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Boy Gets Billington Guardian 8 Nov 2001 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
