Angels in America – Millenium Approaches, Tony Kushner, Cottesloe Theatre, 8 April 1994

Angels In America is a two part play. I can only talk about the first part, Millenium Approaches, which Janie and I both thought was very good indeed.

We were both due to see the second part, Perestroika, the next day, but I got a bout of the raging trots and was confined to my bed instead.

Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry for Angels In America, which covers both parts.

What a cast! Daniel Craig, Susan Engel, Clare Holman, Stephen Dillane, Harry Towd…directed by Declan Donnellan too.

I insisted that Janie go alone to see Perestroika and she told me at the time that it was not as good as Millenium Approaches. But was she saying that just to be kind or was she saying that because she got less enjoyment without me or was she saying that because actually the first part is the better part?

Here is the Wikipedia entry for both.

No on-line reviews from the RNT production back then, sadly. Here is a New York Times transcript from 1993…

…and here is Michael Billington’s review from 1992:

Billington On Angels KushnerBillington On Angels Kushner Sat, Jan 25, 1992 – 21 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Black Snow by Keith Dewhurst, Cottesloe Theatre, 15 June 1991

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 SnowCoveney 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 SnowBillington 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.

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.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Olivier Theatre, 18 March 1989

This was the famous (or perhaps infamous) National Theatre production of Hamlet which took Daniel Day-Lewis to the very edge of reason and from which he quit part way through the run.

I went very early in the run – in fact it might even have been a preview – with Annalisa. I suspect that I had booked the thing with Bobbie in mind, but so long before the appointed date that Bobbie could no longer make it.

Let’s just say that, back then, I thought of Shakespeare as more Bobbie’s thing than Annalisa’s thing. Annalisa has latterly assured me that theatre, including Shakespeare, was very much her thing.

Anyway, I recall that we sat right at the front of one of those side wedges in the Olivier – you are very close to the action there, especially when the action is on your side of the stage.

I also recall that Daniel Day Lewis was a very wet Hamlet – by which I mean sweating and spitting his lines. Annalisa remarked afterwards that we should have taken umbrellas with us had we known.

It was a superb production, with a great many big names and several names that weren’t big then but went on to be big. National productions were a bit like that in those days – some still are I suspect.

I was motivated to write up this theatre visit while sitting at Lord’s in September 2018 watching, for the first time, Ethan Bamber bowl live. His father, David, was Horatio in this Hamlet production, nearly 30 years earlier.

Other big names/fine performances included Judi Dench, John Castle, Michael Bryant, Oliver Ford Davies & Stella Gonet. A young Jeremy Northam had a small part in the version we saw but stepped up to the plate when Daniel Day-Lewis walked out. Later in the run, Ian Charleson took on the role to much acclaim, just before he died.

I think this was still quite early in Richard Eyre’s tenure at the National and he directed this one himself, extremely well.

My only other recollection is a quote that Annalisa picked up from an American visitor to the National, who told his wife that he didn’t think all that much of the play – “too many of the lines were clichés”. I guess you can’t please everybody.

Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review:

Billington on HamletBillington on Hamlet Sat, Mar 18, 1989 – 21 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Michael Ratcliffe’s Observer review:

Ratcliffe on HamletRatcliffe on Hamlet Sun, Mar 19, 1989 – 46 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Postscript: An Enthusiast From Across The Pond Sought Help…

…in March 2024 I received some unusual correspondence from a gentleman in the USA, wondering whether I still had the programme (or playbill in his terms) as he was keen to see Daniel Day-Lewis’s biography notes from that production.

I have mentioned before that Ogblog serves as a fifth emergency service on occasions and this felt like such an occasion. No sirens or speeding vehicles through the streets of London needed, but I fortuitously was able to lay my hands on this particular programme with relative ease, having not yet returned that batch to deep storage.

Without further ado…

…drumroll…

…THAT page:

Mountain Language by Harold Pinter, Lyttelton Theatre, 25 October 1988

Wow – this was a real experience in the theatre. Only a short piece – not even half an hour long – Bobbie and I will have both traipsed to the National after work, spending far more time traipsing than watching. But the memory of this piece lingers long in the memory.

Here is the Wikipedia entry about the play.

What a cast – see this Theatricalia entry for details. Michael Gambon, Miranda Richardson, Tony Haygarth, Eileen Atkins…

…Pinter himself directing…

…Julian Wadham was also in it – I seem to recall that Bobbie was working with his sister at that time.

I rated it very good indeed in my log and I remember talking and thinking about the piece long after the curtain call.

Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review:

Billington on Mountain LanguageBillington on Mountain Language Sat, Oct 22, 1988 – 17 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Michael Ratcliffe’s Observer review:

Ratcliffe on Mountain LanguageRatcliffe on Mountain Language Sun, Oct 23, 1988 – 40 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

I subsequently saw the piece again, in a double bill with Ashes To Ashes at the Royal Court, with Janie second time around. It is a very strong piece and no doubt can still shock and make the audience realise how bad regimes exert their power in part through the suppression and abuse of language.

What an honour to have seen the first production of this important, though short, piece of drama.

Tis Pity She’s A Whore by John Ford, Olivier Theatre, 16 April 1988

A superb run of seeing amazing productions started to break down just a little with this one.

Again a Saturday evening, again with Bobbie. My log says the production was good. It also says:

Suzan Sylvester was indisposed that day, so we saw Michelle Evans understudy the lead

Tis pity that, as I think Suzan Sylvester must have been a very good Annabella opposite Rupert Graves as Giovanni. I do remember Bobbie and I feeling that the understudy did well, though.

My friend Michael Simkins was also in it, as Soranzo. Coincidental at the time of writing, in early 2019, as we saw Michael at the Hampstead Downstairs just a couple of weeks ago:

Here is the Theatricalia entry for this production.

Alan Ayckbourn directed the production – there is some additional information about it on his site – click here.

It’s not a happy story and matters unsurprisingly…spoiler alert…do not end well for the protagonists. The Wikipedia entry gives a good synopsis.

In those days I think we were quite partial to some Jacobean blood and gore. It’s only latterly that I’ve gone all snowflake.

Below is Michael Radcliffe’s review from The Observer:

Tis Pity RadcliffeTis Pity Radcliffe Sun, Mar 6, 1988 – 40 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Michael Billington in The Guardian found this production “too tasteful”:

Tis Pity BillimgtonTis Pity Billimgton Sat, Mar 5, 1988 – 16 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com