My Night With Reg by Kevin Elyot, Questors Theatre, 13 October 2000, Followed By 48 Hours With Hilary, Chris, Phillie & Tony In Bristol

Who in their right minds would arrange a night with the Duchess on Friday 13th, ahead of a weekend with the in-laws…or, as I used to describe them before Janie and I got married, out-laws?

We probably fancied seeing this play – we’d seen other Kevin Elyot & enjoyed it…

…but had missed My Night With Reg when it premiered.

As usual, The Questors Theatre did a more than serviceable job of putting on this type of play. And as usual, The Questors puts professional theatres to shame with the consistency and quality of its archive – click here for all the resources on the production we saw.

We have no record of where we ate afterwards. We must have eaten somewhere. Probably a local place chosen on the basis of who would be open once the play had ended.

We do know where we stayed in Bristol on this occasion. Janie wrote down Swallow, but then detailed notes on the Thistle Hotel, which I am sure would have been Phillie & Tony’s pick, for reasons of their own. Janie and I would have been more enthusiastic about the Swallow, which at least had good swimming pool and “spa-like” facilities, whereas the Thistle was more than a little mere.

Still, we all helped Chris celebrate his birthday, which was the purpose of the visit. I’m pretty sure this was a big extended table family do at Hil & Chris’s house. Not quite as much drama as My Night With Reg, but surely some.

The Day I Stood Still by Kevin Elyot, Cottesloe Theatre, 24 January 1998

Superb. One of the best.

My logged comment suggest that we really liked this one. We both really did.

There is a Theatricalia entry for this one with all the details – click here. Adrian Scarborough was excellent in the lead role. Ian Rickson directed.

Nicholas de Jongh liked it in The Standard:

23 Jan 1998, Fri Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

My friend Michael Billington liked it but didn’t love it in The Guardian:

23 Jan 1998, Fri The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Similarly Suzannah Clapp in The Observer, whose review reminds me that the critics main reservation about this play is that they didn’t like it as much as they liked Elyot’s (also wonderful) My Night With Reg.

25 Jan 1998, Sun The Observer (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer in The Telegraph also spoke highly of it with some limitations:

31 Jan 1998, Sat The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com