If my memory serves me correctly, we saw this play as a matinee on the Saturday and then Twelfth Night in the evening. It might have been the other way around.
Janie and I are fans of Ibsen for the moral dramas; this play is very different – a fantasy poem of sorts, although grounded in Ibsen’s family experience. Wikipedia explains the play well here.
But who needs experts? Janie and I thought it was a very good production, so it was just that. Alex Jennings memorable in the lea but well supported by the whole cast.
This might have been my first sight of Tony Sher performing live and it was, I think, my first ever visit to the Almeida Theatre. Those things were oft-repeated after this night.
I don’t think I have ever seen Estelle Kohler perform since, but I recall thinking that her performance, as well as Tony Sher’s, was acting from the very top drawer.
But then what did I know? Or indeed what do I know? Except that, on Googling this production, it seems that both performers picked up Olivier Award nominations for their performances in this one that year – click here.
I saw this production with Bobbie midweek – on a Tuesday – whatever next?
I wonder whether Ivan Shakespeare sold us the programme or ushered us to our seats – I didn’t know him back then, but I believe he was volunteering at the Almeida for many years before I met him through NewsRevue.
The production was actually an RSC thing – a brief exile from the Barbican at the Almeida.
This was a really memorable night at the theatre – more than 30 years later, I can still visualise the Johnny and Hester characters hollering at each other – I can still almost feel their pain.
Billington On Peer Gynt Fri, May 6, 1994 – 45 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
