We love the Almeida Theatre, despite the extra shlep involved in getting there from West London. At the time of writing (29 May 2017) we have just been again.
One really excellent thing about the Almeida is the quality of on-line resource they put up for the productions, with lots of information about the play, the creatives involved in the production, plenty of pictures and links to many reviews (the favourable ones of course).
Here is the Almeida’s on-line resource for Judgment Day.
The other really excellent thing about the Almeida is the quality of stuff it puts on. This play/production was no exception.
Ödön Von Horváth (imagine answering the “how do you spell it?” question with that name) has long fascinated Christopher Hampton. This seemingly small canvas German play, about the moral consequences of covering up the true reason for a deadly train crash, is in reality a pre-war allegory with the wilful blindness that led to Nazi power.
It was an especially good evening in the theatre; Janie and I both remember it fondly well. I also recently (when we saw The Ferryman) remembered that we had seen the excellent Laura Donnelly before, but didn’t at the time connect it with this play/production.
Most of the reviews – eight to ten of them included in the Almeida resource link above and here – are very good, but:
- the link to Michael Billington’s (very good, four star) review doesn’t work at the time of writing – this link works;
- Philip Fisher in British Theatre Guide found the work slight.
We thought it was top notch.