Tag: Monyene Kane

Absolute Hell At the Questors Before A Weekend In Bristol, 9 to 11 November 2001

We went to The Questors with the Duchess of Castlebar to see Absolute Hell by by Rodney Ackland.

It was absolute hell.

We walked at half time.

Things had to be pretty bad for us to walk at half time, especially when The Duchess was treating us to some of her freebie tickets for The Questors.

We had a late reservation at an Ealing restaurant named Parade. I suspect that they were grateful to see us much earlier than our promised arrival at 10:45.

Here is a review of that place from the Standard about a year before our visit:

Parade Campion Standard Parade Campion Standard 26 Oct 2000 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

The next day, we set off for Bristol to join the Boswell branch of the family for Scott’s birthday. We stayed at The Swallow Hotel. We were no doubt generously entertained at chez Boswell for the birthday.

I don’t think the Duchess joined us on that occasion; hence the theatre visit and dinner with her grace the night before. Absolute Hell on the Friday evening – redemption for the rest of the weekend.

Summer by Edward Bond, Questors Playhouse, 29 January 1999

I logged that this play/production was:

One of the best things I have seen at The Questors.

Praise indeed.

Here is a link to The Questors archive page for this play/production.

We went with The Duchess, as was always the case at The Questors. She was a member and got a certain number of guest passes “thrown in” with her membership. She was determined to take advantage of those.

Janie’s diary informs me that she collected oxtail that earlier day and that we all went to Mama Amalfi for dinner after the show.

The Journalists by Arnold Wesker, The Questors Theatre, 7 December 1996

My log for this one reads:

Programme (and hence all details) missing.

Production OK but cluttered – much like the play.

But all is not lost – it turns out that The Questors Theatre has one of the best theatrical archives of their own productions on the planet (who knew?), so everything you ever wanted to know about this production (or indeed any Questors production) and more besides, is preserved. Click here for The Journalists.

Just in case anything ever goes awry there, I have uploaded the scan of the programme to here.

I was reminded of this play and production many years later when Janie and I saw Ink at the Almeida.

Ink by James Graham, Almeida Theatre, 17 June 2017

Ink was not cluttered, although I did get spluttered…

…but that’s another story.

We no doubt took Pauline on to Noughts & Crosses, or possibly Lisa’s, or possibly Wine & Moussaka afterwards.

Pauline will have done the Questors tickets, which was very generous of her (she didn’t have to pay anything for two guest tickets), Janie will have done the interval drinks and I will have sported the dinner. Fair dinkum.

Biography by Max Frisch, Translated by Michael Bullock, The Questors Theatre, 20 May 1995

I was really excited at the opportunity to see this play, which had not been performed in England before. I’ve been a fan of Max Frisch’s writing ever since performing in Andorra when I was at Alleyn’s:

Andorra, 23, 24 & 25 February 1978

An unusual opportunity to see a premier at The Questor’s Theatre, with Janie & The Duchess (Janie’s mum).

I liked this production, rating it “good” in my log. I recall the play being quite tricky and probably a challenge too far for The Questor’s.

The conceit of the piece – a behavioural researcher is given the opportunity to return to any point in his life and change the decisions he made – is intriguing and “very Frisch”.

25 years on, I have ordered a copy of the book and shall no doubt enjoy reading it.

Returning to 1995, I am pretty sure that the arrangement will have been “the usual” – i.e. The Duchess supplied The Questor’s tickets, Janie bought the interval drinks and I will have paid for dinner at Wine and Moussaka. That arrangement was decreed to be “fair” by The Duchess; who were we humble little folk to disagree with that?

But what if I could return to 1995 and make such decisions over again…?