Blue / Orange by Joe Penhall, Cottesloe Theatre, 1 May 2000

This was one of our “oh wow!” visits to the theatre.

Superb,

was all I write in the log, but I knew I wouldn’t need to write much down because the evening was so memorable.

It was a bank holiday Monday and Mum’s birthday. “How did you get away with that?”, I hear you readers cry.

My diary notes that we went to Mum & Dad for bank holiday lunch before going on to the RNT for Blue / Orange. Simple enough.

This is a great play, which was masterfully performed by Chiwetel Ejiofor (our first sighting of him), Andrew Lincoln and Bill Nighy. Roger Michell directed. Theatricalia tells all here.

Paul Taylor was impressed. “Gripping”, he says:

Blue / Orange Taylor IndyBlue / Orange Taylor Indy 14 Apr 2000, Fri The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard also rated it highly.

Blue / Orange de Jongh StandardBlue / Orange de Jongh Standard 14 Apr 2000, Fri Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer in the Telegraph hated the play:

Blue / Orange Spencer TelegraphBlue / Orange Spencer Telegraph 17 Apr 2000, Mon The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

My friend, Michael Billington, had a downer on the National at that time – it took me a dozen or so more years to acquire a similar view. Still, Michael B approved of this one:

Blue / Orange Billington GuardianBlue / Orange Billington Guardian 19 Apr 2000, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

The Old Neighbourhood by David Mamet, Royal Court Theatre at the Duke Of York’s Theatre, 11 July 1998

All I wrote in my log was:

No interval.

That suggests that we didn’t get a great deal out of this one, unusually for Mamet. Possibly we just felt that we’d seen a lot of material like this before.

Was it three short plays or one play with three somewhat disconnected scene?. I wrote down

The Disappearance of the Jews, Jolly and Deeny.

Splendid cast: Linal Haft, Colin Stinton, Zoe Wanamaker, Vincent Marzello and Diana Quick, directed by Patrick Marber.

Nicholas de Jongh really liked it:

de Jongh, Standard, Mametde Jongh, Standard, Mamet 24 Jun 1998, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Our friend, Michael Billington also liked it a lot:

Billington Guardian MametBillington Guardian Mamet 24 Jun 1998, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer in the Telegraph was less sure:

Spencer Telegraph MametSpencer Telegraph Mamet 25 Jun 1998, Thu The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Kate Kellaway’s interview with Patrick Marber is very interesting:

Kellaway Observer Marber InterviewKellaway Observer Marber Interview 14 Jun 1998, Sun The Observer (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Reading these reviews and the interview, I think I should, 25 years later, re-read the play(s) and see what I think of them now.