Islands by Caroline Horton, Bush Theatre, 24 January 2015

We thought this play and its production were just awful.

I seem to recall that it ran straight through without an interval; had there been an interval we would not have returned for the second half of this one. Perhaps there was and we didn’t. The whole experience was so bad we’ve mostly blotted it from our minds.

The subject matter – tax havens and the greed of the super rich – is fair game for theatre. But this was like a really bad copy of Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi style with almost no substance – opportunities missed.

If you want to know more about the production, the Bush has a decent stub on it – click here.

I could go on, but I won’t.

 

Incognito by Nick Payne, Bush Theatre, 31 May 2014

We really liked this play/production.

We had been blown away by Nick Payne’s Constellations, so our expectations were high…

…this piece met those expectations.

It is all well explained on the Bush’s excellent on-line resource – click here.

This search term link will find you independent reviews and resources, although you shouldn’t much need them because the piece was very well received so the above Bush resource covers most of the bases.

Here is a very interesting interview/explanation from Nick Payne:

Below is a tantalising trailer which says little but looks spectacular:

A super evening of theatre. This one really deserves a revival and/or a major theatre run.

The Blackest Black by Jeremy Brock, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 10 January 2014

Janie and I really liked this play/production. Another “Hampstead Downstairs special” in our book.

A three-hander about an uber-male astronomer whose space is invaded by an arty female.

Funny and thought-provoking. We thoroughly enjoyed it. The piece deserves a bigger audience.

Here is a link to the Hampstead’s resource on the production.

The author explains some of his thinking in the vid below.

Diary suggests we ate at Harry Morgans before the show. I think we were coming towards the end of the Harry’s pre show era at that time.