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I don’t remember a great deal about this one.
Here is the Orange Tree stub on the play/production.
I think it might have been a bit much for us at that time, with Phillie so poorly by then, so perhaps we didn’t even stick it out to the second half.
This search term suggests that the few reviews it got were quite good ones.
I don’t think this one really floated our boat. We liked the idea of it but it had a rather laboured feel as a piece of drama.
We were not having a good run at the theatre in the first part of 2010 and this one was part of that poor run for us.
Here is a link to the Orange Tree resource on the production.
I remember guessing at the time that Michael Billington would like it; he did – click here.
This search term – click here – will find you the other main reviews, most of which were luke warm.
We went for our traditional dinner at Don Fernando afterwards; I have a feeling we even skived the second half of this one.
In the midst of all those ICC World T20 cricket double bills (two visits to Lord’s that week and another visit the next day lined up)…
…ironically, a double header at The Orange Tree.
Here is a link to the Orange Tree stub for the two productions.
I was familiar with the Shaffer, having read it (I think I might also have seen a TV film version of it), but I was not at all familiar with the Kopit.
Frankly, I could have done without the Kopit. It all felt so obscure I’m not sure I can even describe it to you. Beckett with even less action?
Had it been up to Daisy and/or had I not been familiar with the Shaffer, we might have left at half time and taken our Spanish meal at Don Fernando early. But I really wanted to see the Shaffer and we both agreed afterwards that the Shaffer had been well worth the wait.
I can’t find reviews by the usual suspects for this double bill. Perhaps Michael Billington was spending too much time at Lord’s and not enough time at the theatre that week. Or perhaps my web searching isn’t up to it for double bills.
This is one of those rare plays about the workplace; in this case a suntan lotion business. The impecunious Orange Tree is one of the few theatres with solid production stubs going back as far as 2009 – click here for all the details on this one.
As is often the case with workplace plays, this one didn’t quite work for us. The stage was incredibly busy – a huge cast for the tiny Orange Tree. The humour didn’t quite translate/make the grade either.
Still, it was well acted and did provide some interesting points for us to discuss over a Don Fernando Spanish meal afterwards.
We rather liked this one, although more form the point of view of it being a well acted interesting piece on an interesting subject than it being great drama or great comedy.
You can read all about it on the Orange Tree site – here.
Janie and I describe silly or farcical comedies as being “a bit Vincent Golightly” (don’t ask, long/fictional story) and this was a bit Vincent for sure. But we enjoyed our evening in the theatre and topped it off with some Spanish food at Don Fernando, as is our Richmond habit most times.
It seemed like a good idea when we booked it. Here ‘s a link to the rubric that enticed us, along with the cast and creatives information.
We’d had previous experience of Vaclav Havel’s plays, so shouldn’t have been surprised to find the absurdity a bit lame and the drama weak.
In particular, I thought Audience (about a playwright stacking beer barrels in a warehouse) tame.
So what do we know?
Still, we enjoyed our Don Fernando dinner afterwards and never feel completely let down after an evening at the Orange Tree.
This double bill was part of a Vaclav Havel Season that autumn at the Orange Tree. We only attended this one evening.
Vaclav Havel is one of those writers that you really want to like and there are always some very clever lines and some interestingly weird scenes in his plays. Yet somehow Havel never quite seems to work for me or for Janie.
Still, we enjoyed the evening. The Mountain Hotel one was a typically Havel peculiar mix of people thrown together in a hotel garden being absurd together. I think we even considered sneaking away a half time, but stayed to see what the second play was like. Audience is a short quasi-autobiographical piece about Vanek, who works in an absurd beer factory. It did not motivate us to return and see the other short Vanek plays later in the season.
It was all very well acted and well directed; David Antrobus is an Orange Tree regular and is reliably good.
You can read all about it, including who played whom and stuff, here. Someone at the Orange Tree is doing an amazing archiving job; I am grateful to them.
Philip Fisher in the British Theatre Guide is more upbeat about the evening.
Ian Shuttleworth’s FT piece can still be seen archived here.
Truthfully, I recall very little about this one. No doubt Sam Walters was wandering around like an expectant father on the night we went; a production directed by his wife, Auriol Smith and starring their daughter, Octavia Walters. Although we were past the preview stage, so perhaps Sam wasn’t there that night.
Anyway, here’s the helpful Orange Tree stub about it.
Michael Billington in the Guardian, as usual with Orange Tree stuff, loved it, here.
The Standard suggests that it is interesting as social history but lumpen as drama, here.
I have a feeling that we found it a bit lumpen too. We tended to with Orange Tree pieces from that period, often observing that Sam’s reluctance to use an editing pencil on Edwardian revivals is a bit of a disadvantage. A shame really. Especially as so many of my great aunts and uncles made that trip to Australia 100 or so years ago, the subject really is of interest to me.
Still, we no doubt still enjoyed our evening and no doubt rounded it off with Spanish food at Don Fernando, as most often we do after the Orange Tree.
My recall of this one is extremely sketchy. I vaguely recall the scenarios, as set out in the Orange Tree Archive – click here. I remember the cast being a collection of Orange Tree regulars and a few new faces. I remember the play not really fitting together – it was basically three separate stories, merely linked by being essentially mother and daughter scenarios.
Michael Billington wasn’t too sure about it – see here.
John Thaxter in British Theatre Guide quite liked it – here.
We’ll have dined at Don Fernando afterwards, that I can say for sure.
I remember this play seeming a bit slow and dated, but it did hold our attention and the acting was very good.