For some reason, stuff at The Old Vic rarely works for us and this production of Antigone was no exception. It had been bigged-up in the media on the back of a big name cast, headed up by Tara Fitzgerald alongside Jonathan Hyde, Anna Calder-Marshall, Zubin Varla and several others, under the skilled direction of (and adaption by) Declan Donnellan.
More often than not, if the critics are divided, we side with Billington (Guardian) over Spencer (Telegraph), but Charles Spencer panned this production (perhaps more vociferously than our view). I’ll let him have the last word:
By gosh there was a fuss in the UK press about this one, with theatre journalists falling over themselves to heap praise, in particular on Nicole Kidman, essentially for looking the part and being able to act.
We had tickets for the first Saturday, because back then, as members of the Donmar, that was the sort of thing we did, especially if someone as grand as David Hare was credited with writing a whole new version of a play.
The play, originally known as La Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler, was highly controversial when it was written at the turn of the 20th century. There are 10 characters. David Hare’s version at Sam Mendes’s request at The Donmar (subsequently transferred to the Cort Theatre in New York) was not the first time the play was staged as a two-hander. It starred Iain Glen and Nicole Kidman.
Janie and I thoroughly enjoyed our evening, but probably for all the wrong reasons. My log comment speaks volumes:
Nice bodies, shame about the play.
Having been wowed by David Hare’s wonderful solo performance piece Via Dolorosa the week before…
…Janie and I found The Blue Room to be comparatively thin dramatic gruel.
Still, nice bodies as I (and the fawning journalists) said, plus a bizarre moment for me personally. Janie and I were sitting right at the front at one of the sides of the stage, as oft we did at the Donmar. As the stars took their final bow and departed the stage, Nicole Kidman seemed to look straight at me and wave at me with her fingers. One of Janie’s patients was in the audience that night and came up to us as we were leaving the theatre in a state of great excitement, because she had seen Nicole Kidman waving at me. The patient wondered whether I knew Nicole Kidman personally, to which my answer was, “not until this evening”.
25 years later, all I can say is that me and Nicole, we go back a long way.
Here are some of the fawning newspaper pieces. The Standard, seemingly without irony, devoted its Page 3 to the news & review. Frankly some of the language used in this Standard page would not be acceptable 25 years later:
In the Guardian, there is a gushing piece in The Arts Diary which, like the other papers, probably would get heavily edited or spiked today, while our friend Michael Billington did the worthy thing and reviewed Our Country’s Good at The Young Vic instead. (Janie and I went to see that the following spring when it came back from its tour.)
That was my sole comment on the quality of this one in the log – I don’t think we were overly impressed despite the excellent cast. Niamh Cusack, Kerry Fox & Josette Simon, directed by John Crowley, initially at the Donmar Warehouse and then touring – we saw it at Richmond.
Again, this time with Janie, we saw a stellar cast and the work of a fine director (Sam Mendes rather than Trevor Nunn).
My log says:
Sadly, Janie hated it and I had pulled my neck, so we bowed out gracefully at half time. (Well, Janie bowed, I couldn’t bow of course).
My neck condition was doubtless not improved by Janie’s manifest disquiet and the length of the play. Perhaps I had overdone it the previous weekend at Andrea’s BBQ party on the Saturday and Kim & Micky’s evening do the next day.
Apologies to the fine cast who had to do without us for the second half of that evening; Simon Russell Beale, David Harewood & Claire Skinner leading the pack. Trevor Peacock, Colin Tierney, Indira Varma and others supporting well no doubt. It’s either me, or the play, or me & the play…it’s not you, loves. The Theatricalia entry gives you chapter and verse on the cast and crew.
There was a hoo-ha in the press that summer about whether or not Othello could or should be played by a white actor. Having seen Willard White in 1989 and David Harewood in 1997, I was not really party to the phenomenon that Othello is usually played by a white actor and that the play is increasingly rarely performed because some people are uncomfortable about skin colour with regard to that part.
Janie and I saw a preview long before the press night of this production – indeed before most of that press hoo-ha kicked off, which made the hoo-ha seem even more weird to us.
Anyway, Charles Spencer seemed very impressed with the production once press night came around:
I am happy to concede that the critics were right and/but this simply isn’t a play for Janie and probably (even though i am far more partial to Shakespeare than she) not for me either. A pain in the neck is how I remember it.
No equivocation from us nor the critics on this one. While my “very good” report on many pieces covers a range of satisfaction, for this one I wrote:
One of the very best…
…which is not something I wrote often. I very clearly recall Janie and I walking out after Closer saying “wow” to each other.
Patrick Marber himself directed it and we were skilful/fortunate to see the original cast at the Cottesloe as this production upscaled in the light of rave reviews, multiple awards and huge audiences. We saw Liza Walker, Clive Owen, Ciaran Hinds and Sally Dexter. Here is the Theatricalia entry.
Here are the pick of the reviews.
First up – Charles Spencer in the Telegraph raving about it:
We were neither of us too sure about this play/production.
Granted, it was extremely well received. Granted, we recognised Martin McDonagh’s talent and said we’d like to see more of his work, which subsequently we have done.
But this particular play/production felt like a pastiche of a pre war Irish play to us and left us a bit cold.
I’ve long been partial to a bit of Potter, as has Daisy.
I had seen the original TV film of this one and to some extent had my doubts about it, as I have never much enjoyed the conceit of adult actors playing the role of children.
Still, the chance to see a National production of a Potter won the day. Many members of this fine cast went on to bigger and bolder things. Steve Coogan, Nigel Lindsay, Debra Gillett, Geraldine Somerville. Patrick Marber directed it.
Whereas Michael Billington wrote highly of it, finding it more translatable from screen to stage than most Potter and describing it as “Potter at his best”:
We were both ambivalent about it. It was clearly a fine production. It pleased me more than the TV version. But that “adults playing children” thing still didn’t really work for me.
Below is an excerpt from the original 1979 TV film:
We do like a bit of Pinter. I was especially keen to see this one. I’d never seen the play performed live; this 1994 production was the first London production since the West End production in the 1960s. But I had seen the wonderful 1980s TV version with Pinter himself as Goldberg.
I’d also previously seen excerpts from the play performed live; not least by my own school mates in the late 1970’s when Dan O’Neill was selected for the role of Goldberg ahead of me because he could do a much better Goldberg accent than me. I don’t bear grudges but I do retain a sense of unjust cultural appropriation to this day, not least because I still cannot do a Goldberg-style accent. I played Aston in The Caretaker instead, but I digress.
Battle Curtis Standard 10 Dec 1999, Fri Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Battle Taylor Independent 10 Dec 1999, Fri The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Battle Spencer Telegraph 10 Dec 1999, Fri The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Battle Billington Guardian 11 Dec 1999, Sat The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
