Tag: Paul Handley

The Fever by Wallace Shawn, Royal Court Theatre, 4 April 2009

I saw Wallace Shawn perform this piece in early 1991, at the Cottesloe, with Bobbie.

The Fever by Wallace Shawn, Cottesloe Theatre, 9 February 1991

But Janie hadn’t seen it before and Clare Higgins is a cracking good actress.

Also, in the post crash times that were late 2008/early 2009 when we booked to see this production, I thought the piece might have a different, meaningful resonance.

In many ways it did.

Yet it wasn’t quite the same thing as seeing Wallace Shawn perform it himself. How could it be?

The Stone by Marius von Mayenburg, Royal Court Theatre, 14 February 2009

This was a short play with a good cast and minimal set. We wanted to like it more than we did like it.

Set in Dresden, it is about a house that changed hands while retaining secrets across 60 years of political strife.

Janie usually hates plays that jump backwards and forwards in time, as this one did.

The play and production is well described in The Stage – here.

…you get the point.

Not sure what we ate afterwards – in all the temporal confusion it’s a miracle that we succeeded in getting food and getting home in that order.

 

The Country by Martin Crimp, Royal Court Theatre, 10 June 2000

Janie and I were very taken with this creepy three-hander at the Royal Court. I remember us agreeing that it was Pinteresque at the time – without the influence of reviews I hasten to add.

I think this was our first sighting of a Martin Crimp play and for sure we were intrigued enough to seek out his work several times subsequently.

Owen Teale, Juliet Stevenson and Indira Varma, directed by Katie Mitchell. All people who had impressed us before and/or since.

My friend Michael Billington in the Guardian shared our fascination with this piece and also saw the Pinter parallels:

Billington on Crimp's The CountryBillington on Crimp’s The Country 17 May 2000, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer in the Telegraph, on the other hand, adjudged the play “pastiche Pinter”, while applauding the acting and the production:

Spencer on Crimp's The CountrySpencer on Crimp’s The Country 18 May 2000, Thu The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Clearly the photographers thought that Juliet Stevenson jiggling car keys in Owen Teale’s face was the memorable image of the production.