Tag: Paul O’Mahony

Seven Year Twitch by David Lewis, Orange Tree Theatre, 25 May 2013

Perhaps the irritating pun in the title should have warned us off this one – but we like the Orange Tree and the cast included some excellent Orange Tree regulars so we went for it.

We found this a tame, irritating comedy on the whole. We stuck it out – it wasn’t that bad – but it wasn’t that good either and we felt it could have been so much better.

It is often a mistake for an playwright to direct their own play – especially with comedy – this one was an object lesson for that theory.

Click here for a link to the Orange Tree resource on this play/production.

Here is a link to a search term for reviews – which were middling on the whole.

Sing To Me Through Open Windows by Arthur Kopit & The Private Ear by Peter Shaffer, Orange Tree Theatre, 13 June 2009

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.

Factors Unforeseen by Michel Vinaver, Orange Tree Theatre, 16 May 2009

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.

 

Mountain Hotel & Audience by Vaclav Havel, Orange Tree Theatre, 15 November 2008

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.

Mountain Hotel and Audience by Vaclav Havel, Orange Tree Theatre, 15 November 2008

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.

Michael Billington, a long term Orange Tree fan, is polite but clearly didn’t much like the evening either.

Philip Fisher in the British Theatre Guide is more upbeat about the evening.

Ian Shuttleworth’s FT piece can still be seen archived here.

Nan, John Masefield, Orange Tree Theatre, 5 May 2007

Very Orange Tree, this one.

Written in the Edwardian era.  Set 100 years or so before that.

Janie is usually unenthusiastic about these period pieces, but we have been supporters of the Orange Tree for a long time and tend to get withdrawal symptoms if we reject all of the period stuff.

Mostly Orange Tree regulars in the cast.  Auriol Smith directing, Sam Walters hovering around like an expectant father (we were there very early in the run).

Here’s the Orange Tree Archive to tell you all about it – click here.  Didn’t realise the archive went back this far – pleasant surprise to find this.  Even some headlines from the reviews – well done Orange Tree.

It was a very good production, this.  One of the better ones there.  Kate McGuiness was especially good in the lead.

Michael Billington was generous with his praise, but he does have a soft spot for the Orange Tree – click here.