Prophet in Exile by Nadim Sawalha, Chelsea Theatre, 8 May 2000

A rare Monday evening visit to the theatre for us. I had booked the day out as a long weekend. Perhaps Janie had intended to do the same, but her diary shows that she treated some patients, engineering it that she ended up in the Kensington & Chelsea area.

We really liked the stuff that little Chelsea Theatre was putting on back then – it had a short flowering of producing the sort of unusual fringe theatre stuff that we like.

This play was basically a biographical piece about Kahlil Gibran, not least the birth of his great work, The Prophet.

This production was very much a family affair for the Sawalha family, with author Nadim appearing in the production, along with brother Nabil and a couple of other Sawalhas; Lara & Omar, in some cases doubling up, playing several smaller parts. Gerald Key played Gibran, Briony Glassco played Mary Haskell and Colin Redgrave directed the production.

This production was previewed in The Standard

Prophet StandardProphet Standard 27 Apr 2000, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

We rather liked the piece and performances. But then Janie had/has a bit of a thing about The Prophet. But 25 years later, I don’t think I’d get a positive answer if I suggested a Monday night at the theatre, even if the subject matter was close to Janie’s heart!

The Fire Raisers by Max Frisch, Riverside Studios, 10 June 1995

We were having a veritable Max Frisch fest that spring, having seen Biography at The Questors just a few weeks earlier:

In those days, The Riverside Studios were doing some quite large theatre productions. This was part of a season, I believe, hence the generic season programme cover above.

I rated this very good and I’m sure Frances de la Tour and Malcolm Tierney were excellent, but I’m not sure this is the best Fire Raisers production we have seen. We returned to the piece some years later to see Benedict Cumberbatch in this play (translated as The Arsonists) at the Royal Court, which I think was a more dynamic production.

Still, very good is very good. Michael Billington said these faint praise things about it:

Billington on Fire RaisersBillington on Fire Raisers Thu, Jun 1, 1995 – 30 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Michael Coveney was also unsure about it:

Coveney on Fire RaisersCoveney on Fire Raisers Sun, Jun 4, 1995 – 78 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com