Travel, Theatre, Music, Cricket, Tennis, Writing, Life
It seemed like only a week since we last went to Harry’s and then The Hampstead…
…but this one did less for us.
I seem to recall finding the whole evening a bit irritating and we really didn’t like this play.
It’s had great reviews so don’t take our word for it.
Emilia Fox doesn’t do much for us and the play seemed very laboured and obvious in places.
The Hampstead resource on the play/production can be found here.
Neither Janie nor I remember much about this play/production. Nor did I write any comments about it in my log – just the details of the visit.
The play is about a Samaritan helping a desperate young woman and the Samaritan becoming emotionally entangled with her. Janie would doubtless look on the whole thing very differently 25 years on, having been a Samaritan since the pandemic – i.e. for over five years at the time of writing.
The leads were played by Julian Wadham and Claudie Blakely, both of whom we rate highly. I do recall that I had been to see Julian Wadham perform more than once “back in the day” with Bobbie and her work colleagues from the law reports, as Julian’s sister, Sarah, worked with them. I also recall that this theatre visit came up in conversation at Bobbie’s place a few day’s before we went to see this play, when Janie and I visited her for dinner the previous Saturday.
Thank goodness for some good theatre reviews, to stop me from waffling and to inform the passing reader about the theatrical event itself.
Michael Billington in the Guardian wrote pretty well of the piece:
Article from 13 Jul 2000 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England)
Charles Spencer thought the piece worthy but flawed:
Article from 21 Jul 2000 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England)
Paul Taylor in the Independent
Article from 22 Jul 2000 The Independent (London, Greater London, England)
Enough said.
A superb run of seeing amazing productions started to break down just a little with this one.
Again a Saturday evening, again with Bobbie. My log says the production was good. It also says:
Suzan Sylvester was indisposed that day, so we saw Michelle Evans understudy the lead
Tis pity that, as I think Suzan Sylvester must have been a very good Annabella opposite Rupert Graves as Giovanni. I do remember Bobbie and I feeling that the understudy did well, though.
My friend Michael Simkins was also in it, as Soranzo. Coincidental at the time of writing, in early 2019, as we saw Michael at the Hampstead Downstairs just a couple of weeks ago:
Here is the Theatricalia entry for this production.
Alan Ayckbourn directed the production – there is some additional information about it on his site – click here.
It’s not a happy story and matters unsurprisingly…spoiler alert…do not end well for the protagonists. The Wikipedia entry gives a good synopsis.
In those days I think we were quite partial to some Jacobean blood and gore. It’s only latterly that I’ve gone all snowflake.
Below is Michael Radcliffe’s review from The Observer:
Tis Pity Radcliffe Sun, Mar 6, 1988 – 40 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
Michael Billington in The Guardian found this production “too tasteful”:
Tis Pity Billimgton Sat, Mar 5, 1988 – 16 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
