Ivanov by Anton Chekhov, Almeida Theatre, 1 March 1997

We loved this play and production.

In those days, Ralph Fiennes was one of my buddies as Lambton Place…

…OK, what I really mean is that I’d quite often see him there and we were nodding acquaintances.

Anyway, Fiennes was doing great theatre work in those days, not least at the Almeida, which was having a heyday under the joint leadership of Iain McDiarmid (also one of my nodding acquaintances in the Notting Hill neighbourhood back then, as it happens) and Jonathan Kent.

I wrote in my log:

Very good production. Ian McDiarmid near stole the show the night we went understudying as Kosykh.

Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry, which informs us that John cater was supposed to play Kosykh.

Anyway…

Charles Spencer loved it in The Telegraph:

Ivanov Spencer TelegraphIvanov Spencer Telegraph 20 Feb 1997, Thu The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Nicholas de Jongh was less sure in The Standard:

Ivanov, de Jongh, StandardIvanov, de Jongh, Standard 20 Feb 1997, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Paul taylor spoke highly of it in The Independent:

Ivanov, Taylor, IndependentIvanov, Taylor, Independent 21 Feb 1997, Fri The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

While my friend, Michael Billington, loved it:

Ivanov, Billington, GuardianIvanov, Billington, Guardian 20 Feb 1997, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

…as did we (have I mentioned that yet?) – then we left the country for a few weeks.

The Life Of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht, Adapted by David Hare, Almeida Theatre, 12 March 1994

Janie and I see a lot of theatre and on the whole go to see productions that we find good or very good. But just occasionally we see something that is a cut above and is truly memorable as one of the best productions we have ever seen.

That is how my memory (25 years later) recalls this adaptation/production of The Life Of Galileo and my log from the time registers the simple phrase, “excellent production”.

Here is the Theatricalia record for this production.

Contemporaneous reviews only through the following clippings of Michael Billington’s review:

Billington On GalileoBillington On Galileo Fri, Feb 18, 1994 – 34 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com Billington On Galileo Part TwoBillington On Galileo Part Two Fri, Feb 18, 1994 – 35 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

My take is that Richard Griffiths was superb as Galileo, ably supported by a top notch cast dirtected by Jonanathan Kent.

This a David Hare adaptation was revived at The National some 12 years later; there are on-line reviews of that production – e.g. this one, which mentions the 1994 production.

The Wikipedia entry for the play provides a good synopsis.

An exceptionally good night at the theatre, I remember it well.