Tag: Richard Bonneville

The School For Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Olivier Theatre, 19 May 1990

I thought this one was very good and I am pretty sure Bobbie thought so too.

An amazing cast directed by Peter Wood. Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry – feast your eyes on that list of names. the big draw names were Jane Asher, John Neville, Prunella Scales and Dennis Quilly, but there is a plethora of fine actors and actresses on that list, several on the up with small parts in this production. Also notable was Richard Bonneville, who played Charles Surface, and is latterly very well known as High Bonneville.

Michael Coveney in The Observer was not so keen on this:

Coveney on ScandalCoveney on Scandal Sun, Apr 29, 1990 – 54 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Nicholas de Jongh in The Guardian seemed to like it a bit better:

de Jongh on Scandalde Jongh on Scandal Thu, Apr 26, 1990 – 24 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Juno And The Paycock by Sean O’Casey, Lyttelton Theatre, 22 February 1989

A midweek visit to the theatre with Bobbie. How on earth we ended up at the National for a major production on press night I have no idea – perhaps a couple of Bobbie’s journalist friends/colleagues had to divest themselves of a pair of tickets at short notice.

Midweek theatre was a habit we had acquired during my quieter months in late 1988 but this was not a sensible idea once my Binders career got going, as I might be deadline-ridden or out of town at the drop of a hat in my new career – so such mideweek jaunts became rare.

Having said that, it seems that February 1989 was a relatively quiet month for me, in terms of client contact anyway, certainly compared with the frantic few weeks I spent on my first major assignment in December 1988 and January 1989:

Reduced To Tears By My First Consultancy Assignment, 27 January 1989

I don’t recall being quiet at work, though, so I must have been immersed in something or things that didn’t require meetings. I think I ran a tendering process or two, got involved with some proposal writing and helped out on a few projects staffed by people who didn’t really “get” accounting.

One thing I most certainly wasn’t doing was strutting around the office like a “paycock”. Which brings us back neatly to the matter at hand – a Wednesday evening visit to the National to see Juno and the Paycock with Bobbie.

It’s a good play – one of O’Casey’s best in my opinion – a synopsis and the play’s provenance can be found here. The 1989 Lyttelton production was a good one to be sure – that’s what I wrote in my log anyhow.

Linda Bassett played Juno and Tony Haygarth played the Captain. It was a very good cast altogether, in fact – see this Theatricalia entry for details.

Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review:

Billington on PaycockBillington on Paycock Fri, Feb 24, 1989 – 34 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Michael Ratcliffe’s Observer review:

Ratcliffe on PaycockRatcliffe on Paycock Sun, Feb 26, 1989 – 44 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Strangely, it was revived again at the Lyttelton in 2011 with Ciaran Hinds and my neighbour, Sinead Cussack. Here is a link to a list of many productions.

It is hard to find any information on-line about the 1989 production, although some of the 2011 reviews hark back to the earlier production. But take my word for it that the 1989 production was good. I’m pretty sure it got good notices. Bobbie might remember yet more about it than I do. I’ll ask her.