Tag: RNT

The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman, Lyttelton Theatre, 24 September 1994

Some rare long intervals between visits to theatre and concert hall that summer, all down to the dawning of my business Z/Yen, which took up ludicrous amounts of time including weekends.

So this was our first arty-evening since Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass at the same venue some six week’s before.

Broken Glass by Arthur Miller, Lyttelton Theatre, 13 August 1994

The Children’s Hour is a great play – Wikipedia describes it here.

The Lyttelton production we saw was very good. Super cast including Harriet Walter and Clare Higgins. Howard Davies directed it. Theatricalia sets out the cast and crew here.

No on-line reviews for the 1994 production that we saw…

…except I now have the odd clipping:

Billington On The Children's HourBillington On The Children’s Hour Sat, Sep 24, 1994 – 30 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

…and this one from Michael Coveney:

Coveney On The Children's HourCoveney On The Children’s Hour Sun, Sep 25, 1994 – 81 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

But anyway you can take our word for it that this was a very good production.

Broken Glass by Arthur Miller, Lyttelton Theatre, 13 August 1994

The play is well described on Wikipedia here. We saw the UK premier at the RNT.

What a cast; Henry Goodman, Margot Leicester, Ken Stott…David Thacker directed it. Theatricalia has this record for the play/production we saw – click here.

Janie and I rated it “very good indeed” at the time. I do recall it being a very interesting play and the RNT production was top notch, as RNT productions were wont to be at that time.

Here is a link to a review of the original New York production of this play, a few months before the RNT production.

Here’s Michael Billington’s review:

Billington On Broken GlassBillington On Broken Glass Sat, Aug 6, 1994 – 26 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Michael Coveney hated it:

Coveney On Broken GlassCoveney On Broken Glass Sun, Aug 7, 1994 – 68 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Lots of Olivier Awards for the RNT production, including BBC Best Play Award.

The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter, Lyttelton Theatre, 25 June 1994

We do like a bit of Pinter. I was especially keen to see this one. I’d never seen the play performed live; this 1994 production was the first London production since the West End production in the 1960s. But I had seen the wonderful 1980s TV version with Pinter himself as Goldberg.

I’d also previously seen excerpts from the play performed live; not least by my own school mates in the late 1970’s when Dan O’Neill was selected for the role of Goldberg ahead of me because he could do a much better Goldberg accent than me. I don’t bear grudges but I do retain a sense of unjust cultural appropriation to this day, not least because I still cannot do a Goldberg-style accent. I played Aston in The Caretaker instead, but I digress.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for the version Janie and I saw in June 1994. My log says we thought it was very good. A young, then little-known Sam Mendes directed it. Bob Peck was Goldberg, Anton Lesser was Stanley. Dora Bryan and Trevor Peacock were Meg and Petey.

Here is a contemporaneous review from Irving Wardle in the Independent in 1994.

Below is the Michael Billington review:

Billington On The Birthday PartyBillington On The Birthday Party Sat, Mar 19, 1994 – 26 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Here is Michael Coveney’s review:

Coveney On the Birthday PartyCoveney On the Birthday Party Sun, Mar 20, 1994 – 85 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

In truth, my memory for this play remains full of the wonderful BBC TV production from the 1980s…

…and Dan O’Neill’s Goldberg at school of course.

Les Parents Terribles by Jean Cocteau, Lyttelton Theatre, 4 June 1994

In theory this National theatre production should have been amazing. Alan Howard, Frances de la Tour, Sheila Gish, a young as yet little known Jude Law…

…but my log reads, “not bad. Not the greatest either”. That means we didn’t like it all that much.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for this production.

I think it was a little farce-like for our taste.

I cannot find any contemporaneous reviews for this one, so my vague memory will have to do…

..except that I do now have at least this Michael Billington clipping:

Billington On Les ParentsBillington On Les Parents Sat, May 7, 1994 – 28 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

…and this Michael Coveney clipping…

Coveney On Les ParentsCoveney On Les Parents Sun, May 8, 1994 – 71 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Our indifference to this production did not stop it from getting a West End transfer, nor did it stop Jude Law from winning “Outstanding Newcomer” awards for his performance, making this production seminal for him, if not necessarily all that special for us.

Angels in America – Millenium Approaches, Tony Kushner, Cottesloe Theatre, 8 April 1994

Angels In America is a two part play. I can only talk about the first part, Millenium Approaches, which Janie and I both thought was very good indeed.

We were both due to see the second part, Perestroika, the next day, but I got a bout of the raging trots and was confined to my bed instead.

Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry for Angels In America, which covers both parts.

What a cast! Daniel Craig, Susan Engel, Clare Holman, Stephen Dillane, Harry Towd…directed by Declan Donnellan too.

I insisted that Janie go alone to see Perestroika and she told me at the time that it was not as good as Millenium Approaches. But was she saying that just to be kind or was she saying that because she got less enjoyment without me or was she saying that because actually the first part is the better part?

Here is the Wikipedia entry for both.

No on-line reviews from the RNT production back then, sadly. Here is a New York Times transcript from 1993…

…and here is Michael Billington’s review from 1992:

Billington On Angels KushnerBillington On Angels Kushner Sat, Jan 25, 1992 – 21 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

The Skriker by Caryl Churchill, Cottesloe Theatre, 26 March 1994

A strange play, this. Here is a link to its Wikipedia entry. Writing about it 25 yrars later, it seems in some ways more relevant now than it did then, as evidenced by the several revivals of it in recent years.

According to my log, Janie and I both found the play and the original RNT production we saw very good. Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry for that production.

The wonderful Kathryn Hunter was in it. As was Richard Katz, who had, at that time, fairly recently done a grand job with my material in NewsRevue. I’m pretty sure it was Richard who belted this one, for example:

Designer, NewsRevue Lyric, 5 January 1993

I’m struggling to find reviews, but this preview from the Independent is interesting.

Here is a clipping from The Guardian:

Billington On The SkrikerBillington On The Skriker Sat, Jan 29, 1994 – 24 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

While here is a 79 page doctoral thesis about this play, which posits that our whole political and social system comprises patriarchal binary oppositions. So there.

And there was Janie and I thinking that we’d spent an evening seeing an interesting play by Caryl Churchill performed exceptionally well. What simple souls we were/are.

Mother Courage And Her Children by Bertolt Brecht, version by Hanif Kureishi, Cottesloe Theatre, 15 January 1994

Our first theatre visit of 1994 which, according to my log, we both thought was a very good production.

The Theatricalia entry for this production can be found here.

I cannot find any contemporaneous reviews on-line for this production…

…but there are some clippings, e.g. Michel Billington:

Billington On Mother CourageBillington On Mother Courage Wed, Dec 8, 1993 – 28 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

A smaller clipping also from Michael Coveney:

Coveney on Mother CourageCoveney on Mother Courage Sun, Dec 12, 1993 – 79 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Ellie Haddington played the lead role very well.

My log describes this as an “RNT Education Department Mobile Production”, so my guess is that it toured extensively beyond the Cottesloe. Good for it.

He Who Saw Everything by Robert Temple & Anon, Cottesloe Theatre, 14 May 1993

This piece was billed as:

fragments from The Epic of Gilgamesh…

…which made it rather interesting.

It was part of the Springboards thingie – we saw three of these studio pieces in two weeks – this was the third:

Daisy and I rated this one very good. Weird, though.

I don’t think the Observer reviewed this one, but the Guardian did – below is Michael Billington’s review of this piece.

Billio might choose to call his autobiography He Who Saw Everything, now I come to think of it.

Michael Billington He Who Saw Everything May 1993Michael Billington He Who Saw Everything May 1993 Sat, May 15, 1993 – 28 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Interesting stuff. It’s one of those nights at the theatre about which I remember little detail but it left a lingering impression on me nonetheless. I can still sort-of remember the sights, sounds and even smells of it.

Baby Doll by Andrew Poppy & Tennessee Williams, Cottesloe Theatre, 8 May 1993

This piece was billed as:

a new chamber opera based on the original screenplay…

…perhaps we should have paid heed to that billing.

It was not to our taste.

It was part of the Springboards season, of which we saw three productions at the Cottesloe in two weeks. This was the second of the three we saw.

Below is a review from The Guardian – opera review rather than theatre review please note:

Baby Doll May 1993Baby Doll May 1993 Tue, May 11, 1993 – 28 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

The Observer review can be seen as part of the article (including the picture) below:

Observer May 1993 CottesloeObserver May 1993 Cottesloe Sun, May 9, 1993 – 55 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

We stayed at mine that weekend. Whether I cooked or we got a takeway on the way home is lost in the mists of time.

I do recall Janie trying to sound like the atonal operatic voices in this misguided Baby Doll production for some while after the show.

Oh dear.

Somewhere by Judith Johnson, Cottesloe Theatre, 1 May 1993

Janie and I went threee times in a fortnight to see RNT Studio plays at the Cottesloe. This was the first of those three visits. It was a modern Liverpudlian play of the post-Thatcherism variety. We thought it was a very good play and really enjoyed (if that is the right word) this production.

Michael Church gave it a very good review in the Observer:

Observer May 1993 CottesloeObserver May 1993 Cottesloe Sun, May 9, 1993 – 55 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Michael Billington similarly applauded the project in The Guardian:

Billington Springboards May 1993Billington Springboards May 1993 Tue, May 4, 1993 – 23 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com