Tag: Robert Day

Hurting by David Lewis, Orange Tree Theatre, 15 April 2000

We don’t often do last nights of runs, but, ahead of spending several weeks on our travels, we booked the only night of this run that we could do.

This was a good four-hander of a play with a reliable Orange Tree cast.

Kate Bassett in the Telegraph liked it, in similar “good but not great” terms as we might have used:

Hurting Bassett TelegraphHurting Bassett Telegraph 21 Mar 2000, Tue The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Nick Curtis in The Standard, on the other hand, hated it:

Hurting Curtis StandardHurting Curtis Standard 13 Mar 2000, Mon Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Paul Taylor in The Independent gets the casting vote – he liked it a lot:

Hurting, Paul Taylor, IndependentHurting, Paul Taylor, Independent 18 Mar 2000, Sat The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Where was Michael Billington, who was a regular Orange Tree reviewer back then, that’s what I want to know? And where did Janie and I eat? That second question is easier – for sure we’d have eaten at Don Fernando’s back then.

Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, Holland Park, 17 July 1993

There’s nothing like a good production of an Ibsen play…

…and this was nothing like a good production of an Ibsen play.

It seemed like such a good idea at the time.

Janie and I had not yet seen any Ibsen play together and Janie had never seen Hedda Gabler and it was summer and the idea of theatre in the park sounded lovely.

As it happens, I had seen a very good Hedda (Lindsay Duncan) at Hampstead a few years earlier, but I thought I could never get too much Hedda.

Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, Hampstead Theatre, 18 October 1988

My log simply says:

It was so poor we walked at half time

This might have been the first time Janie and I “walked” together at half time.

On reminding Janie recently (December 2019) about this particular evening she simply said:

OMG it was dreadful

In truth, Janie and I had a tough search for a truly good Hedda. Richmond Theatre (previewing a West End Francesca Annis Hedda) in 1999 was a bit of a staid production. It wasn’t until 2005, Richard Eyre’s production at the Almeida (Eve Best as Hedda) that I thought Janie had seen a good enough production to be able to claim that we had both done Hedda.

So I’ve done four Heddas…in fact I think I might have seen a small town Hedda in my student days, making it five. As Judge Brack puts it:

Good God – people don’t do such things.