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I recall us both rather liking this play, without being bowled over by it.
Some very clever writing and lots of issues to chew over afterwards. A good blend of family comedy/drama and global issues. Very Islington.
Here is a link to the Almeida resource for the play/production.
The trailer below is quite good:
The reviews were, deservedly, good but not great – click here for a search term link. As Woody Allen might have said, “it was a good play, not a great play…”
I’m pretty sure this is the first Nick Payne play we saw. I remember little about it, other than the fact that the play was pretty full on about sex and that, despite its unsubtleties, we came away with the impression that we wanted to see more of this writer, which indeed we did.
Here is a link to the Royal Court resource on the play/production.
The usual praise for the Royal Court’s production qualities whether upstairs or downstairs. Super cast too.
Here is a search term that will find you the reviews and stuff if you want a deeper dive.
I was really taken with this play and production by the excellent Bruce Norris, about racial tension in a Chicago neighbourhood across the generations. It is witty and thought provoking in equal measure, tackling difficult topics with clarity and sensitivity.
Superb cast and this style of play marries well with Dominic Cooke’s style of direction.
Janie liked it too, but was a little less impressed than me.
Here is the Royal Court resource on this play/production.
It got rave reviews, west end transfer, revivals and all sorts – deservedly so. So you need to look through the reviews in the following link – click here – with care and choose the ones dated around September 2010 to see reviews of the actual production we saw – but you might want to look at reviews generally – in which case dip away with reckless abandon.
I recall this one as being a bit Alan Aykbournish – a gang of thirty-somethings on retreat in the country for New Years eve. What could possibly go wrong?
A slight set of Royal Court details and links about this play/production can be found here.
We quite enjoyed it, while agreeing that we normally seek plays with a bit more oomph and have seen a lot of plays a bit like this one in our time.
Of course it was well acted and well produced – the Royal Court hardly ever misses one of those beats.
We enjoyed but were a bit disappointed by this one.
We had absolutely loved That Face, Polly Stenham’s first play, so had eagerly awaited this one for two years.
Tusk Tusk was another play about a dysfunctional family with an addled mother (absentee mother this time) and several wild kids as the result.
It felt a bit like more of the same to us, which was a shame because we (perhaps unreasonably) expected more from Polly Stenham on the back of her stunningly good first play.
Still, some excellent performances from the youngsters (this must have been the first time we saw the excellent Bel Powley, for example) and the usual Royal Court quality of production, even when the play is being done upstairs.
We saw the Saturday preview before press night.