Tag: Scott Frazer

Luther by John Osborne, Olivier Theatre, 19 October 2001

We pushed the boat out to see this one. Friday night at the National Theatre – we both had busy Friday schedules well into the afternoon.

Was it worth it, I hear you cry.

So dull, we walked at half time

Seemingly not.

I have a feeling this was the occasion when we bumped into my friends from Lambton Place, Bryan Rostron & Sunny, with their pal Paul Foot. You don’t mess with investigative journalists like Bryan and Paul – we confessed to the fact that we were going to sneak away after the drinks interval.

We wanted to like this play/production. We are partial to John Osborne, although well aware of the fact that his good is very very good, but not all of his drama is of the highest quality. This one felt like a history lesson in a rather dull (to us) aspect of history.

I also felt badly about walking out on Timothy West. He had, after all, sat through hours of dull stuff with me in it on more than one occasion without walking out at half time:

Andorra, 23, 24 & 25 February 1978
Twelfth Night, Alleyn’s School, 12, 14, 15 & 16 December 1978

Returning to Luther, it was, of course, a fine cast and a fine production. Rufus Sewell in the title role. Richard Griffiths, Timothy West, and Maxine Peake in supporting roles, Peter Gill directing with a young Josie Rourke assisting.

Here’s a link to the Theatricalia entry for this one.

But oh boy did we find this dull. What did the critics – possibly better equipped for dull than me and Janie, have to say?

Nicholas de Jongh heaped praise on the production while stating that Luther was “quite the wrong choice of Osborne”:

Luther de Jongh Standard Luther de Jongh Standard 8 Oct 2001 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com


Michael Billington disagreed – loving it especially for its reclamation of potentially lost Osborne:

Luther Billington Guardian Luther Billington Guardian 8 Oct 2001 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer, on the other hand, described it as a long hard slog:

Luther Spencer Telegraph Luther Spencer Telegraph 8 Oct 2001 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

A rare example of a split jury in which we sided with Spencer rather than Billington. “Long hard slog” sums it up rather well from my recollection.

Antigone by Sophocles, The Old Vic, 28 October 1999

For some reason, stuff at The Old Vic rarely works for us and this production of Antigone was no exception. It had been bigged-up in the media on the back of a big name cast, headed up by Tara Fitzgerald alongside Jonathan Hyde, Anna Calder-Marshall, Zubin Varla and several others, under the skilled direction of (and adaption by) Declan Donnellan.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for that production.

Janie and I didn’t think that Tara Fitzgerald suited that part, or indeed possibly the stage, but what do we know?

Nicholas de Jongh in the Standard gave it a blob:

Antigone Standard Old Vic Antigone Standard Old Vic 12 Oct 1999, Tue Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

On the other hand, Paul Taylor in The Independent liked it a lot:

Antigone Taylor IndependentAntigone Taylor Independent 12 Oct 1999, Tue The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Our friend, Michael Billington, in the Guardian, absolutely loved it:

Antigone Billington Guardian 1 of 2Antigone Billington Guardian 1 of 2 14 Oct 1999, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com Antigone Billington Guardian 2 of 2Antigone Billington Guardian 2 of 2 14 Oct 1999, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

More often than not, if the critics are divided, we side with Billington (Guardian) over Spencer (Telegraph), but Charles Spencer panned this production (perhaps more vociferously than our view). I’ll let him have the last word:

Antigone Spencer TelegraphAntigone Spencer Telegraph 13 Oct 1999, Wed The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com