The Game Of Love And Chance by Pierre Marivaux, Cottesloe Theatre, 20 February 1993

The Theatricalia entry for this production can be found here.

What a cast: Maggie Steed, Trevor Baxter, Caroline Quentin, Peter Wingfield, Stefan Bednarczyk, Marcello Magni. Joint directors Mike Alfreds and Neil Bartlett.

No wonder I was keen to see it.

Still, I don’t think Janie and I were wild about this one. I was fast learning that Janie doesn’t like classics as much as she likes modern pieces, nor does she like farce. Marivaux was never likely to float Janie’s boat.

Yet worse, from a “what Janie does and doesn’t like” point of view, this production had re-located the piece in the 1930’s, adding a Cowardesque flavour to it that didn’t go down well with the reviews that are currently ( as I write in 2019) on-line/clippable.

Despite that, the sheer weight of talent on show carried the day for us, as we both found the production entertaining and could not question its quality of production.

Below is Michael Billington’s review from the Guardian:

Billington Game Of LoveBillington Game Of Love Wed, Jan 13, 1993 – 26 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Michael Coveney’s review from the Observer:

Coveney Game Of Love & ChanceCoveney Game Of Love & Chance Sun, Jan 17, 1993 – 47 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Bent by Martin Sherman, Lyttelton Theatre, 13 January 1990

I have very limited recollection of this one, other than finding it shocking and hard to watch.

My diary is ludicrously light on detail and I got confused between this one and another production I failed to get a programme for. In this case, I think we saw a preview and the programmes weren’t ready.

I dined with (presumably) Bobbie at the Archduke before the theatre and we then went on to Jilly’s place, presumably for a birthday party. The diary suggests we had lunch on Sunday also.

Fortunately for the theatre element of the weekend, there are Theatricalia entries and reviews to help me out. Here is the former – click here.

Below is Michael Billington’s top notch review of this production:

Billington on BentBillington on Bent Mon, Jan 22, 1990 – 38 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Michael Coveney in The Observer described it as “grim”. Hard to disagree.

Coveney on BentCoveney on Bent Sun, Jan 28, 1990 – 60 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

The Long Way Round by Peter Handke, Cottesloe Theatre, 8 July 1989

Whether or not I went the long way round from Oxford to London that morning is lost in the mists of time and probably the fog of a hangover…

…but for sure I got back to London in time to see this preview at the Cottesloe.

Bobbie might say, “more’s the pity”, as my log notes that Bobbie absolutely hated it. I merely found it long and hard to follow. That’s how I remember it and that is exactly what I wrote in my log.

Super cast – Tilda Swinton is always very watchable but does often do weird stuff. Also Aidan Gillen, latterly very well known indeed. David Bamber was in it too – thirty years on I tend to watch his son, Ethan, bowling for Middlesex instead.

The play is described as a dramatic poem in the English language text and/but it was basically a family drama.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for this play/production.

Anyway, it wasn’t for us.

Postscript One -A Coincidence That Very Evening

I wrote the above piece on 14 February 2019, basically because it had been on my mind after writing up Music At Oxford a few days earlier. By strange coincidence, Bobbie Scully turned up at the Gresham Society Dinner that evening, as Iain Sutherland’s guest.

I mentioned the coincidence. Bobbie started to quiver with indignation:

I’d forgotten the name of that darned thing, but it was surely the very worst thing I have ever seen at the theatre…I think we walked out at half time…

…she said. Actually I don’t think we did walk out at half time. I’m sure I would have recorded that fact in my log whereas instead I recorded that the play was long and impenetrable.

I think we stuck it out tho the bitter end…

…I said. I also volunteered to dig deeper into the programme to see if there were in fact two halves.

Yes, there were two halves and they added up to a whopping three hours of hurt for Bobbie.

I’m not sure why we did stick it out. Perhaps I was still wet enough behind the ears to imagine t hat such a piece might yield in the second half all the answers it withheld in the first. I know not to do that now. Perhaps I was so tired and hungover from the joys of Oxford the night before I was reluctant to move on yet.

More likely, we had booked a late night eatery and jointly thought we might as well see the thing through rather than kick our heels somewhere.

Anyway, the whole experience clearly had a profound effect on Bobbie who was shaking with the trauma of recalling that evening and remembered it so well she even said…

…I seem to recall it was only on for a short run…

…which indeed it was.

Nearly 30 years on, Bobbie might wish to read the short essay from the programme too. The least I can do, upload the material, after all I put poor Bobbie through with regard to this play/production.

Postscript Two: Bobbie Chimes In With A Recovered Memory

An e-mail from Bobbie 24 hours after our encounter at the Gresham Society:

I was casting my mind back to that dreadful so-called play (it wasn’t, it was a string of tedious monologues) and had a recollection of being there after the interval in a (suddenly) half empty theatre. So I reckon that, although we did not leave at half time, about half the audience did.


And, indeed, I think that is why we stayed. We came out at the interval, intending to leave, but had pre-booked interval drinks to consume. As we did so, we watched more than half the audience exit the building. I think we went back out of sympathy/solidarity/courtesy towards the cast.


Does this ring any bells with you? Did we really watch the second half because we felt sorry for the actors? Personally, I can think of no other reason …

My response to Bobbie’s considered recollection was as follows:

Yes, we were young and foolish back then. We might well have stayed on for compassionate reasons. There’d be no such snowflake nonsense from this quarter these days. I do recall the second half seeming to drag to an even greater extent than the first half. I also remember an incredible sense of relief when the ordeal ended.

Postscript Three: Here’s a professional view…I don’t think Nicholas de Jongh in the Guardian exactly liked it either:

de Jongh on The Long Way Roundde Jongh on The Long Way Round Tue, Jul 11, 1989 – 38 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com