Tag: Simon McBurney

The Kid Stays In The Picture, based on the life of Robert Evans, adapted by Simon McBurney & James Yeatman, Royal Court Theatre, 11 March 2017

Where shall I begin?

Little did we know it when we booked this slot, but we inadvertently ended up with one of the hottest tickets in town.

Janie and I are Friends of the Royal Court – regulars – and tend to book up the season early. For this show, we thought we had booked one of the last of several previews.

As it turned out, because The Kid Stays In The Picture is technically complex and difficult, the producers ended up cancelling the first few previews and indeed delaying the press night/official opening by more than a week.

So our Saturday night preview ended up being the very first public performance of this utterly stunning and absorbing show.

Janie and I are great fans of Complicite and Simon McBurney – our most recent encounter, The Encounter, linked here – ever since our very first date nearly 25 years ago, also a Complicite piece, which I shall Ogblog come the anniversary in a few month’s time.

But enough about us.

Robert Evans is a fascinating person with a fascinating story. Actor, studio executive, film producer…with more sub-plots to his personal saga than The Lord of the Rings.

There is an autobiography named The Kid Stays In The Picture from 1994 and even a 2002 documentary film of the same – click here to find those – but neither of those media could possibly have the same visceral impact as this extraordinary stage experience.

There is a superb piece in the Guardian from late February 2017, about Evans’s life and this forthcoming Royal Court Production – click here – which provides a very handy one-stop-shop exposition on it all. It includes a lovely photograph of Robert Evans with Ali MacGraw (her second marriage of three, his third marriage of seven…so far). To see that picture you must click the link, as I cannot replicate a copyrighted picture. If you cannot be bothered to click, you’ll have to make do with an eerily similar picture which is unquestionably ours.

The sweet love story that is older than the sea

At the start of the evening, Simon McBurney and Vicky Featherstone each made a short speech, explaining how our evening had ended up being the very first public performance, explaining their mutual admiration/thanks and begging our forbearance if anything did go awry technically.

Nothing went awry. The performance was masterful. Janie and I, though both suitably cynical with age and vast experience of stage productions, were simply blown away by this piece.

At the end, Simon McBurney came on stage with his little boy, who had played the voice of Josh Evans (and indeed whose voice had been part of the story of The Encounter). The little boy seemed terribly nervous of being on stage and tried to scarper a couple of times while McBurney was, once again, thanking us and the Royal Court for putting up with all the disruption.

We saw Simon McBurney with his family in the bar before the show and also at the back of the stalls during the interval. Despite sharing Robert Evans’s multiple skills and visionary nature, I sense and hope that Simon McBurney is a more rounded individual who does not and will not let his grand projects prevent him from having some semblance of balance to his family life.

The title, The Kid Stays In The Picture, is attributed to Darryl F. Zanuck, who cast the very young Robert Evans as Pedro Romero in The Sun Also Rises movie, against the wishes of several of the stars and indeed Ernest Hemingway. Evans expected to be sacked, but when Zanuck exclaimed, “the kid stays in the picture” was spared. At the same time, Evans realised that he no longer wanted to be the kid, but wanted to be the guy with the power to make that exclamation.

That story was beautifully told, as were many other stories about the movies (Rosemary’s Baby, Love Story, The Godfather, Chinatown…) and stars (Mia Farrow, Ali MacGraw, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson…).

All of the performances were superb and the depiction of well-known people done with great visual and vocal care. It almost feels wrong to single anyone out, but for laughs and bravura, Thomas Arnold’s depiction of Charles Bluhdorn (the Gulf & Western industrialist who bought Paramount and engaged Evans to run it) and Henry Kissinger (with whom Evans had intriguing links) was exceptional.

Janie and I sincerely hope that The Kid Stays In The Picture gets rave reviews. It deserves to become a huge success for McBurney, Complicite, The Royal Court and all involved. Surely the West End and/or Broadway beckon for this piece. Perhaps even…whisper it…Hollywood?

The Encounter, Complicite/Simon McBurney, Barbican, 27 February 2016

When we heard about this Complicite production, The Encounter, Janie and I were really keen to see it, so much so that we sort-of organised the Nicaragua holiday around it; spotting good seats available for a bit later in the run and thus booking to go away beforehand.

Janie and I have always had a soft spot for Complicite – by chance the spare ticket I had which became Janie and my first date in 1992 was for one of their shows at the National; Street of Crocodiles. That was the first time either of us had seen Complicite, so I suppose we were transfixed by Complicite as well as each other.

These matters are all about timing I suppose. Our timing for seeing Encounter, just a few days after returning from Nicaragua, was perhaps not so clever. The jet lag together with the change from 30 degrees Centigrade to 30 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures gave both of us some trepidation ahead of an evening out.

Still, the show is inspired by the novel Amazon Beaming by Petru Popescu, so perhaps we would at least be transported back to that warm tropical feeling? Too right!

Indeed, the show uses an amazing binaural sound technology, where you wear headphones and sense the sounds coming from any direction around your head. One of the tricks is the incredibly realistic sound of mosquitoes buzzing around you. Now we had surprisingly few encounters with those little pests while we were in Nicaragua – the dry, windy season saw to that. But of course everyone is in fear of mozzies out there just now, with prophylaxis unavailable for the dreaded dengue fever, Chikungunya and topically tropically Zika viruses. Indeed Mukul was at only 60% occupancy when we arrived even though it expected 100% occupancy, as 40% of the expected guests (all bookings from the USA) had cancelled in fear of Zika. Suffice it to say that Janie and I were still highly sensitive to that mozzie sound. Thank you, Mr McBurney.

But of course the show is an absolute triumph. We lost ourselves in the Amazon of our heads for a short while much as Loren McIntyre was genuinely lost in the Amazon for a long while back in the 1960s.

Here is Complicite’s own bumf on the production.  Here follow some of the deserved rave reviews from Edinburgh:

Of course Complicite (at least in the hands of Simon McBurney himself) is no longer acrobatic, movement-oriented shows like Street of Crocodiles. Be fair, the physical stuff he/they were doing nearly 25 years ago was extraordinary enough. So McBurney now adapts his imagination to other means of stimulating our senses – mostly aurally this time – and still he can surprise and thrill.

This was one hot ticket and we are so pleased that we made the effort to book and make our plans around this wonderful production.

Mnemonic by Simon McBurney, Théâtre De Complicité, Riverside Studios, 18 December 1999

Janie and I have tended to have a soft spot for anything Complicité, not least because our first proper date was Théâtre De Complicité’s Street Of Crocodiles:

Janie and I Go On Our First Proper Date, The Street Of Crocodiles, Cottesloe Theatre, 29 August 1992

But Mnemonic didn’t need our soft spot – it was excellent in its own right.

Superb

…I said in my log and meant it.

Strangely, writing 25 years later, this piece has recently been revived (or rather, reimagined) by Complicité in London at the National.

This original production was at the more utilitarian Riverside Studios, a venue we have always liked.

Excellent cast, including Simon McBurney himself, the wonderful Katrin Cartlidge (who died tragically young) and Richard Katz, who had previously worked wonders with my material in NewsRevue – for example the Woody Allen role in Mama Mia Farrow:

Mama Mia Farrow, NewsRevue Lyric, 18 August 1992

…but I digress.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for this play/production.

Anyway, Mnemonic really was superb and we were lucky to have seen the original production of it.

Nick Curtis wrote it up at length in The Standard:

Mnemonic Curtis StandardMnemonic Curtis Standard 03 Dec 1999, Fri Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

The local rag loved it:

Mnemonic Tear HammersmithMnemonic Tear Hammersmith 24 Dec 1999, Fri Hammersmith and Shepherds Bush Gazette (Hammersmith, London, England) Newspapers.com

I think a lot of the usual suspects ignored it until it transferred to the National a couple of year’s later…and then was reimagined more than 20 years after that.

But we saw the original production…at The Riverside…have I mentioned that before?

The Chairs by Eugene Ionesco, Royal Court Theatre At The Duke Of York’s Theatre, 31 January 1998

Weird evening

That’s all I wrote in my log.

I’m not too sure what made the evening weird.

We ate at Fung Shing afterwards, as planned, that I do know. Which was a return to the “scene of the crime” from the Z/Yen Christmas do a few week’s earlier…

A “Works Outing” To Remember, From Detroit To Fung Shing Via Scissor Happy At The Duchess Theatre, 12 December 1997

I guess neither of us quite got our heads around The Chairs. You need to be in the mood for Ionesco and perhaps we weren’t.

This version was Martin Crimp’s adaptation and Simon McBurney/Théâtre de Complicité’s production, so weirdness was probably very much the order of the evening. Richard Briers and Geraldine McEwan led the cast. Here is the Theatricalia entry for the production.

“What did the papers say about it?” I hear you cry.

Charles Spencer in The Telegraph liked it, while denying that we should read too much into the piece – darned right!

26 Nov 1997, Wed The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Nicholas de Jongh in the Standard said it is the “weirdest French farce of them all”, making my simply “weird” comment more understandable.

25 Nov 1997, Tue Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Michael Billington in The Guardian thought the production brilliant:

Chairs Billington GuardianChairs Billington Guardian 25 Nov 1997, Tue The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht, Olivier Theatre, 7 June 1997

We were tending to book RNT things in preview or very early in runs, so this was an unusually late visit to see this one – perhaps we couldn’t get the seats we wanted until later or perhaps we missed it in the first block of dates.

Anyway, we thought this was “very good”.

One of our favourite troupes, Théâtre de Complicité, was responsible for this one. Juliet Stevenson played the lead along with Simon McBurney who also directed. The Theatricalia entry can be found here.

This was the first of those “in the round” productions that the RNT did at The Olivier while it was being refurbished.

Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard was not too keen on it:

Caucasian de Jongh StandardCaucasian de Jongh Standard 22 Apr 1997, Tue Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer in the Telegraph imagined that his cordial loathing of this show would be a minority view:

Caucasian Spencer TelegraphCaucasian Spencer Telegraph 23 Apr 1997, Wed The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Predictably, then, our friend Michael Billington loved it:

Caucasian Billington GuardianCaucasian Billington Guardian 23 Apr 1997, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

But Robert Butlet in The Independent didn’t much like it either:

Caucasian Butler IndyCaucasian Butler Indy 27 Apr 1997, Sun The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Oh well.

Out Of A House Walked A Man by Daniil Kharms, RNT, 3 December 1994

Janie and I both loved Théâtre de Complicité’s work ever since we saw The Street Of Crocodiles on our first proper date.

Janie and I Go On Our First Proper Date, The Street Of Crocodiles, Cottesloe Theatre, 29 August 1992

So, was this one, Out Of A House Walked A Man at the Lyttelton.

Here’s a link to the Theatricalia entry.

The one review I could find on-line can be found here.

Here is the Michael Billington review clipping:

Billington On Out Of A HouseBillington On Out Of A House Sat, Dec 3, 1994 – 30 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Here is the Michael Coveney clipping:

Michael Coveney On Out Of A House & New EnglandMichael Coveney On Out Of A House & New England Sun, Dec 4, 1994 – 77 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

We were ever so keen to see this one. We saw Landscape in the afternoon/early evening and this one at the regular theatre hour – a veritable theatre-fest of stuff we were very keen to see.

As usual a stupendously good cast assembled by Complicite, including Kathryn Hunter, Toby Jones and Marcello Magni. Simon McBurney at the helm but not on the stage for this one.

Again no actual reviews for this one but a wonderful Guardian piece about McBurney survives from a few week’s after we saw this show.

We both thought this production was very good.

We went to see Landscape by Harold Pinter earlier that day…

Landscape by Harold Pinter, Cottesloe Theatre, 3 December 1994

…and hung around for the Complicite. I guess we were a little time poor for theatre and stuff that autumn, as I was busy birthing Z/Yen and stuff that autumn.

Still, we highly rated both shows so that must have been a day to savour.

Janie and I Go On Our First Proper Date, The Street Of Crocodiles, Cottesloe Theatre, 29 August 1992

This is the third and final part of my 25th anniversary Ogblog trilogy on “how Janie and I got it together”. In case you missed the first two parts and are interested in reading them, here are links to the first two episodes:

So, the ossobuco supper gave me the perfect opportunity to phone Janie to thank her for her hospitality and ask her out.

As luck would have it, I was sitting on a pair of hot tickets, The Street Of Crocodiles at the Cottesloe Theatre. It was my habit back then to book up quite a few such productions a long way in advance, with Bobbie Scully in mind for first dips, but with an unwritten agreement with Bobbie that she couldn’t commit that far in advance and that I might need to find someone else to join me…

…anyway, I had these tickets for 29 August and they seemed an ideal way to reciprocate.

Janie seemed keen on the idea, so the date was set.

I also offered to cook Janie a pre-theatre meal, after first checking that she liked Chinese food.

I can’t remember exactly which dishes I went for, but I’ll guess I plugged for bankable favourites that were reasonably easy to prepare and which needed relatively little clearing up afterwards:

  • cha chieng lettuce wrap – probably using veal mince or a mix of veal and pork mince;
  • chicken and cashew nuts with yellow bean sauce;
  • I thought the second main dish was steak slices with onions, mushrooms and black bean sauce, but Janie reckons the second dish was prawns with ginger and spring onions and now I think she is right;
  • pak choi with oyster sauce;
  • steamed basmati rice.

No TripAdvisor review for the meal, but on reminding Janie about it just now, she has described it as “amazing”, so there you go.

But far more amazing than my meal was The Street Of Crocodiles. It really was a stunningly good show.

The play is based on the stories of Bruno Schulz, which (from what we can gather) were weird enough when written, but when given the Complicite treatment, they become a sensory overload of words, music and movement.

Here is a link to Complicite’s page on their production.

Here is a link to the Theatricalia page for this production.

I can’t find online reviews from 1992, but here is Ian Shuttleworth’s review from the 1999 London revival, in which he cross-references the 1992 production.

Here are some Newspaper.com clippings – Guardian & Observer – onl;y ones available at time of clipping:

Some Reviews & Critical Stuff On Street Of Crocodiles, 29 August 1992

An Almost Unbelievably Good Show – This Is The 1992 Programme Cover

This 2005 Guardian profile on Simon McBurney also references Michael Billington’s thoughts on the 1992 production, which were not entirely complimentary, as it happens…Billi-o, we thought you were our friend?

This Curtain Up review from the production’s run at the Lincoln Centre in 1998 is very explanatory and also suitably gushing.

Anyway, back to me and Janie.

Janie had driven to my place and insisted on also driving to the National Theatre – the latter habit being one she rarely deviates from 25 years later.

The evening seemed to have gone splendidly well. Janie was very complimentary about my cooking and seemed very taken with the show.

When we got back to my place, I asked Janie if she wanted to come back upstairs to my flat.

She said no.

I asked her if she was absolutely sure.

Janie said that she was absolutely sure and drove off.

So that was that – although on this occasion I sensed that “no” meant “not this time” and that there would be plenty of other times.

The Visit by Friedrich Durrenmatt, Lyttelton Theatre, 9 March 1991

I think this was my first encounter with Complicité, or Théâtre de Complicité as it was then known.

I saw this production with Bobbie Scully.

Superb

…was my verdict at the time and I do still remember this as an especially wonderful night at the theatre.

Complicité stalwarts were out in force; Kathryn Hunter, Marcello Magni, Simon McBurney (the latter also directed this one)…plus Jasper Britton, who I wouldn’t normally think of as a Complicité dude.

The Theatricalia entry for this production can be found here.

Michael Billington wasn’t 100% sure about it, admiring the style but suggesting that the style somewhat swamped the content:

Billington on VisitBillington on Visit Fri, Feb 15, 1991 – 35 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Kate Kellaway in The Observer didn’t like it either.

Kellaway on The VisitKellaway on The Visit Sun, Feb 17, 1991 – 57 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

The critics were wrong and I was right, is all I can say!