Sue Bird – Ian Louis Harris

Clubland by Roy Williams, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 23 June 2001

We are very partial to modern plays in Royal Court Theatre Upstairs and this play by Roy Williams did not disappoint.

I think this was our first sighting of a Roy Williams play – we started picking him after seeeing this.

Here’s Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard speaking quite highly of it:

Clubland de Jongh Standard 20 Jun 2001 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Jonathan Myerson in the Independent was not so sure:

Clubland Myerson Independent 20 Jun 2001 The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Our friend, Michael Billington, suggested that this play was not as good as Roy Williams earlier material and that he needed to branch out a bit. I think he was probably right, as we really went for some of William’s later plays even more than this one, but it was good enough to get us hooked:

Clubland Billington Guardian better 23 Jun 2001 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Spinning Into Butter by Rebecca Gilman, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 13 January 2001

This was a really interesting play and it was an excellent opportunity to reciprocate David & Rachel’s hospitality from a couple of month’s earlier:

Kinky Friedman Live In Brighton With David Seidel & Rachel Barnard, 12 November 2000

Apart from the quintessentially US nature of the production and the left field approach to tackling racism through performance, it’s hard to see much similarity between the evenings.

Rebecca Gilman’s play was memorable through its “warts ‘n’ all” approach to anti-racism and political correctness on campus. Also memorable was a superb performance by Emma Fielding in the lead role. The supporting cast were also “Royal Court good”, as was Dominic Cooke’s directing.

Our friends David and Rachel found it interesting and we had plenty to discuss over grub after the play.

Our other friend, Michael Billington, gave it a very good review in the Guardian:

Spinning Guardian Billington
Article from 11 Jan 2001 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England)

Paul Taylor did not like the play, describing it as self-conrgratulatory white guilt in search of a play:

Spinning Taylor Indy
Article from 10 Jan 2001 The Independent (London, Greater London, England)

Nicholas de Jongh couldn’t put aside his issues with the play, describing it as mediocre and giving it the dreaded Standard blob:

Spinning Standard de Jongh
Article from 10 Jan 2001 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England)

Charles Spencer thought the play flawed yet intriguing and well worth seeing:

Spinning Telegraph Spencer
Article from 11 Jan 2001 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England)

Suzannah Clapp gave it a very balanced review in The Observer, concluding that a play that makes you argue is a play worth seeing:

Spinning Observer Clapp
Article from 14 Jan 2001 The Observer (London, Greater London, England)

Far Away by Caryl Churchill, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 25 November 2000

In my log, we rated this one:

excellent.

Janie’s diary reminds me that we had dinner the night before with Jamil and Suad Amyuni at Home House, which was also a very memorable evening in its own way.

Janie’s diary also notes, beside Far Away

1/2 hour.

It was short, but not quite that short. I know we saw a preview, but I trust my memory and the reviews that, even the preview, ran to more than 45 minutes, but probably less than an hour.

I had first seen Linda Bassett in A Place With the Pigs:

A Place With The Pigs by Athol Fugard, Cottesloe Theatre, 20 February 1988

There is a lovely interview piece with Linda Bassett about this production, which I found whilst rummaging for reviews:

Bassett Feature Standard 4 Dec 2000 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Fabulous cast – not only Linda Bassett but also Kevin McKidd and Katherine Tozer, directed by Stephen Daldry. I only realise now what a hot ticket this must have been and how privileged we are/were, as Royal Court members, to grab hot tickets like this before they all got grabbed.

Predictably, Charles Spencer didn’t think much of it – he didn’t tend to get Caryl Churchill:

Far Away Spencer Telegraph 5 Dec 2000 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Whereas Irving Wardle in the Sunday telegraph wrote highly of it:

Far Away Wardle Sunday Telegraph 3 Dec 2000 Sunday Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Nicholas de Jongh in The Standard got it:

Far Away de Jongh Standard 1 Dec 2000 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Rhoda Koenig was not so sure:

Far Away Koenig Indy 1 Dec 2000 The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Even giving the casting vote to our friend Michael Billington doesn’t really help, as Billy-o gives the production four stars but his review is somewhat equivocal.

Far Away Billington Guardian 1 Dec 2000 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Strangely, the productions that tend to float our boats the most tend to split the reviewer jury. I guess Janie and I like controversial stuff. And as the now late (25 years on) Jamil Amyuni once famously put it in a different context:

why the bloody hell shouldn’t we?

Drag-On by Emmanuel De Nasciemento & Local by Arzhang Pezhman, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 11 November 2000

This evening in the theatre was part of that year’s Royal Court “Exposure Young Writers 2000” programme. Janie and I were especially impressed by the second play we saw.

Dominic Cavendish agreed with our assessment, while being pretty impressed with all of it, including the pairing of plays we didn’t see.

Exposure Cavendish Telegraph 25 Oct 2000 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Rachel Thackray in The Guardian was less sure about all of it:

Exposure Thackray Guardian 21 Oct 2000 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Rachel Halliburton in the Standard pretty much agreed with us, liking both but especially liking Local.

Exposure Halliburton Standard 20 Oct 2000 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

We have subsequently seen a lot of plays on these subjects, but at that time the subject matter and style seemed, to us, very fresh and encouraging for British theatre.

Under The Blue Sky by David Eldridge, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 30 September 2000

In truth I remember little about this one. Terrific cast: Justin Salinger, Samantha Edmonds, Lisa Palfrey, Jonathan Cullen, Stanley Townsend and Sheila Hancock, directed by Rufus Norris.

It got neither plaudits nor roasting in my log, which probably means that we didn’t feel strongly about it either way.

Our friend, Michael Billington, really liked it:

Under Billington Guardian 21 Sept 2000 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Whereas Nicholas de Jongh gave it a dreaded Standard blob:

Under de Jongh Standard 20 Sept 2000 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

I’ll give the casting vote to Paul Taylor in the Independent, who really liked it.

Under Taylor Indy 30 Sept 2000 The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Via Dolorosa by David Hare, Royal Court Theatre At The Duke Of York Theatre, 19 September 1998

Janie and I thought this piece and performance was simply superb. In fact, I wrote:

Superb!!

…in my log and I am not normally the double-exclamation-mark type.

This was David Hare’s brave dive into performing a one-man-show on one of the thorniest topics he might possibly choose – the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Talk about high risk, but we thought Hare pulled off a blinder with this piece/performance.

Nicholas de Jongh in the Standard loved it: