Travel, Theatre, Music, Cricket, Tennis, Writing, Life
This was a very entertaining evening in the theatre, Sounds odd, but it was a very amusing play about suicide.
Click here for a link to the Almeida’s resource on this play/production.
We rate Tom Brooke very highly and he was superb in this piece – a free adaptation, by Moira Buffini, of a subversive Soviet era Nikolai Erdman book.
It was well received by the critics on thew whole – click here for reviews and stuff.
Bobbie and I had been blown away by The Pope’s Wedding before Christmas…
…we were very keen indeed to see the companion piece for this Edward Bond revival, Saved. I’m not sure how Bobbie managed to score tickets for this, but she must have found a way. Perhaps we queued up for the release of top notch cheap seats on the day, but I do recall that, once again, we were in excellent seats near the front and utterly absorbed by being there.
I waxed lyrical about the stellar cast in the piece about The Pope’s Wedding. Same cast for Saved, but different director – Danny Boyle no less.
And when I say “stellar cast” I really do mean stellar cast: Peter Lovstrom, Adrian Dunbar, Mark Wingett, Tony Rohr, Peter-Hugo Daly, Lesley Manville, June Watson, Gary Oldman, Joanne Whalley, Gerard Horan…
…here is the Theatricalia entry for this production.
To cut a long story short, we were blown away again. It is a truly shocking paly – no less shocking for knowing in advance what is coming in the ultraviolent ending.
Michael Ratcliffe in the Observer loved it:
Saved Ratcliffe Observer 23 Dec 1984, Sun The Observer (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
My friend to be, Michael Billington, also spoke very highly of this production:
Saved Billington Guardian 21 Dec 1984, Fri The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
John Barber in the Telegraph was less effusive but still very positive:
Saved Barber Telegraph 21 Dec 1984, Fri The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Milton Shulman in the Standard also concurred – this was great stuff.
Saved Shulman Standard 21 Dec 1984, Fri Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Image from The Royal Court Theatre Living Archive on a fair usage basis.
A moment in my personal history on that visit to London; my first visit to The Royal Court Theatre.
I was blown away by this production – Bobbie and I returned in the new year to see Saved as well, which was being performed in rep along with The Pope’s Wedding. After that, I returned to The Royal Court many, many times. Most recently at the time of writing (forty years on), strangely, as a facilitator for the Royal Court rather than as an audience member. A strange but true story:
But returning to The Pope’s Wedding, I am sure I have Bobbie to thank for seeking out the opportunity to see that production. She was doing her Bar pupillage in London by then and had no doubt spotted a review and/or an advert for the production. I think we got in on some sort of special deal, which possibly involved queueing up for “on the day” tickets. What I do recall is that we saw both The Pope’s Wedding and Saved from the best seats in the house for very modest ticket prices.
The Royal Court has benefitted from this “drug pusher style sales technique” for many decades since; I got addicted to watching theatre from the best seats not any old seats. In fact, many other theatres have benefitted from The Royal Court’s foresight at snaring potential theatre addicts young.
I quite often say “what a cast” in my theatre visit write ups, but on this occasion I think that phrase deserves a shout: WHAT A CAST!
Tony Rohr, Adrian Dunbar, Mark Wingett, Peter Lovstrom, Joanne Whalley (prior to her becoming Joanne Whalley Kilmer), Gerard Horan, Lesley Manville, Peter-Hugo Daly and Gary Oldman – directed by Max Stafford Clark. Here is a link to the Theatricalia entry for this production.
Have I mentioned that I was blown away by this production? (Yes you have, let the reader see what some real experts say – ed).
John Barber in The Telegraph was very keen on it:
Pope’s Barber Telegraph 29 Nov 1984, Thu The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Michael Billington also rated it highly:
Pope Billington Guardian 29 Nov 1984, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Pope Shulman Standard 28 Nov 1984, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
While rummaging, I loved this preview piece from The Standard, not least the fruity headline:
Other Bond Girls 23 Nov 1984, Fri Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Returning to that weekend, the diary reminds me that we went to The Mayflower (Chinese restaurant on Shaftesbury Avenue) after the theatre – one of those places that we knew would still be open at that hour. I’m guessing that we had fancied trying The Swiss Centre but were too late for that, hence we returned the next day to take lunch there.
One habit that I think we started that Pope’s Wedding & Mayflower evening, which we/I continued for several years after, was to pick up the Sunday papers on Saturday night and start reading them on the Night Bus home if in town at that late hour on a Saturday.
I remember back then thinking that this weekend was the height of sophistication which, for the 22 year old me, it probably was, at that time.
That production of The Pope’s Wedding…wow!
