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

Three Tall Women by Edward Albee, Wyndham’s Theatre, 19 November 1994

We didn’t book much theatre or concert stuff that autumn, what with the birth of Z/Yen and all that going on, but we did book a handful of things we couldn’t bear to miss. This was one of those. Edward Albee’s new play, Three Tall Women.

Janie even put aside her Maggie Smith aversion in the interests of seeing this one.

Michael Billington interviewed Edward Albee ahead of the press night:

Billington Albee Part OneBillington Albee Part One Wed, Nov 9, 1994 – 28 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Billington On Albee Part TwoBillington On Albee Part Two Wed, Nov 9, 1994 – 29 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

We both thought the play and production was very good.

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

I cannot find on-line reviews for the original cast (which we saw) but this Independent piece compares and contrasts the originals with their replacements a year or so later

…but I can find review clippings – Michael Billington for example:

Billington On Three Tall WomenBillington On Three Tall Women Wed, Nov 16, 1994 – 35 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Here is Kate Kellaway on the production:

Kate Kellaway On Three Tall WomenKate Kellaway On Three Tall Women Sun, Nov 20, 1994 – 84 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

The original three; Maggie Smith, Frances de la Tour and Anastasia Hille, were all superb in my view.

Albee doesn’t always work for me (us) but this one surely did.