In Basildon

Text of the day: “You see the trouble with the lefty type is he’s always open-minded and all that jazz until someone disagrees with him. You won’t get anywhere son until you try and think about what it’s like standing in our shoes. England’s a Conservative country.” (Ken in David Eldridge’s In Basildon)

DNA

Stat of the day: 400,000 school kids study Dennis Kelly’s play DNA for GCSE at school every year.

The Avant-Garde Film

The Critic watches a re-screening of a film by an American avant-garde Director. About two-thirds of the way through this dreamlike, three-hour work, a weird next-door neighbour makes a brief appearance. The Critic is astounded to see that this fictional character has the same surname as his Writer. And another character even says: “It’s a strange name!”

About theatre form

Quote of the day: “For any playwright of my generation the spirit and experiential theatre of Sarah Kane casts a long shadow. Sarah believed passionately that form ought to be expressive and carry meaning as powerfully as the story of a play. Blasted markedly influenced my adaptation of the film Festen for the stage. In a play where you’re increasingly inside the head of the protagonist Christian, perhaps it’s inevitable.” (David Eldridge’s Introduction to his Plays Two)

Imperium

Blurb of the day: “Harris’s best so far, rapid and compelling in narrative, copious in detail, thoroughly researched, but also, which is more important, thoroughly imagined.” (Allan Massie on Robert Harris’s Imperium)

New writing in crisis

Link of the day: David Hare and Mark Ravenhill on the growing crisis in new writing.

About In Basildon

Quote of the day: “On stage and screen, we’re used to seeing the blue-collar classes and, in particular, their aspiration being mocked in some way. I really wanted to avoid that. We don’t want people that might be better off than these characters sitting in leather seats, feeling superior.” (David Eldridge on his In Basildon)

DNA

Text of the day: “I mean what is happy, what’s happy all about, who says you’re supposed to be happy, like we’re all supposed to be happy, happy is our natural, and any deviation from that state is seen as a failure, which in itself makes you more unhappy so you have to pretend to be even happier which doesn’t work because people can see that you’re pretending which makes them awkward and you can see that they can see that you’re pretending to be happy and their awkwardness is making you even more unhappy so you have to pretend to be even happier, it’s a nightmare.” (Leah in Dennis Kelly’s DNA)

Bloody Poetry

Text of the day: “You write to change the world. And the world has its revenge — it overwhelms you with its cruelty.” (Byron in Howard Brenton’s Bloody Poetry)

Philip Ridley

Quote of the day: “Then I saw it. Up there. It looked like a hole in the sky. But then I realised it was moving. It wasn’t a hole at all. It was a thing. An object. A gleaming, dark, silent object. Just hovering up there. And it was huge. The size of... oh, three or four tower blocks. It was jet black and gleaming. It wasn’t making any noise. And somehow I knew... knew the object’s sole function was to be jet black and gleaming. There was no other meaning. And... it felt so... so peaceful to realise this and just... just stare into that... gleaming dark.” (Dom quoted by Philip Ridley in his new Introduction to his Plays One)

The Recruiting Officer

Last night, George Farquhar’s 1706 comedy The Recruiting Officer opened at the Donmar Warehouse. This is the first play directed by Josie Rourke, the new artistic director here. Bearing in mind how she inventively remodelled the auditorium of the Bush, her previous venue, I was wondering what she would do with the space at the Donmar, which is much more inflexible. I needn’t have worried. In the auditorium, designer Lucy Osborne has removed the inside walls, giving a broader depth of vision, and she has created a rural Shropshire barn, which nods to the play’s country folk, with a large candle-covered screen which evokes the play’s upper-class interiors while its sky blue colour alludes to its open-air scenes. Coloured lights festooned the whole theatre, and cast members played jigs and reels as we went in. It was one of the most warm and wonderful welcomes I have ever enjoyed, and all entirely in keeping with the spirit of the play. And then the players lined up and began to make strange sounds on their instruments. What was going on? Gradually, the audience understood: they were imitating mobile phones, a parody of all those pre-show announcements. And a reminder to turn them off. Great stuff.

Red Riding Hood

At the Little Angel Theatre, which has just celebrated its 50th anniversary, I saw a beautiful puppet play, Red Riding Hood. Produced by Norwich Puppet Theatre, the piece retells the familiar story with some interesting plot twists, one of which involves a central character doing a poo (a very popular moment for the kids in the audience). The puppets were lovely, with the wolf a particularly impressive and hairy individual, while Red Riding Hood is a charmingly small, fragile yet clever creation. The show is devised, designed and directed by Peter O’Rourke, and represents a delightful reimagining of a traditional tale. With a pair of washerwomen and a cuddly grannie, this is a humorous and thoroughly entertaining show. Magic.

Posh actors

Link of the day: Leo Bosanquet on the rise and rise of posh actors.

Jeremy Hunt

Tweet of the day: Radio Four tips Jeremy Hunt as next Health Secretary after Andrew Lansley inevitably gets the boot: so Hunt’s days at the DCMS are numbered.

St James Theatre

In September, a brand new building, the St James Theatre, will open on the site of the former Westminster Theatre at 12 Palace Street, in Victoria. David Gilmore, artistic director, and James Albrecht, his assistant, will programme musicals, comedies and classic revivals, as well as offering a 300-seat London venue to touring and regional productions. Designed by Foster Wilson Architects, this is entirely funded by private investment and claims to be “one of the most luxurious venues” in the metropolis. Given the recent local government cuts that are affecting venues such as the Hampstead and the Tricycle, is this new theatre an example of the big society in action?

Look Back in Anger

Link of the day: Michael Billington on Look Back in Anger.

Bloody Poetry

Text of the day: “A war. If only there were a war in England, not that endless — slow, sullen defeat. Why don’t the bastards take up arms against such a government? Then we poets would be of some use, we’d do the songs, the banners, the shouts, but no. Sullen silence.” (Byron in Howard Brenton’s Bloody Poetry)

The Press Release

The Critic gets a press release about the latest play by the Writer, his Writer. It’s an adaptation of a German play, which has already wowed audiences in Sydney, and this London visit will star a big Australian actress and be staged at no small venue. The Critic puts the date of the press night in his diary.

The Pitchfork Disney

Text of the day: “How easy it is to stop living. Not to die, but to stop being alive. There’s nothing incredible apart from that. No mystery. No magic. No dreams. No miracles. Nothing. Just freak accidents and freaks. Darwin got it all wrong, you see. Fitness has got nothing to do with it. It’s survival of the sickest. That’s all. You know why the ghost train is so popular? Because there ain’t any ghosts.” (Cosmo in Philip Ridley’s The Pitchfork Disney)

Contemporary British playwrights

Link of the day: George Hunka on The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary British Playwrights.

She Stoops To Conquer

This week, She Stoops To Conquer, Oliver Goldsmith’s 1773 comedy of love and manners, opened at the National Theatre in a production directed by Jamie Lloyd. It has been greeted with rave reviews. But although Lloyd brings out the comedy of the piece, I was appalled by what I can only describe as his aesthetic of vulgarity. In this version of the play, the comedy comes not from the words but from acting which involves crotch-grabbing, arse-jutting, hip-thrusting and other gross gestures. Every move is wildly exaggerated. The performance style seems to have graduated from the school of Mr Bean, Blackadder and Bottom. It all reminded me of Lloyd’s equally vulgar Salome for Headlong in 2010. But the audience and critics loved it. In an age of austerity, does the theatre only prosper when it embraces vulgar populism?

West End box office

Stat of the day: The Society of London Theatre’s 2011 box office figures show that, for the eighth year running, West End revenues achieved record sales of £528,375,874, up 3.1 per cent on 2010 and topping £500 million for the third time ever. In addition, London theatre ticket sales generated VAT receipts for the Treasury of £88,062,646.