Pirate Dog

DNA

2012-02-18T12:59:00.001Z

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

2012-02-17T07:51:00.001Z

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

2012-02-16T09:51:00.002Z

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

2012-02-15T11:00:00.004Z

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

2012-02-13T10:43:00.003Z

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

2012-02-12T14:21:00.000Z

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

Jeremy Hunt

2012-02-11T11:25:00.000Z

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

2012-02-10T08:35:00.001Z

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

2012-02-09T09:07:00.001Z

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

Bloody Poetry

2012-02-08T10:17:00.001Z

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

2012-02-06T11:16:00.003Z

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

2012-02-04T10:17:00.004Z

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

2012-02-03T09:05:00.001Z

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

She Stoops To Conquer

2012-02-02T09:16:00.003Z

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

2012-02-01T09:08:00.001Z

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.

About Constellations

2012-01-31T12:11:00.000Z

Quote of the day: “Science continues to be a channel for magic – the belief that for the human will, empowered by knowledge, nothing is impossible. This confusion of science with magic is not an ailment of a kind that has a remedy. It goes with modern life. Death is a provocation to this way of living, because it marks a boundary beyond which the will cannot go.” (John Gray, Epigraph to Nick Payne’s Constellations)

London fringe theatre

2012-01-30T08:38:00.001Z

Link of the day: Mark Shenton on awards for London fringe theatre.

About Lovesong

2012-01-29T10:47:00.001Z

Quote of the day: “We have found a brilliant and open cast whose energy and intelligence has been inspiring. (If you have not seen Siân Phillips doing press ups at the end of a gruelling warm up you have not lived.)” (Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett’s Preface to Abi Morgan’s Lovesong)

Constellations

2012-01-27T14:35:00.005Z

Constellations, a new play by Nick Payne, directed by Michael Longhurst in the Royal Court’s Theatre Upstairs, is currently wowing audiences. You can see why. It’s about the relationship between a man who keeps bees and a woman who works as a cosmologist, and its form is a forensic series of repeats and restarts which create endless variations and alternative endings to this girl-meets-boy story. Yet although the critical response has been justifiably enthusiastic, few reviewers mentioned the piece’s debt to Caryl Churchill, Michael Frayn and Charlotte Jones’s Humble Boy. Is this a case of critical amnesia?

Fog

2012-01-26T08:59:00.001Z

Text of the day: “Fuckin’ Mickey Mouse country or what! Ey?” (Cannon in Tash Fairbanks and Toby Wharton’s Fog)

Critics’ Circle Awards

2012-01-25T10:03:00.004Z

In a Guardian blog, the newspaper’s chief critic, Michael Billington, points out the fact that at yesterday’s Critics’ Circle Awards, fringe venues did rather well. True, the contributions of theatres such as the Finborough and the Bush (arguably not a fringe venue at all) were celebrated in a couple of categories (Most Promising Playwright and Most Promising Newcomer), but so, of course, was the dominance of the National Theatre in several others (the more significant Best New Play, Best Musical and Best Director). So while it is perfectly true that the fringe is important, it is even more true that the National is king. It is also interesting that the awards mainly value nostalgia: the best play, Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors, is set in the 1960s and is based on Goldoni, best actor is Benedict Cumberbatch in another adaptation, Frankenstein, best actress is Sheridan Smith in Terence Rattigan’s Flare Path (1942), best director is Mike Leigh for Grief, which is set in the 1950s. Most promising newcomer is Blanche McIntyre for Accolade, an Emlyn Williams play from 1950. Only the most promising playwright, Tom Wells, and best musical, London Road, are contemporary works. Is the best of British irredeemably locked in the past?

The Art of Concealment

2012-01-24T15:41:00.004Z

Text of the day: “We English are pretty tolerant on the whole, Mr Rattigan, but too much talk of unnatural desires, and pimping and whatnot, and we get uncomfortable. I’m sorry if that’s not what you wanted me to say.” (Aunt Edna in Giles Cole’s The Art of Concealment)

Eton’s Attempts on Her Life

2012-01-23T08:25:00.001Z

Tweet of the day: Theatre students at Eton College are staging Martin Crimp’s Attempts on Her Life: so, toffs with taste?

Travelling Light

2012-01-21T18:27:00.005Z

Travelling Light, a new history play by Nicholas Wright, directed by Nicholas Hytner, opened at the National Theatre last week. It is a charming, amiable and evocative play that looks at the origins of the Hollywood film industry in the shtetls of Eastern Europe. The first half shows how the young Motl Mendl returns to the village of his birth after the death of his father, the local photographer, and discovers a Lumiere Brothers Cinematograph, which he soon uses to film his neighbours. But filming friends and neighbours doesn’t get you very far, and soon Motl and Anna, his muse, discover the joys of fiction. It’s a lovely parable of artistic creativity, but one thing puzzles me. At a crucial point, Motl exclaims, “I’ll make a picture about people who don’t exist. Who never existed.” As if the idea of moving pictures telling a fictional story had never occurred to him. And his peasant neighbours are likewise astounded. But isn’t there a credibility gap here? Didn’t they have theatre in Eastern Europe in those days? Surely everyone knew about fiction. It was just a question of putting a camera in front of the stage.

Censorship in Malta

2012-01-20T16:05:00.002Z

Link of the day: Adrian Buckle of Unifaun Theatre Company about the slow demise of theatre censorship in Malta.

Barry Reckord

2012-01-19T07:19:00.000Z

Quote of the day: “Although I have avoided any artificially heightened language and kept within the range of cockney idiom, the language in this play is clearly invented. Schoolboys, on the whole, don’t talk in the way I make them talk. Usually their talk is less interesting. But if the play sounds real it is because I’ve got down what these boys do in fact think and feel, though often they are too inarticulate to say it. This, to me, is the imaginative process — the whole business of writing.” (Barry Reckord’s Preface to Skyvers, 1963)

Red Wolf

2012-01-18T08:12:00.001Z

Blurb of the day: “Pick up a Liza Marklund book, read it until dawn, wait until the stores open, buy another one.” (James Patterson on Marklund’s Red Wolf)

War Horse

2012-01-16T11:11:00.002Z

How do you take a story told from the point of view of a horse, turn it into a successful stage play, and then see the result messed up by Steven Spielberg? In The Horse’s Mouth (Oberon), Mervyn Millar describes the dedication, innovation and imagination needed to create one of the most successful history plays of contemporary British theatre (although he resists the temptation to take a pot shot at the film). In what is basically a short but fascinating rehearsal diary, Millar – who is artistic director of Handspring puppet company — looks at all aspects of the creative process, from the original mad idea to the finished show. It includes material from interviews with all the different members of the production team, from directors to puppet-makers, and from playwright to actors. But, as he points out, “It’s a testament to what an audience can do that War Horse has succeeded: it’s a one-show manifesto for what theatre can do that other art forms cannot — share the act of creation, of imagination, with the audience, on the night, and in the moment.” At all times, Millar’s writing is clear, pacy and illuminating, and the illustrations — which include four pages of colour photographs — are fabulous. This excellent publication is an updated edition of the book first published in 2007. Don’t bother to see the film version: spent your money on this lovely book.

Don’t Miss the Real Show

2012-01-14T10:42:00.002Z

Tip of the day: To ensure that the Society of London Theatre’s Don’t Miss the Real Show message reaches those working for the 2012 Olympic Games, SOLT will give free theatre tickets to 2,012 of the 8,000 volunteers selected for the Mayor of London’s Games Ambassador Programme to be used between 16 January and 10 February.

The Kreutzer Sonata

2012-01-12T09:32:00.005Z

Last night, I was at the opening of The Kreutzer Sonata, adapted by Nancy Harris from the 1889 novella by Leo Tolstoy and directed by Natalie Abrahami at the Gate Theatre in London. Presented as a monologue, with Hilton McRae completely convincing as Pozdynyshev, the experience was an intense and gripping one. It was not only an appallingly accurate depiction of masculine jealousy, but also a fascinating account of the erotic power of music. If Tolstoy’s message about the necessity for chastity got somewhat lost in translation, Abrahami’s excellent production (first seen at the same venue in 2009) did succeed in conveying the ambiguity of memory. While Pozdynyshev’s wife and the violinist Trukhachevski (Sophie Scott and Tobias Beer) played the music live on stage, they were positioned behind a screen so that they could fade in and fade out, while video projections enhanced the sense of a memory haunted by flashes of uncontrollable emotion. When Pozdynyshev suspects that his wife is having an affair, even his simple remembering of her sitting next to Trukhachevski gets a charge of jealousy as we glimpse his fantasy of the couple embracing. A powerful and fulfilling evening.

About Fog

2012-01-11T10:44:00.001Z

Quote of the day: “The dialogue is exquisite. It does more than simply jump off the page: it leaps out, grabs you by the throat and smacks you around. A truly original, well-written piece that succeeds in doing what I always want from a good play. To learn. To think. To laugh. To cry. To feel.” (Roy Williams on Tash Fairbanks and Toby Wharton’s Fog)

Ravenhill’s Galileo

2012-01-09T15:56:00.002Z

Tweet of the day: Next winter at the RSC, a new version of Brecht’s Galileo by resident writer Mark Ravenhill. How happy is the land that doesn’t need heroes?

Critics and criticism

2012-01-07T17:47:00.005Z

One of the great things about theatre bloggers is that they spread the word, creating a wider readership for provocative texts. My favourite at the moment is George Hunka, whose Superfluities Redux site allows you to download an excellent 2002 piece by Jonathan Kalb, the New York theatre critic and scholar of modernism, called The Death (and Life) of American Theater Criticism. Subtitled Advice to the Young Critic, it is a speech to students, and outlines in a clear-headed and beautifully written way the dangers that threaten engaged criticism in the past decade. He writes, “Most of what passes as criticism today is camouﬂaged PR and celebrity-worship, snappy consumer reports shoved into tiny spaces lest they seem too ‘intellectual’, and impromptu opinion-mongering by ‘personal journalists’ more interested in themselves than their subjects.” Almost a decade ago, he already saw the drift towards celebrity critics and a criticism that is grounded in style and not in knowledge. He ends on a strong note: “If, having listened to me, any of you now look into your heart and ﬁnd that you are not on my side, that you don’t crave the admiration of those who read, that you have no urge to reﬁne a vision of your own, that you secretly do covet power, or that you actually do revere the stylists, hatchet-men, and blurb-whores around you, then I beg of you, please, do us all a favor and write about Hollywood and television instead of theater.” I urge you to visit this site and to download Kalb’s speech. Oh, and spend some time reading it: you won’t be disappointed.

Critics and publicity

2012-01-05T09:59:00.008Z

There has been a fair amount of discussion recently about the role of the professional critic in the digital age, when just about anyone can set up their own blog, or comment on a website. The rise of the so-called citizen critic, the preference of some newspapers for employing so-called celebrity reviewers and the use of the internet by single-issue fanatics (remember the fuss about Love Never Dies?) have led to some professional critics wondering if they might not be a dying breed. But as the onward march of such pseudo-mass-democracy continues, the use by some producers of the opinions of so-called ordinary people to advertise their shows is not confined to theatre publicists. Last night, I saw a television advert for Michel Hazanavicius’s new film, The Artist. It was the usual one which I’ve seen more than once on television and in cinemas, with one addition. Now that the film has been released, the advert includes short video clips of so-called ordinary cinema-goers saying things such as “Great film” and “I really enjoyed it”. So sophisticated. Only my irrational fear of being left without a television prevented me from throwing something big and hard at the screen.

Fake Norwegian Ibsen fragments?

2012-01-01T16:55:00.003Z

Is it a sign of things to come in 2012 that the first arts news story of the year is about some sensational manuscript discoveries, that may well be fakes? Nursing a hangover, the Critic sits down and reads the long and convoluted story about a “lost” Ibsen play, called The Sun God, in the Observer. He tries to find some deep significance in the fact that the Ibsen is a fake, an illusion, a crime, but fails, gives up and goes back to bed.

Shop Front Theatre reopens

2011-12-04T17:37:00.002Z

There is life after Arts Council cuts. In July, Theatre Absolute, in Coventry, had to close its innovative Shop Front Theatre after Arts Council England cut its core funding in March. Now, having reworked its business model, a new three-year lease for the space has been finalised with Coventry City Council. Julia Negus and Chris O’Connell from Theatre Absolute founded the Shop Front Theatre at 38 City Arcade in 2009, and its 18-month pilot programme resulted in more than 2,000 people visiting the shop as audiences, actors and participants. A new programme of theatre work will be announced next month and the space will also be available for other theatre makers. Long may it thrive!

Sarah Kane: actor

2011-11-28T17:20:00.002Z

Quik tweet: rare photographs of playwright Sarah Kane performing in Howard Barker’s Victory on George Hunka’s blog.

The Deep Blue Sea

2011-11-27T15:19:00.003Z

You know the feeling of enduring a bad experience when every second feels painful; and every minute is excruciating? Sometimes this happens to me in the theatre; rarely in the cinema. Maybe I’m just lucky. Perhaps. But yesterday my luck ran out. I watched Terence Davies’s The Deep Blue Sea, his new adaptation of the Terence Rattigan play. It is an abysmal film, truly dreadful, absolutely dire. His extra plotting is nonsensical, the storytelling incompetent, the evocation of 1950s working-class life sentimental, and the acting a masterclass of awkward, stilted and charmless performance. Oh, and the musical soundtrack is utterly unbearable. So I nominate this ghastly charade as the worst film of the year.

Save The Broadway, Barking

2011-11-23T16:04:00.003Z

We tend to forget the good work of theatres until they are threatened with closure. The Broadway — Barking and Dagenham’s only theatre — recently presented Anders Lustgarten’s award-winning A Day at the Racists. It is one of those unique local assets, and now the council are proposing to stop funding it from April next year. As playwright David Eldridge, a patron of this venue, says, “Effectively closing down one of the borough’s very few cultural attractions seems to be short-sighted, counter-productive and definitely not in the interests of the people of Barking & Dagenham.” Please sign the petition to save the theatre. Contact artistic director Karena Johnson for more information: Karena.Johnson@thebroadwaybarking.com

When things go very wrong

2011-11-17T16:03:00.004Z

Most mistakes on stage are quickly smoothed over by the actors improvising, or patching things up. The show then goes on. Sometimes, however, things go so very wrong that the performance grinds to a halt. This is exactly what happened at the press night, yesterday, of Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock (the first co-production ever between the national theatres of the UK and Ireland). Midway through Act Two, at the point when Mrs Boyle opens the door to allow Mrs Tancred, who is coming down the stairs outside in order to bury her dead son, to come in, the unexpected occurred: the door stuck. As the cast gathered around it, each giving it a tug, some kicking it, a slow sensation spread through the audience, a collective holding of breath. But the door remained stubbornly tight shut. And without it, poor Mrs Tancred couldn’t come in, and the rest of the cast couldn’t leave. So a stage manager came on and told us to wait until it was fixed. The curtain came down. A few wags said that this stuck door was a metaphor of the history of Anglo-Irish relations. Then, about five minutes later, all was well and, to a round of applause, the show continued. And what an excellent production it is: warmly recommended.

Close-Up Magic

2011-11-16T11:30:00.003Z

I have just received my copy of “Close-Up Magic”: 40 Years at the Bush Theatre, edited by Neil Burkey. This beautifully produced anniversary book is full of anecdotes, information and brilliant photographs of this marvellous West London venue, a place where I have seen some of the most moving and most exhilarating shows ever. Looking at the photographs, it’s amazing how many memories they provoke. The classic picture, for example, of Tracy Letts’s Killer Joe (1995), stirs in my memory the image of the family’s vulnerable daughter, Dottie, taking her clothes off, surely one of the most troubling and moving moments of the whole in-yer-face era. More recently, the book also challenges my poor short-term memory: I’m sure I had forgotten that Nicholas Tennant in Mike Packer’s A Carpet, A Pony and A Monkey (2002) came on stage with a St George’s cross painted on his face, a sure sign that this was a play as much about national identity as about male camaraderie. There are many other examples of beautiful moments in this excellent book, a lovely testament to 40 years of great play-making.

Belarus Free Theatre appeal

2011-11-14T13:50:00.003Z

I’ve recently heard the latest news about the Belarus Free Theatre. Five members of the company are now permanently resident in London, in exile from Belarus, but still committed to producing new work. The rest of the company remain in Belarus, training, rehearsing and performing in secret, under threat of intimidation and arrest. This change in circumstances means that the company now finds itself in need of funding: there is now a page on the crowdfunding website Sponsume, which includes more information. Donations start at £10 and the aim is to help them set up a UK office and employ a British staff member, whose job will be to find other funding sources so that the company can become self-sustaining. Please help: it’s a nice way of saying, “Welcome to London.”

Wuthering Heights

2011-11-06T18:25:00.005Z

Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is one of my favourite books and I am a sucker for film versions of the story. The latest one, by award-winning director Andrea Arnold, looks interesting, especially as it stars a black actor, James Howson, as Heathcliff. But you wouldn’t know this fact by looking at the poster that advertises the film: instead of showing Howson’s face this poster shows the back of his head! Yes, that’s right — the back of his head. And, just in case you’re not paying attention: the back of his head. In advertising terms, isn’t this a bit blatant? As in: black faces will put audiences off. It smells of the making the blacks sit at the back of the bus. How can a company advertise a film with a black actor by showing the back of his head? Is this the year 2011, or 1911? Unbe-fucking-lievable!

New writing 2011

2011-11-01T14:41:00.000Z

Quik tweet: new update on the state of play.

Where do we go from here?

2011-10-30T16:13:00.003Z

Belatedly, here is a link to Where Do We Go from Here?, the text of director Mike Bradwell’s speech to the Society for Theatre Research, on 19 October at the Swedenborg Hall. In this great rant, provocative and thought-provoking in equal measure, the former artistic director of the Bush reiterates the powerful point that he makes in his wonderful autobiography — The Reluctant Escapologist — that what theatre needs is good plays, good playwrights and good directors and actors. Not more consultants, marketing managers, and press officers. Not more fund-raisers and consumer pundits. It’s well worth reading. And surely isn’t it yet another sign of the growing spirit of defiance which is haunting the land?

Marat/Sade

2011-10-26T14:07:00.005+01:00

It’s always nice to see theatre-makers hitting back at the critics, so I’m linking to this post by playwright and director Anthony Neilson, whose version of Peter Weiss’s Marat/Sade has provoked walk-outs at the Royal Shakespeare Company. I do like Neilson’s ironic comment that “anyone who has dipped into The 120 Days of Sodom will see that I’ve been the model of restraint”. But I also feel that perhaps he undersells the sense of shock that many of his own plays, as well as this adventure in directing, embody. Surely, shock is a good thing in this anodyne world. And isn’t it only when people walk out of your work that you know you’ve touched a real nerve?

Bang Bang Bang

2011-10-24T11:59:00.003+01:00

One of the things that new writing does so well is tell us stories we’d rather not know. Stella Feehily’s Bang Bang Bang (currently at the Royal Court in an excellent Out of Joint production) revisits the Democratic Republic of Congo and gives a powerful and compelling account of two female human-rights workers who are investigating war crimes. On one level, the play deals with similar issues to the equally watchable The Faith Machine, by Alexi Kaye Campbell, especially the conflict between pragmatists and idealists — a tension that feels extremely topical at the moment. On another level, Bang Bang Bang is the latest in a long line of plays about the unhappy relationship between the West and Africa. What I like most about the piece is Feehily’s mixture of emotional truth and abrasive humour. That, and her self-reflexiveness: at one point, an Irish guy asks, “You don’t hear much about the Congo now. Has the situation improved at all?” The answer, of course, is that it hasn’t, and plays such as this help us to realise that.

Theatre of revolt

2011-10-20T16:55:00.005+01:00

Quik tweet: see George Hunka’s posts on a new Theatre of Revolt, a list and discussion inspired by Robert Brustein’s book of 1964.

Stop the right in Budapest

2011-10-19T14:54:00.006+01:00

The current mayor of Budapest, Istvan Tarlos, has decided to give the New Theatre, one of the city’s publicly funded theatres, to Gyorgy Dorner, an actor with open links to the far right. His newly appointed dramaturg-intendant — Istvan Csurka — is the party leader of a Hungarian neo-nazi party, the anti-Semitic MIEP. The Hungarian public is shocked, and next week there will be a demonstration about the decision. There is a website with articles about what is happening, and the organisers ask people to sign their petition against the decision. Please, help us to stop this happening.

Saved

2011-10-18T08:59:00.005+01:00

Director Sean Holmes has given me immense pleasure simply by his choice of plays: John Arden’s Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance, Sarah Kane’s Cleansed and Blasted, and now Edward Bond’s Saved. I saw Saved last night at the Lyric Hammersmith and was struck, as I expected to be, by its visceral power and the sheer beauty of its muscular language. Likewise, and not surprisingly, the baby stoning scene reduced the audience to a cold quiet, punctuated by shocked gasps. But this terrible incident is, when you watch the whole play, not as important as its legendary status suggests. What is much more important is Bond’s conception of family life as shown by the succession of scenes set in the living room. These are written in different emotional keys: lust, despair, desperation and, finally, a kind of exhausted resignation. The last scene is a study in silence: despite what Bond says, I felt exhausted, but not that anyone had been saved. Here, family life is a boarding house where all members are both hosts and lodgers. It is fuelled by a palpable fury against the poverty of everyday life. What’s particularly striking about this play is how a work of genius makes our usual categories of comprehension so feeble. We call plays relevant, but this is such an inadequate word for Saved; we call plays state-of-the-nation, but this is plainly weak: Saved is a report on modern humanity, it’s about Oedipus in south London. It also exists in a parallel universe to the historical mid-1960s, when it was written: the television is on, but no programmes are recognisable; a radio plays, but not a pirate station; a jukebox is used, but not for the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. No, the play is much bigger than its time: it’s a jewel on the ragged necklace of new writing that stretches from Beckett and Pinter to Cartwright, Crimp and Kane. This is the most important revival of the year. Do not miss it.

A Perfect Spy

2011-10-16T15:38:00.004+01:00

Why do some emotions seem to sum up the national character? Loyalty and betrayal, for example, seem to have an intimate connection with being English. Why? Perhaps because they powerfully suggest the stumblings of national confidence after the light of Empire went out; perhaps because they slip neatly into the arms of a kind of genial hypocrisy which is peculiarly English; perhaps because they remind us of the existence of a privileged establishment which simply cries out to be undermined. Whatever the reason, and inspired by the recent film version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, I revisited John le Carré’s A Perfect Spy (Peter Smith’s 1987 television version). Based on his life story, le Carré’s tale of Magnus Pym, a double agent, beautifully unmasks the complex interlacing of treachery, both public and private, both political and psychological. And, thinking about loyalty and betrayal, isn’t there a similar sense of loss and malaise in Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem (now back in the West End at the Apollo)? Its main character, Rooster Byron, symbolises a sense of Deep England, but he is betrayed and brought low by the forces of local commerce, council regulation and rural indignation. In fact, maybe the success of this state-of-the-nation pastoral is rooted in its suggestions of the tension between loyalty and betrayal.

The first Kenneth Tynan Award

2011-10-09T15:51:00.005+01:00

Literary managers and dramaturgs are among the unsung heroes of the booming new writing scene in British theatre. So it’s good to be able to report that the first award that celebrates their achievement will be presented next weekend. The Kenneth Tynan Award has been established by the Dramaturgs’ Network to celebrate the achievements of these behind-the-scenes play doctors. Tynan, of course, was a dramaturg at the National Theatre in the 1960s. At the inaugural event, when the award will be presented by Guardian critic Michael Billington, the judges will choose one of these two: Ruth Little, formerly literary manager of the Royal Court, and Lloyd Trott of RADA. Katalin Trencsényi of the Dramaturgs’ Network was also nominated but withdraw since she is also on the judging panel. The inaugural Kenneth Tynan Award will be presented at 6pm on Sunday 16 October at the Southwark Playhouse.

When things go wrong

2011-10-05T11:20:00.004+01:00

When things go wrong during a live performance, I usually experience conflicting emotions: an empathetic horror of being caught naked in public and a secret joy in witnessing the absence of perfection in the world. But sometimes there’s an additional feeling. Last night, for example, I was at the press night of Conor McPherson’s The Veil at the National Theatre. A few seconds into Act Two, in the run up to the onstage seance, the most dramatic scene of the play, the actor Jim Norton dried. He called for his line. A voice from the back of the Lyttelton Theatre provided it. He spoke it and moved on. But for a few dangerous moments, the stage was a shambles, with improvised lines and wobbly blocking. Yet, far from distracting from the drama, this bit actually enhanced it: watching things go wrong increased the tension of the scene — I was wondering simultaneously what would happen to the actors and what would happen to their characters. The additional feeling was heightened dramatic tension.

Interview with Alexi Kaye Campbell

2011-10-03T12:50:00.002+01:00

My interview with playwright Alexi Kaye Campbell, talking about his new play The Faith Machine (Royal Court), on theatreVOICE.

Review of Phaedra’s Love

2011-10-02T15:14:00.001+01:00

My review of Phaedra’s Love by Sarah Kane at the Arcola.

Theatre in Pieces

2011-09-30T11:22:00.004+01:00

One of the more pleasurable surprises available to theatre buffs is seeing a show you’ve heard about for years, and discovering that it is every bit as good as people have always said it was. Arnold Wesker’s Chicken Soup with Barley at the Royal Court this summer is one example of this. A similar pleasure is that of reading a text you’ve heard about but never thumbed. So I was delighted to get a copy of Theatre in Pieces: Politics, Poetics and Interdisciplinary Collaboration (Methuen Drama, 2011), a new collection of play texts edited by Anna Furse, who is a practitioner and academic. The first play in this anthology is Peter Brook’s US (RSC, 1966), a collaborative piece which examined attitudes to the War in Vietnam. As the introduction by Brook (and collection of postshow reactions) makes clear, this was a genuinely controversial show which offended both the left and the right. Compared to this, which looks like a straight play on the page, the rest of the collection — which includes work by Graeme Miller, Pete Brooks, Julia Bardsley, Anna Furse, Split Britches and Ashtar Theatre — is a bonanza of photographs, drawings, notes, dialogues, emails and text at all angles. The typography itself proves the point that theatre is so much more than simply a play text.

Review of Grief

2011-09-22T09:24:00.001+01:00

My review of Grief by Mike Leigh at the National.

Interview with Steve Thompson

2011-09-21T08:54:00.001+01:00

My interview with playwright Steve Thompson, talking about his new play No Naughty Bits (Hampstead), on theatreVOICE.

Review of Broken Glass

2011-09-20T09:23:00.001+01:00

My review of Broken Glass by Arthur Miller at the Vaudeville.

Review of My City

2011-09-18T14:24:00.001+01:00

My review of My City by Stephen Poliakoff at the Almeida.

In-Yer-Face Theatre in French

2011-09-16T15:12:00.003+01:00

Today, I received copies of a French translation of my first book, In-Yer-Face Theatre, by Nicolas Boileau and Delphine Lemonnier-Texier, with a new Preface. It is published by the Presses Universitaires de Rennes, and looks really beautiful! Thanks so much guys. I am so proud.

No Naughty Bits

2011-09-14T09:33:00.001+01:00

My review of No Naughty Bits by Steve Thompson at the Hampstead.

Disco Pigs

2011-09-13T10:08:00.003+01:00

Enda Walsh’s 1996 debut, Disco Pigs, is a play that joyously gulps down cider and splashes about in beer. Last night, before I went to see the current revival at the Young Vic, I’d had some champagne, which might account for the shiny, glittering splendour of my experience of the play. Or it may be that it’s the play itself that extracts superlatives like a feaverish doctor taking the forceps to an unwilling birth. Anyway, it’s a fantastically demented but viscerally exciting story of a teen boy and girl growing up. Directed with real flair by Cathal Cleary, winner of this year’s James Menzies-Kitchin Award, it stars two actors — Rory Fleck-Byrne and Charlie Murphy — whose performances are thrillingly dangerous and full of character. With its pumping, pumping, pumping music and wonderfully ramshackle set, this is a great theatrical experience. Long live Enda Walsh, an in-yer-face writer with the gift of poetry.

The Golden Dragon

2011-09-09T08:54:00.002+01:00

Quik tweet: Go and see Ramin Gray’s brilliant production of Roland Schimmelfennig’s The Golden Dragon at the Arcola.

The Faith Machine

2011-09-07T12:53:00.004+01:00

I caught up yesterday with Alexi Kaye Campbell’s The Faith Machine at the Royal Court, having missed its opening night last week. I think it’s a brilliant combination of the head and the heart: compelling in its examination of the meaning of life and emotionally engaging. The first two scenes are masterpieces of exposition, with ideas raised, conflicts introduced and the stakes set high. It was a great experience. In the future, when I despair of seeing a grown-up play which raises vital questions about who we are and what we should do with our lives, I will remember this piece. For those who long for passionate debate and ethical stimulation, I commend this play. For those that tire of issues and debates, who are allergic to discussion, I can only stay: steer well clear. It’s the best new play this year.

Review of Truth and Reconciliation

2011-09-06T08:17:00.001+01:00

My review of Truth and Reconciliation by debbie tucker green at the Royal Court.

Southwark Playhouse: Double Bill

2011-08-31T10:41:00.006+01:00

The embattled Southwark Playhouse, whose existence is threatened by property developers, is this week presenting a unique double bill of new plays about being young in contemporary Britain: Magical Chairs by Mary Mazzilli and There’s Only One Wayne Lee by Roy Williams. Using different theatrical styles, from absurdism to naturalism, both engage with the complex intercultural reality of London life today. Directed by Jonathan Man, they also challenge the idea that new writing is not interested in China or that the British Chinese community is entirely invisible to theatre. Also, both plays will visit China’s Beijing International Fringe Festival in the coming weeks — intercultural exchange at its very best.

New writing in Wales

2011-08-13T10:28:00.001+01:00

Quik tweet: National Theatre Wales and new writing by Adam Somerset.

Riots spread to Edinburgh

2011-08-12T11:17:00.000+01:00

Breaking news: riots at the Edinburgh Festival!

On decadence in today’s theatre

2011-08-11T11:12:00.004+01:00

It’s still very early to say how the current age of austerity will affect theatre but an early blast in the continuing argument over what is the most democratic type of theatre at the moment has been delivered by playwright David Greig. A Guardian blog reports that during a platform discussion at the Edinburgh Festival, he described intimate theatre (the hip one-on-one small-scale experience that has been seen as the most cutting-edge for the past couple of years) as “decadent” in the era of austerity. The report says that he argued that intimate theatre was a resource-heavy experience that is available to the few rather than the many. Whereas “there is an app that you can open in any city in Europe, Western Asia, Australasia and North and South America. It is called a pros-arch theatre. Like a lot of people in theatre, I used to see the traditional proscenium arch stage as elitist. Now I regard it as rather democratic. A lot of people can see it. It’s much more available than having to go to a special place on your own, wearing headphones.” A neat and provocative blast — thanks David.

Review of Anna Christie

2011-08-10T09:23:00.001+01:00

My review of Anna Christie by Eugene O’Neill at the Donmar.

Review of Blue Surge

2011-08-05T09:58:00.001+01:00

My review of Blue Surge by Rebecca Gilman at the Finborough.

Flat Earth News

2011-08-04T15:51:00.008+01:00

Journalists, we all know, have had a pretty bad press recently. Nothing new about that, but what is also clear is that one Guardian penman, Nick Davies, has been instrumental in bringing the News of the World to book. So the naive question arises: if Davies could do it, why didn’t other members of the so-called Fourth Estate investigate the matter with his thoroughness? The answer, given in Davies’s book Flat Earth News (Vintage, 2009), is not because of any conspiracy theories but because the whole system of current journalism in the UK is corrupt — due to cost-cutting and profit-making almost all media outlets simply recycle the same PR press releases and agency stories. Few journalists leave the office, to develop personal contacts and actually find new stories. Few check their facts; few are funded by their media outlets to actually investigate the news. So forget about the News of the World, delightful as that scandal is, the real corruption is that of the whole system. And isn’t that a much less joyful thing to contemplate? Now buy the book and gnash your teeth.

The Deep Blue Sea

2011-07-29T09:42:00.005+01:00

This week, I made a rare expedition out of London to see Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea at Chichester, where Jonathan Church has programmed a cracking summer of great revivals — from Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead to Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, the season looks like a complete course in postwar British drama. I’ve never really liked Rattigan’s work, which seems to me to be emotionally constipated, especially when you compare it to the best of John Osborne or Tennessee Williams. And the first act of The Deep Blue Sea, directed by Philip Franks, only confirmed this feeling: it is all clipped tones and unexplored emotions. But then the play really took off in the second and third acts, excavating painfully the inner life of the characters, their sexual anxieties and their sense of failure. I was won over. Yet I still have my doubts, not any more about the emotional fuel that powers the writing, but about the outcome of the play: the most noble way, according to Rattigan, for a man to behave is to renounce love. Remembering the National Theatre’s revival of After the Dance last year, where a similar psychological pattern was enacted, I can’t help feeling that this is one of the least appealing examples of the self-sacrificial but thoroughly selfish English temperament...

Review of Mongrel Island

2011-07-22T08:49:00.001+01:00

My review of Mongrel Island by Ed Harris at the Soho.

Review of Loyalty

2011-07-21T08:36:00.001+01:00

My review of Loyalty by Sarah Helm at the Hampstead.

Interview with Penelope Skinner

2011-07-20T15:08:00.002+01:00

My interview with playwright Penelope Skinner, talking about her new play The Village Bike (Royal Court), on theatreVOICE.

Five Truths

2011-07-19T15:22:00.004+01:00

Normally I really hate being late for a performance, but very rarely it is an advantage. If you go to the Performance Galleries of the V&A Museum, you will probably arrive in the middle of director Katie Mitchell’s Five Truths, an installation which explores the madness of Ophelia by filming her death, which occurs offstage in Hamlet, in five different styles based on the work of legendary directors: Stanislavski, Brecht, Artaud, Grotowski and Brook. The five distinct versions play simultaneously, with two screens of different sizes for each interpretation, and last about eight minutes in total. Arriving in the middle of the performance enables you to play the game of guessing which version is based on the work of which director. Actress Michelle Terry performs with enormous commitment; Leo Warner’s filming is brilliant. And the atmosphere of the space is pure magic.

Review of Yes, Prime Minister

2011-07-18T14:42:00.001+01:00

My review of Yes, Prime Minister by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn at the Apollo.

The Tree of Life

2011-07-17T16:20:00.006+01:00

Just seen Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life: an amazing film, a really exciting cinematic experience. Superb film-making. The acting and filming of the 1950s sequences were exceptional, with the fragmented camera work and its insistent restlessness capturing a sense of memory, and some of the emotions of childhood — confusion, mystery, overpowering father, absent mother (not literally, but she barely speaks), fighting parents, guilt in wrongdoing — come across in a very powerful way. The evolution and afterlife sequences were thrillingly imaginative. And I did, in the end, forgive Malick’s choice of music. I loved the non-linear narrative form, and thought that the ambition of the film — from the birth of the universe to the Book of Job to the afterlife — was genuinely thrilling. It also made me ask: where in British new writing today is there an equivalent daring and imaginative approach to storytelling?

Review of In the Penal Colony

2011-07-15T10:02:00.001+01:00

My review of In the Penal Colony by the ShiberHur theatre company at the Young Vic.

Review of Lay Me Down Softly

2011-07-13T09:19:00.001+01:00

My review of Lay Me Down Softly by Billy Roche at the Tricycle.

Interview with Dan Barnard and Rachel Briscoe

2011-07-07T14:18:00.003+01:00

My interview with co-directors Dan Barnard and Rachel Briscoe, talking about Lydia Adetunji’s Fixer, on theatreVOICE.

Fixer

2011-07-06T10:08:00.006+01:00

One of the interesting things about reviewing shows regularly is that you get to sense shifts in the ecology of London fringe theatre. Last night I went to the Oval House in south London and saw an excellent production of Lydia Adetunji’s Fixer, part of this venue’s London via Lagos festival of new work. Set in northern Nigeria, the well-written play explores what happens when rebels attack an oil pipeline, thus attracting journalists and company executives like flies to the area — but all these outsiders need a local Fixer to get in touch with the action. Neatly plotted, this piece exposes some of the human costs of our dependence on oil, and paints a credible picture — part critical, part humorous — of the life a journalist in today’s media. Finely directed by Dan Barnard and Rachel Briscoe, it is well worth catching. Now that the programming of the Oval House is in the hands of joint directors Briscoe and Rebecca Atkinson-Lord, it feels like the venue has turned a corner.

Pinter and Webern

2011-07-05T15:53:00.003+01:00

George Hunka’s Superfluities Redux blog has once again produced a winner: an educative post about the relationship between Harold Pinter’s plays and the music of Anton Webern. What I most liked, and found most challenging, is Hunka’s reflection on this interdisciplinary comparison: “As I said, both drama and music are served — those readers unfamiliar with Webern may seek out his music, as those unfamiliar with Pinter may seek out his plays (and others have drawn comparisons between Beckett and Schubert, Barker and Bartok) — and another cultural dimension is opened for both forms. It deghettoizes each of these disciplines — contemporary drama and contemporary music — in the service of a broader cultural discourse. But for this kind of criticism to be written, it must have critics who have done their homework, and for it to be published, it requires editors who believe that journalism is more than a mere business, and has cultural responsibilities similar to those of a public trust.” Yes, there’s a provocation for both us critics and our editors here. Lucky for me, Hunka also includes a link to a Webern piece, played by Glenn Gould no less, which makes for interesting listening. And, if you try hard enough, you can just about feel some of Pinter’s characters gathering at the edges of your consciousness because, after all, any comparison between drama and music must avoid the literal, mustn’t it?

Tricycle Theatre

2011-07-04T17:06:00.005+01:00

Today, Nicolas Kent, the artistic director of the Tricycle Theatre in north London has announced that he is to stand down after 27 years in the post. (Phew, sounds like a long time.) Now I really admire his leadership of this venue so I was sad to hear that he is to go, but then I read the reason: he blames cuts to the funding of the Tricycle. You can see he has a point: both the Arts Council and his local authority will be trimming their subsidy (a double hit, or cut, that affects all but the biggest theatres). Bye, bye £350,000. I should be outraged, and initially I did feel a surge of hatred towards the government in general and towards the hopeless Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt in particular. But then I couldn’t help thinking I might be over-reacting. I mean, these cuts have been well signposted and well rehearsed. So isn’t Kent playing the role of victim here? Isn’t he just supporting the culture of whinging that makes liberals so happy, and arts people so despised? Surely, there must be a way of facing the new climate without resigning and without grumbling — aren’t cuts an opportunity as well as a blow?

Review of The Village Bike

2011-07-02T10:29:00.004+01:00

My review of The Village Bike by Penelope Skinner at the Royal Court.

Riot dog

2011-07-01T13:26:00.006+01:00

For several weeks now, as the Greek crisis has developed, Pirate Dog has been spotting a fellow canine during news footage of the street demonstrations in Athens. This beautiful beast, called Loukanikos (the name means sausage!), is not only an activist, but also now an icon. A radical dog which it feels really good to love. Yes. Love supreme...

Review of Hundreds and Thousands

2011-06-28T08:37:00.002+01:00

My review of Hundreds and Thousands by Lou Ramsden at the Soho.

Case Histories

2011-06-27T12:54:00.002+01:00

Quik tweet: great detective drama series, Case Histories (BBC), based on the Kate Atkinson books, now on i-player.

Fewer Emergencies

2011-06-23T09:42:00.003+01:00

A rare chance to see a revival of Martin Crimp’s sublime trilogy of playlets, Fewer Emergencies, presents itself at the Print Room. First staged in 2005, this innovative and experimental work is now directed by the up-and-coming Dan Ayling as part of the Devils Festival. I recently re-read Fewer Emergencies and the brilliant thing about Crimp’s writing is that, as the years pass, it becomes increasingly relevant as a way of looking at our troubled world. If all good art aspires, in some manner, to the sublime, then you need look no further...

The Trouble with Theatre

2011-06-21T10:17:00.005+01:00

I was struck by, and have always remembered, a remark by Martin Crimp: “I’m always looking for constraints, and it’s the constraints that will let the material be created by me.” So I when I was invited to join a panel to discuss this subject at the ICA tomorrow night, I immediately said yes. The title of this event is “The Trouble with Theatre: To what extent do the conventions of theatre constrain of facilitate inventiveness?” Discussing this thorny subject will be theatre director and writer Neil Bartlett, writer Sally O’Reilly and artists Roman Vasseur and Grace Schwindt. All welcome!

Two readings

2011-06-19T17:51:00.005+01:00

One of the great things about the new writing system in Britain is that there is still enough funding for transatlantic invitations, play readings, and other ways of finding and developing new talent. For example, there’s a reading of American playwright Ken Urban’s The Awake at the Donmar Warehouse at 2pm on Friday 24 June. And look at its brilliant cast: Sorcha Cusack, Michelle Fairley, Phillip Joseph, Christopher Simpson, Hugh Skinner and Lydia Wilson. Great to see the Donmar exploring contemporary new writing from across the Atlantic. Urban is an experienced, highly perceptive and hugely talented playwright, and I hope to see his work produced in London soon. Completely coincidentally, another American, Sarah Kosar, is having a reading of her play Egg at the I.N.C Space in Covent Garden at 7.30pm on Wednesday 22 June. The play was developed on the Lyric Hammersmith Young Writers Course under Simon Stephens and Bola Agbaje and also at Central School of Speech and Drama, which — like Urban’s experience — just goes to show how interconnected and intertwined and fertile is the ground that supports new writing in this country. Long may both these writers thrive.

Review of Where's My Seat?

2011-06-18T10:29:00.002+01:00

My review of Where’s My Seat, a trilogy of plays by Deirdre Kinahan, Jack Thorne and Tom Wells at the Bush.

David Greig

2011-06-17T15:36:00.007+01:00

I’ve never really understood why playwright David Greig — surely one of the top five British playwrights to have emerged in the 1990s — isn’t better known in London. Could the reason be that he is Scottish, and Scottish playwrights have had much less success in the metropolis than Irish or American talents? Whatever the reason, there are many signs that he is appreciated by the academy, if not always by London directors: so it’s really good to be able to welcome a new book, Cosmotopia, a collection of short essays about his work edited by Anja Müller and Clare Wallace (published by the excellent Litteraria Pragensia). These 12 clearly written and accessible contributions offer numerous insights into the intellectual and emotional aspects of Greig’s plays. In particular the theme of globalisation and its effect on identity politics is thoroughly investigated. Let’s hope that there are more such explorations of the work of this always stimulating playwright — and more revivals of his plays.

Realism

2011-06-16T09:28:00.005+01:00

Anthony Neilson’s Realism is one of those contemporary plays that had a great first showing (at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2006), and has been begging for an English premiere ever since. Now Steve Marmion, the new artistic director of the Soho Theatre in London, has done us all a favour by putting on an excellent — and updated — revival, which opened last night. Really good to see what I think is already a modern classic on stage in the metropolis.

Nimby

2011-06-15T08:26:00.005+01:00

The rude health of contemporary playwriting can be seen in the number of new writers that are beginning to come through, often via the Royal Court’s Young Writers Programme, having their work staged at one of the many fringe venues in London. At the ever-enterprising Theatre 503, Alice Birch’s Many Moons has just finished a successful run. And now you can catch Lola Stephenson’s sharply satirical Nimby at the Old Red Lion. While many young playwrights avoid comedy as an uncool form of theatre, Stephenson has embraced the challenges of making work that is both perceptive and intelligent — and funny too. Nimby is about a middle-class couple, James and Bea, who are into organic food and all the best trendy causes. But when their home is invaded by a diverse group of truly needy individuals (a paranoid, an ex-prisoner and a single mum), they revert to their selfish selves. The play is brightly written, very funny, and takes a hammer to several ossified sacred cows. I liked its acerbic take on ecological cliches, therapy-speak, and the desire to be a do-gooder. The production, by Gravel Theatre Company and Make and Bake, is laugh-out-loud entertaining.

Review of American Trade

2011-06-09T07:19:00.002+01:00

My review of American Trade by Tarell Alvin McCraney at the Hampstead.

Review of Tactical Questioning

2011-06-07T08:36:00.001+01:00

My review of Tactical Questioning by Richard Norton-Taylor at the Tricycle.

Waiting for Godot

2011-06-06T14:26:00.003+01:00

Some performances are legendary, and have a resonance whose ripples still affect us. In Martin Esslin’s classic 1961 book, The Theatre of the Absurd, there’s a great story about a production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot at San Quentin prison in 1957, directed by Herbert Blau. Apparently, at a time when this show was puzzling intellectuals all over Europe, the prisoners had no trouble understanding it. As one prison teacher said at the time, “They know what is meant by waiting...” In 1987, Esslin and Blau talked about this production in a short clip which George Hunka in New York has put on his blog. But while it is great to revisit such a classic production, this story shouldn’t make us complacent: would we recognise a 21st-century Beckett if he appeared out of nowhere tomorrow?