Theatre Reviews 2010
And so finally
Kingston Rose theatre has a genuine blockbuster, a wonderful production of A Midsummer
Night’s Dream with a huge
star that is worthy of all the hype. Dame Judi’s Elizabethan Titania is a
triumph and should not be missed! And after such a glorious start to our drama
year we next went to a more challenging production, The Caretaker at the Trafalgar Studios (which in my youth was the home of farce, the
Whitehall Theatre). Jonathon Pryce’s depiction of Davies has been winning great
plaudits from the critics so we thought we should see how he plays the Pinter
tramp. The last time we visited the National before Christmas it was to see an
all singing all dancing pyrotechnic production of Mother Courage; the new year started more gently with Alan Bennet’s
new play The
Habit of Art followed the
next week by another trip to the West End to catch up with Enron, one of last year’s most successful plays.
Sadly, the volcanic dust kept us away from the other great success of 2009, Jerusalem, the tickets for which remain
stuck on the notice board above me as I type; we seem destined not to get
there. But for a lighter evening, we did get to see the stellar cast of
theatrical greats doing Victorian farce at the National in London Assurance, surely the funniest play I have seen in
years.
Our second visit of the year to The Rose Kingston was for rather more
ancient comedy, a fabulously bawdy version of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, produced by Northern Broadsides followed by
our first trip to Chichester in some time, to see a star studded Pygmalion. In a tenuous link, the only previous time
we have seen David Suchet was at Chichester, but this summer it was the humid
West End for a star studded production of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. A delight to relieve moving stress and see Hay Fever at The Rose the evening before
the removal men arrived. Sadly all the details were swept up in the move, but a
light hearted night was enjoyer. The cast, and Celia Imrie most notably,
enjoyed themselves thoroughly as the hosts from hell, with Alexandra Gilbreath
as Myra Arundel, the most distinguished of the disgruntled and put upon guests.
It probably should have had more pathos, more inner darkness behind the bohemian
selfish melodrama, but I can’t say I was that worried about it! The production
may have lacked depth, but was certainly entertaining, wildly funny at times
and very enjoyable.
And back to Kingston a month
later to see Northern Broadsides version
of 1984. As Amanda commented, not the most cheerful
production ever – Orwell allows not the slightest chink of light in his
devastating version of a communist future. I first read 1984 about 20 years or so after it was written and then it seemed
quite prescient in its cold war references. Now it is the surveillance culture,
codified language and self imposed uniformity of thought that seems so
terrifyingly prescient. This version is powerful, theatrical and used video
technology very effectively. The cast of 5 combine specific characters, other
parts and Chorus-style speaking to narrate us through the plot. A very
challenging production and i would be interested to know how a younger audience
reacted. I do think Northern Broadsides are always worth seeing, pretty much
whatever they do.
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