The Rest of September

COMEDY
Three nights after the Last Night of the Proms, the Last Night of the Poms was a huge disappointment – which surprised me as I had so enjoyed its first outing 27 years ago! After all too brief introductions, both Sir Les Patterson and Dame Edna Everage launch into musical pieces – in the former’s [...]

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ENRON

There’s much to enjoy in this play about the ENRON scandal, but I do think its over-hyped – mostly gushing reviews, sold out before opening, West End transfer announced on opening…… Even though ENRON came before the ‘Credit Crunch’, the play does seems timely. This, plus Rupert Gould’s trademark inventive directorial flourishes, cover up what is [...]

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A Little Neck @ Hampton Court Palace

I almost left before it had actually started! I arrived with plenty of time (surprised to see so many others had too), met Anne Boleyn’s brother George and received my instructions to put on a cloak and follow him for the duration.
With 30 minutes to go, I got  myself a glass of wine, sat down to conserve energy (this [...]

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Hot Mikado

This is an adaptation of Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta set in a late 20th century multicultural nomansland, reasonably faithful to the story and libretto but with the music adapted to a variety of  contemporary styles.
It’s another one of the Watermill Newbury actor-musician stagings. It’s well designed, staged and choreographed and the hugely talented cast have terrific energy, [...]

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Inherit The Wind

How often do you get a cast of 42, a vast deep set and a proper entertaining play about something relevant? Well, here it is!
This (mostly) courtroom drama about evolution denial and freedom of thought was written in the 50’s about an incident in the 20’s, but it’s so bang up to date you gasp. The [...]

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Prick Up Your Ears

It gets off to a slow and somewhat shaky start, but the fascinating story of the last years of the extraordinary relationship between playwright Joe Orton and his partner Kenneth Halliwell soon grips.
Though it sometimes misses being opened out from the pokey bedroom, the claustrophobic atmosphere this creates does add much, and the way the design [...]

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The Fastest Clock in the Universe

I saw the first production of this play 17 years ago and it’s just as mysterious and compelling today as it was then. The best way I can describe it is Pinter meets Tarantino!
Set in an East End flat, a 30-year-old who is obsessed with getting old awaits a visit from a teenager he’s been grooming. The ’sugar [...]

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2nd May 1997

This really is very very good.
Perhaps surprisingly, the three disparate scenes set on the same night / morning (the first Blair victory) combine together to make a deeply satisfying and thought provoking play. In one scene a we have a Tory (and his wife) about to lose his seat, in the next a Lib Dem and [...]

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Judgement Day

A station-master, distracted by his lover, fails to change the points and causes a fatal crash.  The play explores his guilt and the reactions of the community.
Adapted by Christopher Hampton from the German original and hailed by the critics, I’m afraid I’m not sure what all the fuss is about. It all seemed rather plodding [...]

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Kurt & Sid

This is an imaginary meeting between Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and The Sex Pistol’s Sid Viscious at the moment of the former’s suicide; Viscious is dead so we assume Cobain has ‘conjoured up’ his idol.
It’s a slight piece - a meditation on the reasons for the suicide – but it has it moments, most notably the cracking funny lines given to [...]

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