When this turned up in the latest Royal Court programme, it presented me with a dilemma. I’m very fond of playwright Simon Stephens work, but I’ve come to loathe the (recent) work of director Katie Mitchell. I decided to trust the playwright, but in the end it was he who disappointed.
For me, these three short plays with a somewhat contrived connection went nowhere and left me with nothing. The first is slight but touching as a foster mother says goodbye to her latest charge who is leaving for Canada. The second presents us with an edgy sexual encounter between a teacher and a policewoman in a hotel room. The third concerns the rather distasteful trafficking of a child. The content of the second and third is rather obtuse and the connection between the three somewhat nebulous.
The best things about the evening is Lizzie Clachan’s designs, which move from house to hotel bedroom to warehouse extraordinarily quickly (perhaps to avoid a gap long enough for runners?!) and the performances of Linda Bassett and Tom Sturridge in the first play.
Why they are named after a lake in Cumbria is also beyond me – it’s apparently Britain’s deepest – but these plays certainly aren’t. Much ado about nothing, I’m afraid.
Gareth's Culture and Travel Blog 
I’m curious- why do you loathe Katie Mitchell’s work? She seems to have the Marmite effect on theatre-goers. I ask because there are elements of her multi-media approach that I feel really enrich the work, and I like how bravely she approaches adaptations of the novel form. I am interested in what might turn people away from her work as her approach is informing my own adaptation project.
I used to love her! Early work like Rutherford & Son & The Machine Wreckers at the NT and the Phoenician Women at the RSC was terrific and I will be returning to her excellent production of Handel’s Jeptha later in the year. I also don’t have a problem with devised work or multi-media work; to the contrary, I consider myself very open to experimentation. I do however have a lot of respect for writers and I feel her ‘de-constructions’ are arrogant and completely disrespectful to (dead) writers. A director should serve the writer; she produces a play that is often far removed from the writers intentions. Frankly, I think she’s become addicted to being clever and different and lost all sense of the role of a director – and the need to entertain!
Yes, I think a lot of the time it can feel like she is just showing off as opposed to actually enhancing the message or intention of the original work. Have you watched / do you intend to watch ‘Trial of Ubu’? I am going next week. I am intrigued by her use of cameras on the stage in Some Trace of Her… and The Waves….but I do agree with your criticisms.
Sadly, I now need a compelling reason to see any production by her and though I like the playwright, that isn’t enough for me to go to Ubu. Furthermore, the reviews and fellow bloggers have put me off. I didn’t like The Waves (this was the begining of the end for me) so didn’t see Some Trace….There’s so much else to see – next week will be Bernarda Alba, Travelling Light, Constellations, Madness of George III and Lucky Stiff!