My City

I’ve liked most of the Stephen Poliakoff plays I saw before he became fully engaged in TV and films. I also usually like his films; they’re sometimes impenetrable and occasionally all over the place, but they’re challenging and stimulating and always watchable. If only the same could be said of this, which I’m afraid is deeply frustrating and deadly dull.

The chance nighttime meeting of a primary school teacher and a former pupil is the starting point for a rambling narrative that takes us back to school assemblies, introduces us to another former pupil and two more teachers and goes off in all direction with a selection of stories, the purpose of which isn’t always clear. It’s as if he just downloaded last nights dreams, mixed them with todays thoughts, wrote it all down, called it a play and (to make matters worse) directed it himself, so no-one else was there to provide some creative objectivity.

Whatever the talent on stage. and there is talent on stage, there’s nothing they can do with what is a self-indulgent ramble which didn’t engage, entertain or interest me one jot. I don’t think there’s anything else I can add, so I won’t………..