Venice Preserv’d preview #VenicePreservd @SpectatorsGuild

The big event finally arrived and it was terrific. It starts with carnival parade from the Cutty Sark, so do dress up and join in. I got a sash for wearing one of the eight best costumes but missed out on the draw for a prize. If the parade seems a bit amateurish, don’t worry as the play itself is very professional. Ashley Zhangazha and Ferdinand Kingsley are superb as Jaffier and Pierre, with great performances from Jessie Buckley and Ayesha Antoine as their partners Belvidera and Aquilina. Pip Donaghy is hilarious as Antonio, the lecherous old senator lusting after Aquilina. I read the plot synopsis on Wikipedia first and would recommend it as the plot is complicated, with love and rebellion, revenge and tragedy, plus some extremely bawdy comedy. Don’t worry about spoilers as the title gives the ending away – imagine if Shakespeare had written Romeo and Juliet Have Kill’d Themselves! Make sure you wrap up warm as some of it is performed outdoors. We went in the afternoon so did not need to eat but the food looked lovely – the wine was certainly nice. The power for the lighting failed which was a shame but luckily it was a matinee so it did not spoil the fun – that’s what previews are for.

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Review: Let the Right One In #LTROI

A sweet, tender love story with flashes of extreme violence; an idyllic forest scene with litres of blood. It is very, very special and I have seen nothing like it on the stage before. It draws you in emotionally, then makes you jump up in your seat with shock. The director, John Tiffany, likens it to Peter Pan as the story of, “someone who will never grow old and someone who will.” Except, of course, Peter Pan did not need to drink human blood. Martin Quinn is very good in his first professional stage role as Oskar but Rebecca Bensen is amazing as the vampire Eli. Her first remarks grated as strangely artificial but it quickly becomes apparent that she is simply inhuman. I missed the sold out run at the Royal Court last year but I am so glad the Apollo Theatre is now staging it. I wouldn’t recommend it for the very young (though a group of teenage girls in the audience loved it) or anyone with a weak heart, but for everyone else there is no excuse for anyone else not to see this astonishing production.

Venice Preserv’d @SpectatorsGuild

I realised this was going to be more than just a play but wow! I usually write about shows after I’ve seen them but this has already started. First there was the census to complete, then came a mask to print out. There’s a costume to make and now I seem to be involved in some sort of conspiracy, establishing a secret place to exchange messages. Even worse, my wife seems to be on the other side. Punchdrunk take note – this is real immersive theatre: I’m already immersed and I haven’t even reached the event yet. I’ll report on that when I get there at the weekend but it’s already become the theatrical event of the year.

Review: A Winter’s Tale @theroyalballet

What a wonderful afternoon. This is the second full length new ballet composed by Joby Talbot and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, following their tremendous success with Alice in Wonderland and it is just as good. It is also important to mention designer Bob Crowley and lighting designer Natasha Katz who also worked on both ballets so effectively. Many people only remember the direction “Exit pursued by a bear” at the end of Act I so there’s always fascination to see how it has been done. I won’t give it away – it’s good but not as brilliant as the bear in the Terry Hands production for the RSC which I saw in the mid-80s. On that occasion, the entire stage was covered in white fur representing snow throughout the first act. At the end, the whole thing reared up and became an immense bear – fantastic but it wouldn’t be practical to dance on fur. I’ll give a clue that there are similarities in the two approaches. Christopher Wheeldon likes to develop his choreography directly with the dancers, so the matinee I saw was not danced by the ones who helped develop it. I am not sure this was any disadvantage as it gave them a chance to bring an extra something to the part. On this occasion, the star was Bennet Gartside as Leontes, an amazing performance as he replaced Thiago Soares who was supposed to dance it this afternoon. His dancing was superb and, above all, he captured the character of the king, as he moved from happiness through jealousy and tragedy to joy. My only regret is that I only booked for one performance and now it is sold out so it will probably be a couple of years before I see it again.

Review: Archimedes’ Principle, @ParkTheatre

Back to this lovely new theatre in Finsbury Park, this time to the smaller room to see a very powerful play. The play starts with the central issue, a swimming coach has been accused of inappropriateness with a child. It then jumps backwards and forwards, filling in background, adding more information and showing what happens next. This clever structure takes the audience back and forth, doubting his innocence then doubting his guilt. It runs straight through for 80 minutes to maintain the tension as it builds to a very frightening conclusion, but the doubt stays with you. It is translated from the Spanish and this very occasionally shows. If the script could do with a little more work, the acting and direction are superb. Lee Knight is very good as the accused coach but I was particularly impressed by Kathryn Worth as the swimming pool manager. She manages to convey her profound distress and confusion not as a prima donna but as a very ordinary woman facing a terrible dilemma. They are advertising £10 seats online – just look for codes.

Review: Morecambe @Morecambetour

Someone asked me if this was a tribute act. It most certainly is not: it is an intelligent, well written, well acted, one man show about the life and career of Eric Morecambe. Bob Golding deservedly earned an Olivier for this clever insight into the life and career of Eric Morecambe. I was working as a volunteer usher and the show’s producer noticed that I looked rather like Eric, so he asked me backstage to meet him and took a photo of us together. I may look a bit more like Eric Morecambe than he does but I could never capture the man so perfectly on stage. There are plenty of laughs but that is not all this show is about. There are plenty of moments of pathos and simple humanity, adding up to a brilliant portrayal of one of Britain’s greatest comedians, sympathetically portrayed by Bob Golding. You don’t need to look like Eric Morecambe, or Ernie Wise, to appreciate this. It’s on tour and I’d recommend you to catch it if you can.

Review: A Small Family Business, Olivier Theatre

Most Alan Ayckbourn works well in smaller theatres but this was written for the Olivier and works well in it. Dating from the 1980s, it is a critique of the corrupt selfishness encouraged by Thatcher, so this is an apt time to revive it. Gawn Grainger is Ken Ayres, a man who prides himself on his honesty and decency, brought in to manage the furniture company run by his wife’s aging father and root out the corruption that is damaging it. He starts off as someone who would never take a pen or some paper clips from work and ends up getting mired in the corruption around him. With such a heavy underlying theme, this is not one of Aycknbourn’s funniest plays but it manages to make you laugh and to make you thing.

Review: Some Desert Cities, Old Vic

The road sign on the highway from Los Angeles airport says “Palm Springs and other desert cities” and that’s where this play is set. It starts with the conflict between the Republican, old Hollywood parents and their daughter, a liberal writer who has chosen to live in New England but is home for Christmas. It turns out that she has written an autobiographical book about the dead brother they never talk about and tension builds. Her brother tries to calm things down while her alcoholic aunt does her bit to stir things up. A brilliant observation of a dysfunctional family with some interesting plot twists I won’t mention. What seems cut and dried turns out to be that much more complicated and more fascinating. The Old Vic has been transformed to create a theatre in the round which works brilliantly, especially if you get a seat close to the stage (although the front row seats are very low so get the second row if you can). Sinéad Cusack as the mother, Peter Egan as the father and Martha Plimpton as the daughter all give unmissably brilliant performances, so make sure you don’t miss it.

Review: The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith, Jermyn Street Theatre

This is the second Pinero play I’ve seen revived in the last couple of years; it was also by far the better production. The National Theatre’s production of The Magistrate tried too hard and was ultimately unsuccessful. With a teeny fraction of their resources, in a theatre smaller than the Olivier’s stage, this was successful. Written in 1895, 10 years after The Magistrate, it is a well crafted look at the role(s) of women in Victorian society and the dominance of the aristocracy. Rhiannon Sommers was superb as Mrs Ebbsmith, matched with yet another excellent performance from Christopher Ravenscroft. Straightforwardly and skilfully directed by Abbey Wright, it was produced by Primavera Productions formed by Tom Littler who also directed Dances of Death, my favourite play in a small theatre last year. I don’t intend to miss anything by them.

Review: LAC (after Swan Lake), Les Ballets de Monte Carlo

After a week with no chance to go to the theatre, it was great to catch two terrific performances yesterday, the first being the matinee of LAC. This updating of Swan Lake featured “Her Majesty of the Night” rather than Rothbart as the evil manipulator but was otherwise much the same story. It was a shame that it was performed to pre-recorded music, the quality of which was not as high as I would have liked, but everything else was marvelous, especially the terrific costumes by Philippe Guillotel. It was very much an ensemble production of a uniformly high standard so it is unfair to single out a specific performance, but the choreography by Jean-Christophe Maillot was energetic, flamboyant and passionate with a great touch of humour, often at the expense of Petipa’s original. It is a shame it was only half full for the matinee but you’d never have guessed it from the volume of the well deserved applause at the end. I do hope this vibrant, original company makes visiting London a regular event.