Posted by RDN under At the movies / At the theatre on 12 December 2011. No comments.
Terence Davies is said to be a sensitive chronicler of post-war Britain, but he sure mauled Terence Rattigan’s Deep Blue Sea which really was a wonderful piece of post-war chronicle. (The CFT version was far better.) More »
Posted by RDN under At the theatre on 29 September 2011. No comments.
This was a superb The Browning Version with every nuance of the main characters richly and neatly done. Perhaps the headmaster was an ounce too bouncily nasty. Naturally enough. it’s the Hare homage, votive offering, re-calibration (or whatever) of Rattigan which had even more of one’s attention. Here’s a first bash at an appreciation…. More »
Posted by RDN under At the theatre on 4 August 2011. No comments.
The reviewers mostly got this right, as to the production. But several missed the main point about the nature of Rattigan’s themes, and especially as we see them at work in this play. More »
Posted by RDN under At the theatre on 4 August 2011. No comments.
This is a wonderful show, and Dominic Maxwell in The Times gets it more right, I think, than Michael Billington in the Guardian. But I would briefly add… More »
Posted by RDN under At the theatre on 27 May 2011. One comment.
It’s bad form to write crits of shows before Press Night, and this note isn’t going to do that… More »
Posted by RDN under At the theatre on 20 May 2011. No comments.
A slowish beginning and only one sure-fire hit song in the whole show. But The Times and Telegraph are right to rave and I add only a couple of things about this intense piece of magic….
Posted by RDN under At the theatre on 15 March 2011. No comments.
I feel a bit guilty horning in on the Rattigan-fest. My connection is through my heroic half-uncle and his rather interesting role in Flare Path‘s arriving on the London stage. Anyway, I did my best to do justice to the circumstances in “Rattigan worked with a monkey on his lap and overlooked by curious and unsober airmen”, in the Independent in August 1995, when Flare Path was revived at the Bristol Old Vic.
Posted by RDN under At the theatre on 1 October 2010. No comments.
There are two powerful central performances in the Minerva’s The Master Builder. Everyone else is strong. The set’s lovely. So why doesn’t this show quite work? More »
Posted by RDN under At the theatre on 14 August 2010. No comments.
Two sparky delights. But were they one tad too perfect, too technical? More »
Posted by RDN under At the theatre on 7 August 2010. No comments.
The audience was lively by Chi standards, and that sort of swept one along… More »
