'The man next to us is honking like a seal,' whispered my friend Mel at the interval of One Man, Two Guvnors. It was the press night of the National Theatre production, back in 2011, and we'd gone along hoping for a bit of a chortle, I guess. We didn't know we'd be part of an audience convulsed with laughter. And the man sitting beside us really was honking like a seal. Tonight the National … [Read more...]
Into the Woods | Lockdown Theatre Club 2
Our twitter poll asking for people’s favourite genre saw an overwhelming vote for musicals. Cheer was needed. As it was also Stephen Sondheim’s 90th birthday, we went for Into the Woods (Sweeney Todd: too cannibalistic. A Little Night Music: too inept). As an added treat, Matthew Xia, who had directed a very different production at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, recorded a very tender … [Read more...]
All About Eve | Lockdown Theatre Club 3
Lockdown Theatre Club watched All About Eve on 31 March. Here's some thoughts thrown up by our joint watch, some useful links and Veronica Horwell's terrific frockwatch note about Bette Davis' party dress. What is All About Eve?Bette Davis stars as a Broadway diva and Anne Baxter as her apparently demure number one fan. A backstabbing, backstage drama from 1950, it won six Oscars (including … [Read more...]
Lockdown Theatre Club
Join a weekly online audience for a stage-adjacent movie. Theatre and its audiences have always been there for me, even in the toughest times, and they’re still here. For you too, if you like. Coming up on Lockdown Theatre Club Tuesday 7 April at 8pmFencesDenzel Washington and an Oscar-winning Viola Davis in August Wilson’s wrenching drama (2016). Available on Amazon Prime. Tuesday 14 … [Read more...]
Ode to the nose that isn’t there: James McAvoy as Cyrano de Bergerac
It’s the nose I suppose But there’s not one of those To tell us we’re back at Cyrano’s. To the rage Of the stage Afficionados On McAvoy’s face No outsize nose. That blows? Praps it does For a minute But who needs a schnoz? Cos once he begins And does what he does And says what he says With that burr and that croon Then we’re Cyrano’s army We’d die for that loon. That … [Read more...]
Propwatch: the climbing tackle in Touching the Void
How do you capture the scale, the struggle, the elemental extremity of mountain climbing? In the theatre? It’s simpler than you think. After all, they both use the same kit. Touching the Void is based on the true story of two young Brits attempting to scale a never-scaled face of the Siula Grande mountain in the Peruvian Andes. David Greig's adaptation has found its purest home in old … [Read more...]
Propwatch: the jukebox in ‘Master Harold’… and the boys
A jukebox offers choice upon choice. Dozens of records, stacked and ready for selection. Nestling between the palm court quartet and the corporate playlist, jukeboxes soundtracked café culture. Before the walkman, spotify and sodcasting, they let you decide your own mood music. Public yet personal, sweetly selfish – the jukebox flourished in the 1950s, the decade in which ‘Master Harold’… and the … [Read more...]
Propwatch: the invisible magnets in Little Baby Jesus
Most props, most props, you could hold them in your hand. A suitcase. A tooth. A (shudders) doll. They’re part of the pleasure of theatre, the imagination made palpable. But sometimes, sometimes they stay imaginary. In the stonkingly vivid production of Little Baby Jesus by Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu, who won this year’s JMK award for emerging directors, the props are imaginary but so real you’d … [Read more...]
Propwatch: the only types of prop in the world in The Antipodes
Once about the time there was a group of people, telling stories and talking about telling stories. They didn’t exactly know what stories they should tell, or why they were telling them, so they just sat round a big oval table under a big fancy light fitting, and kept riffing about mythic stories, and hearing each other’s personal stories, and not going home so they could continue talking about … [Read more...]
Propwatch: the pig’s head in Mephisto [A Rhapsody]
When historians of the future chronicle the last days of Britain, a pig’s head may enjoy its own footnote. Assuming that there are still historians, academic protocols or indeed anything resembling a future. That porker’s head supposedly shared a brief but intimate moment with former premier David Cameron: the alleged Juliet to his Romeo, the Isolde to his Tristan, the roll to his sausage and the … [Read more...]