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Time to talk
Have you ever gone for a walk, only to feel a bit cold or weary and decide to duck into a pub for a rest? You order a pint, or perhaps a hot drink, and settle down with a book—until a group of old mates ambles in. No matter how you try to focus on…
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Womanhood rather than woman
Mary Page observes that preparing someone’s taxes is more intriguing than it might seem, as it enables you to construct a vivid portrait from little more than a shoebox of receipts—and this is precisely what the play compels the audience to do. The play traces the life of Mary Page Marlowe’s from birth to near…
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Muted not menacing
On 7 May 1964, The Guardian described Orton’s first play as a ‘milk-curdling essay in lower-middle-class nihilism’. A dark farce, it aimed to shock contemporary audiences with taboo subjects, including homosexuality. By the time the screen version appeared in 1970, sex between men over 21 had been legalised in England. Disdain lingered, but the silence…
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The Activist Salome
I have loved Oscar Wilde for as long as I can remember. I had a blue, hardback copy of his fairy tales that I read over and over as a child. I have adored his plays, and no matter how many times I go to the theatre, they never fail to make me laugh and…
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Lady from the Swimming Pool
Modernisations, what can I say. I love a good modernisation. Nothing illustrates the universality of the greatest plays quite like one—nor their enduring themes, nor the fact that life repeats itself in endless iterations. I am such a big fan. But modernisations need to be done well. It is no small feat to take the…
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Radical authenticity
I knew little about this play, having seen neither of the films, but I anticipated a fast-paced two-hander between interviewer and interviewee, filled with sharp dialogue, quick-witted quips, and moments of gotcha and counter-gotcha. As the performance unfolded, I was drawn to the premise: seasoned political journalist Pierre (Robert Sean Leonard), on the eve of…
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What you will not
The Fool, in Harlequin’s attire as the central figure of this production of Twelfth Night, probably tells you all you need to know about Belfield’s direction for this staging – vibrant japery and frivolity lacking nuance or subtlety. It’s all colour, exciting visuals, dance, costumes, revelry and clowning about – something between the Venetian Carnival…
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Elizabethan Besties
Who cares if this late-sixteenth-century love farce isn’t the Bard’s finest or most original play when you can simply enjoy pure, unadulterated fun on a pleasant evening at the Globe? Climbing the tower with cushions and a bag of blankets and scarves just in case, I felt as if I was heading to a picnic…
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Who was Oscar Levant?
It has been a long time since I went to the theatre and did not feel at all inspired to write down my thoughts afterwards. Frankly, I had very few thoughts on the way home, and even fewer when I got there. I am not exactly sure why this was the case, but the play…
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Missed opportunity
Robert Bolt wrote an early form of this play for BBC Radio over 70 years ago, 55 years before Hilary Mantel wrote Wolf Hall. It is a very traditional, historical play. The stage is beautiful, as are the costumes, but the somewhat dragging script and lack of engaging on-stage interactions between the characters is a…
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