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Theatre

The Motive and the Cue

This play by Jack Thorne – directed by Sam Mendes -is the hottest ticket in town. Its subject is the direction of Sir John Gielgud (Mark Gatiss) of Richard Burton (Johnny Flynn) in a 1966 Broadway production of Hamlet. I went to the matinee yesterday with my customary companion after we [...]

February 16, 2024 // 0 Comments

“2.22: A Ghost Story” (a report not a review)

Yesterday, accompanied by Her Indoors, I went to the matinee performance of a touring version of the fifth West End production  – the first had premiered in 2021 – of Danny Robins’ highly-regarded dramatic play 2:22 A GHOST STORY at the Chichester Festival Theatre. In its time it has [...]

February 8, 2024 // 0 Comments

Review: NOISES OFF (Chichester Festival Theatre)

Having never been a frequent cinema or theatre goer myself – though no stranger to these art forms I would never describe myself as a devoted fan of either – it would be presumptuous of me to assume the role of critic, which is why in this piece I purport to do no more than record my [...]

January 11, 2024 // 0 Comments

Dear England/James Graham

James Graham’s latest play has had an extended run from the National Theatre and we saw it yesterday at Cameron Mackintosh’s Prince Edward Theatre. I can see why as, whilst my theatre companion was a football fan and follower like myself, the play went beyond its central theme of how Gareth [...]

December 10, 2023 // 0 Comments

A Voyage Round My Father: Chichester Festival Theatre (review 08.11.2023)

This piece by barrister/writer John Mortimer (1923 – 2009), perhaps best known of all for his creation Rumpole Of The Bailey starring Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, had an interesting gestation. It began in the form of three sketches he wrote for BBC Radio in 1963, then developed into a [...]

November 9, 2023 // 0 Comments

Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?

Having watched a bio-documentary of Elizabeth Taylor in which the critic Derek Malcolm argued that the above film, based on the Edward Albee play, proved she could act, I duly ordered the DVD. It stars Elizabeth Taylor as Martha, the daughter of the President of the Faculty, and her husband George [...]

November 7, 2023 // 0 Comments

Shakespeare on film

As part of its celebration of the Immortal Bard the BBC has been showing some of the more celebrated film Shakespearean film adaptations, notably 1950s Richard III and Julius Caesar. Richard III was produced and directed by Laurence Olivier who made the title rôle definitive although the accuracy [...]

October 23, 2023 // 0 Comments

Review: The Sound Of Music (Chichester Festival Theatre)

Last weekend – somewhat out of the blue – I received an invitation to attend the penultimate evening performance of the Chichester Festival Theatre’s production of Rogers & Hammerstein’s musical The Sound of Music and was only too happy to accept. There can scarcely be a Ruster unaware [...]

September 6, 2023 // 0 Comments

Revival of Bill Naughton’s Spring and Port Wine

For personal reasons which I will divulge later I was so delighted to hear that Bill Naughton’s Spring and Port Wine is to be revived at the Octagon Theatre Bolton. Bill Naughton was of poor Irish stock in County Mayo and moved to Bolton where he bagged and delivered coal. His breakthrough as a [...]

February 11, 2023 // 0 Comments

Mother Goose (Chichester Festival Theatre)

Yesterday – having bought tickets on a relatively last-minute whim – my partner and I went to the Chichester Festival Theatre to see the 5.00pm performance of the touring pantomime Mother Goose, starring Sir Ian McKellen as Mother Goose and comedian John Bishop as his/her husband Vic Goose. The [...]

February 11, 2023 // 0 Comments

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