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Alan Bennett looking back aged 90

He would not like the phrase – and nor do I – but Alan Bennett is a ‘national treasure’.  Last night, aged 90 and in a wheelchair, he looked back on his life and body of work.  It brought back many memories. Forty Years On with John Gielgud would be up there with Shadowlands as [...]

December 14, 2024 // 0 Comments

FAWLTY TOWERS (THEATRE) – 3 stars out of 5

If under pressure and asked to list a selection of the Top Ten all-time greatest British sit-coms I should imagine that – in no order of excellence – I’d probably be scouting in the territory containing the likes of Steptoe And Son, Porridge, Only Fools And Horses, Till Death Us Do [...]

November 1, 2024 // 0 Comments

Redlands/Chichester Festival Theatre (review)

With almost six decades of connection with the area behind us – and our status as “friends” of Chichester Festival Theatre – when this season’s announcement of future productions arrived about six months ago my wife and I had immediately identified this production as one we wished [...]

October 9, 2024 // 0 Comments

Fiddler on the Roof/Open Air Theatre (Regent’s Park)

Fiddler on the Roof is a wonderful musical of catchy songs, humour and two engaging themes of displacement and tradition confronting change. This performance does it justice. American actor Adam Dannheiszer is well cast as the philosophical Tevye the milkman clinging to his traditional [...]

September 20, 2024 // 0 Comments

Oliver!/Chichester Festival Theatre

Oliver! is an unusual basis for a musical as the story of Oliver Twist is heart-rendingly sad and grim till the ending. So much so that one friend of mine, though a lover of musicals, cannot bear to see it. The early scene in the workhouse and funeral parlour are so depressingly sad and young [...]

August 29, 2024 // 0 Comments

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

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