Just in

Theatre

Theatre review: This House (Minerva, Chichester Festival Theatre)

Yesterday I joined an old pal, a man of extensive property interests, for lunch in a hotel restaurant in Chichester. He was holed up there after doing a spot of business in the morning which had seemingly gone particularly well, for as I arrived he announced that we were to be served a bottle of [...]

October 6, 2016 // 0 Comments

Acting tales

Yesterday I had a lunch with a good pal and conversation turned to actors and acting. My friend once shared a flat long ago with Alan Dobie and is still good friends with David Warner. These may not not be household names but in their day were highly respected, successful actors of stage and [...]

October 5, 2016 // 0 Comments

The Dresser/ Theatre Royal

The Dresser by Sir Ronald Harwood is a play I know well and have seen many times. The playwright, who was the dresser of Sir Donald Wolfit, in a programme note refutes the suggestion that the central character ‘Sir’ was modelled upon the celebrated actor manager. However it is [...]

September 23, 2016 // 0 Comments

Relatively Speaking

I have written before that critics do not take Alan Ayckbourn as seriously as they should as he is viewed as commercial and popular. Having suffered through Pinter’s No Man’s Land at this very theatre I found two hours of cleverly constructed farce a great source of entertainment and [...]

September 10, 2016 // 0 Comments

Aladdin

Yesterday I went to see Aladdin the musical. It was a slick production as you might expect from Disney which bore little relation to the pantomime version. For a start it was set not in China but in Aqaba and the flavour was Arabian rather than Oriental. The costumes and sets were stunning and [...]

September 4, 2016 // 0 Comments

Aspects of ageing

We all know the harsher facts of 21st Century life. Perhaps save for in some distant, Third World, geographically-or-climate-change-challenged countries, continents and regions, the civilised human world faces an innumerable series of societal issues of which ongoing medical advances and healthy [...]

August 30, 2016 // 0 Comments

Half a Sixpence

Having suffered through No Man’s Land it was an unadulterated pleasure to visit  the Chichester Festival Theatre for Half A Sixpence. I remember the impact that musical and film with Tommy Steele had on me for the perception of the cruelty of the upper class provincial snob. The story as [...]

August 26, 2016 // 0 Comments

No Mans Land

There is a considerable body of theatrical opinion that holds that Harold Pinter is Britain’s greatest living playwright and another less vocal one that cannot fathom his works. I belong to the second school. Last night I saw No Man’s Land at the Theatre Royal  Brighton. I was more [...]

August 23, 2016 // 0 Comments

The ‘art’ of political correctness

For good or ill, we live in a politically-correct world. I say that because it seems to me there are both plusses and minuses to asserting the right of groups of human beings not to be discriminated against – not least that, when you get down to the bottom line and specific matters of principle [...]

August 16, 2016 // 0 Comments

Le nozze di Figaro /Glyndebourne

Glyndebourne is so efficiently run and the production values so high you are pretty much guaranteed an enjoyable evening – though you pay for it. For my regular companion this is her treat, which she calls her holiday. So I lay on the Ritz with a limo service, champagne and picnic lakeside in [...]

July 16, 2016 // 0 Comments

1 … 6 7 8 9 10 … 13

Copyright © 2024 The National Rust | Design by Premonition