A Pinter...Pause

Last night I went to see Old Times with a couple of friends. The play follows a particular evening in the lives of married couple Kate and Deeley, an evening when Kate's old friend Anna comes to visit. It's 80 minutes long and stars Kristin Scott-Thomas, Rufus Sewell and Lia Williams so I was ready for enoyable evening.

Source: http://www.oldtimestheplay.com/

I did not factor in that it was a Harold Pinter play.

As we walked back across Leicester Square to the tube station and puzzled over what we'd seen, all I could say was 'I just don't get it'.

We debated what we thought it might mean - I had read somewhere that the two female characters actually represent two facets of the same woman's personality and the play explores Deeley's interactions with each. We compared notes on restlessness and boredom - both our own and of those around us throughout. We all agreed that it was well-acted but enjoyable? It was thought-provoking - definitely - but I was left feeling a bit 'so what' about it all - but not so much that I was sorry I had gone.

It wasn't until this sharing afterwards that it occurred to me that this had happened before.

I saw my first Pinter - Betrayal - back when I was living in Melbourne. And then it was Old Times last night. A Pinter pas-de-deux so to speak.

And I realised that both times I'd felt the same...incomplete-ness. A kind of bereft-ness, like I'd been on the outskirts of a conversation that I didn't quite understand and had then been cut loose and left to drift away.

I'm not averse to a challenge but after a couple of similar experiences, I'm starting to think that perhaps Pinter's just not for me.

Or maybe it's just that I need another Pinter Pause...

Everybody Needs Good Neighbours...

Another excellent deal snaffled on my commute put me in an aisle seat at the Cottesloe Theatre for Detroit tonight. Written by Lisa D'Amour and first presented by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 2010, it's a raw and wry out take of life in the suburbs - but not quite as we know it.

Ben and Mary scratch along together in life, she as a highly-strung paralegal, he as a mortgage advisor recently made redundant. The play opens on their back patio with new neighbours Kenny and Sharon who have been invited over for a BBQ, and continues by moving back and forth between the adjoining back yards until the final scene.

I don't want to divulge too much so I won't talk about the plot. In any case, I went along without any knowedge of the story, just letting it all unfold in front of me and I loved it. Often when you don't know what to expect, you can just be present to the action in front of you rather than taint it with the anticipation of what's to follow.

Suffice to say Kenny and Sharon have an interesting past and these two unlikely couples share neuroses, dreams and philosophies on life until the whole thing goes up in smoke.

The characters are larger than life and there's no one performance that shines brighter than the others. One minute I'd be cringing at Mary's pedantry and nagging, the next chuckling at Kenny's slightly skewed outlook on life (or dancing), then smiling at Sharon's passionate neighbourliness, before wondering what sort of business Ben could possibly end up with as he interrupts his website 'development' activities to offer some self-help style financial mentoring for 'them next door'.

The Cottesloe is quite a small theatre with the audience sitting right up against the performance 'space' so the whole time I felt like I was peering over the fence from my own back yard. It added an intimacy to the play and it felt slightly voyeuristic with every afternoon shindig and midnight tryst that played itself out before us.

The performances were electric and with no intermission, this ensemble cast maintained a cracking pace for the audience for just under 2 hours. Will, Stuart, Clare and Justine really did leave it all on stage. They were brilliant.

Alas, this production at the National Theatre on London's Southbank closes next Friday (14th July) so you'll have to get your skates on if you want to see this one. But it's expected to have its off-Broadway debut in August at Playwrights Horizons and as tickets went on sale today, those of you across the pond have the opportunity to partake.

I saw a play years ago - Art written by Yasmin Reza - which is one of my all-time favourites and Detroit reminded me a little of that. Gritty, dark, passionate and not for the faint-hearted. But absolutely fantastic and not to be missed.

Aaaaawkward....

I went to the theatre last night. Another super deal in the Metro tempted me to the Wyndham Theatre in Charing Cross Road to see Abigail's Party. So I headed on in after work and had a quick bite to eat before making my way around the corner, into the theatre and up the stairs to my seat in the Royal Circle.

The scene below brought back memories of growing up in the 70s: bold patterned wallpaper (we had the most...ahem, extraordinary black and white geometric pattern on our kitchen walls when I was a kid), shag pile carpet and orange, orange, orange...

The play follows its five protagonists who gather to while away the hours as Sue's 15 year old daughter hosts her own party down the street. Laurence and Beverly host, complete with nuts, cheesy pineapple sticks and copious amounts of alcohol, and give the audience a sense of their toxic relationship right from the outset.

Before long, the new neighbours arrive. Tony, handsome and morose, sparks a predatory gleam in Beverly's eye, and Ange, gauche and outspoken, seems to say all the wrong things at the most inopportune times. Long-time resident Sue arrives last, conservative and mousey. And so this freakish five are left to careen slowly towards the play's shocking climax.

Mike Leigh has the ability to cut to the very heart of our human foibles.

Selfish, opinionated Essex girl Beverly is hell-bent on her gin-fuelled binge while Ange faux-pas her way through several G&Ts herself as she tries valiantly to fill the uncomfortable silences. And the men? Well Tony stays stoic under Beverly's lascivious eye and Laurence flaps about, swinging between conciliatory concern for his guests and violent fury at his wife. And Sue tries, politely yet unsuccessfully, to stay aloof from them all. The whole evening is just awkward.

And absolutely hilarious.

I am told that no-one does Beverly like Alison Steadman, but for the rest of my life, I don't think I will ever forget Jill Halfpenny, gyrating on the cream shag rug in her mint green maxi dress...to Demis Roussos. 





Source: www.guardian.co.uk



The end is not all happy-happy and tied up with a bow and I did leave the theatre thinking it was all over with a whimper rather suddenly. But that certainly didn't detract from a very entertaining and laugh-out-loud kind of evening.

Even if it was all a little bit...aaaaawkward.

Bookings are open up to 1st September but if you are anything like me - marking something mentally that I'd like to see, then never getting around to booking until it's finished that is - you should google theatre deals and Abigail's Party and get yourself along...

...or before you know it, it'll be curtains.

Death and the Maiden...A Study in Vengeance

As a result of another Metro offer (I do love a deal!), I was off to a matinee at the theatre this week to see Death and the Maiden. Not the opera - although there is a reference to the music of Schubert, thus the name. This is the play written by Ariel Dorfman in 1990. The theme is judgement - human rights butting up against vengeance to challenge what we think is fair and just.

Paulina Salas is a former political prisoner who has been the victim of torture and rape. The play is set 15 years later when she and her human rights lawyer husband Gerardo are living a quiet life by the sea. On the particular night of the play, Gerardo has a flat tyre on the way home and is helped by a passing stranger who then visits their home later that evening. Paulina becomes convinced that he is the sadistic Dr Miranda, the instrument of her rape and torture all those years ago.

The play centres around Paulina's absolute conviction, and her desire for vengeance contrasts starkly with her husband's belief in 'the human rights process' he has been fighting for all his life. In the midst of all of this, we are left to wonder about Dr Miranda - is he or isn't he?

This is Thandie Newton's West End debut and she grips the audience with her impassioned portrayal of the slightly crazed Paulina (and is more than ably supported by Anthony Calf as Dr Miranda and Tom Goodman-Hill as her husband Gerardo). The play raises challenging issues throughout: how certain can we ever be of innocence/guilt and the single-mindedness of a victim's belief in the release revenge will bring as well as the broader themes of penitence, forgiveness and above all, justice - what is it and how far is too far to achieve it.

This is a powerful and thought-provoking piece of theatre that poses more questions than it answers in the end.

I think you should go.

After The Dance...3 Sleeps To Go

Today is Day 1 of my pre-birthday long weekend (only 3 sleeps to go peeps...isn't it exciting?!) and while I've been out and about today and have some rather magnificent plans for the rest of the time, I wanted to tell you about an unexpected treat I discovered on telly last night.

I am, by nature, a night owl and would happily stay up til all hours but with my 2 hour each way commute at the moment, I am fairly disciplined about getting myself to bed by 11 each night (and that's an hour later than what's known in these parts as Surrey Bedtime) so that I am spritely enough to get myself out the door in an efficient 30mins each morning.  But on holiday, all bets are off and last night I trawled the channels to see what late night movie I might like to partake of.

I came across 'After The Dance', a 1992 TV adaption of the play written by Terence Rattigan in the 1930's.

It's one of those kinds of plays I loved seeing when I frequented the MTC's program in Melbourne - a little Noel-Cowardish in style with the action all taking place in one room (or within earshot of said room). It's crammed full of gorgeous language, crisp banter and subtle innuendo all the while covering the fragile egos and unspoken political agendas surrounding the era.  Anyway, this film for TV adaption had been made in 1992 by the BBC and re-kindled a whole rash of revivals in the West End in the years to come.

It's a little slower to get into than modern films but once I settled into listening to and watching for the subtleties, the intrigue crept slowly into the room and curled its wicked fingers - in the form of Helen Banner - through the fabric of David and Joan Scott-Fowler's 15 year marriage. A small ensemble cast added colourful layers but Rattigan makes a stinging comparison between the 'Bright Young Things' of the 20's and the serious 'new generation' facing a society crushed by the onset of World War II.

Frivolous. Sad. Thought-provoking.

I LOVED IT!

And despite this being an adaption for TV, After The Dance made me realise that I'd forgotten how much I enjoy theatre...so I'm off to scour the internet for some super-dooper deals!

In the meantime, land is definitely in sight and the SS 41 is cruising comfortably towards its mooring...