Theatre, Film, Arts

Importance of Being Earnest – Mercury, Colchester

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Good, solid production of the Oscar Wilde ‘classic’. Played as naturalistically as the period will allow, the dialogue was delivered crisply and clearly; and given that the script is everything in this play, both cleverly delivered monologues and wordy interplay needed to be spot on. All the performances were well executed, and Diane Fletcher’s Lady Bracknell was particularly good. How to deliver the ‘Handbag’ line? Cleverly avoided …

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Haunting Julia

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Managed to catch Haunting Julia at The Mercury in Colchester. An Alan Ayckbourne ghost story, it’s not necessarily what the playwright is best known for. Although there are a few laughs, they are mainly incidental and the tension builds subtly over some crisp dialogue and ruminations on the pressure of early fame and competitive but well meaning parents. Duncan Preston, Joe McFadden and, especially, Richard …

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Yes Prime Minister

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Yes Prime Minister at the Trafalgar Studios last week. Still funny after 20 odd years and now nicely updated to reflect the trials and tribulations of coalition government. By turns satirical and farcical, Robert Daws does a nice line in both as the hapless Jim Hacker. Desperate as his political ambitions hang by a thread, his not too infrequent cries of “I must do something” …

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The Sunshine Boys

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Down to London last week to see the matinee performance of the well reviewed staging of The Sunshine Boys at the Savoy Theatre. Couldn’t help but recall the wonderful George Burns and Walter Matthau film adaptation of the Neil Simon play so intrigued to find out how well it stood up to the tests of time and taste. (Across the board excellent reviews had of course given me more than a gentle hint).

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Less Than Kind

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Less than Kind at Colchester’s Mercury Theatre on Friday night – James Wilby and Sara Crowe took the leads in the Terence Rattigan play. Full of period detail, a lively comedy that had quite a lot to say in an understated and typically British way. Well worth a trip if the production comes anywhere near you (unless you’ve an aversion to some of the slightly …

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Noises Off at the Old Vic

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Noise Off at the Old Vic yesterday. Can’t recommend the production highly enough; great cast, belly laughs galore – I could usually watch farce all day long and hardly raise a smile but Frayn’s 1982 “farce about a farce” is still achingly funny.  As an aside, the cast busts a gut for 2 hours every night plus matinees twice a week but footballers “get tired” …

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Theatre Binge….

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Just totted up that we have booked around ten visits to the theatre over the next three months or so. After due consideration, that’s quite a lot of theatre. Mainly at Colchester’s Mercury with an occasional foray into London. Looking forward them all……..

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