Just back from a couple of nights in Norwich, staying at the Assembly House just round the corner from the Theatre Royal where we went to the appropriately named ‘pensioners matinee’ of the excellent Art. (well, I’m sure I was one of the youngest in the audience)!
Art turned out to be one of the theatre highlights of recent times. Brilliantly written and performed with the excellent trio of Dennis Lawson, Nigel Havers and Stephen Tompkinson superb from start to finish. Translated by Christopher Hampton, the comedy sees three long-time friends, Serge, Marc, and Yvan come to blows about the meaning of art and friendship. Unbelievingly funny, with Tompkinson’s ‘monologue’ about half way through both a superb example of split second timing and a modern miracle of memory and stagecraft. Before we saw it, we queried the rather sparse eighty minutes play length. Afterwards, we concurred we would have left the stage knackered at half the length and also that we would have returned twenty four hours later and enjoyed the whole experience all over again.
As for the Assembly House, lovely room and excellent dinner. Not often your only criticism is that there was too much to eat at breakfast (no-one is to mention Denise’s ‘kipper extravaganza’…).