1,861 posts
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Post by NeilVHughes on Oct 17, 2019 10:30:12 GMT
BECKETT TRIPLE BILL: 15th Jan to 8th Feb
KRAPP'S LAST TAPE / EH JOE / THE OLD TUNE
By SAMUEL BECKETT | Directed by TREVOR NUNN
Featuring JAMES HAYES, LISA DWAN, NIALL BUGGY & DAVID THRELFALL
“The new light above my table is a great improvement. With all this darkness around me I feel less alone... In a way.”
Trevor Nunn directs three of Samuel Beckett’s finest short plays - as funny as they are poignant.
In Krapp’s Last Tape, starring James Hayes, Krapp prepares to celebrate his 69th birthday by recording his annual tape. But first, Krapp pulls out an old tape recording, made on his 39th birthday - a recording which recalls an even earlier tape, made in Krapp’s youth.
Eh Joe features the voice of the celebrated Beckett specialist, Lisa Dwan, as she provokes and jokes with the ageing Joe, played by Irish film and theatre star, Niall Buggy.
The Old Tune is a rarely performed gem, adapted by Beckett from a radio play by Robert Pinget. With echoes of Waiting for Godot, two elderly men sit on a bench and reminisce. But are their memories playing tricks? Starring Niall Buggy and David Threlfall.
These three plays demonstrate Beckett’s remarkable range, inventiveness, and wit. A must-see event.
THE DOG WALKER: 12th Feb to 7th Mar
By PAUL MINX | Directed by HARRY BURTON
“I am the most emotionally responsive dog walker in the district. I scored 4.8 on the City Empathy Test.”
As a professional dog walker, you meet all sorts of people, and Herbert has met more than his fair share. But he’s never come across anyone quite like Keri, alone in her flat surrounded by empty ouzo bottles. And where exactly is she keeping her Pekingese dog?
Paul Minx’s story of finding connection in the big city is as moving as it is funny, proving that hope springs in the most unlikely situations.
THE TEMPEST: 11th mar to 4th Apr
By WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE | Directed by TOM LITTLER
Starring MICHAEL PENNINGTON
“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
The stranger and his daughter live alone on a remote island. Some people say he’s an artist. Others say he practises magic. But today is different. Prospero spots his oldest enemies passing close by in a fragile boat, and he conjures up a storm that will change all of their lives forever.
This production of Shakespeare’s final play is loosely inspired by the life of Paul Gauguin on the island of Tahiti. Michael Pennington, one of the foremost Shakespearean actors of his generation, plays Prospero for the first time.
RELATIVELY SPEAKING: 21st Apr to 16th May
By ALAN AYCKBOURN | Directed by ROBIN HERFORD
“I think there might have been a certain amount of misunderstanding.”
Greg only met Ginny a month ago, but he knows they’re meant for each other. When she announces that she’s going to visit her parents, Greg decides this is the moment to ask her father for his daughter’s hand. Discovering a scribbled address, he follows her to Buckinghamshire where he finds Philip and Sheila enjoying a peaceful Sunday morning breakfast in the garden, but the only thing is - they’re not Ginny’s parents.
The play that made Alan Ayckbourn’s name in 1967 is an enduringly funny comedy of mistaken identities and excruciating misunderstandings.
Have booked the Beckett Triple Bill and The Tempest (to see Michael Pennington in such an intimate space an opportunity too good to miss) and will likely book for Relatively Speaking later.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2019 10:45:27 GMT
There's a couple more ...
THE MARRIAGE OF ALICE B TOKLAS
BY GERTRUDE STEIN
Written and directed by Edward Einhorn
Wed, 20th May 2020 - Sat, 20th June 2020
“Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.”
Everyone’s invited to the wedding of the century. Picasso’s arrived with one of his wives, and two of his mistresses. Hemingway is here too, with his wife and his favourite matador. And at the top table, the brides, literary superstars: Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas, presiding over a banquet of conversation about art, genius, sex, fame, and love.
Fuelled only by wedding champagne, four actors play over thirty characters in this breathtaking marriage farce, fizzing with ideas, romance and wordplay.
Praise for The Marriage of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein
A FANTASY AS LOOPY AS FRENCH FARCE … A DIZZYING DERVISH OF DELIGHT. Broadway World
THE PLAY LEAVES YOU BREATHLESS, SPELLBOUND, AND MOST DEFINITELY THOUGHT-FULL. Huffington Post
SURPRISES US BY REVEALING THE COST BENEATH THE CAMP. New York Times
Edward Einhorn is a director, playwright, novelist and librettist. He is Artistic Director of Untitled Theater Company No.61 – A Theater of Ideas. His work has been performed in many of the best-known theatres in New York, where he has been NYTheater.com’s Person of the Year, and has received Critics’ Choice awards from Village Voice, Time Out, and The New York Times.
Produced by Jermyn Street Theatre by special arrangement with James L. Simon Productions and United Theater Company No 61
Running time Around 90 minutes including a (sparkling) interval.
Wed, 24th June 2020 - Sat, 18th July 2020
2020 SEASON
ORLANDO
By Sarah Ruhl
Adapted from the original novel by Virginia Woolf
Directed by Stella Powell-Jones
“As long as she thinks of a man, nobody objects to a woman thinking.”
Pageboy to Elizabeth I, lover to a Russian princess, ambassador to Constantinople – Orlando leads a life of excitement and glamour. But one day he falls into a deep sleep, and wakes up to find that he’s now a woman. Now, the time-travelling Orlando has to carve out a new path and find new roles to play.
Virginia Woolf wrote her masterpiece in 1928 as a tribute to her lover, Vita Sackville West. Sarah Ruhl’s dazzling adaptation sweeps the audience on a magical journey across frozen rivers, tumultuous seas, and four centuries.
Praise for Sarah Ruhl’s Orlando
A GLORIOUS AND GIDDY CONFUSION OF THE SEXES. Daily Telegraph
IT ALL SUITS THE STAGE LIKE A DREAM, SLIPPERY AND FANTASTICAL. The Guardian
WOOLF’S DELICIOUSLY FROLICSOME TONE COMES THROUGH WITH ALL ITS BRIGHT, PEALING WIT. New York Times
Sarah Ruhl is a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize winner, a two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee and a Tony Award nominee. Her plays include Eurydice, In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play, and Dear Elizabeth.
Stella Powell-Jones was Deputy Director at Jermyn Street Theatre from 2017 to 2019. Her work includes world and European premieres by major American playwrights.
Running time Around two hours including an interval.
Orlando is the only one of the six either written or directed by a woman.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2019 11:56:25 GMT
And four more for later in the year ... THREE SISTERS by #AntonChekhov in a new version by #PeterGill and directed by @littler_tom, 9 Sep- 3 Oct 2020. SOMETHING IN THE AIR by #PeterGill and directed by #PeterGill and #AliceHamilton, 7 - 31 Oct 2020. AFTER DARWIN by #TimberlakeWertenbaker and directed by @proudhaddock’s @jimmywalters101 , 4 - 28 Nov 2020. THE MASSIVE TRAGEDY OF MADAME BOVARY! By #JohnNicholson, 2 Dec 2020 - 16 Jan 2021 So next year two plays by women, two plays by Peter Gill, three plays by Samuel Beckett  |
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Post by learfan on Oct 17, 2019 13:25:10 GMT
An amazingly ambitious season! Good luck to them. I will book for Tempest, Three Sisters at least.
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Post by Jan on Oct 17, 2019 14:54:32 GMT
An amazingly ambitious season! Good luck to them. I will book for Tempest, Three Sisters at least. Yep me too. The Beckett maybe. Are you going to their production of All’s Well which is opening soon ? |
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Post by londonpostie on Oct 17, 2019 15:29:29 GMT
Booked the Beckett but the website seems about to fall over.
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Post by learfan on Oct 17, 2019 15:46:04 GMT
An amazingly ambitious season! Good luck to them. I will book for Tempest, Three Sisters at least. Yep me too. The Beckett maybe. Are you going to their production of All’s Well which is opening soon ? Yes i plan to, its been cut a lot but should still be interesting. Good cast too. |
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Post by Jan on Oct 17, 2019 15:48:04 GMT
Booked the Beckett but the website seems about to fall over. I bet - not used to the demand. You know, Ayckbourn has written all those dozens and dozens of plays, and many of them are really clever and good, but I think Relatively Speaking (which is a very early one) may be the one that endures. It is straightforward but really well constructed and almost bomb-proof, I’ve even seen amateur productions of it which were hysterical. |
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Post by joem on Oct 17, 2019 20:36:12 GMT
Booked the Beckett but the website seems about to fall over. I bet - not used to the demand. You know, Ayckbourn has written all those dozens and dozens of plays, and many of them are really clever and good, but I think Relatively Speaking (which is a very early one) may be the one that endures. It is straightforward but really well constructed and almost bomb-proof, I’ve even seen amateur productions of it which were hysterical. Agreed. I first saw it on the Edinburgh fringe some decades back in a draughty hall with an amateur cast and it made them act like BAFTA winners. |
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Post by lynette on Oct 17, 2019 21:53:18 GMT
Yes, agreed, an ambitious and interesting programme.
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Post by NeilVHughes on Oct 17, 2019 22:09:09 GMT
Tom Littler is becoming an Artistic Director to watch.
The impact he has had since taking over in 2017 has re-energised this Theatre and on the budget he must work to is quite phenomenal.
The season unveiled today would be worthy of somewhere like the Bridge or Hampstead and maybe even the National.
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Post by Fleance on Oct 17, 2019 22:25:49 GMT
Glad to see they be doing After Darwin. I saw the production at the Hampstead many years ago, liked it very much. My favorite of Wertenbaker's plays.
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Post by Jan on Oct 18, 2019 6:01:20 GMT
Tom Littler is becoming an Artistic Director to watch. The impact he has had since taking over in 2017 has re-energised this Theatre and on the budget he must work to is quite phenomenal. The season unveiled today would be worthy of somewhere like the Bridge or Hampstead and maybe even the National. Agreed. He has galvanised the place. And his production there of Miss Julie was sensational, much better than the NT one from around the same time. One point - Michael Pennington is one of our foremost classical actors, I have seen him many times. He is one of the elite who has played Hamlet for the RSC and he has played most of the major Shakespeare roles - Henry V, Macbeth, King Lear, Leontes, Richard II, Coriolanus, Timon, Angelo and the Duke, Berowne, Antony etc. I think it's a pity some other theatre couldn't have given him (literally) a bigger stage for The Tempest. Still, glad to see him here, I saw him in Dance of Death at the Gate, also tiny, and he was excellent. |
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Post by bordeaux on Oct 25, 2019 12:35:31 GMT
Tom Littler is becoming an Artistic Director to watch. The impact he has had since taking over in 2017 has re-energised this Theatre and on the budget he must work to is quite phenomenal. The season unveiled today would be worthy of somewhere like the Bridge or Hampstead and maybe even the National. Agreed. He has galvanised the place. And his production there of Miss Julie was sensational, much better than the NT one from around the same time. One point - Michael Pennington is one of our foremost classical actors, I have seen him many times. He is one of the elite who has played Hamlet for the RSC and he has played most of the major Shakespeare roles - Henry V, Macbeth, King Lear, Leontes, Richard II, Coriolanus, Timon, Angelo and the Duke, Berowne, Antony etc. I think it's a pity some other theatre couldn't have given him (literally) a bigger stage for The Tempest. Still, glad to see him here, I saw him in Dance of Death at the Gate, also tiny, and he was excellent. It's coming to the Theatre Royal in Bath from 7th to 11th April next year. I was amused to read that the Bath Theatre Royal are already announcing for autumn 2020 Julian Clary and Matthew Kelly in The Dresser and The Nigel Havers Theatre Company (I kid you not) in their inaugural show (first in a three-year partnership), Private Lives, starring Nigel Havers. Patrons of the company are Dawn French, Felicity Kendal, Joanna Lumley and Siân Phillips. |
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Post by learfan on Nov 9, 2019 19:23:32 GMT
Saw the matinee of Alls Well. Excellent, edited and with a talented cast of six so lots of doubling and even tripling of roles,a modern setting witb a superb soundtrack. Miranda Foster was the Countess and (in this production) Queen, where has she been? I last saw her 30 years ago as Cordelia to Anthony Hopkins'Lear,then she was in the Judi Dench Cherry Orchard. Hugely recommended.
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Post by Dave B on Jan 15, 2020 23:10:13 GMT
BECKETT TRIPLE BILL: 15th Jan to 8th Feb KRAPP'S LAST TAPE / EH JOE / THE OLD TUNE By SAMUEL BECKETT | Directed by TREVOR NUNN Featuring JAMES HAYES, LISA DWAN, NIALL BUGGY & DAVID THRELFALL “The new light above my table is a great improvement. With all this darkness around me I feel less alone... In a way.” Trevor Nunn directs three of Samuel Beckett’s finest short plays - as funny as they are poignant. In Krapp’s Last Tape, starring James Hayes, Krapp prepares to celebrate his 69th birthday by recording his annual tape. But first, Krapp pulls out an old tape recording, made on his 39th birthday - a recording which recalls an even earlier tape, made in Krapp’s youth. Eh Joe features the voice of the celebrated Beckett specialist, Lisa Dwan, as she provokes and jokes with the ageing Joe, played by Irish film and theatre star, Niall Buggy. The Old Tune is a rarely performed gem, adapted by Beckett from a radio play by Robert Pinget. With echoes of Waiting for Godot, two elderly men sit on a bench and reminisce. But are their memories playing tricks? Starring Niall Buggy and David Threlfall. These three plays demonstrate Beckett’s remarkable range, inventiveness, and wit. A must-see event. This was very good, This Old Tune in particular was hugely enjoyable. |
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Post by lynette on Jan 16, 2020 21:08:20 GMT
Fab programme. Booked all but one so far.
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Post by Jan on Jan 16, 2020 21:12:09 GMT
I see that Beckett is sold out (apart from a gala evening) so word must be finally getting round about this venue. I have booked most of the season (I think booking for some productions like Three Sisters is not open yet).
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Post by theoracle on Jan 22, 2020 22:13:02 GMT
Saw the Beckett Triple Bill last night and found it an utterly cathartic evening. As a younger member of the audience, the cast conveyed the bitterness of ageing and Beckett's nihilism wonderfully. Each play had its own surreal qualities and its own sadness. I was very moved and left with a new understanding of how much memories make us who we are.
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Post by Jan on Feb 5, 2020 9:30:29 GMT
I quite enjoyed the Beckett plays - I'd never seen any of his plays before. However the one I liked by far the best, The Old Tune, is a version by him of a French play by another author. A pleasure to see James Hayes in Krapp's Last Tape - I used to see him a lot during Peter Hall's time at NT. The evening was another bit of programming aimed straight at Jermyn Street's core audience, all the plays dealing with old age and memory. Sold out with quite a big queue for returns.
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Post by Steve on Feb 5, 2020 13:02:09 GMT
The Old Tune is especially brilliant, coming after the previous two plays, which are horribly downbeat. It's a breath of fresh air. It's the first play that has made me appreciate the upside of nostalgia. Some spoilers follow. . . As Jan says, James Hayes is excellent as Krapp, a man who tortures himself with nostalgia, by playing tapes of his previous selves, enjoying it, then hating himself for it. Incidentally, Hayes was in Trevor Nunn's previous Beckett play at the Jermyn Street Theatre, "All that Fall," as one of the people Eileen Atkins and Michael Gambon run into on their walkabout. That remains the single most wonderful experience I've had at Jermyn Street, and though this evening isn't quite as good as that, it's a worthy sequel. The worst thing about the evening is the second play, "Eh Joe," which was a failure for my taste. It was written for TV, and in the TV version the actor basically does nothing but dwell on painful memories while a camera dollies into his face. The effect is of us intruding on him at his most wracked and guilty. Here we remain static, and the effect of us intruding on Buggy is lost (despite a faded projected image pointlessly trying to ape the TV effect behind him). Instead, Buggy becomes a living art-installation of Munch's "The Scream" for 20 minutes while a recording of Lisa Dwan's voice plays on a recording. Perhaps, if Dwan had showed up and acted into his ear the play might have gained some frisson, but as it is, it's dead. Anyway, after the hell of "Eh Joe," Buggy perks up a million for "The Old Tune," in which he and David Threlfall reminisce about the good old days (of the war and horses and carts before that lol). Of the two, Threlfall's slow and static smart tweed-dressed character, with shimmering white hair, has made more of an effort with his appearance, perhaps because there's slightly less of his mind left than Buggy's more raggedy sparky character. Repeatedly, Threlfall's Santa-Claus-in-tweed tries to give Buggy gifts of a smoke, but fails, either because he can't remember where they are or because he can't remember where his light is. Buggy sparkles, unleashed by Beckett's hilarious script full of delightful idioms of directness and understatement. My favourite by far, was how, learning that Threlfall's wife is dead, Buggy states matter-of-factly that his own wife us still "in it." I can't think of a better more pithy description of being alive than being "in it!" I found Buggy belly-laugh inducingly funny when he snappily summed up Threfall's railing against attempts to go to the moon as: "So you're against progress." The laugh came from the snappy, cheerful, matter-of-fact nonjudgmental way Buggy delivered the line lol. These two men were both ailing and on their way out, but in companionship and nostalgia they were vitally vibrantly insistently hilariously alive! For me: I'd give:- Krapp's Last Tape: 4 stars Eh Joe: 2 stars The Old Tune: 5 stars  |
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Post by lynette on Feb 5, 2020 14:15:17 GMT
Thanks Steve, seeing this on Saturday so I will know not to despair before the last play.
And I also remember That Eileen Atkins performance as a stand out.
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Post by Jan on Feb 5, 2020 14:32:13 GMT
Thanks Steve, seeing this on Saturday so I will know not to despair before the last play. And I also remember That Eileen Atkins performance as a stand out. I agree with Steve’s distribution of stars, the middle section is fairly short - if you’re sitting towards the left side (as you face the stage) for that part it must be even more unengaging. |
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Post by altamont on Feb 5, 2020 15:05:31 GMT
Excellent review Steve - one small point though - it is David Threlfall in The Old Tune, not David Thewlis
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Post by NeilVHughes on Feb 5, 2020 16:03:08 GMT
lynette also there Saturday, assuming you’re there in the evening we can compare notes.
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