A Small Mind At The Theatre

When I attended Skylight  on 14th June, I was there purely for the stars, two of my favourites, Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan. It was a dream package for me when I heard it announced and there was no doubt that I would take the opportunity to see it live. The tickets were steep, very steep, £100 in the stalls, which seemed a ridiculous amount for a three hander, so I settled for the gods and my £20 in the grand circle. It was superb as I knew it would be and I was very impressed by David Hare's play as well, which as I say was secondary with no knowledge of it when I booked. Almost exactly a month later I was watching the play again live at a closer perspective, albeit being seventy miles from the theatre via National Theatre Live. Again I marvelled at the performers, but grew to like the play a little bit more as I sat in the plush seats of the Errol Flynn Filmhouse in Northampton. Therefore when on July 30th via @MichaelBott on Twitter the opportunity arose to see the pla...

I was in London again sooner than anticipated after getting an opportunity to see an understudy performance (more on this in the next blog), so I took the opportunity to see a play that had just missed out to  1984  ( review here ) on my previous visit. Let The Right One  at the Apollo could be best described as a vampire romance. Based on the novel and subsequent film (which I have not seen) by John Ajvide Lindqvist it tells the tale of a bullied teen Oskar played by Martin Quinn and his encounter with the mysterious Eli played by Rebecca Benson. What follows is a captivating and charming romance set to a background of vampiric intent. Quinn, staggeringly making his stage debut, is confident, funny and highly skilled in his performance. This role challenging him to the extreme in both performance and physicality. The final scene at the swimming pool is one of challenge and stamina and Quinn rises to it superbly. Benson as the mysterious Eli is quite simply super...

After Richard III, Macbeth, Troilus And Cressida and King Lear, to be honest I had had my fill of Mr Shakespeare this year. I am never going to say I am his biggest fan, however the heady combination of the lovely Masque Theatre, Abington Park and finally some actual light relief from old Bill was enough to create my presence at the show. I had an eye to the sky as I hoped the rain would keep away for my final and only chance to see Much Ado About Nothing , and despite a final heavy shower at just after six. My seat was dry by my arrival at the newly green flagged Abington Park, and the de-registered Abington Park Museum (no politics here!). I could not remember my last foray into the courtyard of the museum but it looked as lovely as ever and was to provide my very first outdoor theatre performance encounter. Director Matthew Fell's production of Shakespeare's comedy transfers the story to a pre-First World War England and tells the tale of two troubled and complicated rom...