A Small Mind At The Theatre

Arriving at a theatre to see a play having slept four and a half hours in the previous 35 is perhaps not the best way to get the full effect of a production. However once I am in a theatre seat, most of the time I become refreshed and well awake, and this touring production of Alan Ayckbourn's Henceforward... certainly kept me with it. Henceforward... was first performed 30 years ago and was Ayckbourn's first comedy to contain science fiction elements. It is a curious mix of a world that we are not quite at yet, with elements of Channel 4 show Humans in its personal NAN 300F, a mostly unseen world of gang rule outside where law has become tribal, and then a fascinating mention of a cheque of all things, as if they will exist in the future! It is like all takes of a future world, sometimes amusingly wrong. Zoe (Laura Matthews), Jerome (Bill Champion) and NAN 300F It is also classic Ayckbourn, and also like Season's Greetings which I most recently saw, quite a slow...

It is very safe to say that I nearly didn't see This Is My Family . At first glance it wasn't something that appealed to me, a story of a family which sounded like a sitcom made into a musical. Well I wasn't sure. Yes I watched the early years of My Family  and for those slightly older 2point4 Children  and I wasn't entirely sure whether I desired watching something similar where, heaven forbid, they then broke into song. However my endless need to watch something because its there, coupled with the fact that it was in the wonderful Royal drove me there last evening. I am so, so glad that I did as it turned out to be one of my favourite plays I have seen this year (this was my 56th to give that some context!). Telling the story of 13 year old Nicky (Evelyn Hoskins) and her tales/woes of her family and her winning of a family holiday for describing said family is the simple grounding for the play. As a chain reaction to that slight story the play weaves a stunning happ...