I went to see Noel Coward's Hay Fever and Harold Pinter's Old Times at the Oxford Playhouse. Both were very enjoyable in their own way. In the first,Stephanie Beacham stood out as Judith Bliss. It was a light and amusing comedy, rather than hysterically funny.
I love seeing any Harold Pinter play. I went see Old Times at the Donmar two years ago. The Oxford production could never match a thee hander in such an intimate theatre as the Donmar. But Sir Peter Hall's direction brought the best from Neil Pearson, Susannah Harker and especially Janie Dee.
John Gabriel Borkman at the Donmar was the best play that I have seen for ages. David Eldridge had previously written an acclaimed new version of Ibsen's The Wild Duck which the Donmar had produced. His version of John Gabriel Borkman is outstanding. Whilst Ian McDiarmid (Supreme Chancellor Palpatine in Star Wars) received rave reviews as Borkman, for me the two sisters, played by Penelope Wilton and Deborah Findlay, were superb.
I was looking forward to my first visit to The Courtyard Theatre in Stratford where the RSC are playing while The Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the Swan Theatre are being refurbished. As a temporary theatre, it is certainly very grand. See www.rsc.org.uk/transformation/courtyard/. It has been built next to the studio theatre that was called The Other Place. I only went there once, to see a wonderful and memorable production of Richard II as the first in the RSC history cycle.
Unfortunately on the night I went to see The Seagull, it was only a third full. I cannot remember when I have ever been to see a play and the theatre wasn't full. So this was an unusual and slightly uncomfortable experience. I'm not sure if this was the right venue for Chekhov. It needed a much more intimate space. The acting and direction was good enough, but Trevor Nunn's choice of translation was patchy. Whilst trying to be modern, some dialogue was clumsy and did not match the traditional 1900 setting. Next time its back to the Donmar.
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