Clybourne Park

 

Clybourne Park, Cambridge Arts Theatre, 2016.

Cast: Mark Womack, Rebecca Manley, Gloria Onitiri, William Troughton, Wole Sawyerr, Ben Deery, Rebecca Oldfield, Dan Gaisford.

Writer: Bruce Norris

Director: Daniel Buckroyd

The play won an Olivier award when it was on in London which I guess is why there was eventually a touring production. I imagine I went to see it because it was IMPORTANT and SERIOUS and perhaps I enjoyed it but to be honest I can't remember anything about it other than a vague feeling of the set.

Henry IV parts I & II

 

Henry IV parts I & II, Norwich Theatre Royal, 2014.

Cast: Elliot Barnes-Worrell, Martin Bassindale, Jasper Britton, Antony Byrne, Sean Chapman, Paola Dionisotti, Oliver Ford Davies, Nicholas Gerard-Martin, Robert Gilbert, Jonny Glynn, Nia Gwynne, Alex Hassell, Jim Hooper, Youssef Kerkour, Jennifer Kirby, Sam Marks, Keith Osborn, Leigh Quinn, Joshua Richards, Antony Sher, Simon Thorp, Trevor White, Simon Yaddo, Luca Saracen-Gunner/Jonathan Williams.

Writer: William Shakespeare

Director: Gregory Doran

I'm not sure I'd have the stamina now to see two Shakespeare plays in the same week. It's interesting typing the cast list to see how many of them turned up in the production of Richard II with David Tennant, so I guess at that stage the RSC had a permanent cast of sorts, or perhaps just for the season. No idea about the plot though.

Insignificance

Insignificance, Cambridge Arts Theatre, 2005.

Cast: Nicholas le Prevost, Gerard Horan, Mary Stockley, Patrick O'Kane, Robert Lockhart.

Writer: Terry Johnson

Director: Samuel West

I wonder if the programme is so plain because it's a SERIOUS PLAY or perhaps they were too lazy to do anything else? I expect I went to see this because there had been a film version of it twenty years before. I doubt it was worth my trouble.

Interesting to see that it was directed by Samuel West who I was talking to a friend about this morning after having seen his tribute to his mother on TV a few nights before. I'd forgotten he directed.

Richard II

 

Richard II, Barbican Theatre, 2014.

Cast: Elliot Barnes-Worrell, Antony Byrne, Sean Chapman, Marty Cruickshank, Oliver Ford Davies, Gracy Goldman, Marcus Griffiths, Emma Hamilton, Jim Hooper, Youssef Kerkour, Jane Lapotaire, Nigel Lindsay, Jake Mann, Sam Marks, Miranda Nolan, Keith Osborn, Michael Pennington, Joshua Richards, Oliver Rix, David Tennant, Simon Thorp, Edmund Wiseman.

Writer: William Shakespeare

Director: Gregory Doran

What is it about this play and hot young actors? Earlier this year I saw Jonathan Bailey do it and at the same time someone else was doing it on Broadway. I guess it makes a change from Hamlet. I remember the staging being quite minimal - a throne at one point - but mostly I don't like the theatre at the Barbican and I hope when they refurbish the place they make it better.

Titus Andronicus

Titus Andronicus, Globe Theatre, 2014.

Cast: Matthew Needham, Steffan Donnelly, William Houston, Ian Gelder, Flora Spencer-Longhurst, Dyfan Dwyfor, Jake Mann, Paul Ham, Jamie Wilkes, Ethan Hammer/Judde Willoughby, David Shaw-Parker, Bryonie Pritchard, Indira Varma, Nicholas Karimi, Samuel Edward-Cook, Brian Martin, Obi Abili, Rupert Baldwin, Arun Blair-Mangat, Will Bridges, Joseph Cappellazzi, Rupert Charmak, Giorgio Galassi.

Writer: William Shakespeare

Director: Lucy Bailey

This was a revival of a production that was apparently so gory it caused people to faint. I was very sceptical about that - it's people acting, nobody is getting hurt, it's not blood - and yet a woman fainted in front of me. I've forgotten everything else about it, including the fact that Indira Varma was in it. I think it's probably one of those ridiculous plays that could have been lost and nobody would have missed it. 

My Night with Reg

My Night with Reg, Donmar Warehouse, 2014.

Cast: Julian Ovenden, Jonathan Broadbent, Lewis Reeves, Geoffrey Streatfeild, Richard Cant, Matt Bardock.

Writer: Kevin Elyot

Director: Robert Hastie

I first saw this when it transferred to the Criterion Theatre, possibly the only time I've been there, which would have been in 1994 or thereabouts. I was very much the rural gay at the time and went with a straight female friend and we were both slightly in awe of the fabulous London gays around us. Thirty years later I went with two older gay friends and didn't feel out of place there.

It's a great play that doesn't need reinventing so the staging was domestic and the casting was good and I really enjoyed it. I was reminded of it at work this year when Theydon Bois came up in conversation (penultimate stop on the Central line?) and nobody knew how to pronounce it expect me, because one of the characters in this is having phone sex with a man who lives there.

I'd definitely see this again any time someone wants to revive it.