The Syndicate

The Syndicate, Cambridge Arts Theatre, 2011

Cast: Jane Bertish, Margaret Clunie, Philip Correia, Michael Pennington, Michael Stevenson, David Shaw-Parker, Michael Thomson, Ian McKellen, Brendan O'Hea, David Foxxe, Gavin Fowler, Annie Hemmingway, Cherie Lunghi, Mark Edel-Hunt, Oliver Cotton, Janet Spencer-Turner

Writer: Eduardo di Filippo, translated by Mike Poulton

Director: Sean Mathias

I imagine when I saw Ian McKellan in King Lear I thought it was the first time I'd seen him because somehow I've managed to forget this. Actually it comes back a bit to me - I seem to remember it being interminable. It looks like some Italian family drama thing which I hope they had fun doing but it does seem a bit of a waste of everyone's time.

Grief

 Grief, Cambridge Arts Theatre, 2011

Cast: Lesley Manville, Ruby Bentall, Sam Kelly, David Horovitch, Marion Bailey, Wendy Nottingham, Dorothy Duffy

Written & directed by Mike Leigh

I hadn't realised I'd seen two new Mike Leigh plays this century. I remember that Lesley Manville was in it, which isn't the only time I've seen her in something but I feel like I've always seen her in the wrong things. I wonder if she'll have time to do any more theatre in future? Would it be rude to hope that Mike doesn't?

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

 

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Theatre Royal Haymarket, 2011

Cast: Samuel Barnett, Jamie Parker, Chris Andrew Mellon, Charlie Hamblett, Stephen Pallister, Trevor Allan Davies, Zac Fox, Greg Last, James Northcote, Keith Thompson, Katherine Press, Jack Hawkins, James Simmons, Fiona Gillies, Andrew Jarvis, Tomm Coles, Elizabeth Hopper, Jody Elen Machin, Tom Golding, Michael Benz.

Writer: Tom Stoppard

Director: Trevor Nunn

With apologies to Oscar Wilde, to forget one production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead may be regarded as a misfortune; to forget two looks like carelessness. And yet here's a second production of this that I have no recollection of seeing. I really should remember it though: my two favourite History Boys directed by Trevor Nunn, I bet it was excellent. The Guardian review at the time gave it four stars and mentions that Tim Curry was originally supposed to be in it as well. I doubt I'd have forgotten that.

Swallows and Amazons

Swallows and Amazons, Norwich Theatre Royal, 2012

Cast: Celia Adams, Akiya Henry, Richard Holt, Katie Moore, Sophie Waller, Stewart Wright, Greg Barnett, Francesca Bradley, Neil Craig, Adrian Garratt, Alison George, Hilary Tones, Jon Trenchard.

Script: Helen Edmundson

Music and lyrics: Neil Hannon

Director: Tom Morris

I'm a big fan of the band The Divine Comedy so Neil Hannon was the appeal here. A few years ago his demo versions of the songs were released as a bonus disc with an album so I'm more familiar with them than I might have been otherwise. What I remember of it is going with a friend who was also a fan, who took their youngest child who perhaps wasn't. We went to a matinee and I don't remember there being a big audience. I remember the cast pretending to row boats and one of them (Stewart Wright) was a handsome beardy.

Auntie & Me

Auntie & Me, Wyndhams Theatre, 2003

Cast: Alan Davies, Margaret Tyzack

Writer: Morris Panych

Director: Anna Mackmin

This baffled me when I saw it. I assumed it was some local thing I'd forgotten but then I noticed the theatre name on the programme. Was I going to the theatre in London so often in 2003 that I could have forgotten this? Apparently so. I found my blog about it and I went to see it with a man called Ian. Not that one. I suspect he might have moved to the area for work and we hung out a bit without ever having sex then he moved away and I forgot his name (if he's the one I'm thinking of). I said I loved it but the Guardian review I found only gave it two stars. I suspect I might have been generous.

Sign of the Times

Sign of the Times, Norwich Theatre Royal, 2009

Cast: Stephen Tomkinson, Tom Shaw

Writer: Tim Firth

Director: Peter Wilson (who was at the same time Chief Executive of the Norwich Theatre Royal and had his own production company, which feels like a cheating way of getting your play on)

When I looked at the programme I thought, "man on a roof" and it turns out it was about two men putting up a sign on a roof. As Tim Firth wrote Calendar Girls and then a musical using Take That songs I suspect it wasn't as much like Waiting for Godot as the idea sounds.

To Kill a Mockingbird

 

To Kill a Mockingbird, Norwich Theatre Royal, 2006

Cast: Duncan Preston, Anita Booth, Stephen Casey, Christopher Chilton, Tor Clark, Andrea Harris, Richard Heap, Bettrys Jones, Andrew Kwame, Ged McKenna, Vinta Morgan, Phil Mulryne, Charity Or, Jean-Marc Perret, Charlie Roe, Helen Ryan, Joe Speare, Sally Tatum, Craig Vye, 

Adapted by Christopher Sergel from the book by Harper Lee

Directed by Michael Buffong.

This gets performed a lot, presumably because it's now on the English Literature curriculum so there's a bit of an audience guaranteed. I didn't read it at school so I took no baggage to it but I wonder if I found it a bit worthy and not much fun, which is an awful thing to say about something so important but that's certainly how I'd feel about it now if someone suggested I go and see it again. Perhaps I should read the book.