Chatterbox - still talking nonsense

The Almeida is running this Arnold Wesker play from 1958 about an angry young woman taking issue with the way her family has always done things, alongside a revival of Look Back in Anger about the quintessential angry young man*.   Despite the sparse set, the play stakes its claim as a kitchen sink drama from the start.  The first long scene is set in her sister's kitchen as Beatie returns home to Norfolk from London, full of opinions gleaned from her unseen boyfriend Ronnie. The play shows its age in the amount of words needed to establish the family relationships and something of  Ronnie's character too, through Beatie's parroting of his insights.  Ronnie is full of socialist ideals but is a bit disdainful of the working classes that he is so keen to lift up.   Beatie though is clearly inspired by him and is able to quote full paragraphs of his words and opinions, nicely highlighted in the play by Beatie standing on a chair to opine/preach with a full spotlight on her whe

Third row seats at bargain prices, and for once without any big people or heads in the way, so that got us off to a good start. As the play gets underway, when we first meet Coriolanus (David Oyelowo) he is smoothly mixing as part of the elite, glass in hand.  After his huge success as a general winning in a war for Rome he seeks to become a political leader but finds that a whole different thing.  He isn’t that keen on trying to appeal to the masses who he views with some contempt, and makes it clear that the games and nonsense required to gain popular support is beneath him. As a result, the Tribunes in the Senate who represent the plebs/masses don’t like him much and so successfully conspire to unseat him and get him banished.  The wheeling and dealing that surrounds Coriolanus is tricksy, with different camps trying to get advantage. As a play about power and politics, it speaks well about the gap between the masses and the elite, populism, and the desire to retain power at any cos

With Patti LuPone and Mia Farrow as the lead and only performers in this play by Jen Silverman,  I booked before I even landed in New York. In the Booth Theatre in the centre of the Hells Kitchen area of Broadway, the house was pretty much full.  As is the custom in New York we got handed our free Playbill/programme as we entered. I have to say that while it is nice to get a cast listing without spending the fiver it costs in the UK, I do miss the more considered articles giving context that can be found in the more serious end of the UK theatre programme. Another weird thing about the Broadway experience is the way that Farrow and LuPone came out first to receive an ovation before they actually even started the play.. And then the applause at the end of every single scene. This made it feel like a sitcom and broke up the flow a bit unnecessarily from my perspective.   Anyway, the play is based on an odd couple set up, with Farrow playing Sharon, who after her mid-life divorce has deci

To paraphrase Taylor Swift, home is where the heart is, but god I love New York.  After I visited in March this year, I told all of my friends that I was up for another trip if they wanted, and to my delight I got another opportunity much more quickly than I expected.  After my second visit in a year I  still don’t feel I am done with this place, and don’t know if I ever will be.  Below are some jottings about this trip just so I don’t forget.    Day 1 - Tuesday: Flights and Times Square  An uneventful flight where I just binged films - Go here if you want my notes on what I watched At the airport I picked up a cab and had the one of the suite of classic NYC cab experiences.  In this case the driver smelt of weed and was looking at his phone as often as the road.  There was one interesting moment when the only reason he avoided backending the car in front was because I shouted at him.  After hitting the brakes he just held his hand up towards me and grunted before carrying on.... It r

 I had been talking about another trip to New York, and so when this new production of Romeo and Juliet was announced, it was the perfect excuse.   With Broadway virgins Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler in the leads, Sam Gold, the love him or hate him director at the helm,  and Jack Antonoff, the show off/genius music producer in charge of original score, it could all go spectacularly wrong or be brilliant.  I booked the tickets before anything else, and then realised that meant I was going to have to go back to NYC for the second time in a year.  I usually prefer not to read reviews before seeing any play, but it previewed for a month, and given the amount of Tik-tok excitement it's not surprising that many of the more unusual features were heavily spoilered beforehand. The play is a fresh, young, take on the well known story.  Walking in the theatre foyer, there is loud disco music and flashing lights to set the scene and that continues inside the intimate performance space, with a t

An eight hour flight to NYC requires either an amazing book, or a lot of movies.  I chose the movies. Dune 2 This had less pretentious music than Dune 1, and the cgi and cinematography were fabulous.  I actually wanted to be in that desert despite the weird creatures that could kill me.  The downside is the bloated storytelling which meant it was far too long.   That's why I only can only see myself watching this movie series on planes, despite the tiny screen. I Saw the TV Glow -   I had heard loads about this but hadn't seen it available anywhere.  My best way to describe it is Stranger Things meets trans allegory.  It is both strange and wonderful, and looks great, a mix of schlocky horror imagery and an evocative colour palette flooding the screen with that blurry 80's video aesthetic.  The basic story is about a couple of teenagers who are obsessed with a tacky teenage horror/mystery show, but it's all about the subtext.  In fact, I am not sure it would make any se

The last time I saw this revenge tragedy must be more than 40 years ago and I remember it being a violent and bloody misery fest.  But this version has Jodie Whittaker so when I spotted a last minute discount ticket in the stalls I couldn’t resist. Whittaker is impressive from the start, commanding the stage and running rings around her childish, cartoonish, controlling brothers as she relishes her freedom after being widowed.  She continues to confidently hold the reins as she secretly marries her weak but sweet steward.  So far so good, but all falls to pieces pretty quickly from there.   The first half of this production is actually a bit of a mess, disjointed and with some strange decisions around direction, the text and which scenes to keep or cut.  With modern dress and setting, the original language is almost completely ditched by Zinnie Harris in this version, and the focus is resolutely on the misogyny and aggressive patriarchy which cannot let a woman have agency over her lif