Chatterbox - still talking nonsense

I did a fair bit of pondering over who is really the underdog in this new play by Sarah Gordon.  We meet all three Brontë sisters but Charlotte (an excellent, feisty Gemma Whelan) is the one who acts as our guide through this story, and it’s her point of view we hear although she's a pretty unreliable narrator.  The play is funny and rolls along, more than a little bit meta, and with plenty of reaching across the fourth wall.  We get to meet the sisters when they are trying to work out how to make ends meet and eventually develop their plan to use male pseudonyms to get their work published.  I liked the scratchy way their sibling relationships and rivalries were laid out, with Charlotte as the bossy and overbearing older sister with narcissist tendencies, and Anne (Rhiannon Clements) constantly being undermined but fighting back.   The play references their work, but actually it is only interested really in their relationship, so it was a shame really that...

My evening started with a mad dash to get out of work and into town in time for this week’s theatre at the NT, this time for a revival of Dodie Smith’s 1930’s family drama.  It was lovely to bump into an old friend outside - that moment of confusion when you hear your name and can't see where it is coming from and wonder if you have misheard, then that sudden recognition!   In the theatre, the seats were the cheap ones third row from the front which are usually fine, but with two tall men in front of us, we knew we were in for some ducking and diving - one of them had the grace to apologise for being tall, although he didn't offer to swap seats unfortunately.  As usual I knew little about this play beforehand and so I was on the lookout in the first half for the twist, or hidden secret or grudge that was going to turn it around* and then I realised that actually, there wasn’t going to be any sharp edge or clever reveal.  Instead this is a slow but detailed exami...

An evening at the theatre watching another play about the difficult birth of the NHS, this was a perfect mix of politics and sentiment that absolutely hit the spot for me.  Our pre-show conversation had been all about the hole that the country is in, and what could possibly shake us out of it, and it was like this production heard us and carried on the debate.   This is a biography of Nye Bevan  (Michael Sheen) as a patient of the NHS he brought into being, and from his hospital bed dosed up with morphine, recalling his life through surreal dreams.  Episodic and hallucinatory, we get shown the bullying he endured as a child partly due to his stammer, the death of his miner father through black lung , the wonder of a library with books ‘for free!!’ and the development of political nouse as he worked his way through committees and councils, including the Tredegar Medical Aid Society (the model for the NHS) before ending up in Parliament.   The challenges...

I had a double bill sort of a day.  The last bit first…  Till the Stars Come Down  This production is in the round and for the first time ever I was on the far side of the Dorfman theatre.  On a simple, circular, revolving set, the play opens with women getting ready for a wedding, and for a good half hour the chat and laughter (with some pretty good one liners) swirls around as we get to know the three sisters at the heart of this play, a couple of nieces and Aunty Carol (an impressive Lorraine Ashbourne).  These woman are close, although Maggie (Lisa McGrillis) has moved away, something Hazel (Lucy Black) is clearly bitter about; and it also appears Aunty Carol has more or less invited herself and her ridiculously big hat.  The men only appear later as the wedding gets going, and that feels right in a play about all sorts of things but with a backdrop of a post- mining town where the main work is at a warehouse and the younger generation don't seem to kno...

  I popped into town on a last minute whim and got a great £20 ticket right by the stage for this new play by Annie Baker.  The journey by train was a bit painful so I rushed in to the auditorium out of breath just as they were closing the doors, wriggling out of my coat as the lights went down. This play was an immediate change of pace.  Sofi (Christina Kirk) arrives first, with her book, to sit in one of the many sun loungers, eventually joined by Eileen (Marylouise Burke) and one of those desultory conversations follows that might happen by a pool or in a hotel garden. But it becomes clear that Sofi, Eileen and the other residents are actually at some kind of strange clinic (which used to be a motel and where the patio overlooks a car park and a bakery) and all are undergoing strict cleansing regimes.   Over the next hour and 45 minutes there are snippets of conversation with long pauses and then jumps in time called out by Sofi ...'5 hours later’ ...‘22 hours lat...

The laughter as people made their way out of the auditorium could have led you to believe that we had come out from a comedy, but instead it was that laughter of relief you get after surviving a traumatic experience.  We didn’t get off to a great start as a couple of big guys with big heads sat down in front of us, so our view was a bit punctuated by shuffling about to see properly.  I was sort of hoping they wouldn’t come back for the second half but they did.  Actually the second half was so gripping I hardly noticed it any more. After the death of her husband, Bernarda locks her daughters and her own mother in the house for an eight year period of mourning.   I gather the original version was written during the Spanish Civil War and whatever way you look at it this is a pretty effective play about tyranny, but making this a female cast (except for the dancing and wordless Pepe El Romano, played by a muscular James McHugh*) added an additional layer.   The wom...

I may have just seen one of my contenders for best play of 2023. This is a feminist history told through the biography of one woman, beginning in the midst of the Second World War in Australia and ending up in London in the present day.  I understand the play was inspired by conversations the playwright, Alexander Zeldin, had with his mother and her peers during lockdown.  Alice has an ordinary life in many ways but this is also a really effective illustration of the development in women’s lived experiences over the past 60 years. Despite the potential for it to become a dry and clinical or theoretical narrative, its episodic nature gave the opportunity to show what felt like real family and friendship moments.  The constant setbacks in so many different ways each time she thought she had got free were really effective and I liked the interweaving of art too.  I’d love to know how many of the incidents happened and how many are a version of the truth for dramatic eff...

A different pair of star crossed lovers, Julie (Rosie Sheehy) has a bright future in astrophysics in front of her while Romeo (Callum Scott Howells)* is a single dad who hasn't ever really looked up at the stars before. I got a last minute ticket for this with what was supposed to be a restricted view, but in fact turned out to be a great seat.     A fairly slight  but very sweet rom-com-ish story in the first half with some nicely turned dialogue, it had a slightly distracting variety of accents for a tiny corner of Wales.  The second half though ramps up the kitchen sink drama, with complicated dilemmas to resolve alongside the romance with  themes around disadvantage and disparity in life chances and education; there was a great and passionate speech about the value of care work, which was a bit shoehorned in but still worth listening to.   Not perfect, but  this was a play that crept up from behind and kneecapped me.   Deftly written...

I know it’s a classic but I hadn't ever seen The Crucible performed before.  Of course the NT Olivier has the opportunity for dramatic stagings, and the water cascading on to the stage as we entered got things off to a spectacular start.  I was pleased we were up in the gods rather than my frequent cheap front row option though, when I saw the waterproofs being handed out! I wasn't at all sure if I would like it - some 'classic' plays can be a bit too worthy, weighed down with their own self importance, and this one comes with its own trolley load of significance, so I deliberately hadn't read any reviews in case they put me off.     The play is based around the Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s, and was written as Arthur Miller's commentary on the McCarthy era and the activities of the Un-American Activities Committee.  The action starts with single accusation to deflect blame and settle a score which swiftly spirals, capturing and then devouring everyone it...

  Jodie Comer is a force of nature.  Not sure anything more needs to be said but I am probably going to say it anyway.  I saw this powerful new play by Suzie Miller at a NT live screening. This is a solo performance which takes us through the bruising journey of a rape case through the legal system.  I felt completely wrung out by the end it was so beautifully done.  What I didn't enjoy was the 20 or so minutes of documentary/round table discussion at the start of the evening, slotted in before the play, covering the issues and realities around how the legal system treats sexual offence cases.  It was all good and meaningful stuff and the charity that was highlighted clearly does important work, but it gave me too much of a steer on how to think - I don't like being told how to think!  I wanted my outrage to come from experiencing the play, not from being told about it first.  For that reason it took me about 10 minutes to settle down and just get...