And, dear readers, so I have.
Two consecutive theatre visits so far this week, and ’tis but Thursday. With my doughty team of American theatre-hounds on Tuesday to the Bush, to see MONEY- THE GAME SHOW, and on Wednesday to Hammersmith Lyric for METAMORPHOSIS. The first is a co-production with Unlimited Theatre, the innovative company based in Leeds at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Lyn Gardner in The Guardian calls it “thoughtful and riotously entertaining”. It does what it’s clearly meant to do – it makes you think. Think about the thoughtless, mad gambling that lies at the heart of capitalist economics – how modern currencies, none of them tied to anything tangible like gold, or even to real trade in real products – leave all of us at the mercy of dangerous, often unhinged, gambling addicts, calling themselves “hedge fund managers”. For my money (if you’ll forgive the expression) the show goes on maybe 15 minutes too long, and lapses into slightly preachy indulgence. I had a sudden sense of deja-vu, of shows I used to watch aeons ago at the old Edinburgh Traverse, directed by Max Stafford-Clark, written by angry and then still emerging writers like Howard Barker. We raged against the instability of capital then, and at least thank God we still have angry young writers to shout about it now! This play is well worth seeing – the new Bush is one of the more welcoming of London’s fringe venues – good bar – sensible prices, tasty food.
The two performers in this show, Lucy Ellison and Brian Ferguson – directed by writer Clare Duffy – are skilled and beguiling. All together a good, inexpensive night out.
METAMORPHOSIS is strong stuff – Kafka staged by David Farr with the Icelandic company Vestuport. A production already enjoying international acclaim, delivered with Complicité -like physical panache and conviction. Last night at the Lyric there were lots of parties of sixth-formers, whose predictable whooping and cheering as the lights went down were soon stilled into intense listening and watching, irrupting again joyfully at the end of the show. It’s a great and disturbing tale, finely told.
I have been rejoicing in a wonderful present from my daughter Cressida. If you have an admirer, you might drop a hint or two as Valentine’s Day approaches. If like me you love history, and especially history laced with theatrical scandal, then a recently-published book by the historian and actor Ian Kelly is an absolute must-have.
It tells the story of one of the great – and hitherto quite neglected – heroes of British comic theatre, Samuel Foote:
I couldn’t put it down. If you don’t have a generous admirer for Feb 14th, nor do you have a birthday imminent, then splash out, treat yourself – I promise you won’t regret it. Apart from anything else, it has what surely will go down as one of the best titles of the year!
