I feel I’ve been living in the Book of Job. Since my return from foreign parts I have been thrice struck down with unkind afflictions. Firstly, the evening of the February London Hurricane I returned home at 10.30 to find that while Walthamstow clattered and rattled, and the reservoirs churned and frothed under 80 mile-an-hour gusts, the house had been broken into and ransacked. Secondly, for the first time in years the world of television drama seemed to have rediscovered the once noted Jones flair for comedy with an obviously tailor-made part, which looked oh so promising and then evaporated…and thirdly I got knocked down by a bus! What next, boils?
In fact the benighted house-robbers made off with only a few items, but they did include my best camera and most annoyingly a box-set of audio recordings of Charles Dickens’s “Dombey and Son” read by my chum David Timson. Vile felons they may be, but at least they showed some taste…
My survival from colliding with a double-decker was something of a miracle. My abject apologies to those whose journey home last Tuesday was stymied as the New Oxford St rush-hour traffic ground to a halt in a flurry of flashing blue-lights. No excuse, all my fault – I’d forgotten that what was once an eastbound one-way street now has a single westbound lane just for buses, and was simply looking the wrong way as I set off to cross the road. My profound thanks to the bus-driver who instantly called the ambulance from behind his shattered windscreen, to the kindly passer-by who picked me up and sat me on a nearby bench, and to the cheerful ambulance crew who pronounced that almost all such cases result in fatality, and that since all I seemed to have was a badly bruised shoulder they would ask the UCH accident and emergency nurses to check if I was made of kryptonite… And lastly regrets to my pals from the RADA Enterprises team, with whom I had so looked forward to spending the evening reuniting over a glass or two at Truckles Wine Bar.
But hey, I’m on the mend, and it’s St David’s Day…here’s my window-sill this misty morning, complete with obligatory daffodils, and an apologetic salute to Transport for London via my red bus money-box:
Meanwhile, the new season of theatre-going with bright young Americans from New York University is well under way. We’ve been to Turgenev”s “Fortune’s Fool” at the Old Vic, to Dawn King’s “Ciphers” at the Bush, to Samuel Beckett’s “Happy Days” at the Young Vic, and to Nick Payne’s “Blurred Lines” at the National Theatre’s stand-in space for the Cottesloe Theatre, the Shed. To use an American phrase, the “stand-out” shows so far have been the Beckett and “Blurred Lines”.
Beckett is very much a Marmite writer – I’m a huge fan, though tend either to leave the theatre feeling sad and anxious for the human race, or filled with a sense of cautious hope, and marvelling at the compelling language and imagery. Juliet Stevenson’s Winnie (admirably supported by David Beams, and skilfully directed by Natalie Abrahami) is gloriously perky, spirited and brave as she deals with her predicament, up to her waist – and then up to her neck – in gritty sand.
We don’t get to see Juliet Stevenson in the theatre too often, so here’s a chance to witness a seriously fine artist at the height of her powers. The night we were there the place was full of young people, who were all clearly riveted, and all my New Yorkers were entranced. It’s the kind of writing that only works if it’s brilliantly acted – the Late Dame Peggy Ashcroft declared Winnie a challenge for a female actor on a par with “Hamlet” for a male.
Which leads neatly to more Radagrad news – if you live in the north, book now for “Hamlet” at the Manchester Royal Exchange, where the noble Dane is about to be given a fresh work-over by the dazzlingly talented Maxine Peake. When Maxine first joined us at Gower St, the South Bank Show did a piece on this young Lancashire lass coping with getting into RADA, and intended to follow up 3 years later with a film on her struggles finding an agent and getting a career under way at the end of the course. However, before she’d even finished training Maxine had been spotted by Victoria Wood, and was already well on her way to being a star…
Another always watchable graduate from my time is Sinead Matthews, who was one of a team of high-octane women performing at The Shed in an angry response to the notorious “Blurred Lines” pop-music video, scripted by Nick Payne and directed by Carrie Cracknell. The cast were all quite stunning – they included Marion Bailey, Ruth Sheen and Claire Skinner – and the stage crackled with brilliant creativity. It’s finished now, but it was a great example of, well, almost what we used to call agit-prop theatre, a polemic show that knows its cause is just and true, and doesn’t take any prisoners. At all. It was a short run, and it’s over – but hurray, we can catch Sinead again very soon, in a new two-hander by Vivienne Franzmann, “Pests” at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs from March 27th. Anyone who saw her haunting work in the Complicite version of “The Master and Margarita” will know that a spring-time trip to Sloane Square has to go into the diary.
My 2014 diary is beginning to bulge. I’ve just found out that two more of my favourite grads, Ed Bennett and Michelle Terry Brown are going to team up for “Love’s Labours Lost” and “Much Ado” for the RSC at Stratford this summer. When last in Warwickshire Ed scored a huge success taking over from David Tennant as “Hamlet”, and Michelle was a gloriously sexy Titania in “The Dream” last season at Shakespeare’s Globe.
While both are outstanding performers, both Ed and Miche are wonderfully eloquent. (Ed is sometimes available as a tutor via teachyourselfacting.com, and Michelle co-wrote and starred in the lovely Sky sitcom, “The Cafe“.) You can watch them each being interviewed about acting in Shakespeare if you click on their names in the paragraph above.
So, back to the Avon in the summer time. I can’t wait – maybe I’ll go by boat…
Before I sign off, a mention of the Bath half-marathon, which takes place tomorrow March 2nd, and my daughter Cressida is running on behalf of Alzheimer’s Research. If anyone would like to sponsor her for this sadly all too prominent and worthy cause, the link is: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=CressidaJones
