Issue 14 - 2006
Prompt Corner 
Or, more accurately on this occasion, Sluggish Corner.
You may have noticed a number of changes in the two and a half years since I took over the editorship of Theatre Record. Most of these have been of little more than cosmetic effect: a different font here, a tweak of house style there. But they are indicative of more fundamental alterations in the way the magazine is produced.
Virtual office
In Ian Herbert's day (not that I mean to make him sound like a survivor from a distant geologic age), the bulk of the magazine was physically pasted up from original newspaper cuttings of reviews, in an office attached to his house. My current flat simply doesn't have room to accommodate an entire magazine, even one of such modest scale. (Watch out, though, for an imminent address change.) Therefore a kind of "virtual office" set-up was instituted, whereby I would handle the editorial side of things from my place in west London, Ruth Keeley would take care of layout at her home some 80km away, and once a fortnight we would meet up chez Herbert to deliver copy to the printer nearby.
No, I'm getting to the bit about why this matters...
The single most radical change to the magazine has been increased computerisation. Reviews are now either scanned in from their newspaper appearance or downloaded from publications' web sites, then laid out with a desktop publishing program. I've been worried that this might lead to more solid slabs of uniform and therefore duller-to-the-eye text, so we still make nods to original layout, trying to approximate the original font and column justification. Overall, though, this switch to onscreen layout has enabled us to make much more efficient use of space, with the result that an issue of the magazine today may have fewer pages than a couple of years ago, but it actually contains significantly more reviews.
Except for this issue.
Hospitalised
You will see that this issue is smaller than usual, even allowing for the slack summer period. This is due to matters beyond our control. You will also see that its layout lacks the recent elegance: it's more cramped and scrunched-up. This is due to matters beyond my competence.
The disadvantage of the virtual-office arrangement is that when one of the parties, say, falls suddenly ill and is hospitalised for several days, and both parties live in single-person households not easily accessible to each other, it's not easy to transfer all the material that the indisposed party has been working on. As you might have guessed, this isn't an entirely hypothetical example; as I write this column, Ruth is still in hospital.
There are some conspicuous gaps around the middle of the period covered by this issue, among them a shortage of reviews of the Chicago Henry IVs at Stratford and a complete absence of reviews of Mirandolina. I hope that many of these missing pieces are lurking on Ruth's computer, and can be belatedly printed in a subsequent issue. In any case, if any of our contributing subscribers notice that some of their work hasn't appeared, I'd be very grateful if they could e-mail the review(s) in question to me, just in case.
Similarly, the fact that programme details are in general sent to Ruth rather than to me meant that, when it came to hurriedly laying out this issue single-handedly, I had hardly any title logos of shows, which serve along with cast details to break up those solid slabs of text and give the eye some relief; rather than do things so patchily, I dispensed with the business of titles altogether on this occasion, and just laid the reviews out as best I could in the time available. I know it's not up to the standard you've recently come to expect, and I'm sorry; my inexperience on layout is an explanation, but no excuse.
Irregularities
What is most important of all, of course, is that the doctors eventually diagnosed Ruth's burst appendix correctly, and operated on her just before things got life-threatening. She is convalescing comfortably, but it will be, in TR terms, around three issues before something close to normal service is resumed. It's due entirely to her foresight and efficiency that this issue, at a few days' notice, could be produced at all. However, as various other TR folk's summer schedules – Edinburgh, holidays, a TV shoot – come into play, there may be some problems filling the Ruth-sized hole in production, and consequent irregularities as regards the appearance of the next couple of issues. We ask your indulgence in bearing with us during this period.
The current plan is that Issue 15 will appear one week late, on or shortly after 22 August. As is usual at this time of year, there will also be a double issue, with Issue 16-17 scheduled to appear on 12 September. These dates may be subject to change, possibly without notice, for which uncertainty once again I apologise. But the issues will be published as quickly as we can reasonably manage, and will return to regularity in the autumn. With all due respect to subscribers, I'm sure you'll agree that it matters more that a valued friend and colleague regain her health than that an issue or two of this magazine might come out a few days late. I'd like to put on record my immense gratitude to Ruth for the amazing work she's done for all this time, and my most sincere wishes for her recovery.
At the Back
No "At the Back" this issue
Contents / Reviews
London |
||||
THE ANATOMIST New play by Tony Ramsay (Eastern Angles) |
Upstairs at the Gatehouse |
10 Jul |
22 Jul |
813 |
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA Revival of play by Shakespeare |
Globe |
5 Jul |
8 Oct |
800 |
THE CANTERBURY TALES New adaptation by Mike Poulton, from poem by Geoffrey Chaucer (RSC) |
Gielgud |
13 Jul |
|
815 |
THE CHERRY ORCHARD Revival of play by Anton Chekhov, in translation by David Lan (pieces of work) |
Southwark Playhouse |
13 Jul |
5 Aug |
818 |
THE HIGHWAY CROSSING Transfer of new play by Jaan Tåtte (StageSpell TC) |
Arcola |
4 Jul |
15 Jul |
797 |
LATE FRAGMENT New play by Francine Volpe |
Tristan Bates |
7 Jul |
29 Jul |
811 |
A LIE OF THE MIND Revival of play by Sam Shepard (JMK Award) |
BAC |
11 Jul |
6 Aug |
814 |
THE LIFE OF GALILEO Revival of play by Bertolt Brecht, in new version by David Hare (NT) |
Olivier |
6 Jul |
31 Oct |
807 |
NO PLANET B - THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD BACKWARDS New comedy show by Robert Newman |
Tricycle |
3 Jul |
15 Jul |
796 |
OBLOMOV'S DREAM New adaptation by Julia Britton from novel by Ivan Goncharov (Fly-On-The-Wall) |
Jermyn Street |
7 Jul |
22 Jul |
813 |
PERFORMANCES New play by Brian Friel, music by Leos Janacek |
Wilton's Music Hall |
4 Jul |
15 Jul |
797 |
PLAYHOUSE CREATURES Revival of play by April De Angelis |
Landor |
4 Jul |
22 Jul |
811 |
RED OLEANDER UK première of play by Rabindranath Tagore |
Camden People's |
6 Jul |
23 Jul |
811 |
THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW Revival of musical by Richard O'Brien |
Playhouse |
6 Jul |
22 Jul |
812 |
Shell Connections 2006 Youth Festival including: (NT) |
Olivier/Cottesloe |
13 Jul |
18 Jul |
822 |
Broken Hallelujah New play by Sharman Macdonald (Truro School Theatre, Cornwall) |
Cottesloe |
14 Jul |
14 Jul |
822 |
Feather Boy New musical by Debbie Wiseman/Don Black (Blatchington Mill School, Hove) |
Cottesloe |
15 Jul |
15 Jul |
822 |
Liar New play by Gregory Burke (Galway Youth Theatre) |
Olivier |
18 Jul |
18 Jul |
822 |
The Miracle New play by Lin Coghlan (Cheadle and Marple Sixth Form College, Stockport) |
Olivier |
17 Jul |
17 Jul |
822 |
Pack Up Your Troubles New musical by Snoo Wilson et al. (Leyton Sixth Form College, London) |
Cottesloe |
14 Jul |
14 Jul |
822 |
Pass It On New play by Doug Lucie (Brewery Youth Theatre, Kendal) |
Cottesloe |
13 Jul |
13 Jul |
822 |
School Journey To The Centre Of The Earth Revival by Daisy & Ken Campbell (Stokesley School, N Yorks.) |
Olivier |
18 Jul |
18 Jul |
822 |
The Shoemaker's Incredible Wife New transl. of Lorca by Lucinda Coxon (Hatfield Visual Arts Coil., Doncaster) Olivier |
17 Jul |
17 Jul |
|
822 |
Shut Up New play by Andrew Payne (Coulsdon College, Surrey) |
Cottesloe |
15 Jul |
15 Jul |
822 |
The Spider Man New play by Ursula Rani Sarma (ITV Junior Workshop, Nottingham) |
Cottesloe |
13 Jul |
13 Jul |
822 |
SO THIS IS IT... New play by Leila Borris (RubyBlue Prods) |
Tabard |
13 Jul |
5 Aug |
821 |
TOMORROW MORNING New musical by Laurence Mark Wythe |
New End |
10 Jul |
13 Aug |
814 |
WOYZECK Return of revival of play by Georg Büchner in new version by Gisli Örn Garôarsson |
Barbican |
5 Jul |
15 Jul |
804 |
Regions |
||||
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS Revival of play by Shakespeare (Glasgow Repertory Co; Bard in the Botanics) Glasgow, Botanical Gardens |
23 Jun |
8 Jul |
|
830 |
THE GRAPES OF WRATH Adapted by Frank Galati from novel by John Steinbeck |
Pitlochry Festival |
13 Jul |
21 Oct |
829 |
HABEAS CORPUS Revival of play by Alan Bennett (Peter Hall Co) |
Bath, Theatre Royal |
13 Jul |
12 Aug |
826 |
HENRY IV part 1 & part 2 Revival of plays by Shakespeare (Chicago Shakespeare Theater; Complete Works) |
Stratford, Swan |
11 Jul |
15 Jul |
823 |
MEASURE FOR MEASURE Revival of play by Shakespeare (Peter Hall Co) |
Bath, Theatre Royal |
12 Jul |
12 Aug |
824 |
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE Revival of play by Shakespeare (Creation TC) |
Oxford Castle |
6 Jul |
19 Aug |
829 |
MIRANDOLINA Revival of play by Carlo Goldoni in new translation by Ranjit Bolt |
Manchester, Royal Exchange |
10 Jul |
5 Aug |
829 |
MISS JULIE Revival of play by August Strindberg, in new version by Frank McGuinness (Peter Hall Co) |
Bath, Theatre Royal |
13 Jul |
12 Aug |
826 |
SUSSURUS New sound piece by David Leddy (Glasgow Repertory Co; Bard in the Botanics) |
Glasgow, Botanical Gardens |
26 Jun |
22 Jul |
830 |