Prompt Corner
Issue 6, 2010
Next issue includes coverage of the National Student Drama Festival, to which I have been making an annual pilgrimage for over 20 years and which effectively began my career as a reviewer. One of the team who visit shows entered for the Festival and select a final dozen productions from the hundred or so entries lamented during the week, “I’ve seen more bloody 4.48 Psychoses...!”, and surprise surprise, this issue carries reviews of yet another production of the same play by Sarah Kane, TR Warszawa’s version seen in Edinburgh during the 2008 International Festival. (In the event, NSDF was Psychosis-free this year, opting instead for Kane’s Phaedra’s Love.) As so often, one of the most impressive aspects of the festival overall is the participants’ openness to differing approaches to staging. In one show alone, the audience was asked to blindfold themselves, then later to on mini-tours around the space and finally to huddle together under a huge blanket!
In contrast, even the simplest departures from front-end-on staging seem to bewilder many supposedly more mature sensibilities. At the press performance of Eigengrau at the Bush, noted Aleks Sierz in his blog at http://sierz.blogspot.com, a couple of critics on the opposite bank of traverse seating seemed to spend more time looking at their scripts than the action onstage. One of the pair, Quentin Letts, remarked on Mark Shenton’s The Stage blog that “if Mr Sierz repeatedly spotted that I was looking down at the text, he himself clearly was not watching the action on stage, but looking at my handsome chops instead!” Surprisingly, it didn’t seem to occur to him that part of the point of traverse staging, both in general and in this particular case, is to force ourselves to watch each other and be watched. Quentin justifies himself on Mark’s blog by saying “That play at the Bush is so bloody awful you want to avert your eyes...” – again, even though he talks at some length in his review proper about what he assumes are attempts to shock, it doesn’t seem to occur to him that an unpleasant viewing experience may be part of the point. Heaven knows what he’d make of something like Rotozaza’s you-are-theperformers piece Guru Guru, also reviewed this issue.
Alas, these mildly diverting musings are put into perspective by both the article excerpted opposite in Quote of the Fortnight and the box at the bottom of this page. When plays are being banned because they might offend bigots and a great actor makes his final exit, our squirmings in the dark are trivial by comparison. As I write, the long-anticipated general election has finally been called: I wonder how many flagship statements will be made by any of the major parties on the subject of arts and culture? I shan’t be holding my breath.
Ian Shuttleworth | ian@theatrerecord.com
At the Back
At the Back does not appear this issue
Reviewed Issue 6, 2010
London |
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Production |
Venue |
Opened |
Closed |
Page |
| THE ALCHEMIST Revival of play by Ben Jonson (Th of Bray) | Rosemary Branch | 24 Mar | 11 Apr | 301 |
| ANYONE CAN WHISTLE Revival of musical by Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents | Jermyn Street | 17 Mar | 17 Apr | 284 |
| THE CANTERBURY TALES New adaptation from poem by Geoffrey Chaucer (Tacit Th) | Theatre Delicatessen | 24 Mar | 24 Apr | 306 |
| CHRONICLES OF LONG KESH New play by Martin Lynch | Tricycle | 16 Mar | 10 Apr | 281 |
| THE DUCHESS OF MALFI Revival of play by John Webster | Greenwich | 23 Mar | 10 Apr | 305 |
| EIGENGRAU New play by Penelope Skinner | Bush | 15 Mar | 10 Apr | 285 |
| THE EXTRAORDINARY CABARET OF DORIAN GRAY Return of adaptation from novella by Oscar Wilde | Leicester Square | 17 Mar | 18 Apr | 306 |
| FOREVER IN YOUR DEBT New play by Nick Walker (Foursight Th / Talking Birds) | Jackson’s Lane / touring | 25 Mar | 27 Mar | 287 |
| 4.48 PSYCHOSIS Revival of play by Sarah Kane (TR Warszawa) | Barbican | 23 Mar | 27 Mar | 295 |
| GAMBLING New piece by Tom Holloway | Soho | 22 Mar | 10 Apr | 307 |
| THE GODS WEEP New play by Dennis Kelly (RSC) | Hampstead | 17 Mar | 3 Apr | 288 |
| GURU GURU Revival of piece by Ant Hampton (Rotozaza, in Sprint season) | Camden People’s | 5 Mar | 28 Mar | 292 |
| MACBETH Revival of play by Shakespeare (Cheek By Jowl) | Silk Street | 24 Mar | 10 Apr | 302 |
| MANOR New play by Martin Murphy (Bruised Sky Prods) | Tristan Bates | 18 Mar | 3 Apr | 283 |
| MRS WARREN'S PROFESSION Revival of play by George Bernard Shaw (Theatre Royal, Bath) | Comedy | 25 Mar | 19 Jun | 308 |
| THE POWER OF LOVE New play by Tony J Williams | Courtyard | 25 Mar | 25 Apr | 306 |
| RIP HER TO SHREDS New play by Grant Corr (Icarus Th Collective) | Old Red Lion | 18 Mar | 3 Apr | 296 |
| THE SANCTUARY LAMP Revival of play by Tom Murphy (b*spoke TC) | Arcola | 12 Mar | 3 Apr | 280 |
| THREE GOOD WIVES New piece by Inkfish | Little Angel | 18 Mar | 28 Mar | 283 |
| VOLPONE Revival of play by Ben Jonson | Greenwich | 18 Mar | 8 Apr | 305 |
| W IS FOR BANKER New play by Ray Kilby and John Steinberg | New End | 23 Mar | 18 Apr | 284 |
| WEALTH New play by Ben Charland (Elephant Foot) | Cable Street Studios | 17 Mar | 27 Mar | 296 |
| THE WHITE GUARD New adaptation by Andrew Upton from play and novel by Mikhail Bulgakov (NT) | Lyttelton | 23 Mar | 297 | |
Regions |
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| ARTHUR AND GEORGE New adaptation by avid Edgar from novel by Julian Barnes | Birmingham Rep | 23 Mar | 10 Apr | 321 |
| A DAY IN THE DEATH OF JOE EGG Revival of play by Peter Nichols | Nottingham Playhouse | 23 Mar | 3 Apr | 320 |
| EMPTY New play by Cathy Forde (NTS, tfd season) | Glasgow, Tron / touring | 10 Mar | 20 Mar | 328 |
| EVERY ONE New play by Jo Clifford | Edinburgh, Royal Lyceum | 20 Mar | 10 Apr | 331 |
| A GOOD NIGHT OUT IN THE VALLEYS New play by Alan Harris (National Th of Wales) | Blackwood Miners’ Inst / touring | 12 Mar | 12 Mar | 317 |
| THE HOBBIT Revival of adaptation by Glyn Robbins from novel by J R R Tolkien (Vanessa Ford Prods) | Edinburgh, Festival / touring | 23 Mar | 28 Mar | 333 |
| JULIET AND HER ROMEO Revival of play by Shakespeare, adapted by Tom Morris and Sean O’Connor | Bristol Old Vic | 16 Mar | 24 Apr | 314 |
| LAUREL AND HARDY Revival of play by Tom McGrath | Mull / touring | 20 Mar | 22 Mar | 332 |
| THE MINISTRY OF FEAR New adaptation by Daniel Jamieson from Graham Greene (Theatre Alibi) | Oxford Playhouse / touring | 18 Mar | 20 Mar | 320 |
| THE MIRACLE MAN New play by Douglas Maxwell (NTS, tfd season) | Glasgow, Tron / touring | 10 Mar | 20 Mar | 328 |
| MR WRITE New piece by Rob Drummond (NTS, tfd season) | Glasgow, Tron / touring | 10 Mar | 20 Mar | 328 |
| New Territories/National Review Of Live Art See review pages for full production details | Glasgow, various | 2 Mar | 21 Mar | 325 |
| ONE NIGHT STAND New piece by Nick Underwood | Glasgow, Tron | 23 Mar | 27 Mar | 333 |
| ROMEO AND JULIET Revival of play by Shakespeare (RSC) | Stratford-upon-Avon, Courtyard | 18 Mar | 27 Aug | 311 |
| SICK New piece by Theatre Modo | Cumbernauld | 19 Mar | 19 Mar | 330 |
| SISTERS New play by Stephanie Street | Sheffield, Crucible | 16 Mar | 27 Mar | 319 |
