Some forthcoming theatre ideas

So here are some ideas of stuff that is on now that I have enjoyed and some stuff that is coming up that I think will be tip-top for various reasons. Sorry it is a bit random as I have only just got going on this so we are sort of mid season as it were. Hopefully though it may save you ploughing through all the websites and other stuff.

Top picks (more detail below)

• Much Ado About Nothing at Theatre Royal Haymarket – not long left (like literally a couple of days) so a last minute treat
• My Brilliant Friend – based on the Elena Ferrante novels – we have seen Part 1 which was brilliant in my view (though my lady chums were less bowled over) – at the Rose Kingston
• Grounded at the Gate Theatre – now booking through March
• Ink at the Almeida Theatre – now booking for July/Aug but getting full so get your skates on
• The Suppliant Women at the Young Vic – now booking for late November
• Obsession at the Barbican Theatre – now booking for mid April/May – still some availability
• Against at the Almeida – dates just announced with booking opening in May – see below for details but I think this will be an absolute scorcher
• Macbeth at the National Theatre next year – keep your eye on the website

Overall there are a lot of classic US plays coming up generally, plenty of funked up Shakespeare and lots of state of the nation plays as us well off luvvy lefties always like to wring our hands when the world doesn’t do what we want …

Anyway I have tried to give a flavor of what to expect ordered by venue.

National Theatre

Coming up though not yet booking or performance dates.

• Follies – Summer 2017 – Sondheim musical with Imelda Staunton – she was barnstorming in Gypsy and is wowing the critics in the Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf which I am seeing soon. Now I have some problems with musical theatre which will no doubt be revealed in time but this will be a blinder I think – though I don’t know Follies. Anyway if you like musicals it is a must – West End transfer written all over it.

• Network – Nov 2017 – based on the classic 70s film comedy about a failing TV network – will be directed by Ivo van Hove (genius normally) and with that Bryan Cranston from Breaking Bad in the lead – check out the film but really what’s not to like here.

• Mosquitoes – July 2017 – new play by Lucy Kirkwood who wrote the magnificent Chimerica and with Olivia Colman in the cast – two sisters and the search for the Higgs boson – so sounds like another of the big science vs human relationships plays which are currently de rigeur.

• Macbeth – not until Spring 2018 but this will be mandatory attendance in my view with Rory Kinnear and Anne Marie Duff as the naughty couple and directed by Rufus Norris. I am literally shaking with excitement already at this.

• Amadeus is coming back in 2018 – for me a 4/5 (the Mozart was a bit “off” for me) but if you know/like the film then well worth it.

Coming up … these are already booking.

• Twelfth Night – Shakespeare twins, cross dressing, mistaken identities, comic mayhem – you know the gig – Tamsin Greig as Malvolia just to shake it up even more – plenty of availability in April/early May – reviews are very good.

• Angels in America – sold out – the big event of the year at NT – cracking cast lead by Andrew Garfield and Denise Gough – the defining American play of the 1980s BUT 7 hours (over 2 parts) of very wordy, philosophical stuff means I will take one for the team when I go – it will be shown live in the cinema on 20^th and 27^th July – if you put the effort in a big reward but you will likely have something better to do with your life

• Consent – availability in May – play by Nina Raine who is very good – a legal case with ramifications for both lawyers – hard to tell if this will be a winner or not but worth a pop I think – enough availability but getting tighter.

• Salome – this is written by Yoel Farber South Africa’s leading director/playwright – based on the eponymous biblical story – transfer from US with decent reviews – I saw her production of Les Blancs last year which was terrific – expect it to look great, be wordy, have contemporary parallels – only 90 minutes.

• Common – written by DC Moore about whom I know nothing – sounds like a bit of a romp – set around Industrial Revolution and time of land enclosure – with Anne Marie Duff as lead who I would watch doing the ironing for 3 hours she is so good – I think this will be a cracker but may not be for everyone.

Barbican Theatres

No doubt many will be disappointed that Roman Tragedies is sold out – 6.5 hours of the 3 Roman Shakespeare plays mashed up in Dutch with audience participation – but after seeing Kings Of War by the same bunch last year I cannot wait. So any returns should be snapped up.

Looking forward at the Barbican we have the following all with plenty of tickets available when I last looked.

• The Winters Tale – Cheek by Jowl production which spices up the classic Shakespeare tale of jealousy and partial redemption and gets it down to a manageable length – early reviews from tour are unsurprisingly good.

• Obsession – I have banged on about this to my mates for some time but I have high hopes for this – based on the Visconti film which is the same plot as the Postman Always Rings Twice (drifter’s impact on ill matched couple) – with Jude Law as Gino and directed by Ivo van Hove with some of his Toneelgroep Amsterdam ensemble in the cast (who are brilliant) – but thankfully in English not Dutch this time – there are a handful of tickets left.

• The Tempest – this is the RSC transfer with Simon Russell Beale (probably the greatest living stage actor – discuss) as Prospero and with all the techno 3D stuff – very good reviews if not outstanding – it’s the Tempest so you can’t go wrong.

• After the Rehearsal/The Persona – last of Toneelgroep/Van Hove in this season – two plays based on Bergman films about lives of actors – muted reviews from US showings – if I am honest this is probably going to be hard work so I won’t be heartbroken if you don’t listen to me on this one.

FYI for those interested loads of dance stuff at the Barbican and if anyone ever fancies seeing actors of the future act in the Guildhall School the final year productions for just a tenner at Milton Court are always worth a look.

Young Vic

Always worth taking a punt with anything at the Young Vic – though I normally steer a little clear of some of the more challenging material.

Recently announced is the A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – a Young Vic production but showing in Apollo Theatre which makes it a bit pricier (Stalls £65) – the big draw is that Sienna Miller as Maggie who I gather gets in the papers and a chap called Jack O’Connell as Brick (he is apparently in Skins of which I know nothing) – for me thought the key is Benedict Andrews directing – he was behind the Young Vic’s A Streetcar Named Desire from a couple of years ago with Gillian Anderson as Blanche and was storming – so I think worth investigating.

Coming up for me the most interesting are …

• Life of Galileo – the life of the scientist as he argues with the nasty Catholic Church – tough to tell if this will work – Young Vic historically does Brecht well but it might also be bloody annoying – has Brendan Cowell in the lead who played opposite Billie Piper in the Yerma from last year (which is/was extraordinary).

• Wings – Juliet Stevenson plays a woman recovering from a stroke – she can do this sort of role in her sleep so should be good – I saw her in Happy Days (the Beckett play where she is buried up to the neck) and she made that work (Beckett normally makes me want to bang my head against the wall).

• The Suppliant Women – this is the one at the Young Vic I am really looking forward to – if you haven’t done any Greek plays (Aeschylus in this case) zuzzed up for today’s world then start here – got great reviews in Edinburgh last year – and like all the Greek plays reminds you that all the issues were the same 2500 years ago – in this case the issues around asylum seekers.

The revival of last year’s Yerma is sold out but will be in cinemas in August. If you haven’t seen it then you must – no excuses even if you don’t get on with the cinema screenings.

Royal Court Theatre

So tickets now on sale for the final part of this years RC season in addition to the earlier stuff below. The RC never gives much away on the website as to the content of the productions but here goes. Bodies by Vivienne Franzmann looks like it is about surrogacy, B is by Guillermo Calderon is another new work from a leading Chilean playwright which looks like it examines the limits of insurrection and finally Victory Condition another new play where I simply can’t work about the theme from the teaser !!

The Ferryman – the new play by Jez Butterworth who wrote Jerusalem which is a modern classic from a few years back which had that nice Mark Rylance in the lead role – this is sold out at the Royal Court but there is already a West End transfer to the Gielgud Theatre – directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty and the last Bond films) who has done musicals but not stage plays – with the great Paddy Considine in the cast and set in rural Ireland in the 1980s Troubles (I suspect there will be lots of politics here) – so all up there is a lot of hype but likely to deliver.

Of the other plays in the current season I would point to …

• The Kid Stays in the Picture – I don’t know if this is going to work – a tale of the rise and fall of a Hollywood producer called Robert Evans – I am going because it is being directed by Simon McBurney the man behind Complicite who is a genius.

• Anatomy of a Suicide – I have a feeling the clue is in the title so no comedy here – but Katie Mitchell is directing – who excels in any dark stuff.

• Road – a revival of a classic “in yer face” 1980s play by Jim Cartwright set Up North – lots of menace and violence

• Killology – new play about on line gaming and moral consequences it seems.

Almeida Theatre

So the new play by Christopher Shinn (Other People, Dying City, Now or Later, Teddy Ferrara) who is a massive luvvies favourite has been announced – it is called Against and will be directed by Ian Rickson and will have the lovely Ben Wishaw in the lead – if you have never seen Wishaw on stage then with all due respect you are a numpty – he is brilliant though I have a bit of a crush on him I admit – anyway here’s the blurb from the website.

Silicon Valley. The future. A rocket launches.

Luke is an aerospace billionaire who can talk to anyone. But God is talking to him. He sets out to change the world. Only violence stands in his way.

Now to me that sound bloody fantastic so I will stab a guess this will sell fast – booking opens in May for performances in second half August and through September.

The Hamlet with Andrew Scott (Moriarty in Sherlock) is sold out though if you can be bothered returns do pop up but that is all a bit random – I assume it will have a cinema screening anyway and I’ll take a punt that there will be a transfer if the cast can do it. I thought it was brilliant – the best Hamlet I have ever seen will everyone else matching him. The best Shakespeare I have seen bar the Othello at the National a few years back. Mind you I am no expert but I cannot imagine a production or performance of greater clarity. Still not much use me saying that now.

I do highly recommend INK by James Graham who wrote This House, which is about Parliamentary politics in the 1970s and is a brilliant play – this new play is about Murdoch setting up The Sun and should be a very funny satire – directed by Rupert Goold. No cast yet but it is the Almeida so bound to be cracking. Tickets left later in the run so just get in there.

The other interesting play in the new season is a revival of The Treatment by Martin Crimp – set in 90s New York this is a bit of a miserable goriest i gather so maybe not for everyone.

Donmar Warehouse

So it looks like both Limehouse a new play about the foundation of the Social Democrat party (for those or us fascinated by UK politics) and the The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (another Brecht play out the rise of a demagogue – sound familiar?) with Lenny Henry are sold out – I might expect Arturo Ai to have a cinema screening if you are interested in that sort of thing.

Old Vic Theatre

Woyzeck – classic German expressionist play about a poor unfortunate which is being updated to Cold War Berlin – John Boyega in the lead directed by Jack Thorne – should be very good though not everything that is on at the Old Vic under Matthew Warchus has been perfect in my view but always worth going.

Girl from the North Country – new play from Conor McPherson (if you have never seen his play The Weir then you must) with Bob Dylan songs (oops) and set in Great Depression mid West – I am liking the sound of this.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead – revival of the classic early Tom Stoppard with that Daniel Radcliffe – now there are times when Stoppard is so clever it just wizzes over my head so I will have to see about this – but it it’s a classic modern comedy – reviews are generally very good.

Hampstead Theatre

Hampstead is a bit hit and miss like the Old Vic though less expensive when you make a mistake as I have done.

I think Filthy Business looks the most interesting – Jewish family comedy with Sara Kestelman as the matriarch – she was very good in the Kushner play Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide …. (see Angels of America above) last year at Hampstead.

The other two are Occupational Hazards, the memoir of a UK diplomat in newly liberated Iraq, and Gloria, comedy set in a US publishing house – not sure about either though I will go.

Fringe Theatres

I have found since I wound down from work that pitching up to a fringe theatre especially the little ones above pubs is one of life’s greatest pleasures – and if anyone wants to compound this pleasure by skiving off work for an afternoon then get on with it – take a look at the websites for details – and generally all this for £20 or less

Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond – my “local” and probably all up my favourite theatre – though I often end up at matinees with a bunch of pensioners who may not always be envisaged target audience – anyway I recommend  the The Lottery of Love (classic French comedy of manners by Marivaux which is to be set in Austen England – think couples, misunderstandings and heaving cleavage) and An Octeroon (look at the website as this is hard to describe!)

Southwark Playhouse – The Cardinal – Southwark Playhouse now a firm favourite of mine – this is a revival of a Restoration tragedy about guess what a C16 Spanish Cardinal – I am going 16^th May – there is also an early Sam Shepherd revival Lie of the Mind which I am mulling over whether to see and The Island which I understand is a fine play set in apartheid South Africa.

Park Theatre, Finsbury Park – I like the sound of Madame Rubinstein (Miriam Margoyles plays the founder of Estee Lauder) and Twitstorm (tweets go wrong) and thinking about A Clockwork Orange for those who know the Burgess book/Kubrick film (though it sounds a bit full on).

Gate Theatre, Notting Hill – Grounded (a drone pilot and mother) was very well reviewed from last year so they are putting it back on – The Gate puts on brilliant stuff – though it is a tad uncomfortable for a big fella like me but then everything there is so good that it hasn’t mattered.

Finborough Theatre, Earls Court – Tiny but brilliant venue – I am looking at You’re Human Like the Rest of Them and will go to Incident at Vichy – both revivals of neglected or early works which is the theatre’s forte (as it is for the Orange Tree)

Arcola Theatre in Dalston – there is a Cherry Orchard – initial reviews are mixed but the boy Chekhov normally rises above directors and performers to deliver a worthwhile couple of hours – the new season has some goodies (at least as far as I am concerned) – in particular an adaption of Marlowe’s Tamburlaine by a British East Asian women’s company, a version of Camus’ The Plague and a Richard III with Greg Hicks, a veteran Shakespearean – the Arcola £50 for 5 tickets passport deal is an absolute steal (at least for those who can contemplate getting to hipster Dalston five times in a year).

Elsewhere I keep my eye on Theatre 503 in Battersea (Escape the Scaffold looks interesting), the Tricycle in Kilburn (which is being refurbished but is wonderful), Print Room Coronet (a Babette’s Feast for those of you who know the brilliant Danish film based on the book by Karen Blixen) and some others.

“Outer” and Other Theatres

In terms of “outer” and other London venues I watch the following

Rose Theatre Kingston – I have seen/am seeing the My Brilliant Friend Parts 1 and 2 based on the Elena Ferrante novels, a Guardian readers’ favourite though wI have not read them – the Rose can be hit or miss but it is on the doorstep so I go to most things not aimed at pensioners – I have seen Part 1 and I absolutely loved it but some lady friends were less sure. More to follow on this.

Richmond Theatre – it does put on pre West End try-outs and touring productions as well as some awful crap – but it pays to wait – I have seen The Miser (the Moliere play with Griff Rhys Jones and that Lee Mack) which will go to West End – a 3/5 for me – like most of the director Sean Foley’s recent plays I have seen, he mines enough humour from the material but it is not overwhelmingly funny – aims high but falls a little short.

I am still thinking about Gabriel (a wartime melodrama by Moira Buffini who wrote Handbagged which is a goodish play), the Crucible (though don’t know the production details) and most importantly Abigail’s Party – I assume everyone knows the genius of Mike Leigh’s 70s classic but if you don’t YouTube can enlighten you.

Greenwich Theatre – I am espying but have not yet booked a production of Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Hysteria by Terry Johnson (his play Dead Funny is currently West End and is very clever and funny).

Lyric Hammersmith – can be relied upon for properly controversial revivals (and excellent stuff for kids) but not much coming up right now – other than City of Glass (based on the Paul Auster novels) which has had goodish reviews before coming here. The new season has a Ibsen Seagull and a play called Terror which I am looking into. More to follow.

Globe Theatre – I avoid the Globe because it is just too bloody uncomfortable others may be made of sterner stuff – take a look at the new Spring/Summer season on the website – the Boudica tempts me a bit.

Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park – on a balmy summer’s evening it doesn’t get much better than this – I fancy  The Tale of Two Cities (a new version) in July – they are also doing an Oliver Twist for littluns and reviving their Jesus Christ Superstar (I draw the line here but others may be interested).

For those who have never experienced Wilton’s Music Hall there is a well reviewed Othello coming up transferring from Bristol. I think this sounds good and mercifully succinct.

West End Theatres

I have an aversion to most West End theatres as they are too expensive and the seats are generally terrible – and all the tourist tat stuff needs to be avoided – but I will keep tabs as the one good thing is that you get loads of advance warning pre booking opens – also I am perfecting the art of holding back until the discounters come in – so watch out for late booking ideas.

Just announced is a revival of the Philanthropist a comedy by Christopher Hampton he of Les Liaisons Dangereueses fame – I don’t know it but it has a cast aimed to pull in the youngsters so I will give it a whirl – mind you at the Trafalgar Studios which is both uncomfortable and expensive in my view …

On that front I highly recommend the RSC production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Theatre Royal Haymarket on right now – ends mid Mar so only a couple of nights left – it is lovely, v funny, lines cut to the bone so only a couple of hours ex interval – sets and costumes are a treat – set post WW1 in a country house which works – the Benedick and the Beatrice are perfectly cast – if you have ever thought Shakespeare comedies aren’t actually funny this will prove you wrong.

Looking forward I am booked to see the following, which should all be good (and some are revivals/transfers so good reviews already)

Apollo Theatre – Travesties – this is the transfer from the Menier Chocolate Factory of the early Stoppard play directed by Patrick Marber and with that Tom Hollander – like all Stoppard it is a bit smartarse and a lot went over my head but I enjoyed it even so.

Wyndhams Theatre – Don Juan in Soho – revival directed by the ubiquitous Patrick Marber with David Tennant as the dirty Don who puts it about with the ladies – Moliere updated – strong reviews first time round.

Harold Pinter Theatre – Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf – Martha, George, Nick and Honey get p*ssed up and shouty – you know the film no doubt – with the mighty Imelda Staunton as Martha – and James Macdonald a particular favourite of mine is directing. So the reviews suggest this is outstanding so I think there is no excuse here. I am looking forward immensely.

Theatre Royal Haymarket – The Goat or Who is Sylvia – another Edward Albee play (see WAOVW above) about a bloke who falls for a goat (well actually a bit more than that you will be pleased to hear) – with that Damien Lewis and best of all Sophie Okonedo (if you have not seen her playing Margaret in Hollow Crown 2 then you must – right now – in fact buy the DVDs of this and HC 1 – tell the rest of the family to f**k off – and sit and watch it right the way through – now that is a mini-series – stuff your Game of Thrones – and give or take it actually all happened – well maybe there is a whiff or propaganda from big Will S).

Duke of Yorks – The Glass Menagerie – usual Tennessee Williams fare (Southern matriarch, family a mess, new arrival) directed by Scotland’s finest John Tiffany. I loved it despite sitting a bit too far away.

 Right that’s your lot.