At Home He Feels Like A Tourist

  • Wings at the Young Vic review ****

    Wings Young Vic Theatre, 18th October 2017 Turns out there are a few tickets left for the final week or so of Wings. You could do worse than snapping one up. I cannot pretend it is a masterpiece, but the performance of the wonderful Juliet Stevenson, under the direction of…

  • The Cherry Orchard at Milton Court Theatre review ***

    The Cherry Orchard Milton Court Theatre, 17th October 2017 I have remarked before on the attractions of the Guildhall School final year productions. Lovely venue, clear interpretations which eschew directorial licence, and the chance to see some potential future stars of stage and screen. I must say these students are…

  • Every Brilliant Thing at the Orange Tree Theatre review ****

    Every Brilliant Thing Orange Tree Theatre, 17th October 2017 This jolly looking fellow is Jonny Donahoe. He is currently the latest incumbent in the one man show, Every Brilliant Thing, at the Orange Tree Theatre. The play was originally written by Duncan Macmillan (he of People, Places and Things, Lungs,…

  • The Comedy About a Bank Robbery at the Criterion Theatre review ****

    The Comedy About a Bank Robbery The Criterion Theatre, 15th October 2017 Abandoned by the SO, and with BD now, like MS, deep in academe, LD and I needed entertaining. The solution. A fix of Mischief Theatre. Now it is not the first time we had seen this. The whole…

  • The Wedding Present at Cadogan Hall review ****

    The Wedding Present Cadogan Hall, 14th October 2017 Regular readers of this blog (remember chums, the best clubs are exclusive) will be aware that the Tourist doesn’t really do “gigs”. It is all a bit loud for his aged ears. The number of bands/artists he would pay money to see…

  • Victory Condition at the Royal Court Theatre review **

    Victory Condition Royal Court Theatre, 12th October 2017 Apparently the writer of Victory Condition, Chris Thorpe, likes to experiment with the dramatic form. I haven’t seen Confirmation, a one man work in which he also took the lead as a white supremacist, which apparently prodded and provoked its audience. It…

  • B at the Royal Court Theatre review ***

    B Royal Court Theatre, 12th October 2017 I wasn’t entirely sure what to see from the plays on offer in this latest season at the Royal Court. I don’t know enough about the writers and the teasers on the website are exactly that, teasers. Seeing too many is an extravagance,…

  • Blade Runner 2049 film review *****

    Blade Runner 2049, 12th October 2017 Confession time. I think the original Blade Runner film is OK. Even in all the re-cut versions. Not brilliant, not a great leap forward in the cinematic science fiction genre, not a searing insight into the human condition. Just OK. Worth seeing but just…

  • The Real Thing at the Rose Theatre Kingston review ****

    The Real Thing Rose Theatre Kingston, 10th October 2017 Thinking cap donned it’s a short hop to the Rose for the next leg in my Stoppard education. And what a fine lesson this production, (shared with the Theatre Royal Bath and Cambridge Arts Theatre), tuned out to be. Once director…

  • Giulio Cesare opera at Hackney Empire review ***

    Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Parts 1 and 2 Hackney Empire, 7th October 2017 The more opera I see, the less I want to see. Yet this does not mean I don’t enjoy opera: on the contrary, when it works, it can match the best that theatre can offer in terms…

  • The Seagull at the Lyric Hammersmith review ***

    The Seagull Lyric Hammersmith, 9th October 2017 Right where I come from seagulls are a bloody menace. There are times when I feel the same way about Chekhov. You sit there thinking all his people are self-indulgent, lovelorn whingers who just need to lighten up and get a grip. But…

  • Ninagawa’s Macbeth at the Barbican Theatre review ****

    Macbeth Barbican Theatre, 8th October 2017 When I was a young’un, come to make my fortune in the Big Smoke, I was lucky enough to secure free or cut price tickets to productions at the Barbican and NT. But then, as now, I am afraid I was more “Dick” than…