At Home He Feels Like A Tourist

Tag: National Theatre

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  Catching up (Part 4)

  January 2021 to April 2021 The novelty of digital entertainment by now very much worn off but, fortunately, there were plenty of other worthwhile distractions (the return of birdwatching after four decades perhaps the most surprising) for the Tourist to mask the lack of live cultural stimulation. (And travel, which…

  November 10, 2021
• Acting art Capitalism Classical Music Classics Comedy Concert Contemporary Classical Culture Electronics England Exhibition Feminism Fiction Film Fringe Gender Generations Identity Love Memory Monarchy Monologue Novel Opera Pantomime Photography Politics Poverty Power Race Satire Sexuality Shakespeare Space Theatre Truth War

  Catching up (Part 3)

  April 2020 to December 2020 In which the Tourist condenses down 2020, in and out of lockdown, mostly watching stuff on a screen. Don’t worry he also took walks, saw punters when permitted and growled at the state of his disappointing nation, but it is only now he is back…

  November 5, 2021
• Culture Film Shakespeare Theatre

  My favourite lockdown theatre so far and to look forward to

  If you are, like me, a well-to-do theatre nut, missing the real thing, trying, unlike me, to fit in the panicking, worrying, exercising, zooming, reading, binge watching, baking, eating, on-line shopping, goal-satisfying, caring, and maybe working, then you have probably already been overwhelmed by the streaming opportunities already served up…

  May 13, 2020
• Culture Feminism Georgian History Justice London Patriarchy Suffolk Theatre

  The Welkin at the National Theatre review ****

  The Welkin National Theatre Lyttleton, 4th February 2020 Rural Suffolk. 1759. A court case. There was only ever going to be one companion for the Tourist’s visit to see The Welkin. Step forward MS. A Tractor Boy by upbringing, if not birth, and an expert on all things legal and…

  April 23, 2020
• Colonialism Culture Family London Nationhood Nigeria Theatre War

  Three Sisters at the National Theatre review ***

  Three Sisters National Theatre Lyttleton, 9th December 2019 Opportunity partially missed I am afraid. Inua Ellams has come up with a brilliant idea by transporting Chekhov to 1960s Nigeria, specifically during the Biafaran Civil War. Yet his urge to educate and contextualise leaves the dialogue heavy on exposition. And, in…

  January 29, 2020
• Acting Culture Dreams Fiction London Myths Stories Theatre Truth

  The Antipodes at the National Theatre review ****

  The Antipodes National Theatre Dorfman, 23rd November 2019 I’ll tell you what. That Annie Baker backs herself. Here is another long play, near 2 hours straight through, where, visually, nothing much happens, bar a properly weird interlude, and dense with word. And this time it is a story about stories,…

  January 14, 2020
• Apartheid Culture Jazz London Race South Africa Theatre

  “Master Harold” … and the boys at the National Theatre review *****

  “Master Harold” … and the boys National Theatre Lyttleton, 26th October 2019 I was surprised by this. Not by the content. Athol Fugard, like his compatriot in the plastic arts William Kentridge, has more than enough inspiration to fuel his art from the history of his nation. Master Harold, like…

  November 27, 2019
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  Barber Shop Chronicles at the Oxford Playhouse review *****

  Barber Shop Chronicles Oxford Playhouse, 10th October 2019 My regular reader is likely on the verge of giving up on the grounds that otiose attitude, (a sign of which is that I am running out of synonyms for lazy in these preamble apologies), means most of these comments take so…

  November 18, 2019
• Acting Culture Film Jazz London Manchester Relationship Theatre

  A Taste of Honey at Richmond Theatre review ***

  A Taste Of Honey Richmond Theatre, 9th October 2019 Not quite sure I know how a production such as this is taken under the wing of the National Theatre, and let’s face it it’s none of my business anyway. But I do think I can work out why this particular…

  November 17, 2019
• Agency Community Culture Economics Institution London Politics Theatre

  Faith, Hope and Charity at the National Theatre review ****

  Faith, Hope and Charity National Theatre Dorfman, 8th October 2019 I didn’t catch the first two plays in Alexander Zeldin’s trilogy, Beyond Caring (zero hours contracts) and Love (a homeless hostel), about life for the disadvantaged in modern Britain. In fact worse that that I didn’t even know about them.…

  November 17, 2019