A Twitter Encounter (and a few memories)

I’m relating how thrilling I found The Tartuffe to Corinne, and enthusing about how great it was to see a production that actually made you want to stand and cheer. We happen to be sitting at the Globe before the performance of Henry VIII at the time.

‘You need to see the Medea I saw at the Arcola last year, they’re brining it back. That was one of those.’

The conversation reminds me of something I read on Twitter a couple of days ago. ‘Did you see where Mark Shenton asked about theatrical productions which changed your life?’

‘Yes,…’ before Corinne could develop this much further, the chap seated directly in front of us turned.

‘I’m Mark Shenton’.

I have one of those slightly heart stopping moments. Well, we had been saying good things about him. We start chatting, and he asks what our theatrical ‘moments’ were. Of course, once asked, I can't come up with any one production, and just mutter, ‘oh, probably something at the RSC’, wishing I could be more specific.

Well, in hindsight, I can, so here goes. They are all RSC, they are all 1980’s, but they’ve remained in my memory whilst later performances have faded. Life changing, in that without my visits to the theatre in Stratford, moving to work, and live, in the West Midlands wouldn't have even been a consideration.

My first is Much Ado About Nothing, RST, 1982, Derek Jacobi and Sinead Cusack. It was my first visit to see a production in the main house, and I was utterly spellbound from start to finish. It was beautiful to look at, and the main performances just stunning. For a long time, all subsequent Benedick and Beatrice's were measured against that memory, and there are still things about it which I don’t think I’ve ever seen done better. I'd seen RSC productions on tour, but I think this was the one that made me utterly fall in love with Stratford, and the RSC, and feel that I needed to go there as often as I could.

My second is Les Liaisons Dangereuses at The Other Place in 1985. Again, a first visit, this time to TOP, when it was still a tin hut. An incredible cast, Alan Rickman, Lindsay Duncan, Juliet Stevenson, Fiona Shaw, Lesley Manville. At times I felt I was holding my breath for how the story would unfold. Looking back at my diary from the time, I described the experience as ‘like eavesdropping on the private intrigues between the protagonists’*. I’ve seen Les Liaisons a couple of times since, but I doubt any production will have the impact and power of that first production.

My third is The Fair Maid of the West in the Swan Theatre, 1986, it’s first season. An ensemble production of a not particularly great play but so full of energy and the sheer joy of life that it was another standing ovation show. It used the Swan space brilliantly taking the audience from shore, to shipboard, to pirate attack, to Morocco and back to Cornwall. Wonderful also because it was so unexpected. Again a great cast, Imelda Staunton, Sean Bean, Simon Russell Beale, Pete Postlethwaite. For many years it held the record of the show I’d seen the most, as I saw it 6 times.

There are many others which I’ve loved. Nicholas Nickleby, (the revival, not the original, as I wasn’t lucky enough to see that), The Plantagenet’s, through to The Glorious Moment of all the History plays. I know I’m incredibly lucky to have seen some of the great productions, and performances, of the past 25 years** but often it isn’t the individual performance which stays in the memory, it’s the company, the ensemble.

*which goes to show that I’ve been a diarist for a long time, and also a long term theatresnob
** which however you look at it is a pretty scary time span (and yes, I do know that it’s 28 years since 1982)

Immersive Theatre

I knew I was going to enjoy Belt Up Theatre’s The Tartuffe when we were standing in the theatre bar, and members of the cast were mingling amongst us. We chatted with clowns, ladies in corsets, mimes, and the great actor Orgon Poquelin (who was a little put out that we didn’t realise that he was the star of the show), and a chap who asked our names, which we obligingly told him.

As we went to take our seats in the second row of the stalls, the same guy was learning over the edge of the circle, and announced to all the audience ‘here ladies and gentlemen, we have Val and Julie, who have just entered’, of course, we took a bow, and took our seats.

What I hadn’t realised was that we were attending the very final performance of The Tartuffe, and over the last couple of years, and performances in York, Edinburgh, and London, this show has gained it’s own cult following. Belt Up’s style is Immersive Theatre, and for this last show, there were a lot of people who had seen it before, and were happy to get involved. Most people on the front row were dragged up on stage in some way. I was, of course, kicking myself that we were on the second row.

It was, quite simply, the best production I’ve seen for some time, funny, clever, very irreverent*, with enough theatre ‘in-jokes’ to make a theatresnob happy, and then some.

By the end, the whole of the audience were on their feet, as Orgon died, and was lifted aloft like a dead Christ. The cheering went on for some time. This time, I didn’t begrudge the standing ovation, they deserved it. They’re in residence at York Theatre Royal, and I’ll definitely be seeking out what they do next. Also, they have a blog.
Seek them out people, you won’t regret it.

*Though I think I laughed more than most at the bits that were lifted straight out of JCS

New colleagues

I’m asking directions. This is happening a lot at present as I start to find my way around the city (even though I have, of course, bought a map).

‘I think it’s near the theatre. Hull Truck I mean, not the New Theatre. I’ve not been there yet, I’ll have to see what’s on’

New colleague ‘I’ve never been there…well, to either of them actually.’

Me: (shocked voice) ‘what, never?’

NC ‘No’

‘We’ll have to change that, (by way of explanation), I'm a bit of a theatre buff*'.

I may have moved across the country, but I guess not much changes in how much I have in common with those I work with.

*I know, understatement of the decade. At least I didn’t go for ‘snob’ from the start, they can work that one out as we go along.

It makes the theatre snob in me quite proud

I heard from my lovely ex-boss last week. This is the boss who had only ever seen two theatre productions in his life. As a life-long Hull City fan, Confessions of a City Supporter, and then a few years later on a trip to London, We Will Rock You (yes, I did mock). When I used to rave about the magic of live theatre, he always told me that theatre wasn’t for him, as it was ‘posh’.

In an email about work, he also told me that he had started going to the theatre, and sounded quite excited about it. He had recently see Blood Brothers, Billy Elliot and even Jerusalem (ahead of me there). He went on to say that he had also booked for Phantom of the Opera, Thriller (I will allow him an ‘off’ day) and The 39 Steps.

It was lovely to read his final comments: ‘Have really enjoyed all of them and I can absolutely now see why you love the Theatre so much’.

Awww!

Overheard in a theatre bar

I’m waiting to be served, and eyeing up a piece of ginger cake (which confirms that the diet is so far going nowhere fast), when I casually tune in to the conversation in front of me. It seems the server has recognised the customer

‘Hello, do you remember me, we were in Titus Andronicus together?’
‘Oh yes, I was Saturninus, the Roman Emperor, and you were...?’
‘I was one of Tamora’s son’s…I ended up in a pie’

When it’s my turn he sees I’m smiling at the conversation.
‘You don’t hear a conversation about Titus Andronicus very often’, I say.
‘Did you see it?’ he asks. He has that look of an actor who's thinking they might get a bit of praise. I guess it’s a reasonable expectation, given how infrequently it's performed. I know I’m going to disappoint him, and out myself as a theatre snob in the same sentence.
‘No, I saw it at the Globe, it was one of the plays I still had to tick off on my list’.