It’s all elegantly if slightly laboriously done in studied anachronistic style, delivered facing out to the audience as if emphasising precisely its decorative home.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: A Woman of No Importance at the Vaudeville Theatre
Eve Best stars in this new production of A Woman of No Importance, launching Dominic Dromgoole’s year-long Oscar Wilde season at the West End’s Vaudeville Theatre. It runs until 30 December 2017. What have critics been saying about it?
A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE – West End ★★★
A Woman of No Importance is the most Shavian of Wilde’s plays – in fact with a slight reshuffling of the cast the same company could present Bernard Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession also produced in 1893 and wherein the same issue of parentage is concealed.
A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE – West End ★★★★
At its heart is Eve Best: mournful and troubled in black velvet, hair tumbling, a humble church-mouse amid the quipping brittle socialites. Her wronged Mrs Arbuthnot is the emotional and moral core of the play.
News & interesting titbits: Globe & Bush staffing changes, Long Day’s Journey transfer
You go away for a week, hoping they’ll put any exciting news on hold but no, there were headlines aplenty…
Michelle Terry being revealed as Emma Rice’s successor as Artistic Director of the Globe. I think this is a brave and inspired choice, for Terry is a deeply intelligent actor.
NEWS: Anne Reid joins Eve Best in Wilde season opener A Woman of No Importance
Last Tango in Halifax star Anne Reid will play Lady Hunstanton, alongside Eve Best as Mrs Arbuthnot, in A Woman of No Importance at the West End’s Vaudeville Theatre from 6 October to 30 December 2017.
NEWS: Dromgoole stages year-long Oscar Wilde season in West End, Eve Best opens
Classic Spring, a new theatre company from former Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe Dominic Dromgoole, today announces first casting and creatives for a year-long celebration of Oscar Wilde at the West End’s Vaudeville Theatre, starting in October with Eve Best in A Woman of No Importance.
LOVE IN IDLENESS – West End
It is Eve Best as Olivia who dazzles her way through the production. She positively bursts with energy and is a delight to watch, capturing Olivia’s ditziness perfectly as well as her dilemma at having to choose between son and lover – particularly when her son has given her such a horrid choice.
LOVE IN IDLENESS – West End
I’m glad I returned as I found myself enjoying the play a lot more second time round. Taking it for what it is, which is a Rattigan curiosity rather than a revelatory (re)discovery, this light-hearted comedy is actually an interesting addition to the West End’s early summer.
LOVE IN IDLENESS – West End
It’s the 1940s. Olivia Brown awaits the return of her 18-year-old son Michael, whom she has not seen for four years. Whilst he’s been away, his father has died and Olivia has found love with a successful arms manufacturer, Sir John Fletcher.
LOVE IN IDLENESS – West End
With its brilliantly witty script and fantastic characters, Love in Idleness has plenty to offer those who are in need of gentle but ultimately affectionate entertainment and Trevor Nunn has created a classy production that really enhances the comical elements.
LOVE IN IDLENESS – Menier Chocolate Factory
The rehabilitation of playwright Terence Rattigan has surpassed even the stage when not only are his best plays regularly revived, but also his less good work now reaches a large audience. So last year his masterpiece The Deep Blue Sea was at the National Theatre, while the enterprising Kenneth Branagh revived Harlequinade for the West End in November 2015.
LOVE IN IDLENESS – Menier Chocolate Factory
The rehabilitation of playwright Terence Rattigan has surpassed even the stage when not only are his best plays regularly revived, but also his less good work now reaches a large audience. So last year his masterpiece The Deep Blue Sea was at the National Theatre, while the enterprising Kenneth Branagh revived Harlequinade for the West End in November 2015.
NEWS: Menier’s Love in Idleness follows Travesties to West End’s Apollo
The Menier Chocolate Factory today announces the West End transfer of their current critically acclaimed revival of Terence Rattigan’s Love in Idleness, directed by Trevor Nunn and starring Eve Best and Anthony Head.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Love in Idleness at Menier Chocolate Factory
Trevor Nunn directs this revival of Terence Rattigan’s comedy which stars Eve Best, Helen George, Anthony Head and Edward Bluemel. Here is what critics have been saying about it.
LOVE IN IDLENESS – Menier Chocolate Factory
Overlord of all that is authentic in British theatre, Trevor Nunn is now further redefining authenticity by presenting us with a Terence Rattigan premiere, cobbled together from two pre-existing versions of the same play.
LOVE IN IDLENESS – Menier Chocolate Factory
Eve Best is a marvel, whether in real pain, resignation, maternal yearning or brittle gaiety (“There’s no situation in the world that can’t be passed off with small-talk!”). Anthony Head is her match, absolutely.
NEWS: Anthony Head & Eve Best star in Rattigan’s Love in Idleness
Anthony Head and Eve Best star in Trevor Nunn’s major new revival of Terence Rattigan’s Love in Idleness at the Menier Chocolate Factory.