Written and premiered in the early 1940s while WW2 raged on and the prospect of losing a precious loved one at short notice felt like a very real possibility, Noël Coward’s ghostly comedy is, perhaps not surprisingly, the first of ‘The Master’s plays to be seen in the West End post-pandemic.
‘This time the thrill was different & unexpected’: BLITHE SPIRIT – Harold Pinter Theatre ★★★★
In Richard Eyre’s briskly directed production Jennifer Saunders stands out. Her Arcati is draggled but not cartoonish: donnishly dishevelled, earnestly scholarly rather than exaggeratedly nuts.
NEWS: Blithe Spirit starring Jennifer Saunders returns to the West End in September 2021
Theatre Royal Bath Productions, Lee Dean and Jonathan Church Theatre Productions have announced the West End return of Noël Coward’s classic comedy Blithe Spirit, directed by Richard Eyre and starring Jennifer Saunders.
10 wish-list productions for future National Theatre At Home screenings
Following on from the instant success of National Theatre At Home streaming event, it’s got me thinking about all the other wonderful NT Live screenings that I’d love to come to the small screen as part of this series. I have narrowed it down to my top 10.
‘Jennifer Saunders’ performance will not disappoint’: BLITHE SPIRIT – Touring & West End
The psychology of Blithe Spirit snaps convincingly into place in Richard Eyre’s production while at the same time it fully utilises every opportunity to make the audience laugh.
NEWS: UK tour & West End run announced for Blithe Spirit starring Jennifer Saunders
Noël Coward’s classic comedy Blithe Spirit, directed by Richard Eyre and starring Jennifer Saunders, will return next year for a UK tour followed by a strictly limited six-week engagement at the West End’s Duke of York’s Theatre following a celebrated reception at the Theatre Royal Bath earlier this summer.
‘Saunders is outrageously good but then so are the rest of the cast’: BLITHE SPIRIT – Bath ★★★★
If I could look into Madame Arcati’s crystal ball I think I would see a West End transfer on the cards for Richard Eyre’s playful production of Blithe Spirit.
‘A stylish restoration’: THE WAY OF THE WORLD – Donmar Warehouse ★★★★
The latest Restoration comedy on offer in London is the Donmar Warehouse’s sumptuous production of William Congreve’s The Way of the World that stretches into the night for more than three hours.
‘A superlative production’: THE WAY OF THE WORLD – Donmar Warehouse
This is a stylish, yet thoroughly accessible, production that is full of energy and a joyous satirical thrust that never obscures the real human emotions at the story’s core. Let’s hope that this production is the first of many Restoration revivals.
‘Plenty of potential here’: THE WAY OF THE WORLD – Donmar Warehouse
The Donmar’s new version of William Congreve’s play has plenty of musings on marriage and the role of women which still feel extremely pertinent; it just needs to even out the tone to make this restoration comedy really fizz.
Haydn Gwynne replaces Linda Bassett in The Way of The World at the Donmar Warehouse
Haydn Gwynne will be playing the role of Lady Wishfort at the Donmar Warehouse in James Macdonald’s new revival of William Congreve’s Restoration comedy The Way of The World, replacing Linda Bassett who has had to withdraw from the production.
‘Intelligent, sharp, eloquent, humane’: CELL MATES – Hampstead Theatre ★★★★★
All honour to Ed Hall for reviving it now in his theatre, fretfully apt in the age of Putin and cyberspying and just as the Death of Stalin film is creeping us out in cinemas.
Cell Mates: ‘We are endlessly fascinated by spies & betrayal’
We are endlessly fascinated by spies and the nature of betrayal. For those who knew the men spying for Russia in the mid-Twentieth Century, more than country or ideology, it is the personal treacheries that still rankle.
NEWS: Geoffrey Streatfeild returns to Hampstead to star in Simon Gray’s Cell Mates
Geoffrey Streatfeild and Irish actor Emmet Byrne star in the first revival of Simon Gray’s Cell Mates, which hasn’t been performed since Stephen Fry famously walked out of the 1995 premiere production, in which he co-starred with Rik Mayall, after three days due to stage fright.
NEWS: Geoffrey Streatfeild returns to Hampstead to star in Simon Gray’s Cell Mates
Geoffrey Streatfeild and Irish actor Emmet Byrne star in the first revival of Simon Gray’s Cell Mates, which hasn’t been performed since Stephen Fry famously walked out of the 1995 premiere production, in which he co-starred with Rik Mayall, after three days due to stage fright.
WILD HONEY – Hampstead Theatre
Where Ivanov, The Seagull and Uncle Vanya mull, the youthfully fresh and fashionably unfinished Platonov rattles along like the TGV. Michael Frayn has reversioned the work into something incredibly lean.
NEWS: Geoffrey Streatfeild leads Wild Honey cast at Hampstead Theatre
Running at the theatre from 2 December until 14 January 2017, Michael Frayn’s Wild Honey will be directed by Hampstead’s Associate Artist Howard Davies. The full cast has now been announced.
YOUNG CHEKHOV – National Theatre
This trilogy, transferred from Chichester is an epic: a thrilling voyage through time to the earliest days of Anton Chekhov. And, if it is not too philistine a thing to murmur, it will draw to him even those people who don’t fire up with excitement at the later masterpieces – especially the often morosely played The Cherry Orchard and Three Sisters.
THE BEAUX’ STRATAGEM – National Theatre
Towering staircases and sliding panels transform the big stage from tavern to genteel house, with a pleasingly inexplicable intermittent folk-band lurking on the top landing. Here for two and a half frenzied hours Simon Godwin zingily interprets George Farquar’s Restoration comedy with a cast of 21, not one part a dud. It is farce bordering on panto, edged with songs, enlivened with scuffles, glorified with random absurdities and containing a hard nugget of feminist polemic.
Review: My Night With Reg (Donmar Warehouse)
As a comedy about gay sex and the importance of protection, it’s unwittingly symbolic that My Night With Reg starts with a young painter and decorator recklessly glossing conservatory woodwork without a sheet to collect his white splashes. It’s also brilliant that such a modern morality play should be set in a theatrically conventional living room with […]
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