Tag Archives: theatre

Jigsy in Liverpool

Posted on by

I’ve just got back from Liverpool where Jigsy has just opened to great acclaim at the fantastic Royal Court Liverpool. The response has been incredibly exciting (and not just because thanks to the great food they serve pre-show at the tables filling the stalls).

We’ve had some reviews, summaries of which I’ll be posting later, but I thought I’d share my favourite comment so far from an audience member on Les Dennis’s performance:

“Well, he hasn’t got the Alzheimer’s has he, what with remembering that speech.”

Here are the comments from our first show report from our Stage Manager Calum Wyllie:

“Utterly adorable audience – responsive, lots of laughter, and lots of chatting back. Great atmosphere and very gentle. Audience member shouted “HOUSE!” in response to the first bingo sound cue; a couple joined in with the last few words of the “when you’re drinking” song; said “aw” on “they wouldn’t let me back – they barred me after that”; someone else shouted out “hear hear” in response to “there’s always someone worse off than you”;

Full standing ovation from the first bow.”

Working on two shows at once

Posted on by

As I’ve made rather exhaustingly clear I’ve currently got a play that opens in just under three weeks at Southwark Playhouse. Rehearsals are going well and the cast certainly seem to be having a lot of fun.

But while I’m spending most of my day working on dealing with any potential problems (watch this space) that arise as we move towards opening, I’ve also been preparing my next show, which I’m pleased to announce goes on sale today. There’ll be plenty more details in the future, but for now it’s rather exciting to be working on two so exciting and so different projects.

The Second Week of Rehearsals begins…

Posted on by

We’re into the second week of rehearsals for The Hairy Ape. That was quick. In case you wanted to know what happened, our fantastic Assistant Director is writing a little rehearsal diary about what goes on in the dark, dank, depths of the rehearsal room. Hopefully with the arrival of several new heaters (thank you, Argos) mid-way through last week it’s now at least a little less dank.

We’ve also shared loads more info about the world of The Hairy Ape available on our tumblr so you can see what’s been inspiring us.

Besides the fact that we open in only three weeks time, that is…

The little things before rehearsals…

Posted on by

We start rehearsals today for The Hairy Ape. It’s pretty exciting; I’m nervous despite not actually having to do anything.

Just before leaving this morning I had a quick run over everything for the first day: rehearsal room, actors, creative team are all ready to go. Here’s a little picture of our rehearsal room:

Looking over it, I’ve suddenly realised we might have a little problem. We have a cast of 9, 2 stage managers, a director, assistant director, movement director, not to mention all the others who’ll be there for the meet and greet later this morning. But it looks like we don’t have any chairs yet.

Lucky the call isn’t until 11am. Looks like I will have to do something today after all.

Who is the nicest Daily Telegraph Critic?

Posted on by

While proving you are fantastic at counting  should surely always be close to a producer’s heart, I’m afraid it’s taken me rather longer than I hoped to get around to counting the star ratings of the Daily Telegraph reviewers Dominic Cavendish and Charles Spencer to add to those of the Guardian and Evening Standard.

However, here they are:

So, Charles Spencer is both the nicest and nastiest of the critics so far, with an impressive 6 one star reviews and 22 five stars (out of 191)!

What the critics think

Posted on by

On Sunday comedy critic and Guardian writer Brian Logan shared some interesting thoughts about writing a bad review over on the Guardian website. I’ve previously talked about my reaction to dealing with a less than rosy review here but I’d never really considered what it’s like to be the one dealing out the reviews.

I also recently discovered this website which hilariously collates awful online reviews of classic novels and films. But are theatre audiences too literate for such comments? Alas not. Even a cursory search on Whatsonstage.com provides examples from the pleasingly pedantic which seems to review the review itself:

to the casually misogynistic (I think this is an attempt at a joke but I’m not sure I quite get it)

I’m currently working with the brilliant Creature of London on our marketing strategy for The Hairy Ape. Our goal is simple: sell tickets. But we’ve been careful not to overestimate our audience – we’re not going to please absolutely everyone. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try!

The Hairy Ape

Posted on by

In its first major London revival in 25 years, Cartwright Productions and Creature of London in association with Southwark Playhouse are proud to present Eugene O’Neill’s 1922 masterpiece THE HAIRY APE in an atmospheric and muscular new production directed by Kate Budgen.

Coming to Southwark Playhouse in May 2012.

http://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/main-house/the-hairy-ape/

http://thehairyape.tumblr.com/