Uncle Vanya (pinter)* henry vi (globe)* The Visit (NT) Midsummer Night’s Dream* (Watermill @ Wiltons) Rough at the Theatre II / Endgame (Old Vic) Lehman Brothers* (NT) A Number (Bridge) Cyrano de Bergerac* (Playhouse) &Juliet* (Shaftesbury) —- This House (NT) Jane Eyre (NT) Amadeus** (NT) Twelfth Night** (NT) Drawing the Line (Hampstead) Wonderland (Hampstead) Wasted* (Southwark Playhouse) Romantics Anonymous (Bristol Old Vic) Les Blancs (NT) Small Island (NT) Alice in Wonderland (Royal ballet) The Madness of George III (Notts Playhouse) Henry V (Behind the Barn Door) Richard II** (Globe) Barber Shop Chronicles (NT) A Dolls House (Lyric Hammersmith) La Fille Mal Gardee (Royal Ballet) A Midsummer Night’s Dream** (Bridge) Woolf Works* (Royal Ballet) Jekyll and Hyde (Old Vic) Coppelia (Royal Ballet) The Metamorphosis (Arthur Pita) The mother (Arthur Pita) Flight Pattern* (Royal Ballet, Crystal Pite)
Okay, this is… well, it’s fucking 2020. Everything from mid-March was streaming. ** is stuff I’d seen in previous years but is still amazing
Best nine:
Uncle Vanya (Pinter) sad and hysterical and gorgeous and Richard armitage and fuck the fuck off, professor, seriously and we’ll get drunk and crawl into cupboards while the countryside collapses around us.
Henry VI (Globe) Everyone don the football shirts to differentiate ourselves (great trick when you’ve condensed it), everyone wear *fabulous* themed velvet and embroidered suits. Let the violence be untramelled and you idiots you let Richard off the leash… (girl next to me: ‘I don’t get shakespeare, I don’t know the War of the Roses, I got tix for the boyfriend, I may need help?’ By part two, she’s gone full glued to the action convert. mwhahaha.)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Watermill @ Wilton’s) happy happy couples and Bottom and singing *happy sigh*.
Lehman Brothers (NTLive) oh my god. the dynasty and the family and how theatre can make you believe *anything*, where Simon Russell Beale is a small girl and a patriarch with nothing more than a change in body language and Adam Godley is suddenly the sexiest, slinkiest flapper EVER and you’d swear that he was wearing a coat with a high fur collar and yes there is a tightrope in the middle of the stage, you can’t see it?
Cyrano de Bergerac (Playhouse). James Mcavoy as a shaven headed glaswegian Cyrano on a blank stage and all the fights are rap battles? Roxanne’s statement of ‘I just love words. That’s all.’ Christian *is* that pretty and falls for Cyrano while they’re away at war. Leave me alone, I need to absorb the awesome some more. &Juliet (Shaftesbury) so the Shakespeares re-write the end of R&J for a happy ending and Juliet fucks off to Paris with her mates and it’s all done to Britney and Pink and Christina and Backstreet Boys and the audience is screaming with laughter. Result.
Wasted (Southwark Playhouse) The Brontes tell their story in a rock musical. Of course Emily is a full goth Kate Bush, don’t be silly.
Woolf Works (Royal Ballet) Three separate dance pieces choreo’d by Wayne Macgregor based on Mrs Dalloway, Orlando and the Waves. Mrs Dalloway was the weakest but the other two – especially The Waves – are just stunning.
Flight Pattern (Royal Ballet, Crystal Pite) the refugee experience of trying to get across countries and sea is just stunning. Like the best modern dance of conjuring people and waves out of nothing but ripples in the crowd.
‘Fuck off, keep fucking off, and fuck off again, you’re boring and tiresome and self-involved and why the fuck should I care about you?’ Award:
The Visit (NT) – Tony Kushner. Billionaire visits home after leaving as a teen and takes revenge on town and ex. Just too. fucking. long. Could have had at least two scenes cut. Way too self indulgent. couple of very funny bits (yay Lesley Manville) but it all blurs. Seriously, Tony, can you not learn from Caroline or Change?
burntcopper 