Leaves of Glass by Philips Ridley

Barry - Trystan Gravelle
Debbie - Maxine Peake
Liz - Ruth Sheen
Steven - Ben Whishaw

Directed by Lisa Goldman
Designed by Laura Hopkins

During it's premiere run at the Soho Theatre

A super-charged evening. A tale of family secrets in denial and the damage caused. Amazing performances of an interesting piece of drama.

Celebrity in the audience: At least Mike Figgis & Jamie Doyle.....but probably others.

my child by Mike Bartlett

Father - Richard Albrecht
Child - Adam Arnold
Mother - Jan Chappell
Karl - Adam James
Older Woman - Sara Kestelman
Another Man - James Livingstone
Man - Ben Miles
Another Woman - Antoinette Tagoe
Young Woman - Jodie Taibi
Other Woman - Romy Tennant
Woman - Lia Williams

Directed by Sacha Wares
Designed by Miriam Beuther

seen in it's premiere run at the Royal Court Downstairs

All that is comfortable and beautiful about the Royal Court auditorium is hidden from view for this. WHY it wasn't staged upstairs is beyond me......half the audience capacity maybe but the cost of decking the hall and the reduction in the usual house seems crazy to me....and for what? So that this could be set in the interesting (maybe even innovative) premise of an enlarged tube train but with no good reason. If there is a relevance it passed me by but it was good to experience it.

By the time we were ready to start the cast had completely merged into the audience and that is probably the one and only way in which the tube thing was useful.

We are then subjected to a mostly traumatic, sometimes witty destruction of a relationship. In a sense, it seemed like a series of cameos or vignettes posing more questions than it answered. The performances, especially from Ben Miles & Lia Williams, were extraordinarily passionate but beautifully contained.

Celeb in the audience/bar: Toby Jones, Christopher Hampton (who may have been going Upstairs) and a really lovely bloke I remember from a 1970's band but can't quite place....black, big smile, side-burns.......

That Face by Polly Stenham

Martha - Lindsay Duncan
Alice - Abigail Hood
Mia - Felicity Jones
Henry - Matt Smith
Izzy - Catherine Steadman
Hugh - Julian Wadham

Directed by a plonker called Jeremy Herrin
Designed wonderfully by Mike Britton

seen in it's premiere run at the Royal Court Uptsairs

A really interesting piece of new writing but my experience was spoilt by a selfish, self-important idiot sitting next to me who I later discovered was the director! What he hoped to gain by annoying the people around him I don't know. If he had not had a couple of wonderful actors in the form of Lindsay and Matt he would have floundered completely. The scenes that didn't include them were the weakest and the Julian Wadham's character should have been a little more ambiguous but Julian is such a vile smug git that he didn't work for me either. So writing good, direction bad, couple of performances wonderful and Felicity Jones was fine too. Sadly, Lindsay did not make it to the after show talk.

Celebrity in the audience: Nicholas LeProvost

Elling adapted by Simon Bent

Kjell Bjarne - Adrian Bower
Alfons - Jonathon Cecil
Frank Asli & Poet - Kier Charles
Nurse Gunn, Johanna, Reidun & Poet - Ingrid lacey
Elling -John Simm

Directed by Paul Miller
Designed by Simon Draw

Seen during it's world premiere run at the Bush. Free Seating

Hilarious exploration of the sanity in madness. Very well adapted from the Norwegan and a lovely cast.

Starting off looking like the Dumb Waiter but we follow two men as they are rehabiliated from an asylum. Wonderful threads run through the story. An absolute delight of a sellout. Surely it will transfer.

Celeb in the audience: Joe Penhall & an actor whose name escapes me but I really like him.......scouse.....hmm