Theatre Fun
March 23rd 2010
I saw The 39 Steps at the Criterion Theatre on Saturday. It is an interesting little theatre underground in Picadilly Circus with quite a history
The show itself was great, really playful with the staging and the 4th wall. They used Shadow Play for the mountaintop chase and biplane crash, lots of funny scene changes and played with theatrical conventions (though at times it was a bit slapstick). A weak point were a few references to other Hitchcock movies (though I loved the cameo as that was much more subtle)
I remember that I meant to blog a while ago about the best bit of theatre I’ve seen in a while, an adaptation of my favourite PG Wodehouse book, Summer Lightning. It was at the Theatre By The Lake in Keswick and was absolutely amazing, they are a really superb regional theatre and I hope to see a whole run by them as one of my 101 goals in 1001 days.
I also went to see The Caretaker recently at Trafalgar Studios, a strangly cosy venue for Pinter. It started in Liverpool at the Everyman and I was sad to have missed it but they seem to have maintained momentum with it, Jonathan Pryce is really excellent and well supported by a great cast.
I did catch the recent translation of Medea by Tom Paulin in Liverpool. I love the Northern Broadsides, they are among the best Shakespeare I have seen when they did the Wars of the Roses a few years ago so it was good to see them do something else.
