Lolita, National Theatre | reviews, news & interviews
Lolita, National Theatre
Lolita, National Theatre
Brian Cox gives us a Humbert Humbert worth grieving for
Tuesday, 08 September 2009
Adrian Lyne met controversy in the cinema with it head on, while Vladimir Nabokov's novel prompted one of the resounding Broadway flops of Edward Albee's stage career. (Trust me: I am among the few who caught its 1981 New York run.) So here is Lolita once more, this time filleted and distilled into a one-person show suspended somewhere between a stage reading and an actual play. Call it what you will, the result is mesmerising.
Adrian Lyne met controversy in the cinema with it head on, while Vladimir Nabokov's novel prompted one of the resounding Broadway flops of Edward Albee's stage career. (Trust me: I am among the few who caught its 1981 New York run.) So here is Lolita once more, this time filleted and distilled into a one-person show suspended somewhere between a stage reading and an actual play. Call it what you will, the result is mesmerising.
more Theatre
London Tide, National Theatre review - haunting moody river blues
New play-with-songs version of Dickens’s 'Our Mutual Friend' is a panoramic Victori-noir
Machinal, The Old Vic review - note-perfect pity and terror
Sophie Treadwell's 1928 hard hitter gets full musical and choreographic treatment
An Actor Convalescing in Devon, Hampstead Theatre review - old school actor tells old school stories
Fact emerges skilfully repackaged as fiction in an affecting solo show by Richard Nelson
The Comeuppance, Almeida Theatre review - remembering high-school high jinks
Latest from American penman Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is less than the sum of its parts
Richard, My Richard, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmund's review - too much history, not enough drama
Philippa Gregory’s first play tries to exonerate Richard III, with mixed results
Player Kings, Noel Coward Theatre review - inventive showcase for a peerless theatrical knight
Ian McKellen's Falstaff thrives in Robert Icke's entertaining remix of the Henry IV plays
Cassie and the Lights, Southwark Playhouse review - powerful, affecting, beautifully acted tale of three sisters in care
Heart-rending chronicle of difficult, damaged lives that refuses to provide glib answers
Gunter, Royal Court review - jolly tale of witchcraft and misogyny
A five-women team spell out a feminist message with humour and strong singing
First Person: actor Paul Jesson on survival, strength, and the healing potential of art
Olivier Award-winner explains how Richard Nelson came to write a solo play for him
Underdog: the Other, Other Brontë, National Theatre review - enjoyably comic if caricatured sibling rivalry
Gemma Whelan discovers a mean streak under Charlotte's respectable bonnet
Long Day's Journey Into Night, Wyndham's Theatre review - O'Neill masterwork is once again driven by its Mary
Patricia Clarkson powers the latest iteration of this great, grievous American drama
Opening Night, Gielgud Theatre review - brave, yes, but also misguided and bizarre
Sheridan Smith gives it her all against near-impossible odds
Add comment