Royal Court
aleks.sierz
Crisis makes people hungry. In the case of the banking collapse, this seems to take the form of an ignoble itch for revenge, and a more laudable hunger for knowledge. What exactly happened and what went wrong? As Enron, Lucy Prebble's wonderful play about a previous financial scandal, roared into the Royal Court after its sell-out run at Chichester, there was time to reflect on just why this play has been such a huge success. And by success, I really mean success. After a further sell-out run at the Royal Court [where I reviewed it: AS], it is now in the Noel Coward Theatre in London's West Read more ...
aleks.sierz
Reviving rarely performed plays is a high-risk strategy. On the one hand, there’s the chance of discovering a forgotten gem; on the other, there may be good reasons for the play being rarely performed. Nigel Dennis’s The Making of Moo was first staged at the Royal Court in 1957 with a cast that included Joan Plowright, John Osborne and George Devine, and provoked accusations of blasphemy. How has this satire on religion stood the test of time?Well, you can’t accuse it of being irrelevant. Set in an African state, the play shows what happens when Frederick Compton, a British civil engineer, Read more ...
aleks.sierz
Richard Bean's monster mainstage play, England People Very Nice, was about immigration to London's East End - and was easily the most controversial play of 2009. He is a son of Hull (b. 1956). He is one of the most prolific and talented playwrights to emerge on the British new writing scene since the start of the new millennium. He is also a late developer: before becoming a playwright, he was a stand-up comic, and before that an occupational psychologist. As a writer, he first came to attention with his play Toast at the Royal Court in 1999, one of his gritty work plays, which he once Read more ...