Peter Weiss' The Persecution and Assassination of Marat As Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade¹ (commonly abbreviated to Marat/Sade, I can't imagine why) was staged by the year below me at university and I remember finding it really dull. But directing it for the RSC's 50th anniversary is ( Read more... )

The writer, director and designer of a 2009 production I still regularly remember fondly, Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness, return to Soho Theatre with a revival of Anthony Neilson's 2006 play Realism (its first London outing) which also marks Steve Marmion's debut as artistic director of the venue. This particular journey into the surreal ( Read more... )

When, a couple of years ago, I went to see a double bill of the National Theatre's New Connections short plays for young people and school groups, I enjoyed Anthony Neilson's The Séance so much I bought a copy of that year's playtexts so I could read it again. Having had the book of all 12 plays from 2009 cluttering up my room since then, I thought ( Read more... )

*phew* I made it then - 5 shows in 4 days. Two short plays tonight, part of the National Theatre's New Connections programme. Every year the National commissions about a dozen short plays for young people from established playwrights. Schools around the country choose one to put on, and then one production of each play gets to do a single ( Read more... )

I showed vanessaw the cool, antique-style flyer for Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness and she looked interested in coming to see it with me. Then I thought it was only polite to mention that the writer is Anthony Neilson, whose Relocated last year left her a quivering wreck, and suddenly found myself going alone. Shame really 'cause I think she'd ( Read more... )

Theatre can cover all genres, but one you forget can exist outside of films is horror - well Anthony Neilson's Relocated proves it can work on stage, as evidenced by vanessaw who came with me to see it tonight and at one point screamed, jumped out of her seat, grabbed my arm and clung on to it for dear life for the next few minutes. Much of the ( Read more... )