i have of late ...

THE PITMEN PAINTERS
by Lee Hall
Live Theatre, Newcastle
National Theatre: Cottesloe > Lyttelton

Photo: Keith Pattison
Design: Gary McCann
Lighting: Douglas Kuhrt / Sound: Martin Hodgson
Direction: Max Roberts

ORGY OF TOLERANCE
by Jan Fabre
Queen Elizabeth Hall

Photo: Frederik Heyman
Design: Jan Fabre / Costume: Andre Kränzlin
Lighting: Jan Dekeyser / Music: Dag Taeldeman
Direction: Jan Fabre

ENGLAND PEOPLE VERY NICE
by Richard Bean
National Theatre: Olivier

Photo: Johan Persson
Design: Mark Thompson / Lighting: Neil Austin
Composition: Grant Olding / Sound: John Leonard
Animation: Pete Bishop / Choreography: Scarlett Mackmin
Direction: Nicholas Hytner

PETER PAN
by J.M. Barrie / adapted by Douglas Irvine
Visible Fictions and The Children's Theatre Co., Minneapolis
Touring

Photo: Rob Levine
Design: Fabrizio Montecchi / Shadow Puppets: Federica Ferrari
Costume: Liz Boulton / Lighting: Graham Sutherland
Direction: Douglas Irvine

CAN ANY MOTHER HELP ME?
based on the book by Jenna Bailey
Foursight Theatre / Touring

Photo: Robert Day
Design: Naomi Dawson / Costume: Julie O'Neill
Lighting: Anna Watson
Composition: Mary Keith / Sound: Jules Bushell
Direction: Sarah Thom

THREE DAYS OF RAIN

by Richard Greenberg
Apollo Theatre

Photo: Tristram Kenton
Design: Soutra Gilmour / Lighting: Jon Clark
Composition: Ben & Max Ringham / Sound: Matt McKenzie
Direction: Jamie Lloyd


MADAME DE SADE
by Yukio Mishima / translated by Donald Keene
Donmar West End

Photo: Tristram Kenton
Design: Christopher Oram / Lighting: Neil Austin
Composition & Sound: Adam Cork / Video Art: Lorna Heavey
Direction: Michael Grandage

Over half a dozen performances in the last couple of weeks to celebrate birthdays, being in London, rewards for writing (one-day-on and one-day-off is a good writing strategy), and just because (!), have provided a wealth of experiences and references for current and future work.

From shadow puppetry to the supposéd experimental to ceremonial suicide writers this has been a whirlwind...

Blue Danube dancing-shopping-trolleys and choreographic energy at the climax of the Fabre like I have never seen before; ingenious touring techniques of staging in Neverland; honest and beautiful performances from James McAvoy, Nigel Harman and Lyndsey Marshall (bringing back memories of queueing at the old-wooden-shack-of-a-half-price-ticket-booth in Leicester Square in '82); Sophie Stanton's 'f-a-r-k-i-n-g ...' performance in ENGLAND (she was superb); being reminded to 'rehearse' that which is 'made' [and only 'that' which you want 'to rehearse' which is made...] by the lovely Frances Land of Foursight (I do wish to work for that company sometime soon); and this from Lee Hall:

HARRY
Well - if you were nationalised there'd be investment in proper machinery. Do you think yer Soviet miners are crawling round all day on their bellies with picks in their hand? They've got the latest machinery. And the yeilds is better.

GEORGE
What do you know about it? You're a bloody dentist.

HARRY
I'm a socialist - and as far as I'm concerned this is a glorification of the exploitation of the common man. You want to be drawing something critical. Something that exposes the underlying inequities of the capitalist system.