Sex with Strangers at Hampstead Theatre was LaButesque in a good way

Sometimes the way that I choose to pick which plays to go to confuses even me. For Sex with Strangers there was not one thing that made me go, rather it was an accumulation of small things including respect for Hampstead Theatre, intrigue at the title and the chance to see Theo James who played Four (that's a name) in Divergent (a young adult science fiction film that I quite like).

One of the things that I like about Hampstead Theatre is that everywhere that I've sat I've had a good view and that has encouraged me towards the back of the theatre into the cheaper seats where N18 cost me £28.

Hampstead Theatre had stopped doing full meals and I had not found anywhere else to go nearby so I settled for my usual sandwich and craft beer, which was fine.

The stage was set as a rather dated living room. I took this to be 1970's UK but it turned out to be contemporary USA in one of those rural areas that style has not got to yet. This was a retreat for two authors one, an early middle-aged woman had been there for a while and she was joined by a man in his late 20s. As they introduced themselves to each other we learned that she was a teacher with writing ambitions and he had been in the best sellers lists for a couple of years with his somewhat salacious and factual book Sex with Strangers but was trying to become a serious author.

The rest of the play was all about them and they were the only people that we saw, though we saw them in more than one location and at more than one time.

Trying to simplify the situation without giving too much of the story away; the man was clearly somewhat unpleasant in his recent past, as writing a factual account of your life called Sex with Strangers suggests, but the question was how much he had changed. And had he changed enough to form a proper relationship with the woman, to write a worthy book and to not exploit the written works of others. I am not sure that the questions was answered but then I would not say if it was.

The structure of the play was just the two people talking which made me think of a couple of Neil LaBute plays, In a Forest Dark and Deep and The Mercy Seat, and the subject matter reminded me of another of his plays, Some Girl(s). That is a compliment; I like Neil Labute and he himself built on the traditions of the likes of O'Neil and Ablee. It was actually written by Laura Eason who is probably most famous now for her involvement with House of Cards.

Making the dialogue work and the relationship fizz, Emilia Fox and Theo James did a superb job. The play sparkled and captivated as a result.

Sex with Strangers, apparently, will be one of the was one of the Top Ten most produced plays in 2015/16 and I could see why that could be true. It is a simple enough play to put on in terms of staging and casting and it is rich in content. And I liked that simplicity of presentation and complexity of content (that's the right was round).

Prometheus Drown'd and Airborne at Rosslyn Hill Chapel

I am going to try and make this not sound like stalking, but that is going to be difficult.

I first saw Clare McCaldin sing at a very good evening at the Tete a Tete Opera Festival in 2012. She was back the following year to perform Viviene which I liked so much that I went to see it again somewhere in Camden and yet again at the Linbury. I've spoken to her a few times and, of course, we've exchanged tweets. I'm a fan.

So when she announced that she would be performing Prometheus Drown'd I was obviously keen to see that. The piece, by Stephen McNeff, was an expansion of the work that Clare performed the first time that I saw her.

There were some hiccoughs along the way. Originally there was a Monday performance shown on the schedule and that suited me well but when I checked just a week or so before the performance it was not there and I had to do some frantic juggling of my calendar to free up the Wednesday. I went to something every evening the week and had to turn several other things down as well.

The next hassle was the location. I had been to Hampstead a few times before but it is not well served by public transport and go there normally involved a fair amount of walking, usually to/from the Hampstead Heath stop on the London Overground. This time I was working in Reading which meant travelling from Paddington. The various apps on my iPhone suggested that the best way to get there was to take a couple of trains to Finchley Road and then walk. What they did not say was that most of the walk was uphill.

Having finally found Rosslyn Hill Chapel I was rather keen on some beer and reasonably interested in some food. The pub sign next door was encouraging but that was a false hope as the pub was closed. I had to walk along way back up the hill to find another pub where a pint and a bucket of chips costs me the best part of £10.

I got back to Rosslyn Hill Chapel in good time for the performance which was helpfully not until 8:15pm. After very little thought I bagged a chair in the front row. I was on my own there for a little while and I was relieved when a few more people joined me just before the start.

There were two pieces on the programme and Prometheus Drown'd was on first.

This time Clare was joined by a narrator and a couple of actors but all the singing duties were still down to her.

The piece was as lyrical as I remembered the original being and through the new text I learned something more about Percy Bysshe Shelley, who is never going to be my specialist topic on Mastermind.

I found some of the lighting a little distracting. Clare sometimes sang with a strong white light on her from below. This was somewhat unflattering but it did give me a good view of her open mouth and I was able to study the mechanics of her singing style.

There was an interval and I helped myself to a glass of wine and had a bit of a look at the church. While minding my own business Clare came out and we had a little chat. She explained that all of the original work was in the new piece and that new bits had been added throughout.

Airborne after the break worked well with the first piece. It had a similar feel musically, helped by having the same musicians and conductor, and the mood of the story was similar too, i.e. there was death and sadness.

There were two young singers and they were both excellent.

I did not hang around long afterwards because there was nobody there to hang long afterwards with and I strolled fairly gently to Hampstead Heath station. There waiting for the train was a lady who had been near me in the front row so I started talking to her. In the end we talked about music all the way back to Kew, where she lives. It was a fitting end to a good evening.

Longing at the Hampstead Theatre

My first visit to the Hampstead Theatre was prompted by the names Greig, Glen and Chekov.

Tamsin Greig has been in many good things including Black Books, Love Soup, Green Wing and The Archers. Iain Glen is now a major star thanks to Game of Thrones. Chekhov wrote a few classic plays, all of which I like.

Hampstead Theatre is bit of a star too. Built in the sixties it is comfortable and well laid out. The auditorium seats 300 people but still feels intimate and cosy, and there is a bright welcoming reception area with a cafe.

The theatre is also conveniently placed next to Swiss Cottage underground station and that is not too far from the cutely named Finchley Road & Frognal station on the London Overground, where I arrived from Richmond.

Longing is something of a cheat but an acceptable one. Chekhov wrote only a few plays but dozens of short stories and Longing is the merger of two of these. The joins are obvious, i.e. there are clearly two stories being told,  but they are sewn together neatly and effectively.

In familiar Chekhov territory we find a Russian country estate that has fallen on hard times.and he family face ruin, largely due to the husband's unwise investments. Tasmin Greig, a doctor (another Chekhov regular), is visiting the family and they are joined by Iain Glen another childhood friend who is now a successful Moscow lawyer. The family hope that he can find some way out of their predicament.

He tries to help and while he does so feelings develop between him and two of the girls. The possible love story between Tasmin and Iain is the main story.

The summer house Glen is living in needs painting and so we are introduced to the two men whose job this is. One is a young man who is entitled to a higher station in life but who wants to live as a labour and to do proper work.

He is thwarted in this by being engaged to the coarse daughter of a newly-rich man (John Sessions) who intends to buy the estate.

The young man discovers that one of the daughters heard some of his poetry once and he begins to think that perhaps his impending marriage is not what he wants. This relationship is the second story.

The two stories share the theme and Longing is a good summary of that.

This is Chekhov so we get lots of examples of the tensions between the classes, town and country, and new and old money. What is missing though is the expected gravitas of decline. Indeed we get the opposite and the financially inept husband is cheery throughout. Like Billy Bunter he is always expecting something to turn up.

I liked the play a lot. Not as much as a genuine Chekhov but quite a lot none the less. What I liked even more was the acting. The two stories required a few strong characters to carry them and this it had. Everybody in the cast played their part very well and the rousing reception from the sold-out house was well deserved.

Longing was well thought out and delivered. Everything from the theatre to the set to the direction to the acting worked and worked well. The script was good too, it was just a shame that it had the Chekhov name to try to live up to.

Easter at Pentameters

I'm not convinced that doing two plays in a day is a good idea, a gallery and a play seem to work better, though it does have the clear attraction of making the most of the travelling.

And so a few short hours after leaving A Clockwork Orange in Dalston I was in the Pentameters Theatre in Hampstead for Easter, a play by August Strindberg.

In between there had been a walk across Hampstead Heath to Kenwood House, a very nice vegetarian curry at Woodlands and a decent beer at the Horseshoe (conveniently located under the theatre).

Easter gets its (English) name from the time of year it is set in, nothing else.

We discover a small family in a state of some turmoil. The father is in prison for embezzlement, a creditor is circling and is threatening to take everything that the family has, and one of the daughters is struggling to overcome a problem in her past that saw her committed to an asylum.

On the positive side the man of the house (while his father is indisposed) has a fiancée and with Easter comes Spring and the first opportunity of the year to open the windows to the fresh air.

The action takes place over a couple of days as the gloom deepens and the snow eases.

Conveniently is all happens in one room in the family house, which seems to be the default set for the theatre.

The plot is rather Dickensian (though Swedes might call Dickens' stories Strindbergian) with a tale of morality intertwined with a tale of misfortunes.

And, as it would in Dickens, the misfortune is suddenly reversed at then end due to an unexpected benefactor. This is where the morality wins and old debts are repaid.

The resolution is sudden, but not unexpected, and merely provides the happy ending to a story that is about a family coping with misfortune and misadventure and with the pressure as their expected downfall approaches.

The cast were a little uneven in convincing us about their plight and the son's dialogue flowed a little unnaturally but the not-so-mad daughter made up for that with an excellent performance.

Pentameters deserve credit for taking a risk with a play like this and the fact that it did not quite come off is no shame on them, that's what happens with risks. And I'd much rather take that risk with them than take one of the safe options that stuff the west end.

Hampstead Heath in the snow

I was in Hampstead for the theatre and that allowed me to make my first visit to Hampstead Heath. From Richmond that is an easy journey, you just take the Overground to, er. Hampstead Heath station and cross the road.

A short walk through a narrow section of the park takes you to the ponds in the south-east corner with houses looking on enviously. Here the snow and ice still had a grip on the land that it had lost south of the river.

Taking random paths from there, trying to head towards the centre of the park and to keep away from people, took me in to landscapes that I had only seen before on holidays in Eastern Europe.

Far from retreating from the sun, the snow was still fresh and crisp and made a satisfying crunching sound as you walked.

If I knew the paths I could have go lost in the snow's confusion but I managed to get totally lost without the snow's help.

The map suggested that Kenwood was a place to head for but much like the Three Men in a Boat could not avoid the centre of Hampton Court Maze I continually found myself walking away from it.

I finally got in to the grounds of the house and carefully followed the map to the house itself, only to find myself leaving the grounds and back in the Heath again.

A second foray in to the Kenwood estate was more successful and  I was back on the main path to my chosen exit.

The snow kept me company all the way while the bare trees caught the light of the falling sun to create contrasts and shadows.

Even after an hour or more the landscape still felt and looked unnatural, which only reinforced the reason for being there.

We get so little snow in London that there is a childish excitement when it comes that draws us in to its heart. It even calls to us all the way from Hampstead.

Brotherly Love at Pentameters

Having discovered Pentameters Theatre at the end of last year and having proved to myself that the journey up north to Hampstead is possible with little effort or danger it was no surprise to find myself back there to see Brotherly Love.

The theatre is probably the smallest that I have even been to, the way up to it from the street is via a cluttered narrow staircase and the entrance is through the mysteriously dark box office.

All this add to the excitement and the experience. Discovering the play starts with discovering the theatre.

Downstairs, in another world, is the Horseshoe pub, that is fiercely current, i.e. it looks and feels like every other gastro pub that you have been to. This is perfect for the pre-theatre drink simply because of its location, otherwise it has little to offer.

Brotherly Love tells the story of two brothers whose common past includes playing in a puck rock / new wave covers band (an excellent excuse to punctuate the evening with some fine tunes and finer words from that period) before they took wildly different tracks.

Public School educated Ian is a barrister looking to move in to politics while Barry dropped-out and led a narcotics fuelled life.

In the middle sits Oxbridge educated Carla, Ian's current girl friend.

The play opens with Carla laying the dinner table ready for Ian and some influential guests only to have Brian arrive and throw various spanners in the works.

Ian arrives soon later and then the sparks start to fly. Ian makes it clear that he does not want to see Brian, much less say anything to him.

Brian tries to explain that his dark past is behind him and he is looking for reconciliation, Carla sides with reconciliation over conflict and is the glue that gets them talking again, albeit not in a very friendly way.

Encouraged by Carla, Brian becomes a regular visitor.

As the brothers talk we learn more about them, their shared past and why their feud started. Some of this is not unexpected, a woman is involved, and some of it comes as a shock to both us watching and to the other brother.

What we at first accepted as "it's complicated" in a Facebook sense soon becomes complicated in a very real sense as all three lives unravel.

The present becomes complicated too as new relationships form and old ones rekindle.

All this happens in a light-hearted and humorous way. There is no malice in anybody's heart and while dark deeds are done these are mistakes rather than machinations.

And they are mistakes that we can forgive in the characters. We watch without taking sides and can enjoy the humour in their behaviour.

Brotherly Love offers no great insights in to the human position, and I do not think that it tries to. What it does do is show a little of the imperfection in all of us while entertaining us in the process. It is a lot of fun.

The Unrest Cure at Pentameters

I came to this by a circuitous route.

A Space Rock contact told me about a Robert Calvert play that was being performed at Pentameters, a small theatre in Hampstead unknown to me at the time.

Sadly I was unable to go but being very interested in small theatres that are unknown to me I kept an eye on what else they were doing.

When I saw The Unrest Cure announced the clincher was that it was set in Chickerell, West Dorset. This is where I went to secondary school and having lived in Weymouth for around 25 years it's a part of the country that I know very well.

I later discovered that one of the plays co-authors, Rob Groves, went to the same school and while we never met there he does remember my Dad who taught him Geography at some point.

The scene set, I headed for Hampstead for the very first time. It's quaint and hilly but I fail to see what all the fuss is about. Give me loft living by a dock any day.

The theatre is above The Horseshoe, an absolutely typical gastro pub with high-end prices. A nice enough place to savour some cauliflower soup and a beer before the show.

The entrance to the theatre is from the side of the pub and is through an impressive doorway with Pentameters above it. Things take a turn towards student accommodation after that as you climb a narrow wooden staircase up to a cluttered landing and enter the small room via the ticket booth.

There before you is a period reception room assembled on a slightly raised stage. It is free seating and I was early enough to get the usual front-row seat.

The play is a light whimsical tale of an middle-aged brother and sister who have settled too early in to their ways running a hotel.

A chance overheard conversation on a train suggests to an younger upper-class brother and sister that they should provide the hotel owners with an unrest cure to add some excitement to their lives.

The unrest comes from acting the part of royal aides and claiming the the Prince of Wales (who is the area opening a new power station) will be staying at the hotel for the night. The PoW also has some unusual demands such as no meat on the premises, no cats and no Cornish people.

The young couple's plans to scarper before the anticipated arrival of the PoW are thrown in to disarray by the unexpected arrival of somebody else, pandemonium follows and is followed by a happy ending.

The Unrest Cure is a delightful comedy of characters and circumstances. The plot is believable, simple and twists nicely. The characters are bold and bright, from the overwhelmed hotel proprietor to the lordly Lord Abbotsbury, and all the cast play their parts well in bring the diverse characters to life.

The story is a treat with gems like the disposal of the cat and rose-petal dance to greet the PoW's arrival.The dialogue delivers a steady stream of gentle mirth punctured with plenty of laugh out loud moments, such as the announcement by Lord Abbotsbury that he much prefers the works of Wodehouse to (local hero) Thomas Hardy because Wodehouse writes about real people, "people like us".

The Unrest Cure is marvellously entertaining and is a heartening example of what smaller theatres can do with unfamiliar writers and actors. A joy to watch.