Posts Tagged ‘Donmar Warehouse’
Thursday 28 January 2010
Well, the fire door had been carelessly left open so like model citizens we went in and pulled it firmly shut behind us and then it turned out we were in the Price of Wales Theatre and there was free drink and Rachel Weisz and Jude Law were and so we thought, what the hell, and stayed for The Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards 2009.
Of course, it’s pretty much the definition of “yesterday’s news”* (well, you try filing a blog post when they’ve been topping up your wine glass not stop for for three hours and to be fair Andrew was tweeting it live) and so you know that Weisz and Law were among the winners. We sort of guessed that when we saw them there. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 1 Comment »
Tags: Alia Bano, Arthrus Smith, Benedict Nightingale, Blanche Marvin, Charles Spencer, Christopher Oram, Claire Allfree, Critics Circle Theatre Awards 2010, Donmar Warehouse, Dvid Benedict, Jerusalem, Jez Butterworth, Jude Law, London, Lyric Hammersmith, Mark Rylance, Mark Shenton, Michael Grandage, Rachel Weisz, Royal Court, Rupert Goold, Sonia Friedman, Spring Awakening, theatre, Tim Walker, Tom Sturridge, west end
Tuesday 8 December 2009
“Can you tell what it is yet?”
That iconic phrase always flashes through Phil’s mind when he stares at a painting by Mark Rothko. But never more so than last night as the Whingers watched Rothko and his studio assistant Ken attack a blank canvas with a pot of red paint. It’s a bit of a coup de théâtre, brilliantly choreographed as you would expect from director Michael Grandage – but the Whingers couldn’t help thinking of Rolf Harris. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 4 Comments »
Tags: Adam Cork, Alfred Molina, Christopher Oram, Donmar Warehouse, Eddie Redmayne, entertainment, John Logan, London, Mark Rothko, Michael Grandage, Neil Austin, Red, review, theatre, west end
Tuesday 28 July 2009
The happiness of the Whingers depends on a lot of things when they visit a theatre: good sightlines, brevity, amusement and a competitively priced bar. But unlike Blanche Dubois they do not seek or expect kindness from strangers (or friends for that matter). Indeed, it is a word that rarely features in their limited vocabularies.
Brevity may also have been in somewhat short supply at the Donmar Warehouse on Monday when we dropped in to see Rob Ashford‘s production of Tennessee Williams‘s Pulitzer Prize winning classic A Streetcar Named Desire: it lumbers in at at a massive three hours. But for once the Whingers had struck lucky in the advance booking ticket lottery that the Donmar organises for its “friends” and for the first time in yonks we weren’t sitting to the side of the thrust stage but at the front, where the critics get to sit (in fact Mark Lawson or his Doppelgänger was in front of us). And boy what a difference it made! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 12 Comments »
Tags: A Streetcar Named Desire, Christopher Oram, Donmar Warehouse, Elliot Cowan, entertainment, London, Neil Austin, Rachel Weisz, review, Rob Ashford, Ruth Wilson, Tennessee Williams, theatre, west end
Thursday 4 June 2009
Who could have envisaged that Phil would get to direct Mr Jude Law in Mr Shakespeare‘s Hamlet in the auspicious Donmar West End season?
For in an implausible and rather Shakespearean case of mistaken identity that’s how it seemed on Tuesday night.* During the interval Phil bumped into someone he’d met on a work trip a couple of years ago who turned to her companion and introduced Phil with the words “This is Michael Grandage, the director”.
How Phil wished he had carried on the conceit but Andrew was laughing at the idea too much. The woman was quite insistent “But you look just like him.”
Ah well, put it down to it being the hottest night of the year or perhaps the fact that Phil had walked head first into a plate glass window in Spain a few days earlier and radically altered his facial features (considerably for the better, clearly). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 20 Comments »
Tags: Alex Waldmann, Christopher Oram, David Burke, Donmar Warehouse, entertainment, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Hamlet, Jude Law, Kevin R McNally, London, Matt Ryan, Michael Grandage, Neil Austin, Penelope Wilton, review, Ron Cook, theatre, west end, William Shakespeare, Wyndham's Theatre
Wednesday 20 May 2009
What is it about the X-factor?
Put the X-Men in a production of Waiting for Godot at the Haymarket and it’s impossible to get a ticket. Put Scully from The X Files in A Doll’s House at the Donmar and up go the “queue here for returns” signs*. Perhaps a clever producer should put lippy X-Factor judge Simon Cowell in, well, lippie for La Cage Aux Folles and wait for a stampede to the box office**.
Anyway, Zinnie Harris has written a new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen‘s timeless tale about a woman who leaves her husband and children, slamming the door behind her. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 4 Comments »
Tags: A Doll's House, Anthony Ward, Anton Lesser, Christopher Eccleston, Donmar Warehouse, entertainment, Gillian Anderson, Henrik Ibsen, Kfir Yefet, London, review, Tara Fitzgerald, theatre, Toby Stephens, west end, Zinnie Harris
Tuesday 24 March 2009

So it’s 7pm on Monday evening and the Whingers are sitting in their customary pre-Donmar watering hole for some Dutch courage (well, technically it was South African in honour of Athol Fugard).
Andrew was reading an excerpt from a piece he had spotted in that day’s Times – an interview with the actor Mister Jonathan Pryce whom they were about to see in Dimetos (pronounced DimmerToss, it turns out).
He was reading it aloud to Phil who had forgotten his reading glasses.
Pryce was sent the script by the Donmar […] and thought the writing extraordinary but the play baffling. Friends who read it agreed that it was well written but had no idea what it was about. But then came a meeting with [director Douglas] Hodge, who communicated his passion for the play: ‘I decided to do it because I wanted to understand it fully myself – and I’m finding it the most difficult thing I’ve done in years.’*
Just up the Whingers’ cul de sac then. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 9 Comments »
Tags: Alex Lanipekun, Anne Reid, Athol Fugard, Bunny Christie, Dimetos, Donmar Warehouse, Holliday Grainger, Holly Grainger, Jonathan Pryce, London, review, theatre, west end
Sunday 25 January 2009
Dear Phil
I hope you are having a nice time at your mother’s.
Strange that you should have to go and see her on the very weekend that I had tickets for Be Near Me at the Donmar Warehouse. Sometimes I think you don’t really like the theatre at all.
Or had someone perhaps tipped you off as to the fact that nothing happens in the entire first act (almost) of this two and a half hour play adapted by Ian McDiarmid from the novel by Andrew O’Hagan. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in review, West End Whingers | 20 Comments »
Tags: Andrew O'Hagan, Be Near Me, Blythe Duff, Donmar Warehouse, entertainment, ian McDiarmid, London, National Theatre of Scotland, review, theatre, west end
Tuesday 25 November 2008
One of the many differences between the Whingers is that Andrew doesn’t really “do” parties whereas Phil will seize on any event as an excuse to hold a party – a general election, the Eurovision Song Contest, the arrival of his water bill and so on.
But with one voice they can agree that the birthday party around which T.S. Eliot pegs The Family Reunion is one they would find any excuse to miss. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Anna Carteret, Bunny Christie, Donmar Warehouse, entertainment, Gemma Jones, Linda McKnight, London, Nick Powell, Penelope Wilton, review, Rick Fisher, Samuel West, T.S. Eliot, The Family Reunion, theatre, Una Stubbs, west end, William Gaunt | 14 Comments »
Tags: Anna Carteret, Bunny Christie, Donmar Warehouse, entertainment, Gemma Jones, Linda McKnight, London, Nick Powell, Penelope Wilton, review, Rick Fisher, Samuel West, T.S. Eliot, The Family Reunion, theatre, Una Stubbs, west end, William Gaunt
Tuesday 30 September 2008

Take two Whingers. Take two Strindberg virgins.
Of course they’re one and the same. Or two and the same.
Incredible isn’t it that the Whingers had never ever seen a play by August Strindberg considering he’s one of those playwrights like Shakespeare, Ibsen, Chekhov and err… Pinter where the Christian name is utterly redundant.
Particularly incredible since Andrew and Strindberg have something in common, both being named after a month of the year. Andrew was originally given the name”June”, but dropped that notable moniker a few years ago as it didn’t suit him.
Anyway, off the Whingers trudged to Creditors at the Donmar Warehouse with their usual open minds but not sure quite what to expect.
And clearly they weren’t the only ones who felt a bit out of their depth because – unusually for a Monday night – the Donmar Warehouse wasn’t packed to the rafters. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Alan Rickman, Anna Chancellor, August Strindberg, Ben Stones, Creditors, Donmar Warehouse, entertainment, London, Owen Teale, review, theatre, Tom Burke, west end | 4 Comments »
Tags: Alan Rickman, Anna Chancellor, August Strindberg, Ben Stones, Creditors, Donmar Warehouse, entertainment, London, Owen Teale, review, theatre, Tom Burke, west end
Sunday 10 August 2008
The Whingers waited for what seemed like eons for a mesmerising diva from the Americas to come along only to find themselves treated to two in the same week. And, no, we didn’t make Elaine Stritch this time round.
Who would have thought the Whingers would be swept up by a second stunning star performance within just a few days and – on this occasion – moved to ovate? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Donmar Warehouse, Edith Piaf, Elena Roger, entertainment, Jamie Lloyd, Katherine Kingsley, London, Lorraine Bruce, Neil Austin, Pam Gems, Piaf, review, theatre, west end | 7 Comments »
Tags: Donmar Warehouse, Edith Piaf, Elena Roger, entertainment, Jamie Lloyd, Katherine Kingsley, London, Lorraine Bruce, Neil Austin, Pam Gems, Piaf, review, theatre, west end
Thursday 10 July 2008
Yet another fussing letter the other day from from Michael Grandage and Kate Mitchell at the Donmar Warehouse.
It is one of the benefits of friendship.
Regular readers may recall that the Donmar’s friendship programme comes in levels of friendship: Props, Lights, Costumes and Scenery and that the West End Whingers have hitherto always opted for the lowest level of friendship (much as they do in real life).
Anyway, the letter announces that although the price of the Props membership level will remain at a minimum donation of £30 a year, these friends will now only be able to purchase up to two tickets per production as opposed to the four.
But in a masterstroke of marketing aimed squarely at the West End Whingers a new membership level has been introduced which offers four tickets per production. It is called “Wigs”.
The cost of this new friendship would be £50.
We have to say that we’re almost tempted…
Posted in Donmar Warehouse, friendship, London, theatre, west end, wigs | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Donmar Warehouse, friendship, London, theatre, west end, wigs
Tuesday 10 June 2008
Now, let us think a minute… When was the last time the Whingers left a play yearning to get their hands on a copy of the “text”? Oh yes, we remember now… That’s right – never.
Until last night when the Whingers tripped happily out of the revival of Enid Bagnold’s The Chalk Garden at the Donmar Warehouse. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Dame Edith Evans, Donmar Warehouse, Enid Bagnold, entertainment, Felicity Jones, London, Margaret Tyzack, Michael Grandage, Penelope Wilton, Peter McKintosh, review, The Chalk Garden, theatre, west end | 21 Comments »
Tags: Dame Edith Evans, Donmar Warehouse, Enid Bagnold, entertainment, Felicity Jones, London, Margaret Tyzack, Michael Grandage, Penelope Wilton, Peter McKintosh, review, The Chalk Garden, theatre, west end
Tuesday 15 April 2008
To be fair, Small Change at the Donmar Warehouse was never going to be the Whingers’ cup of cabernet.
We are easily enough confused as it is and Andrew’s memory plays enough tricks on him as it is without the added complication of plays getting in on the game.
It also didn’t help that – thanks to the swathes of poetic, descriptive monologues – Andrew spent most of Act 1 vacillating between oblivion and semi-wakefulness (but mostly the former). During his dozing, he had very strange dreams which on waking he believed momentarily to have been part of the play. In a strange way, writer/director Peter Gill might rather have approved. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in entertainment, London, review, theatre, west end | 4 Comments »
Tags: Donmar Warehouse, entertainment, Lindsey Coulson, London, Luke Evans, Matt Ryan, Nicholas de Jongh, Peter Gill, review, Small Change, Sue Johnston, theatre, west end