Review – The Father, Duke of Yorks’s Theatre

Florian Zeller‘s The Father  has been knocking around for a while now and is currently back in the West End for a season that is limited even by today’s limited season standards before heading out on tour.

Ravetastic reviews from pretty much everyone. “The most acclaimed new play of the decade” trumpets the poster which raises expectations beyond reasonable expectation. Though even Andrew, who caught it at The Wyndhams last year, bestowed the compliment “clever” on it and since it tackles the zeitghastly subject of dementia, (something Phil has close personal experience of), well, it just had to be seen.

Review – The Cherry Orchard, National Theatre

“You’ll get in a right mess listening to words” says the all-knowing elderly butler Firs in Andrew Upton‘s version of The Cherry Orchard. And he’s quite right, Chekhov produced an awful lot of them and then adaptor Andrew Upton threw in a few of his own.

But unlike the critics who have gotten themselves into a real old tizzy about it the Whingers were in an unusually forgiving disposition.

It is true that “bozo” and a few other anachronisms occasionally jarred, as did “crap” and “bollocks”. But Andrew was quite happy when Upton pushed the anachronisms as far as taking a swipe at Phil’s favourite TV show with the line, “There’s nothing more repulsive than Loose Women.”

But it was when landowner Ranyevskaya drawled “Don’t waste your time watching plays – I bet it wasn’t funny at all,” that the Whingers realised that Upton was inviting them into bed with him. Let’s hope his wife Cate Blanchett rolls over and is happy to spoon.