Review – Rutherford and Son, National Theatre

Yes, we know we’ve flogged variations of the following “gag” several times but if we’ve learnt anything it’s that there’s very little that can’t be re-recyled.

Q: What’s Rutherford and Son about?

A: It’s about 3 hours 15 minutes.

Well that was according to the worrying email the National sent us prior to our visit sending us into a right old dither. It sounded as if it would drag on longer than Theresa May’s departure. Talk about managing our expectations. On the night it turned out to be a nippier but still lengthy 2 hours 50 mins. It may well be shorter by the opening. It needs to be.

Review – Treasure Island, National Theatre

There’s a wonderful moment – a maritime take on Hitchcock’s Rear Window – in Treasure Island where a cross section of the Hispaniola rises up through the stage revealing various rooms and cabins of the ship. It’s a wonder the audience didn’t applaud.

Money has been splurged on this year’s Christmas show at the National. Lizzie Clachan’s deliciously complicated designs require full use of the Olivier’s drum revolve and there’s an clever take on Long John Silver’s leg, plus an impressive animatronic parrot. But that’s pretty much all the good news from Phil.

Review – Double Feature 2, National Theatre

Oh dear oh lor oh lummee.

But then, having got themselves into an unseemly and quite uncharacteristic tizzy of enthusiastic excitement over Double Feature 1 in the National Theatre‘s summer season of new plays, it could only really be downhill for the sequel.

Poor old Double Feature 2 – burdened with the thankless task of producing the theatrical equivalent of the notoriously difficult second album.

And of course it completely failed to live up to the first which will now be tarnished by the rubbishness of the second.

Review – Twisted Tales, Lyric Hammersmith

One of the biggest surprises produced by the supposed horror shocker Ghost Stories has been the volume and ferocity of the vilification expressed by disappointed punters  in the comments section.

The gist of the complaints is that people feel cheated. Ghost Stories (“Just keep telling yourself it’s only a show”) makes promises it just can’t keep.

Anyway, nothing has attracted such universal derision since Andrew last stepped out in a new summer shirt.