…is as good as everyone says it is.
I didn’t go in with massive expectations. I don’t like the text that much. And I’ve seen a perfectly ‘meh’ version in the past. But the stripped-back set and the sheer theatricality of it all completely won me over.
It helped to have the best seats in the house – up on the stage, facing the action from the side, 5 metres or less from the actors. It’s on at Wyndhams, a proper West End theatre. And it feels completely transgressive to be sitting there. To be aware of another audience off in the distance. To feel implicated in the unfolding action just because of your sheer proximity.
Last year I saw a lot of plays. A lot. Two in one week, occasionally. And it was mostly brilliant. But by the end of the year, I was jaded. I didn’t look forward to the lights going up, I just wondered how long the bloody thing was going to last. So I took a few months off. And I can’t think of a better way to get back into theatre-going than this.
Marianne Powell 