Theatre review: Hay Fever

Noël Coward's Hay Fever returns to the West End, this time in a production by Emily Burns whose star turn of Christine Baranski convinced me to book; but while I can't accuse it of not being an entertaining evening, I think this should probably be the last time I give this particular play a go. Baranski plays Judith Bliss, a recently-retired stage actress who made her name in torrid melodramas, and keeps threatening to return to them as her new life in the country has been boring her lately. So much so that she's invited a devoted young fan of hers, Sandy Tyrrell (Ash Hunter) to stay with her for the weekend. She hasn't forewarned her family though, and as it turns out all four of them have got surprise guests on the way - and all four of them have gone for a vague acquaintance some decades older or younger than them whom they plan on flirting with.

Theatre review: Prawn Play

Why yes, I am renaming this play so that Google doesn't send an AI bot to delete my blog.

Closing out the year at the Royal Court Upstairs is Sophia Chetin-Leuner's play that courts controversy - but also predictably early sell-outs - with its title: Prawn Play. Ani (Transphobia Ltd. Employee Ambika Mod) is a Milton scholar whose career's recently been boosted by a prestigious award, but whose private life is falling apart. Her relationship with Liam (Will Close) at first appears to be having trouble because he's jealous of her success, but that's just her deflecting attention from something he's genuinely concerned about: Her addiction to hardcore prawn, of a particularly violent and misogynistic type. She can't be sexually satisfied without it, and keeps him up at night with her addiction on her phone. Also, Walkers Crisps to release a spicy prawn cocktail flavour crisp called Hardcore Prawn, when?

Theatre review: Dear England

I said a few weeks ago that the National had managed a bit of a coup by scheduling probably the two most bankable British playwrights at the moment to premiere new work at the same time in its main houses. And if it was Jack Thorne in the Lyttelton, with a play that's already announced a West End transfer, then it must be James Graham in the Olivier, with a play that's bringing in audiences that don't often come to the theatre, and seems likely to have a future life of its own as a result. Dear England is a play about football, so Rupert Goold is the obvious choice of director - I could say it's because he made his name with a dynamic, physical visual style that suits a sports story but let's face it, it's because when he took over at the Almeida he waxed lyrical about how handy his new office was for Arsenal home games, as much as anything he had to say about the theatre itself.