Theater News

London Spotlight: April 2009

Waiting Room

Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in Waiting for Godot
(© Sasha Gusov)
Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in Waiting for Godot
(© Sasha Gusov)

The undoubted prestige opening this early spring is the revival of Samuel Beckett’s melancholy comedy Waiting for Godot at the Haymarket (April 30-June 28). The cast includes Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, Simon Callow, and Ronald Pickup, with direction by Sean Mathias.

That’s the male-oriented arrival. The female-oriented, at the Noel Coward, is Tim Firth’s stage adaptation of Calendar Girls (April 4-September 19), directed by Hamish McColl with always-marvelous distaff actors Patricia Hodge and Sian Phillips heading a cast of others flaunting it in the comedy about some middle-aged women who decide to make money via a racy calendar.

At the National the big news comes by two. In the Olivier, the clever Rufus Norris will direct Wole Soyinka’s 1975 Death and the King’s Horseman (April 1-23). Set in Nigeria, it concerns tribal rituals and the breaking thereof and will be played by a cast 25-strong. J. B. Priestley’s exquisite Time and the Conways (April 28-May 28) from 1937 is revived by flavor-of-the-year director Rupert Goold and stars Francesca Annis, Fenella Woolgar and Adrian Scarborough.

Another not-to-be-ignored opportunity to see a Michael Frayn comedy can be grabbed at the Hampstead, where the playwright’s prize-winning 1975 Alphabetical Order is revived (April 16-May 16). For their money, patrons get the delightful Imogen Stubbs returning to the stage after a short absence and direction by Christopher Luscombe, who recently made hay with the dust-off of Alan Bennett’s Enjoy.

One more look-back but with a twist occurs at the Royal Court, where Wallace Shawn’s monologue about responsibility and irresponsibility, The Fever (April 4-May 2) won’t be performed by the author, as it usually is, but by Clare Higgins. There’s also Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Trafalgar Studios (April 14-May 9) with Tracey Childs and Matthew Kelly and directed by Andrew Hall.

Fringe-wise, there’s The Contingency Plan at the Bush (April 22-June 6). It’s an umbrella title for two climate-change plays by Steve Waters that sound as if they’re directly related to the headlines. Meanwhile, at the Lyric Hammersmith are Hang On (April 15-25), a blend of circus stunts and Japanese percussion with an accent on humor; the Matthew Lenton-conceived-and-directed Interiors (April 21-May 9) with its concentration on stories told over a long meal; and Deepak Verma’s India-slanted adaptation of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights (April 29-May 23).

Over at the Barbican is a three-part stage adaptation of Dante’s Divine Comedy (in repertory April 2-9). Romeo Castellucci is the force here, and he’s set up what’s described as a “walk-up installation.” In the Pit is a diversion tabbed Panic (April 15-May 16) about the god Pan’s chicanery and run up by those jocular Improbable fellows Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch. Also down there below-stairs is A Forest (April 7-9), apparently “a fairytale for grown-ups.” It’s been conceived by Robert Pacitti and devised by him with Richard Eton and Sheila Ghelani.

At the Globe, where William Shakespeare is presented as he was back then, the new season begins with Romeo and Juliet (April 23-August 23), directed by artistic head Dominic Dromgoole. This one is especially recommended for families with teenagers. At the New Wimbledon, John Savident leads other warblers in Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore (April 14-18).

At the Greenwich are two offerings that on paper sound intriguing. Spoonface Steinberg (April 16-18) is by Lee Hall, who wrote the Billy Elliot libretto. It’s the tale of a nine-year-old autistic girl. In Tony and Twizzle (April 23-25), the comedy team LipService (Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding) poke fun at celebrity.

Parents seeking entertainment for children are advised to think about the Unicorn where various entertainments are available. The Book of Beasts (April 8-11), an adaptation of the revered E. Nesbit’s work about a young king and temptation is one. Another is a puppet treatment of Jean Giono’s beloved The Man Who Planted Trees (April 14-26). Why not Douglas Irvine’s go at J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan (April 14-19) and/or a new version of Hans Christian Andersen’s Ugly Duckling (April 22-May 2)?