It's been rather a while since I went to the theatre with anything like the frequency I used to pre-lockdown, and it feels a little like I've been trying to catch up over the last month!


29th September, Eddie Izzard's one person Hamlet
I wasn't sure what to expect from this, but I love Eddie Izzard (it's how she was advertised for this production) and I love Hamlet, so I jumped at the chance to get tickets when it came to Norwich Playhouse. It's a small theatre, seating only 300, and they made the decision to play the show with the house lights up to mimic the kind of experience that audiences at a Tudor outdoor playhouse would have had. She came out to introduce the show, to explain why, and to make it clear that although she's known as a comic performer, this was not going to be a comic take on Hamlet, but an earnest performance of Shakespeare's play. It was a remarkably full text for a one person show, with no set or props, and she did wonderfully distinguishing all the characters from each other. The duel was breathtaking - only one person on stage, no actual swords, and it had me on the absolute edge of my seat.


18th October, The Importance of Being Earnest
This was both a chance to see Olly Alexander act on stage and an excuse to get to London to see alittlebriton. Spouse came to London and to the theatre with me and we all thoroughly enjoyed the performance. It's been fully re-cast since the original National Theatre production (which I didn't see, so I can't compare), with Olly as Algernon, Nathan Stewart Jarrett as Jack, and Stephen Fry as Lady Bracknell. I wasn't sure about the casting of Stephen Fry, but he was absolutely marvellous, played the role absolutely as the character instead of Stephen Fry playing the role or Stephen Fry playing a woman playing the role. Everyone was the perfect amount of mannered, Olly Alexander had a delightful air of mischief, Gwendolyn and Cecily was both gloriously horny, and the actress playing the manservants both in town and country was brilliant. It's still playing at the Noel Coward theatre, and well worth a visit if you can make it.


22nd October, Hamilton
Hamilton had been in Norwich for a residency since mid-September, and 22nd October was our wedding anniversary, so it would have been rude not to go. I wasn't expecting row C to be the front row, but it was fascinating to see it from so close. We missed out on some of the choreography from not being able to see the stage floor, but we had a great view into the orchestra pit. I wasn't terribly impressed by the actor playing Hamilton (not enough charm to distract from the fact that Hamilton's a complete dick to everyone he interacts with), or the actor playing Eliza (first time I haven't cried at Burn), but Angelica was glorious and King George was brilliant at playing the audience.


29th October matinee, Born With Teeth
I'd been wanting to see this play ever since I saw Ellen Kushner talking about it in her newsletter a while back. A two hander based on the suspected collaboration between Shakespeare and Marlowe is so far up my street that it could be my house, to borrow a phrase. It didn't disappoint. I'd never seen either Ncuti Gatwa or Edward Bluemel on stage, and both were fantastic - beautifully pitched performances with a nicely balanced character arc between Shakespeare's naivety growing in confidence and Marlowe's brash careless arrogance fading as his options for escape and surety limit and vanish. I wasn't entirely as impressed by the set - the wall of lights made it much harder to focus on the actors - but I loved the play and the actors and I'm so glad I got to see it in its final week.


29th October evening, The Producers
This was a last minute addition - Mum saw reviews of the production when it was originally at the Menier, and when she saw it had transferred to the West End, suggested that we could see it on the same day we'd be in London for Born With Teeth. I'm so glad that she did, because it's shameless fun. The orchestra were brilliant (hardest working percussionist in London!), the cast were fantastic, and the design was wonderful. It was perfectly pitched, incredibly funny, and deeply restorative.