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Post by crabtree on Oct 1, 2023 21:24:31 GMT
As I teeter to my dotage and develop a tremor I become suitable to be cast as a Restoration Fop, such as Sir Fopling Flutter. When, i pondered, did we last have a high profile Restoration piece. Has their dependence on fruity language dropped from favour, or they just simply have nothing to say any more. I love them and thier ornate language and cynicism - mind there might be a trendy director ready to reinvent the country Wife as a gender confused tale, with no set but lots of video screens and live footage
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Post by couldileaveyou on Oct 1, 2023 21:33:21 GMT
The Beaux' Stratagem at the NT in 2015 and The Way of the World at the Donmar in 2018. Probably not high profile, but Southwark Playhouse did The Country Wife in 2018 too. In 2019 the RSC did The Provoked Wife in Stratford.
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Post by marob on Oct 1, 2023 21:35:14 GMT
They are few and far between. In my 10ish years as a theatregoer I’ve only ever seen touring productions of She Stoops to Conquer and The Rivals, and The Country Wife at Southwark Playhouse.
Mike Bartlett’s Scandaltown was in the style of a restoration comedy.
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Post by nottobe on Oct 1, 2023 21:38:58 GMT
The Orange Tree theatre are doing 'She Stoops to Conquer' in December which has a good cast.
Also last year the National Theatre had 'Jack Absolute flies again', which I personally loathed. I have never seen a proper restoration comedy yet but wish that the NT did The Rival's rather than a tremendously unfunny 're-imagining'.
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Post by Fleance on Oct 1, 2023 21:46:23 GMT
There was an excellent production of The Rivals at the Arcola in 2014. Directed by Selina Cadell, it starred Gemma Jones and Nicholas Le Prevost.
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Post by lynette on Oct 1, 2023 22:04:32 GMT
The Donmar’s The Way of the World showed how it can be done these days. I would love to see more
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Post by bordeaux on Oct 2, 2023 5:42:48 GMT
The pedant in me would like to point out that Sheridan and Goldsmith are not Restoration Comedy, though they may have similar features. Strictly speaking Restoration comedy is written between 1688 and about 1710.
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Post by Jan on Oct 2, 2023 6:33:04 GMT
The pedant in me would like to point out that Sheridan and Goldsmith are not Restoration Comedy, though they may have similar features. Strictly speaking Restoration comedy is written between 1688 and about 1710. Why 1688 ? Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660. Your definition would exclude, for example, Man of Mode (1676) which absolutely is a restoration comedy (Simon Russell-Beale very good as Sir Fopling Flutter in the RSC version as you might imagine). The last one I saw, though you could argue about the classification, was The Double Dealer (1693) by Congreve at the Orange Tree in 2019 directed by Selina Cadell who also directed The Rivals at the Arcola as has been mentioned. The best I've seen was The Rivals at NT in 1983 with Michael Horden, Geraldine McEwan, Fiona Shaw, Tim Curry and over the years the NT have done several other very good productions - She Stoops to Conquer, School for Scandal, The Beaux Stratagem, Wild Oats, The Relapse etc. The main problem with them is you need very good comic actors in almost all the parts to overcome the stylised language and the lost satirical references in the text. In my youth there was a bizarre period where William Gaskill was held up as being the best director of restoration comedy with his stripped back Brechtian deconstructions of them but unfortunately this approach also stripped back the comedy to near zero. In more recent years in 2011 Deborah Warner had a try at this misguided approach with her dismal School for Scandal at the Barbican which didn't have a laugh in it despite a cast of Alan Howard, Aidan McArdle and Harry Melling. I am fairly sure the upcoming She Stoops to Conquer at the Orange Tree will be good - it is being relocated to the 1930s of P.G.Wodehouse which seems a perfect fit. |
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Post by David J on Oct 2, 2023 7:19:40 GMT
The 2016 RSC production with Joseph Millson was an absolute treat to watch
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Post by Jan on Oct 2, 2023 7:38:50 GMT
The 2016 RSC production with Joseph Millson was an absolute treat to watch Of Aphra Behn's The Rover ? It is not a bad play, their previous production of it with Jeremy Irons was good too. In the 1980's Trevor Nunn was interviewed about plays he'd like to direct in future and he said one was the very obscure The Lucky Chance by Aphra Behn. Mysteriously this then appeared shortly afterwards in a period production at the Royal Court (!) directed by someone else and Nunn stopped giving interviews on that topic - actually they did it justice, Harriet Walter and Alan Rickman in the cast. It would be worth a revival. |
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Post by crabtree on Oct 2, 2023 13:12:08 GMT
it's good to see that others have a fondness for Restoration Comedy. I wonder if the Country Wife today with Horner's ailment not being impotent but gay. That old chestnut. And yes let's be pedantic - I don't class The Rivals, and such, as Restoration. Would we label them as Regency? Yes, the great Mrs Malaprop, Lady Bracknell, and Hyacinth Bucket all related, and all related by Patricia Routledge.
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Post by Jan on Oct 2, 2023 13:46:05 GMT
it's good to see that others have a fondness for Restoration Comedy. I wonder if the Country Wife today with Horner's ailment not being impotent but gay. That old chestnut. And yes let's be pedantic - I don't class The Rivals, and such, as Restoration. Would we label them as Regency? Yes, the great Mrs Malaprop, Lady Bracknell, and Hyacinth Bucket all related, and all related by Patricia Routledge. The later plays, particularly Congreve, are usually under the “comedy of manners” heading rather than restoration. Coincidentally I’m just reading the novel Restoration by Rose Tremain which is very good, particularly the first third which is brilliantly funny. It reads as if it was written specifically for Simon Russell-Beale to play in the film - but sadly it wasn’t and he didn’t. |
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Post by bordeaux on Oct 2, 2023 15:41:18 GMT
The pedant in me would like to point out that Sheridan and Goldsmith are not Restoration Comedy, though they may have similar features. Strictly speaking Restoration comedy is written between 1688 and about 1710. Why 1688 ? Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660. Your definition would exclude, for example, Man of Mode (1676) which absolutely is a restoration comedy (Simon Russell-Beale very good as Sir Fopling Flutter in the RSC version as you might imagine). The last one I saw, though you could argue about the classification, was The Double Dealer (1693) by Congreve at the Orange Tree in 2019 directed by Selina Cadell who also directed The Rivals at the Arcola as has been mentioned. The best I've seen was The Rivals at NT in 1983 with Michael Horden, Geraldine McEwan, Fiona Shaw, Tim Curry and over the years the NT have done several other very good productions - She Stoops to Conquer, School for Scandal, The Beaux Stratagem, Wild Oats, The Relapse etc. The main problem with them is you need very good comic actors in almost all the parts to overcome the stylised language and the lost satirical references in the text. In my youth there was a bizarre period where William Gaskill was held up as being the best director of restoration comedy with his stripped back Brechtian deconstructions of them but unfortunately this approach also stripped back the comedy to near zero. In more recent years in 2011 Deborah Warner had a try at this misguided approach with her dismal School for Scandal at the Barbican which didn't have a laugh in it despite a cast of Alan Howard, Aidan McArdle and Harry Melling. I am fairly sure the upcoming She Stoops to Conquer at the Orange Tree will be good - it is being relocated to the 1930s of P.G.Wodehouse which seems a perfect fit. My mistake! 1660 of course.. |
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Post by crabtree on Oct 2, 2023 18:59:50 GMT
Favourite Mrs Malaprop? I've seen so many, some tragially deluded, some knowingly social climbing, some just charging forth with gay abandon, but what a superb character.
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Post by Dawnstar on Oct 2, 2023 19:08:24 GMT
And yes let's be pedantic - I don't class The Rivals, and such, as Restoration. Would we label them as Regency? I wouldn't personally, since Sheridan's plays were written before the start of the Regency period. |
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Post by Jan on Oct 2, 2023 19:16:15 GMT
Favourite Mrs Malaprop? I've seen so many, some tragially deluded, some knowingly social climbing, some just charging forth with gay abandon, but what a superb character. Geraldine McEwan was very funny - somewhat similar to her portrayal of the divine Lucia in the original TV version of “Mapp and Lucia”. |
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Post by bordeaux on Oct 2, 2023 19:49:13 GMT
I love all those Restoration comedies and the 18th century ones and agree it is a shame they are done less often than they used to be. I think my first RSC season (as spectator I seem to remember, 1988-89) had SRB in Man of Mode and Oliver Cotton (now writing plays for Brian Cox) in William Wycherley's The Plain Dealer, a very funny loose version of Moliere's The Misanthrope. And Edward Bond's brilliant and very witty Restoration.
Now, is it true to say that after Sheridan's The Critic (1779) it was over a century before there was another great UK play (something by Shaw)? The Romantics all had a go and failed. John Caird did a brilliantly entertaining version of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Money (1840) in the Olivier in the Nunn ensemble season (stupendous cast) but it's a wonderful rarity rather than a great play. Are there riches waiting to be discovered or was it a dead period for new writing? And if so, does anyone have any idea why?
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Post by Fleance on Oct 2, 2023 21:27:09 GMT
The pedant in me would like to point out that Sheridan and Goldsmith are not Restoration Comedy, though they may have similar features. Strictly speaking Restoration comedy is written between 1688 and about 1710. Why 1688 ? Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660. Your definition would exclude, for example, Man of Mode (1676) which absolutely is a restoration comedy (Simon Russell-Beale very good as Sir Fopling Flutter in the RSC version as you might imagine). The last one I saw, though you could argue about the classification, was The Double Dealer (1693) by Congreve at the Orange Tree in 2019 directed by Selina Cadell who also directed The Rivals at the Arcola as has been mentioned. The best I've seen was The Rivals at NT in 1983 with Michael Horden, Geraldine McEwan, Fiona Shaw, Tim Curry and over the years the NT have done several other very good productions - She Stoops to Conquer, School for Scandal, The Beaux Stratagem, Wild Oats, The Relapse etc. The main problem with them is you need very good comic actors in almost all the parts to overcome the stylised language and the lost satirical references in the text. In my youth there was a bizarre period where William Gaskill was held up as being the best director of restoration comedy with his stripped back Brechtian deconstructions of them but unfortunately this approach also stripped back the comedy to near zero. In more recent years in 2011 Deborah Warner had a try at this misguided approach with her dismal School for Scandal at the Barbican which didn't have a laugh in it despite a cast of Alan Howard, Aidan McArdle and Harry Melling. I am fairly sure the upcoming She Stoops to Conquer at the Orange Tree will be good - it is being relocated to the 1930s of P.G.Wodehouse which seems a perfect fit. That 1983 production of The Rivals at the NT was great, as was the NT's 1990 production of The School for Scandal. I particularly remember Prunella Scales brilliant performance as Mrs. Candour. I've seen three productions of The Way of the World: 1) the Actors Company in Edinburgh (Edward Petherbridge, Robin Ellis, Paola Dionisotti, Caroline Blakiston, Ian McKellen, John Woodvine, and a lovely actor whom I met a few times years later: Robert Eddison; 2) Maggie Smith and Joan Plowright in the 1984 Haymarket production from Chichester; and 3) 1985 NT production with Geraldine McEwan, Fiona Shaw, Catherine Tate, and Roger Allam. I'm ready for another one! |
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Post by Jan on Oct 3, 2023 6:13:05 GMT
I've seen three productions of The Way of the World: 1) the Actors Company in Edinburgh (Edward Petherbridge, Robin Ellis, Paola Dionisotti, Caroline Blakiston, Ian McKellen, John Woodvine, and a lovely actor whom I met a few times years later: Robert Eddison; 2) Maggie Smith and Joan Plowright in the 1984 Haymarket production from Chichester; and 3) 1985 NT production with Geraldine McEwan, Fiona Shaw, Catherine Tate, and Roger Allam. I'm ready for another one! The Donmar 2018 production less good. Robert Eddison was one of my favourites but I only saw him very late in his career when he was absolutely brilliant in small roles - including Friar Lawrence, and Lafeu in All's Well. |
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Post by kate8 on Oct 3, 2023 9:10:56 GMT
Wasn’t there something in the news recently about drama students boycotting Restoration plays as a way of decolonising the canon? No idea if that’s had traction in the professional theatre. I hope not.
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Post by Jan on Oct 3, 2023 12:47:42 GMT
Wasn’t there something in the news recently about drama students boycotting Restoration plays as a way of decolonising the canon? No idea if that’s had traction in the professional theatre. I hope not. I think in practice it is more a matter of fashion than ideology. The last two AD's of the NT covering the last 22 years programmed one restoration comedy each (in the original text). It's just not an area of the British classical theatre repertoire that seems to have interested them which is a pity and also contrary to what the remit of the NT should be, it would be like the Comédie-Française not putting on much Molière. The RSC's commitment has been better except in recent years where they haven't programmed much of anything at all. |
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Post by Fleance on Oct 3, 2023 20:57:32 GMT
I've seen three productions of The Way of the World: 1) the Actors Company in Edinburgh (Edward Petherbridge, Robin Ellis, Paola Dionisotti, Caroline Blakiston, Ian McKellen, John Woodvine, and a lovely actor whom I met a few times years later: Robert Eddison; 2) Maggie Smith and Joan Plowright in the 1984 Haymarket production from Chichester; and 3) 1985 NT production with Geraldine McEwan, Fiona Shaw, Catherine Tate, and Roger Allam. I'm ready for another one! The Donmar 2018 production less good. Robert Eddison was one of my favourites but I only saw him very late in his career when he was absolutely brilliant in small roles - including Friar Lawrence, and Lafeu in All's Well. The last time I saw Robert Eddison on stage was as John of Gaunt in Richard II (Phoenix), with Derek Jacobi in the eponymous role. And before that, in Rosmersholm (NT) and The Cocktail Party (Phoenix). Robert and I had a close mutual friend. The three of us attended a performance of Tales from Hollywood at the NT; and I met him again after the performance of The Cocktail Party. He was a fine actor, and a lovely man. |
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Post by crowblack on Oct 3, 2023 21:12:02 GMT
It's a shame - I saw some very entertaining productions as a teenager when I was starting to get into theatre, including Hytner's The Country Wife with a cracking cast at the RX. It feels related to the decline in the TV sitcom too.
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Post by crabtree on Oct 3, 2023 21:41:50 GMT
am I right in remembering Gary Oldman and Cheryl Campbell in the Royal Exchange's wonderfully rude Country Wife. The letter scene still lingers as pure joy.
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Post by profquatermass on Oct 4, 2023 2:36:10 GMT
am I right in remembering Gary Oldman and Cheryl Campbell in the Royal Exchange's wonderfully rude Country Wife. The letter scene still lingers as pure joy. A production which also had Alex Jennings |
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