Queen Anne - RSC - Theatre Royal Haymarket

Yes, I very much enjoyed it. Passes the Bechdel test one billion times over, as Queen Anne emerges from pre-throne hibernation to struggle for agency against her uber-influential childhood friend, Sarah Churchill, in a play written, directed and designed by women.

I only really knew that the acts of union were passed in Queen Anne's reign, so this was super-informative for me, as well as entertaining.

I'm glad I saw Romola Garai as Sarah Churchill, because much as I adore the Stratford originator of the role, Natascha McElhone, it always takes me half an hour to stop hissing her when she's onstage, as that wry sly half-smile instinctively preps me that I'm in the presence of a terrible villain. And the last thing a somewhat one-dimensional, Anne-favourable play like this needs is for the principal antagonist to be simplistically caricatured by the audience, as the text itself tilts to Anne over Churchill.

As it is, Garai's straightforward stumblingly blunt directness, seen in such roles as Cordelia in Lear, or Becky in The Village Bike, but epitomised by her blundering Emma, in the BBC miniseries, lends the fierce Sarah Churchill a credence that balances the plot beautifully. Garai's Churchill instantly had me conceiving that Emma Cunniffe's lumbering droning whining Queen Anne may indeed be a useless "lump," who needs to be harried and hectored along every step of the way. This makes Cunniffe's achingly moving search for agency tremendously stirring and touching, in reaction to such a conception. Plot machinations are beautifully worked out, and are so effective that I wished the play to keep going after it ended, which is always a good sign.

Cunniffe is tremendous in her role as Anne, and deserves award consideration, for her ability to draw such a fine line between heroic and irritating, between vulnerable and impossible, that she somehow makes join the dots historical plot threads edge-of-the-seat intriguing. . .

Support for the two leading ladies is strong from a typically witty and cunning James Garnon, as the power hungry speaker of the House, and an especially enigmatic Beth Park, simultaneously sly and straightforward as the ever-threatening Eve to Garai's Margo Channing of a Sarah Churchill.

For the history, for the drama, for the intrigue, and for Garai's and Cunniffe's performances, I thoroughly enjoyed this.

4 stars.

So other than that it's O K

Saw this at Stratford and was v underwhelmed. Frankly astonished it is in WE!

The play was enjoyable in Stratford but a bit random to re-stage it in London 18 months later, but it is only a 12 week run to keep TRH ticking over. There have been better plays at Swan since then that haven't transferred and which I thought might have had wider appeal.

There's a great biography of Anne by Anne Somerset. There's also a fantastic joint biography of her and her sister called Ungrateful Daughters.

I'd be happy to pick one for you, but I'm not going till early September. If that's OK with you, drop my a PM with your address.

Well. There's some lovely door work going on here. They're opening and closing constantly. It's like a Ray Cooney farce. Without the laughs.

It's a bit of a mish-mash really. Romola Garai plays Sarah Churchill all modern like, as though she's just stepped off the set of 'Emmerdale' (I swear she almost did a "guuuurlfriend" finger snap), Emma Cunniffe is unrecognisable as Anne, there's some nice colour-blind casting which is marred slightly by the OVER-ACTING DARLING of Chu Omambala, Hywel Morgan gives us a lovely Prince George of Denmark (via Bavaria) and for those who love James Garnon's Globe performance (select whichever one you like), you'll be delighted to hear he phones it in again rather nicely here too.

And I don't know if the Theatre Royal is short of cash but £2 for a small bar of Dairy Milk. Oh it's daylight robbery. They didn't receive my custom.

Whether or not it is still running, I'd avoid it ---- or have a read of Lloyd Evans's HILARIOUS (and entirely accurate) review of it in the current Spectator magazine, than which truer words were never written :-) -- it's dire.

Thank you for the warm welcome! London is my favourite city (I was fortunate enough to call it home for a year in 2013) so I love any excuse to visit.

This sadly must be selling very badly, just had an e-mail from TRH offering all seats with at least a 50% discount...