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/theatre BLOG POSTS

Philip Ridley: our theatre’s polymath genius

Posted 4.21 pm Thu Sep 24 by Aleks Sierz

Okay, it’s quiz time, and today’s question is: who is the best British playwright to emerge in the past 20 years? Answers that tout the names Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill and Anthony Neilson get no points — too obvious. Naming Martin McDonagh or Jez Butterworth is okay, but a bit eccentric. David Greig is too obscure. Patrick Marber hasn’t written enough; Judy Upton has written too much. Roy Williams or Tanika Gupta are fair enough, but the winner, and only correct answer, is Philip Ridley — our theatre’s polymath genius.

‘The Fastest Clock in the Universe’ at Hampstead Theatre ‘The Fastest Clock in the Universe’ at Hampstead Theatre - © Manuel Harlan
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Cash targets: this week's West End openings all have money on their mind

Posted 5.22 pm Tue Sep 22 by Caroline McGinn

Ever since the days of Shylock and Sir Epicure Mammon, theatre’s loved having a pop at capitalists. And there’s nothing like a recession for sharpening the claws. Anyone who hasn’t already booked tickets for the Royal Court production of Lucy Prebble and Rupert Goold’s ‘Enron’ has little to no chance now of catching it in Sloane Square, but after a sold out run there and rave reviews in Chichester it’s just announced its transfer to the Noel Coward Theatre in January. Oh, and anyone who’s super-keen to witness David Hare ‘seek to understand the financial crisis’ can catch the first preview of ‘The Power of Yes’ on 29 September (it officially opens at the National on 6 October). 

'Enron' at the Royal Court Theatre 'Enron' at the Royal Court Theatre - © Manuel Harlan
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No more battered brown suitcases: cliches of visual theatre that should be banned

Posted 12.39 pm Tue Sep 22 by Andrew Haydon

Queuing for some show or other recently, I happened to overhear the following from a young director who’d spent the previous ten minutes talking about how talented he was: 'Oh, by the way, if you’ve got any stories or anything, it’d be wicked if you could write it. I know exactly how I want the show to look, but haven’t got any narrative yet.'I restrained my urge to turn around and throttle him on the spot. But only just.The problem is, looking at a lot of new work by young “alternative” theatre companies, his attitude doesn’t seem isolated. Is there some shadowy, behind-the-scenes committee for avant garde theatre issuing every company with old, battered, brown leather suitcases and forcing them to include them in their shows?

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For a smash, get celebrity mashed. How a 'Prick up your Ears' / Little Britain mashup could attract a younger crowd

Posted 3.00 pm Tue Sep 15 by Robert Shore

In case you haven’t noticed — and you probably haven’t since you obviously spend most of your time off in cyberspace reading pointless blogs like this one — out in the real world these are difficult times. If we are to survive economically, the need to innovate is greater than ever before.But have theatre producers noticed this state of emergency? Of course they haven’t — they’re far too busy counting their profits from the unending stream of unimaginative pukeboxTM musicals. It can’t go on, though, because the nonagenarians bussed in from provincial care homes who currently pack out the West End every night will all soon be dead and, according to new research that I have just made up, no young person has entered a West End theatre this millennium.And what does the future hold for our beloved stage if it can’t appeal to this younger constituency? Not much.Fortunately I have come up with a plan to save Theatreland, and it goes something like this.

'Prick up your Ears' 'Prick up your Ears' - © Simon Turtle
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/PROFILES

CAROLINE McGINN
/THEATRE EDITOR

Caroline is currently Theatre editor of Time Out, and has previously written about theatre, books and contemporary culture for Time Out, the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Times and the Times Literary Supplement.

ANDREW HAYDON

Andrew Haydon is a freelance theatre critic. He writes regularly for Time Out, the Guardian online and has his own blog Postcards from the Gods. He has also had reviews published in German, Polish, Lithuanian and Czech.