Comments on: Billington and Hytner Slap Backs http://blogs.whatsonstage.com/2007/11/20/billington-and-hytner-slap-backs/ Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:32:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 By: Michael Coveney http://blogs.whatsonstage.com/2007/11/20/billington-and-hytner-slap-backs/#comment-985 Michael Coveney Wed, 21 Nov 2007 10:52:52 +0000 http://blogs.whatsonstage.com/2007/11/20/billington-and-hytner-slap-backs/#comment-985 Sorry for the confusion, Robert. It was an attempt at a joke had Billington selected one of the obvious contenders for "great actress" status. All of the three actresses I mention have indeed given notable performances at the National. I never saw any of Maggie Smith's performances in Stratford Ontario, but we certainly read about them here. Of her Rosalind, Bernard Levin said: "She spoke the epilogue like a chime of golden bells. But what she looked like as she did so I cannot tell you; for I saw it through eyes curtained with tears of joy." Sorry for the confusion, Robert. It was an attempt at a joke had Billington selected one of the obvious contenders for “great actress” status. All of the three actresses I mention have indeed given notable performances at the National. I never saw any of Maggie Smith’s performances in Stratford Ontario, but we certainly read about them here. Of her Rosalind, Bernard Levin said: “She spoke the epilogue like a chime of golden bells. But what she looked like as she did so I cannot tell you; for I saw it through eyes curtained with tears of joy.”

]]> By: Robert Wills http://blogs.whatsonstage.com/2007/11/20/billington-and-hytner-slap-backs/#comment-973 Robert Wills Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:24:01 +0000 http://blogs.whatsonstage.com/2007/11/20/billington-and-hytner-slap-backs/#comment-973 You'll have to forgive me this question. I am from Toronto Canada, and so I am not that much in touch with drama in England, although as it happens I have been to the West End 2 times in the past 3 years. But I am at a loss as to what you mean by your comments about England's greatest actresses. I do know Eileen Atkins, Sian Phillips, and Peggy Ashcroft. Not sure about Sian Thomas. But does your reference to Judi Dench and Maggie Smith mean that they are not held in high critical esteem? Or perhaps Mr Hytner (is that whom you were talking about?) is famous for never giving either of those ladies a favourable review? Beside the point, but I remember so well the seasons at Canada's Stratford Festival when Maggie Smith joined the company, often partnered with Brian Bedford, and gave wonderful performances in so many roles. My favourite was her Rosalind in As You Like It with Bedford as Jaques. An incandescent production. I hope to be back in London again at the end of 2008, especially if the National revives War Horse for a second season. You’ll have to forgive me this question. I am from Toronto Canada, and so I am not that much in touch with drama in England, although as it happens I have been to the West End 2 times in the past 3 years. But I am at a loss as to what you mean by your comments about England’s greatest actresses. I do know Eileen Atkins, Sian Phillips, and Peggy Ashcroft. Not sure about Sian Thomas. But does your reference to Judi Dench and Maggie Smith mean that they are not held in high critical esteem? Or perhaps Mr Hytner (is that whom you were talking about?) is famous for never giving either of those ladies a favourable review?

Beside the point, but I remember so well the seasons at Canada’s Stratford Festival when Maggie Smith joined the company, often partnered with Brian Bedford, and gave wonderful performances in so many roles. My favourite was her Rosalind in As You Like It with Bedford as Jaques. An incandescent production.

I hope to be back in London again at the end of 2008, especially if the National revives War Horse for a second season.

]]> By: Michael Coveney http://blogs.whatsonstage.com/2007/11/20/billington-and-hytner-slap-backs/#comment-969 Michael Coveney Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:00:54 +0000 http://blogs.whatsonstage.com/2007/11/20/billington-and-hytner-slap-backs/#comment-969 Well, blimey, we'll just have to disagree, Matthew, on what constitutes artistry and challenge in the theatre. And anyone who ever saw the Living Theatre, or Joe Chaikin's Open Theatre, or the work of the great Polish directors Jerzy Grotowski and Konrad Swinarski will know why I think so little of Punchdrunk's "environmental" semi-fascist non-theatre. I think you should grow up, too, on the ALW connection. I'm not his spokesman. Nor was my now very out of date biography an official one. I just call it how I see it and I try not to share the usual knee-jerk reactions prevalent on ALW, Sondheim. Les Mis, Antony Sher, "the West End" or any other area of our contemporary theatre. Well, blimey, we’ll just have to disagree, Matthew, on what constitutes artistry and challenge in the theatre. And anyone who ever saw the Living Theatre, or Joe Chaikin’s Open Theatre, or the work of the great Polish directors Jerzy Grotowski and Konrad Swinarski will know why I think so little of Punchdrunk’s “environmental” semi-fascist non-theatre. I think you should grow up, too, on the ALW connection. I’m not his spokesman. Nor was my now very out of date biography an official one. I just call it how I see it and I try not to share the usual knee-jerk reactions prevalent on ALW, Sondheim. Les Mis, Antony Sher, “the West End” or any other area of our contemporary theatre.

]]> By: Matthew http://blogs.whatsonstage.com/2007/11/20/billington-and-hytner-slap-backs/#comment-968 Matthew Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:59:43 +0000 http://blogs.whatsonstage.com/2007/11/20/billington-and-hytner-slap-backs/#comment-968 "the Masque of the Red Death, one of the worst pieces of crap non-theatre ever perpetrated" ...I really couldn't let that one go. It's simply outrageous; a massive statement made without any justification (or, seemingly, significance within the narrative of the blog overall) other than a bitterly-executed kick at a particular strand of a theatre form so far removed from what you believe to be the norm, that there is (just possibly) the possibility that you may have failed to understand it. And to use the word 'perpetrated' in a pejorative context is more adolescent in tone that I'm sure you aimed for. All of which would be absolutely fine if you, Michael, could be replied upon for objectivity, but this fails to be the case. Didn't you give the revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's pedestrian schedule-filler Whistle Down The Wind an impressive four stars a few years back, when it was at the Palace? (It may have even been five.) And in a previous piece about Billington's book, you seemed agrieved at the lack of Billington's mention of the crucial role that Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar played in the context of post-war British theatre. Furthermore, in this piece above, you highlight Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, and also Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom Of The Opera as true pieces to champion and debate in a retrospective cultural context. Now, which theatre figure are you the biographer for again, Mr Coveney? My point is that the artistry and challenge involved in a piece such as Punchdrunk's is doubtless equal to the original creative processes inherent in mounting any of the mega-musical pieces you have championed. (Although the carbon-copy global marketing pile-ups that they have become is another matter altogether.) But to negate one, whilst championing the other smacks of toady old-boys' sycophancy and subjectivity that isn't becoming in such a significant and (generally) fair critic. Tsk tsk, Mr Coveney. “the Masque of the Red Death, one of the worst pieces of crap non-theatre ever perpetrated”

…I really couldn’t let that one go. It’s simply outrageous; a massive statement made without any justification (or, seemingly, significance within the narrative of the blog overall) other than a bitterly-executed kick at a particular strand of a theatre form so far removed from what you believe to be the norm, that there is (just possibly) the possibility that you may have failed to understand it. And to use the word ‘perpetrated’ in a pejorative context is more adolescent in tone that I’m sure you aimed for.

All of which would be absolutely fine if you, Michael, could be replied upon for objectivity, but this fails to be the case. Didn’t you give the revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s pedestrian schedule-filler Whistle Down The Wind an impressive four stars a few years back, when it was at the Palace? (It may have even been five.) And in a previous piece about Billington’s book, you seemed agrieved at the lack of Billington’s mention of the crucial role that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar played in the context of post-war British theatre. Furthermore, in this piece above, you highlight Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats, and also Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom Of The Opera as true pieces to champion and debate in a retrospective cultural context. Now, which theatre figure are you the biographer for again, Mr Coveney?

My point is that the artistry and challenge involved in a piece such as Punchdrunk’s is doubtless equal to the original creative processes inherent in mounting any of the mega-musical pieces you have championed. (Although the carbon-copy global marketing pile-ups that they have become is another matter altogether.) But to negate one, whilst championing the other smacks of toady old-boys’ sycophancy and subjectivity that isn’t becoming in such a significant and (generally) fair critic. Tsk tsk, Mr Coveney.

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