A Doll's House...

Last night Stuart took me to see A Doll's House at the Duke of York's Theatre in London's glitzy West End.

Ibsen's play has been reworked as a savagely funny version by Olivier Award-Winning Simon Stephens. And what a tour de force it is. It manages to be both moving and gripping.

Award-winning Hattie Morahan gives her five-star performance of a lifetime as Nora Helmer, alongside excellent Dominic Rowan, who plays her husband Torvald.

Beautifully directed by critically acclaimed Carrie Cracknell the action takes place in a single exquisite revolving set by Ian MacNeil.

To say it is the best play I have seen on the London stage with year would be no exaggeration. The 1h 40m first half simply flew by; the 1h final act stayed but a moment. Glorious acting. A glorious production.

It is making a well-deserved transfer to Broadway.

Don Giovanni @ London Colesium...

Last night Stu and I went to see Don Giovanni as performed by the English National Opera at the London Coliseum.
It was a new production of Mozart's work directed by Rufus Norris (Afore Night Came, Cabaret, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Festen) with the set designed by Ian MacNeil (Festen, Ariodante, Billy Elliot: The Musical).
Don Giovanni (part Don Juan, part Casanova), a young, arrogant, sexually prolific nobleman, abuses and outrages everyone else in the cast, until he finally encounters something he cannot kill, beat up, dodge, or outwit - a guest who he has greatly wronged. This new interpretation of a classic tale takes our anti-hero from some nasty sexual violence through three hours of thoroughly rotten bad behaviour to a very sticky end. The cast were good. The music good too. The set was something else though. The elements raced and twirled and span like dodgem cars - the cast seemed to have to leap out of it's way. Still, we both enjoyed it and it never flagged. The English translation was a hoot too - very contemporary. Recommended.

Related articles

• Rufus Norris makes opera debut (bbc.co.uk)
• Don Giovanni - review (guardian.co.uk)
• Don Giovanni, ENO, Coliseum, review (telegraph.co.uk)