15 January 2018. Rita, Sue and Bob Too at the Royal Court

I had seen the 1986 film of this work and was curious to see how it would convert to the theatre - only to find out that it had started as a Royal Court production in 1982.
So, we started out with four seats representing the car - Bob driving and the two girls in the back. Soon, Bob has managed to have 'a jump' with both girls - or have they managed to have one with him? It is a clever play that confronts one with and gets one to confront apparently simple matters. Was Bob wandering because his wife was so unresponsive to his needs? What was the friendship between Rita and Sue when both were seeing Bob secretly as individuals? Were the relationships simply transactional? How justified were Sue's parents in pushing all the blame onto Rita?
We also got a good evocation of the bleakness of the lives that these people were leading. The girls had few prospects and Bob was suffering from a good deal of anxiety about his employment. We were explicitly reminded of the impact of Thatcherism which had a resonance for the issues of today. for these people, there is no strong argument against Brexit - if anything, it is a non-question and one that deserves a random response.
The acting was great and got well-deserved applause. The set worked well and it was an engaging production. All in all a good 80 minutes for a £12 Monday ticket.

10 January 2018. Mother Christmas at Hampstead Downstairs.

Billed as a 'darkly festive comedy', this play opened with the third generation at the traditional family reunion dressed as a penguin. Then we were introduced to her mother and uncle as well as her grandmother. Rapidly, old tensions re-asserted themselves and the play progressed through two further reunions with no noticeable improvement in relationships. This was despite the pivotal Davina (mother and daughter) coming quite resolved not to re-wind old tapes with the benefit of her Buddhist karma. Yet within minutes, the old rows re-played. Mixed into this pot was Peter, with whom Davina had had a fling but who was also the object of the grandmother Maggie's (Diana Quick) affections. She was widowed at the first reunion and her libido had - she reported - come back with a vengeance.
It was an interesting play, confronting us with the possibility or otherwise of change. It also had some barbed lines at other aspects of psychology including attachment theory and the limits to attributing one's issues to one's parents.
Although amusing, it was really quite a dark play. There were moments when I did not find the acting wholly convincing, funnily enough when a row was not taking place!