The Circle - Orange Tree / Tour

Already booked without knowing the cast so that’s a pleasant surprise.
Let’s hope it’s as good as Arms and the Man.

This revival of a play by the currently unfashionable Somerset Maugham opens tonight. It will be interesting to see if interest in his work can be rekindled as it has been for Terence Rattigan over the past few years.

+ Jane Asher.

Curious about Tom Littler and the OT - he's come from the simpler set up at Jermyn Street. Are most/all productions at the OT in the round?

OT is always in the round. 

I'm expecting that under him the casting at the OT will become a bit more starry. 

This is very good if you like this sort of thing. Nicholas le Prevost very amusing.

The trusty chaise longue has been deployed so often at the OT that there's no wonder it's looking dowdy. It's the perfect furniture item for in-the-round productions because it doesn't block the view of the front row when no-one is sitting on it. I struggle to think of a production there when it hasn't been pressed into service. 

I sort of agree that as the husband had an interest in interior design they might have made more effort with the set but spending more money on the actors instead has paid off here. Somerset Maugham, who was gay at a time it was illegal, was unhappily married to a wife who was an interior designer. As in the plays of Rattigan and Coward it is interesting to speculate on which relationships in the plays are really based on gay relationships and which characters in the plays are discretely signalled as being gay. I mean, the husband in this right ? 

I thought I might suffer a bit from overload of this type of play - I was there last night but the week before was The Vortex (Chichester) and the week before that Private Lives (Donmar.) But for me this was easily the most enjoyable of the three which is interesting as the two Cowards both took a bit of a ‘left field’ approach and this was more traditionally directed. I’ve only seen one other Maugham play - can’t remember what now but it was at Hampstead, but this was much more entertaining and I now hope they will revive more of this unfashionable author.

Littler has put together an absolutely tip top cast with the three ‘old lags’ - Le Prevost, Francis and Asher on sparkling form.

I would agree with most of what has been already said. It's very nicely done. The veteran actors get most of the laughs, but the whole cast does a great job. A really satisfying and enjoyable evening.

I don't remember the chaise longue in "The Misfortune of the English" or "Two Billion Beats"......

I imagine. I never go to new plays either at the OT or anywhere else - they never much bothered with them at the OT in the more distant past.

Went yesterday evening with a friend - we both felt that the acting was really good, especially the three older people. The storyline neither of us thought was particularly interesting or had much depth of meaning, but in all it was a pleasant evening out, with some laughs along the way. The show was interrupted half way through the first act by a member of the audience feeling unwell. It all restarted in ten minutes and went smoothly on. I hope the lady in question is ok!

I enjoyed this yesterday after a longer wait than expected both to see it (had to move my booking back 6 weeks to accommodate physio appointments) and then to enter the auditorium which, for an unannounced reason, was opened very late and inevitably delayed the start of the performance.

As I'd never had the opportunity to see this play but had enjoyed a production of another of Somerset Maugham's plays at CFT, I was looking forward to this anyway and more so once the reviews were so positive. Also, whilst I'd never book (or, with a few exceptions) avoid doing so due to any particular members of the cast, I was delighted to be seeing Nicholas Le Prevost once more as he's one of my favourite actors but not surprisingly, does less theatre now.

Others have said that the whole cast was great and I agree but yes, there was definitely an extra frisson during the scenes involving 2 or 3 of the more senior actors, ie Jane Asher, Clive Francis and Nicholas Le Prevost; I don't know how they have the stamina to carry on doing it, but I'm so glad that they do.

Imo not a great play but hugely enhanced by the production and cast.


A small beef however about lack of audience management by front of house: as it was a matinee and the auditorium was opened late, a long queue of restive and not-very-mobile people had built up and it took AGES for everyone to enter and at the interval and again at the end, everyone else was held up by a man sitting by the exit who clearly had an impairment but managed to launch himself into the gangway and block this for everyone else, then hover there, presumably recouping his strength before inching his way up and out. Why on earth don't FOH staff identify people clearly needing assistance and help them into their seats earlier and again at the interval and end? It can't be pleasant for those concerned to be aware that everyone else is jammed up behind them and people who need to escape swiftly to catch an infrequent train are thwarted.

Exactly the same thing happens at Guildford, where of course all the audience members in wheelchairs or using sticks book seats by the side exit to the street, then completely block this at the interval and end. I've seen this so much better managed elsewhere and for everyone: for instance, at Hampstead Downstairs, ushers escort those with impairments into the auditorium first and wait until they are seated before opening it for others.  Surely this is preferable for all, allowing those needing help to be in a relaxed mood ready to enjoy the performance itself and avoiding unnecessary delays?

I am sorry I missed this. Booked twice and had to cancel due to train strikes and other commitments. Not sure if it could have a life somewhere else.