The Entertainer - Garrick

Someone who went last night was complaining on Twitter about the cramped seating, sweltering temperature and "interminable" first half. No comment otherwise on the play/production itself and it sounds as though he may have left at the interval.

Brilliant play and beautiful production, great work from the core 4. Recommended.

So when did good old Sir Kenny B turn into Eddie Izzard?

This one bored me I'm afraid. Even the cast seemed to be a bit half hearted. KB and Greta Scacchi were the best of the bunch, wasn't sold on Gawn Grainger at all and Sophie McShera was just so wet. The second act was interminable. A few laughs but rather dull on the whole.

I'm afraid I bailed at the interval. It felt interminably long and Sophie Mcsh*te was appalling. She looked like a rabbit in a head light

I'm kind of amazed at the reaction to this. I've always thought it was John Osborne's best play and the one production I've seen of it - at the Old Vic with Robert Lindsay - was excellent.

Even the best writing can struggle to overcome a dull production though, and it sounds like this one has the boredom aspect more than covered.

Is this the sort of old play that would be better staged in a perspex box underwater at the Young Vic?

And King Lear also has a 24-strong unpaid community cast so that's two attractions for me. However, as it's Shakespeare, ...

They're a part of Lear's retinue of a hundred.

Did you not see them mentioned in the prog Lynette? RSC made bit of a hoohah before the first performance that they had a group of locals to make up Lear's retinue.

And not in the same building! I'll have a look for it and read the info. To be honest I didn't register anything remarkable. I do remember thinking that they would need a lot of people at the Barbican so perhaps I was reacting to the number on the stage. Some of the staging was a bit Barbicanesque too. 

I didn't like the vagabonds in the mock trial scene. Didn't make sense to me but I think it was supposed to be like the people in that wonderful An Inspector Calls, the poor masses who are unseen by the rich et etc. But to me the point of the scene is in the comment of the Fool- I took it for a joint stool, that is, the King is imagining his daughters. But having them does provide a talking point ( 20 mins in car on way home)