Fiona Mountford
@FionaLondonarts
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Previously 17 years as Evening Standard theatre critic. Now at the i. All-round arts lover. Has opinions. Host of talks and events. Finally writing the book.
London
Joined July 2011
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Pinned Tweet
'I went to Mum's favourite spot overlooking the River Avon and sprinkled a handful of her ashes into the water. After that, I went inside to watch the show'. I reflect on the annual tradition of a trip to
@TheRSC
with my Mum, who died a year ago:
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I am very sorry to say that after 17 happy years as theatre critic, I will be leaving the Standard in July as a result of necessary cost-cutting. It's been a blast.
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Theatres large and small up across the country are struggling today and I suggest we show them an outpouring of love, of what they mean to us. Let us say why we're fond of our favourites. I'll kick off: I love
@OrangeTreeThtr
because of its wonderful intimacy.
#theatrelove
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It's sobering to think that never again in our lifetimes will we sing God Save the Queen.
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All I can say is that I hope all the people piling into my timeline with unpleasant comments concerning Jews in Their Own Words
@royalcourt
have had the grace to buy a ticket and watch the show first.
Imagine writing such nasty things without any first-hand evidence...
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I'm not normally a great one for film soundtracks, but I've made a happy exception for that of A Star is Born, which is, unsurprisingly, magnificent. Have listened to the song Shallow approximately 20 times on repeat now.
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For the last 15 and a half years, I have done the Standard's theatre schedule. It has been a time-consuming task, but a greatly rich and rewarding one, affording me a deep knowledge of all strata of London theatre. Today I filed my last schedule. I feel sad about that.
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I have been immensely touched and heartened by all your kind words on this difficult day. Thank you very much.
See you in the theatre tonight?
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I think it's safe to say that Boris Johnson has certainly got his money's worth out of the NHS in the month of April.
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I always vowed that if I lost my job, I would learn Portuguese. As of tomorrow I will have lost my job and thus this morning I enrolled in a Portuguese course. Bom dia!
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That surprising and delightful moment when you walk into a theatre press night and someone gives you flowers to say how sorry they are at your news. That moment.
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What youth theatres are still managing to keep going in these strange days? Asking for a piece...
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Let's try, if we can on this dark night, to think of the joy unbounded there will be when the theatres reopen.
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Am I correct in thinking that a lot of freelancers won't even qualify for this mythical £94 a week if they have a small amount of savings? But all employees will get their - justly awarded - 80% regardless? How can that be fair?
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'If your principles are out of fashion, that doesn't mean they're wrong'. My interview with the RSC's 'fiercely passionate' deputy artistic director, Erica Whyman.
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Snaps to Rita Chakrabarti for keeping up this never ending hour of auto-witter. She’ll surely run out of scientists to speak to soon.
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I have never before been asked to leave a theatre. Yet I have just been told to leave the (almost empty) auditorium of
@TheOtherPalace
for the cardinal sin of eating a sandwich during the interval.
It doesn't make me feel particularly warm towards the second half.
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@CasparSalmon
I often find myself getting in touch with plumbers and electricians and the like, providing detailed instructions pertaining to the work I would like done, ending with, 'I'm afraid I cannot offer you a fee'.
They jump at the offer Every time.
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It's very jolly to be heading to the theatre once more with a review notebook in hand. Hooray!
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Simply cannot believe the news that
@lyngardner
is leaving the Guardian on June 1st. She's far and away the single most valuable critical voice in British theatre.
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In my 17 years at the Standard, I have had the privilege of interviewing almost every artistic director in London theatre, some multiple times. Here's my last interview for the paper, with one of theatre's brightest sparks of hope for the future: Lynette Linton.
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Here's a lovely thing: a Call the Midwife star running to raise money for a charity supporting women's and children's health. Nonnatus House would be proud of you, Jennifer.
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Of this we - and
@The_Globe
- can be absolutely sure: Emma Rice will go on to even bigger and better things with her head held very high.
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I was no great fan of Jews. In Their Own Words
@royalcourt
as a piece of drama. The unplesant comments concerning non-theatrical elements of the show that have cropped up in my Twitter feed only serve to highlight why the piece was necessary. Sobering and illuminating.
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In Theatreland, this is a very big week for both
@KilnTheatre
and
@stratfordeast
, opening their first pieces of work with a new building and a new artistic director respectively. It's in everyone's interests that these vital London venues both succeed, and gloriously so.
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Nadia Fall being appointed artistic director
@stratfordeast
is the single most sensible theatrical decision in years. May she flourish.
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I am so tired of seeing some male critics asleep in the stalls. I have never seen a female critic asleep while she's reviewing, so why does this imbalance continue?
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There are, presumably, many tempting future options for Standing at the Sky's Edge
@crucibletheatre
. What a glorious statement of solidarity and intent it would be, though, for
@NationalTheatre
to transfer this Sheffield story with universal heart and resonance to the South Bank.
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'Diversity is not our endgame. Our endgame has to be quality of work'. My exclusive interview with Nadia Fall, who announces her first season
@stratfordeast
today:
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Labour of Love by the unstoppable
@mrJamesGraham
is quality popular entertainment at its best and the West End is a richer place for it.
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This House by
@mrJamesGraham
is, along with Posh by Laura Wade, my very favourite drama from the last ten years. I saw it in all three of its theatrical incarnations and cannot wait to see it again when
@NationalTheatre
streams it live. For free! From tonight! Treat yourself.
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Today has given me an uncanny sensation of what it must be like to read your own obituary.
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All I can say is that tomorrow will be a busy news day in British theatre.
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If and when we all emerge from this horror, could we perhaps agree, collectively, that paying a little more in tax in order to better fund the NHS might be a good idea?
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Slightly unnerved that the front page of tonight's Standard says 'Get home by 6pm', when it's exactly 6pm now and I am just off to review a play for, er, the Standard.
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I know exactly what my dear Daddy would have said to me last night, after yesterday's news. It was one of his favourite quotations anyway and, hell's bells, it would have been apposite: 'Apart from that, Mrs Lincoln, how was the play?'
(The play,
@YardTheatre
, was very good).
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I have bought a theatre ticket! As in a ticket for the actual theatre! To see a live performance!
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And so, one more time, with feeling. Am off now for my last review at the Standard.
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Dear Lord, please tell me that it will now be obligatory to wear masks in packed, non-socially-distanced theatres?
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@VashtiKincaidS1
As a fellow Corpus graduate, Kasmira, I offer you a hearty (virtual) round of applause and so many good wishes for your next step.
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Happily en route to
@NationalTheatre
in order to host an event for The Corn is Green. So looking forward to talking to Nicola Walker and Iwan Davies at 4pm this afternoon.
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Very pleased to see that The Watsons, Laura Wade's stylish playing about with the unfinished Jane Austen novel, is getting a deserved London transfer to the Menier. Here's my interview with her about the original production
@ChichesterFT
:
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A single line in the acknowledgements of the magnificent House of Glass by
@HadleyFreeman
speaks volumes about women's creative lives, even now too often curtailed: '[My partner's] love - and his willingness to shoulder the domestic duties - made this book possible'.
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There are certainly worse ways to spend a Tuesday lunchtime.
Andrew Scott WINS Best Actor award in The 2019 Critics' Circle Theatre Awards today - presented by
@fionalondonarts
@CCTAwards
#CriticsCircleAwards
#CCTAwards
#AndrewScott
#PresentLaughter
@oldvictheatre
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How's this for a lovely piece of post to arrive on your birthday: a two-page, handwritten letter from your esteemed arts editor, thanking you for everything.
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Today sees my last trip for the Standard to review
@ChichesterFT
. By my rough estimate, for these trips to Chichester over the last 17 years, I will have driven more than 22,000 miles. My little car and I will miss this.
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Standing at the Sky's Edge
@crucibletheatre
is a superlative example of a theatre speaking absolutely to its local community, but in a story of universal resonance and appeal. A triumph for Rob Hastie and his team.
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It's an astoundingly fine, star-is-born lead performance from Shubham Saraf as Gandhi's killer in The Father and the Assassin
@NationalTheatre
. Note the name: we'll be hearing much more of him.
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I do hope that the wider theatrical community appreciates what a terrific job
@pmiller67
and
@snickersmagicks
are doing
@OrangeTreeThtr
.
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For perhaps my final time at the Standard, the profound pleasure of clicking the * key five times at the top of a review...
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'Like all the best pieces of culture that take sport as their subject, Dear England both is and isn't about football'. It's a back-of-the-net triumph for the lads Goold and Graham
@NationalTheatre
:
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My top three shows of 2017 (drum roll please):
3) Beginning
@NationalTheatre
2) The Ferryman
@royalcourt
1) Girl from the North Country
@oldvictheatre
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Dear Europe
We are very sorry. Please don't take it personally.
Yours shamefacedly
48.1% of the United Kingdom
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And, as so often, the most vocal comments come from those who lurk behind anonymous Twitter handles. If you are so convinced of the rightness of your argument, why not use your real name?
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Very sad to hear that
@ITV
has scrapped
#homefires
. Bad decision. Always a market for Home Front drama in Foyle's War mode. Always.
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'If they were jitterbugging in Chichester, there were online proms popping up in Luton'. I had a good look at what the country's many youth theatre groups got up to during lockdown:
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To all professionals in the film, television, theatre, entertainment and arts world. Join the challenge to post a pic of you in your job. No explanation, just a photo. The goal is to flood social media with our profession. Copy the text and post a picture
#SaveTheArts
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Delighted to see that
@crucibletheatre
superb new musical Standing at the Sky's Edge is to get a well-deserved transfer to
@NationalTheatre
. It's exactly the sort of piece that the National should be bringing in.
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I am reminded of one of my favourite lines from a theatre PR:
'It's a five-star show. The only problem is that those stars are from five different critics'.
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For the first time in more than two months I am off to the actual theatre OH YES I AM.
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'Anyone with even the slightest interest in homegrown success stories should wish Operation Mincemeat the very best of British':
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It is salutary to reflect, I think, that just ten months ago Lynette Linton was Resident Assistant Director
@DonmarWarehouse
, assisting Robert Hastie on The York Realist. Baby, look at her now.
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What I'd like to know is this: when are we going to see the splendid Rebecca Humphries -
@Beckshumps
- back on stage being very fine in a play, so that I can vote for her in lots of awards categories, as I customarily do?
Rebecca Humphries is an extremely talented actress and writer, and also it seems a total hero. I am so sad she has been treated this way and caught up in this mess.
#sisterhood
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Oh my god, you guys! I confidently predict that Legally Blonde
@OpenAirTheatre
, a joyous production bubbling with life, confidence and a wonderfully diverse selection of performers, will be a very big hit. Pink is the colour for summer '22.
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One of my very best friends has just given birth to a hugely long-awaited baby and I am jubilantly happy for her. A salutary reminder in this sometimes glum world that there is always good news to be had too.
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'At the end, all 390 of us spectators leapt to our feet for a spontaneous standing ovation and I realised how very much I had missed the joyous sound of communal clapping'. I wrote about the joys of going back to the (Open Air) theatre:
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''We apologise for the inconvenience' has become the catchphrase of the terminally mediocre'. I look at the rise of corporations-as-frenemies:
via
@spectator
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Have just seen picture of Maria Miller in what appears to be a theatre. It must have been photoshopped.
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'The Donmar can take some disruption right now'. My exclusive interview with Michael Longhurst, who has announced his first season
@DonmarWarehouse
this morning.
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In the all-important women's loos category, I am delighted to report that
@KilnTheatre
scores very highly.
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I think it's safe to conclude that if A Very Very Very Dark Matter had been written by, say, Martin Bloggs instead of Martin McDonagh, it wouldn't be on at the Bridge Theatre.
Astonishing stuff. And not in a good way.
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What would be really lovely is if,in the weeks and months to come, we could all remember the sense of solidarity we felt tonight.
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So very excited to be a part of this. Roll up, roll up!
We’ve just announced
#StudioTalk
, a series of pre-show events hosted by
@FionaLondonarts
. Each event will feature a panel discussion on an idea from the play. Perfect for audiences who want to get under the skin of a production. And they’re only a fiver:
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'The fascinating thing to me, and I obviously don't want to name names, was how in auditions the men found it so hard'. Justin Audibert, new artistic director of the Unicorn, talks to me about his gender-flipped Taming of the Shrew
@TheRSC
:
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The month’s lockdown will be over before the Prime Minister announces a lockdown.
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If you don't already possess a ticket for Blues for an Alabama Sky
@NationalTheatre
, I very much suggest that you snap one up now before the reviews come out.
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I've just seen the most terrific show, guranteed to banish all January blues: Freaky Friday, performed by third year musical theatre students
@ArtsEdLondon
. The production would not look out of place in any professional theatre and leads Nic Myers and Alice Croft are phenomenal.
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I’m afraid to say that, tonight, I have broken my Lenten vow of no alcohol. Well, if the good Lord will send a plague...
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I haven't enjoyed a television drama as much as Years and Years in quite some time. I know that it made an impact by the fact that I found myself dreaming I was having dinner with the Lyons family (and just how old was Grandma by the end?)
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Barrie Kosky's production of Saul
@glyndebourne
is quite simply the best, most fluid and inventive - without being intrusive or self-serving - directing of an opera I have ever had the pleasure to watch. A delightful evening.
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Lovely to see former Hamlet Ben Whishaw give a gracious standing ovation to new Hamlet Andrew Scott
@AlmeidaTheatre
last night.
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Oppenheimer, Death of a Salesman, The Jew of Malta and now The Merchant of Venice: what an outstanding spring season for
@TheRSC
.
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Last night I watched Tick, Tick, Boom and marvelled at Sondheim's warmly generous support of an unknown young writer. I went to bed happily humming Sondheim songs and this morning awoke to the news...
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My diary informs me that tonight I should be seeing Peer Gynt
@TheRSC
, ahead of hosting a Director Talk in Stratford for the show. Well, wouldn't that have been lovely?
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In short I can say with a full and happy heart that I greatly enjoyed being back at the theatre after a pause of - yes, I'm counting - five months and four days. Thank you for the music,
@OpenAirTheatre
.
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Seriously,
@reetacbbc
is heroic. She’s been going for hours now, shows no signs of flagging and is as cool and unflappable as ever. She’ll still be broadcasting come November...
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Drum roll please: All's Well last night means that I have now seen EVERY SINGLE PLAY in the Shakepeare canon (as well as performances of two epic poems). Done.
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The Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition tells it like it is.
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I have just written a theatre review. Not that I'm counting but it has been six months...
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Is it just me, or did anyone else struggle with Mank?
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In the spreading of more theatre love,
@NationalTheatre
under Richard Eyre opened my eyes and mind and made me dream big as a teenager. I still, always, feel a frisson when I cross the bridge over the Thames to the cultural dreamlands of the South Bank.
#theatrelove
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In the absence of live theatre, I have to get my drama kicks where I can: here on the street of middle-class pets' names, Peggy the dog has just chased Alice the cat halfway up the hill. John the cat looked on impassively. Three stars.
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I think it's safe to conclude that
@The_Globe
decision concerning Emma Rice is Not A Popular One.
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I am not convinced that tonight will prove an optimum time for a visit to the Open Air Theatre.
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For you,
@ryanair
:
'I understand that my flight FR972 on 17/3 was cancelled and I therefore request a full refund pursuant to articles 5(1)(a) and 8(1)(a) of EC Regulation No. 261/2004. For the avoidance of doubt, I do not accept a travel voucher'.
Have I made myself clear now?
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I have just been offered use of a 'syndicated interview with Peppa Pig herself'. I am really not sure what to say to that.
Apart, perhaps, from 'why?'
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Today I have been taught an important moral fable about the utter folly of selecting one's top ten plays of the year before one has actually seen the final play of that year. Sorry,
@DonmarWarehouse
.
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My production of 2014 is the utterly glorious revival of My Night with Reg
@DonmarWarehouse
. Coming soon to a West End theatre near you.
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It's very rare all the theatre critics leap up in a spontaneous standing ovation, but that's what happened at Love
@NationalTheatre
tonight.
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