I've occasionally emerged from a theatre, thinking: 'Shakespeare would have approved' ... but you don't expect to come out, saying: 'EM Forster would be so thrilled with this!' A present-day, gay, post-AIDS riff on Howards End.
I booked a cheap matinee ticket on a whim a few days ago - quick scan, reviews looked okay, didn't have time to read them properly ... so imagine how thrilled I was this afternoon as the play unfolded and I realised it was far and away the best I've seen all year. 5* from me and from most of the critics. And absolutely not to be missed if you're a fan of Howards End because it takes Forster's novel and turns it around and inside out - well, let's just say it's beautifully structured and even more ingenious than Zadie Smith.
The Inheritance is one of those six-hour plus epics that are served up as two plays - and now I'm kicking myself because I only booked Part 1. (Wary after my last experience when I would cheerfully have walked out of a long and messy two-parter about Hogarth after the first half-hour. But hey, I'm a northerner/optimist and I'd paid my money and I dutifully turned up on the second night and regretted it again.) This afternoon, I was kind of sorry that I wasn't grabbing a sandwich and hanging on for the evening show - but maybe it's a better idea to absorb Part 1 before I go back for more. And my knees were stiff! Three hours in and Eric (the Margaret Schlegel character) has just walked into Howards End for the first time ...
There's reviews here and here and here. If you need a pick-me-up in between performances, the chocolate/chestnut/rum ice-cream at Gelupo this week is to die for.
I recently watched the series of 'Howard's End' and loved it. I dug out the book to read it as I hadn't read it before, so I know I would love this play, too. I don't think I could sit for three hours at a time, though, at least not without stiff and sore knees.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to you, Mary, and I hope the second half is as good as the first half sounded!
OH, Veronica - I could barely stand at the end! And London theatre seats are a penance even if you don't have creaky knees. Two intervals though so there was a chance to stretch.
ReplyDeleteI am SO not a fan of "Howard's End". I had to do a tutorial paper on it for uni (many years ago) and though I didn't much care for it, I assumed the tutor liked it so found the best to say about it. Then the tutor pointed out all the flaws in it, particularly that it was full of "crude coincidences". He couldn't pronounce his "r"s, so he said - you need to imagine "ch" as in the Scottish pronunciation of "loch" or German "dich" - "c-ch-wooood coincidences" - which has been a family saying ever since.
ReplyDeleteStill, if I were in London I might be tempted to go, to see if the plot had improved during the intervening years.
I think that was the reason I decided to do history instead of English, Pam. I suppose he had a point about the coincidences. Did you like On Beauty? It might amuse you if you haven't read it already.
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