The Audience @ Stratford Picture House

	Matthew Taylor (@matthewtaylorx)
22/07/2013 07:40 The Audience @stratford Picture Hse. Fact & fiction. Real events & imagined humdrum used to recreate Queen & PMx7 private wkly meetings 9/10

A Season in the Congo @ The Young Vic

	Matthew Taylor (@matthewtaylorx)
08/07/2013 09:20 A Season in the Congo@TheYoungVic. Belgian missionaries, Sierra Leone & Egypt meant play (4 mths in 60s DRC) held interest but too long 7/10

First visit to the Young Vic. Great versatile venue. Nice restaurant. Friendly staff. 

My own family history (maternal grandfather was a british baptist missionary in the Belgian Congo), my work (where I have and am offering support to the Sierra Leonian Parliament), the recent Arab Spring and even more recent Egyptian 'coup' meant I was always going to find this play about the first few months of the Congo's independence interesting and personally engaging. 

However without those connections this  play failed to truly entertain. It could have been sharper and therefore shorter. The director and writer could have done better. The cast, acted, danced and sang well and the set, blended former opulence with years of tropical decay perfectly. The audience in the stalls sat in an empty swimming pool on plastic patio furniture. The play was punctuated with 39 steps esque props. Life size puppets, vultures, model plane and a moving, manual, micro conveyor belt of belgian exodus....Glad I went. Lots to think about. 

Private Lives @ The Gielgud Theatre

	Matthew Taylor (@matthewtaylorx)
05/07/2013 06:45 Private Lives @ Gielgud Theatre. Transferred from Chichester Fest it did not quite hit all the farce buttons for me. Still entertaining 7/10