The single dramatic event of the year, as far as my gaggle of teenagers is concerned, was not some harrowing modern piece of Simon Stephens intended to make them mull on the state of Britannia, nor even the barrels of laughs delivered by the Arcola's The Rivals. No, the only thing that gives them undutiful pleasure was The Play That Goes Wrong, an Edinburgh transfer to the Duchess Theatre. It features the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society performing a 1920s country house murder mystery, which is frankly awful and doomed to many Fawlty-esque malfunctions. Mark Bell's production understands the secret of a farce-timing has to to be near perfect to make a pratfall truly funny and as the horrors pile up, we share the comic embarrassment of a grand project gone awry. If you know Michael Frayn's Noises Off you may object that this has all been done before. But The Play that Goes Wrong reminds us that nothing succeeds on stage like the right sort of mishap.
I've had enjoyable notes from Standpoint readers this year, but a frequent and understandable complaint is that many London productions are over-booked and expensive. So here, in the spirit of the everlasting austerity years, is a thrifty tip. The productions of the final-year drama schools are an under-cherished way to introduce young audiences to the classics without always forking out for West End tickets. The Importance of Being Earnest, by the Mountview Academy in Haringey, recently gave us Lady Bracknell (Becky Black) as a stylish harridan: a Mrs Robinson with a lascivious eye on Jack (Jolyon Price). Cecily (Allegra Marland) was an acidly sweet ingénue. Some directorial leeway might have been a tad too elastic — an insistence on translating Gwendolen's fortune into today's millions jarred and little is gained by Merriman being asked to call for a "taxi" instead of the Wildean dogcart for Algernon. But watching young actors going through their paces is worth a punt. Looking at the Guildhall School of Drama's roll of honour, I realised I could have seen the likes of Daniel Craig and Stephen Campbell Moore performing just a few years before they were granted star status. The smug pleasure gained by pointing out that we first saw dear Daniel long before he was in gold-plated Speedo trunks would have been worth the odd fluffed line.
Finally, as we enter the season of panto (just shoot me now), grown-ups might be hankering for a night in with a decent returning drama series. If you have not seen The Good Wife, brimming with the hypocrisies, humour and humbug of life in a firm of Chicago lawyers, it is the golden goose of the genre, chalking up a sixth series for CBS in 2014. Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) seeks to avenge her scuzzy husband's wrongdoing as state attorney, only to end up in the grey areas where ambition meets compromise. "I'm not that person" she tells his cloven-footed spin-doctor Eli Gold (Alan Cumming). "Everyone is that person," Mr Gold retorts. I'm retiring until February with the last 20 episodes and a box of violet creams.
I've had enjoyable notes from Standpoint readers this year, but a frequent and understandable complaint is that many London productions are over-booked and expensive. So here, in the spirit of the everlasting austerity years, is a thrifty tip. The productions of the final-year drama schools are an under-cherished way to introduce young audiences to the classics without always forking out for West End tickets. The Importance of Being Earnest, by the Mountview Academy in Haringey, recently gave us Lady Bracknell (Becky Black) as a stylish harridan: a Mrs Robinson with a lascivious eye on Jack (Jolyon Price). Cecily (Allegra Marland) was an acidly sweet ingénue. Some directorial leeway might have been a tad too elastic — an insistence on translating Gwendolen's fortune into today's millions jarred and little is gained by Merriman being asked to call for a "taxi" instead of the Wildean dogcart for Algernon. But watching young actors going through their paces is worth a punt. Looking at the Guildhall School of Drama's roll of honour, I realised I could have seen the likes of Daniel Craig and Stephen Campbell Moore performing just a few years before they were granted star status. The smug pleasure gained by pointing out that we first saw dear Daniel long before he was in gold-plated Speedo trunks would have been worth the odd fluffed line.
Finally, as we enter the season of panto (just shoot me now), grown-ups might be hankering for a night in with a decent returning drama series. If you have not seen The Good Wife, brimming with the hypocrisies, humour and humbug of life in a firm of Chicago lawyers, it is the golden goose of the genre, chalking up a sixth series for CBS in 2014. Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) seeks to avenge her scuzzy husband's wrongdoing as state attorney, only to end up in the grey areas where ambition meets compromise. "I'm not that person" she tells his cloven-footed spin-doctor Eli Gold (Alan Cumming). "Everyone is that person," Mr Gold retorts. I'm retiring until February with the last 20 episodes and a box of violet creams.
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