[Backdrifter]

I saw this excellent Richard Bean play at the Royal Court in 2005 and was looking forward to booking for it at the Kingston Rose, only to be told it's been pulled. All I've managed to find out is that other venues pulled out of the Arts Council-funded tour, I don't know why - there's a brief story on it here. The Rose's own press release says very little.

The irony is, as I think I mentioned in the Where There's A Will thread below, I'm frustrated by having a theatre local to me that rarely tempts me with its repertoire. In the latest season brochure there were 2 or 3 things that caught my eye and this is one of them. It's beyond the Rose's control but it doesn't help their somewhat ailing image.

[Polly1]

What a shame, I was really looking forward to seeing this at Cambridge.

Do you think it would have anything to do with the bad publicity generated by England People Very Nice?

[Backdrifter]

I hadn't thought of that. I wouldn't rule it out, but instinctively I don't think it's that. Many of the reviews were quite positive. Had you seen it before? I saw it days after Lepage's Dragon's Trilogy, which I disliked very much. It too covers a significant timespan, less than Harvest but takes nearly three times longer to do it. Harvest covers 80 years and does it brilliantly.

Another good earlier Bean is The Mentalists. I saw it during the NT's 'Transformation' season in the Lyttleton Loft. It was hilarious, I'd love to see a revival of that.

Had you already booked for Harvest?

[Polly1]

No, I hadn't booked - do you think that would have made the difference? and I haven't see it either, only read about how good it was. I haven't seen a lot of his stuff but I liked Honeymoon Suite very much.