Habit of Art – between the acts

Theatre: Shakespeare

1. Romeo and Juliet (RSC).

2. King Lear (RSC).

3. As You Like It (West Yorkshire Playhouse).

4. Measure for Measure (Almeida).

5. The Winter’s Tale (RSC/Roundhouse).

6. Henry IV part 2 (Globe).

7. Macbeth (Globe).

8. Antony and Cleopatra (RSC).

9. Antony and Cleopatra (Liverpool Playhouse).

10. Hamlet (The Crucible, Sheffield).

11. King Lear (Donmar).

12. Henry VIII (The Globe).

13. The Tempest (Old Vic).

14. As You Like It (Old Vic)

15. Macbeth (Belt Up/York Theatre Royal).

Theatre: Not Shakespeare

1. Jerusalem (Apollo).

2. After the Dance (National).

3. An Enemy of the People (Sheffield Crucible).

4. Women Beware Women (National).

5. London Assurance (National).

6. Enron (Theatre Royal, Newcastle)

7. The Habit of Art (National Theatre).

8. Corrie! (Lowry, Salford)

9. The Real Thing (Old Vic).

10. Canterbury Tales (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Northern Broadsides).

11. La Bete (Comedy Theatre).

12. Death of a Salesman (West Yorkshire Playhouse).

13. Three Sisters (Lyric, Hammersmith).

14. The Misanthrope (Comedy Theatre)

15. Beating Berlusconi. (York Theatre Royal).

Exhibitions

1. Gauguin (Tate Modern).

2. Van Gogh (Royal Academy).

3. Renaissance drawings (The British Museum).

4. The Book of the Dead (British Museum).

5. Venice. Canaletto and his rivals. (The National Gallery).

6. Sargent and the Sea (Royal Academy).

7. Rude Britannia (Tate Britain).

8. Summer Show (Royal Academy).

9. Beatles to Bowie (National Portrait Gallery).

10. Chris Ofili (Tate Britain).

Books

1. Andrea Levy The Long Song.

2. Hilary Mantel – Wolf Hall.

3. AS Byatt – The Children’s Book.

4. Rose Tremain – Trespass.

5. Colm Toibin Brooklyn.

6. Ian McEwan Solar.

7. Paul Magrs Diary of a Doctor Who Addict.

8. Tony Blair The Journey.

9. Kate Atkinson Started Early, Took My Dog.

10. Alexander McCall Smith The Double Comfort Safari Club.

1. Coronation Street – especially for Jack’s Death and the Live episode (ITV).

3. Ashes to Ashes (BBC1).

4. Doctor Who – The End of Time part 2 (BBC1).

5. Doctor Who – especially for the eleventh hour (BBC1).

6. Downton Abbey (ITV1)

7. I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here (ITV1).

8. Macbeth (BBC 4).

9. Luther (BBC1).

10. Silent Witness (BBC 1).

and my guilty pleasure of the year

Peter Kay at the Studio, Lowry (and again at the Manchester Evening News Arena).

I liked The Habit of Art because I am normally interested in plays which explore the process of putting on a play. When the audience enters the auditorium they are faced with a very cluttered set. What becomes clear is that this is a set within a set. In the middle is a desk with piles of books around it and there is a typewriter stuffed underneath. Surrounding this are kitchen facilities, mixing desks and office desks. It becomes clear that this is the backstage area surrounding the set of another play. There is also an elevated area with a piano which become Benjamin Britten’s rooms. The play we are about to watch is actually a rehearsal of a play.

The experience is like, to use the cliché, peeling an onion to reveal the layers. The play is about the relationship between Benjamin Britten (Alex Jennings/Henry) and WH Auden (Richard Griffiths/Fitz) as seen through the eyes of their biographer Humphrey Carpenter/Tim (Adrian Scarborough). However, the characters seem to reveal a little of themselves through the characters they play. Kay, the stage manager, (Frances De La Tour) seems to be able to keep it all together as Fitz, and Henry try to make sense of the play they are in and Tim desperately needs some direction to be able to grasp the role he plays.

The play is funny and engaging.

Reviews

Habit of Art in The Guardian

Habit of Art in The Telegraph

Category: Habit of Art

Best of 2010

The Habit of Art (The National Theatre, 1st May 2010)