70s and 80s
Little Kraut sees the enchanting Felicity Kendall in the BBC version of “Twelfth Night” and the complete War of the Roses trilology on a black and white TV in Germany. Mark Wing-Davey aka Zaphod Beeblebrox plays an impressive Earl of Warwick, the Kingmaker. Little Kraut’s mother, Big Kraut, gushes about seeing Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud for £1 in the Londoner Westend when she was an exchange student.
90’s
Little Kraut turns into Theatre Kraut as she watches some Westend plays as a tourist. Nearly falls from the upper circle of the Lyric Shaftesbury as she watches “Closer” in overpriced seats. Sees as a groundling ”Henry V” with Mark Rylance in the title role, the first production in the newly opened Shakespeare’s Globe. Queues up in front of the Donmar Warehouse for 12 hours to get returns for “The Blue Room” with Nicole Kidman and Iain Glen. It’s rainy and windy and cold…and she gets a standing ticket! At least 50 people behind her in the queue applaud. Unfortunately the play is very flat…Theatre Kraut vows never to believe the celebrity hype again when it comes to theatre…
Theatre Kraut makes a university excursion to Stratford-upon-Avon and watches 6 plays in 5 days, including a superb “Cymbeline” in a Japanese samurai setting and a “Henry VIII” with Guy Henry as the chorus who can’t stop laughing when he has to say the word “Hark! The trumpets”. The course involves a chat with Alex Jennings in the Shakespeare Centre, with the addeded benefit of a bunch of teenagers standing outside, chanting “Alex, Alex, we know you are in there!”
00’s
Theatre Kraut moves permanently to London and sees a lot of theatre, mostly in the Westend, National Theatre, Royal Court and Almeida. In some productions she is the only audience member without a freedom pass…
