The Daily Telegraph from London, Greater London, England • 14

14 SATURDAY JUNE 21 1997 THE DAILY TELEGRAPH NEWS Shakespearean company turns to the Tyne By Paul Stokes company ith outstanding artistic credibility and I am absolutely delighted they have chosen to come to Newcastle to relocate company will help to market the region nationally and internationally while their education programme will make a material difference to arts in I he region in the next few years" Don Price deputy leader of Newcastle City Council said civic funding was not involved) He: added: "We are putting on Romeo and Juliet in November and will link that with the national curriculum so more teenagers from all over the area will benefit" Mr Bogdanov and Michael Pennington It found international success with The Henrys (Parts I and II and V) and later performed a seven-play history cycle entitled The War of the Roses Seven years ago the company launched its education department and since 1994 has been working closely with schools and colleges and theatres across Britain dealing with 75000 children and teachers every year Karl Watkin who has achieved his dream of bringing a major national theatre company to New castle was celebrating in Spain yesterday He said: is a offices In the past we have had to go on the road to hire theatres just for our technical rehearsals before we have even started a tour properly We won't need to do that now because we have a base think that the people in the North-East are very knowledgeable about Shakespeare and it annoys me when people in the South think the audiences in the North would not appreciate his Mr Bogdanov had been involved in detailed talks with Karl Wat-kin a millionaire theatre owner Three years ago the company was mothballed as a touring com- THE English Shakespeare Company announced yesterday that after 1 1 years it was putting down roots in the North-East Michael Bogdanov the artistic director and founder said of the move to the Tyne Theatre and Opera House in Newcastle upon Tyne: get a genuine reaction from the audiences there which is far better than the elitist-feel you get about people who watch you in London see any advantages at all about being in London At the Tyne Theatre we will have a beautiful building and be able to store all of our property and to house the Carte Opera Company The company will use the base to establish it on a national and international basis while local schools will benefit through an education programme linked to the national curriculum Mr Bogdanov said: wait to get back to Newcastle and start work I spent three of the most prolific and fruitful years of my career there in the 1970s with the Tyneside Theatre The company was founded in 1986 under the co-directorship of pany with offices in London when the Arts Council slashed its grant from £600000 to £290000 But in February Mr Bogdanov announced that the company would begin a new season after obtaining sponsorship and more Arts Council funding An attraction of the Tyne Theatre has been the new £500000 refurbishment of rehearsal rooms in the listed building The company will be fully operational there from Sept 1 The move will offset the recent disappointment at failing Bogdanov: advantages Picture: ALASTAIR MUIR THEATRE REVIEW IN BRIEF Debate takes over from drama in bitter view of life View National Theatre Three women jailed after arson killing Three women were jailed at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday after the deaths of a mother and her two children in an arson attack on their home Diane Jones 21 and her daughters died in the- attack which followed a love tend Donna Clarke 27 ho had been having an affair with Miss Jones's common-law husband as cleared of murder but as jailed for 20 years for arson Annette How ins 31 as jailed for 13 years -also for arson Denise Sullivan 25 convicted of perverting the course ol justice got four ears Cricket coach abused pupils A prep school cricket poach who sexually abused might boys was jailed for eight-and-a-half ears yesterday Martin Cook 48 of Croydon south 1 a found guilty ol two charges of serious sexual assault on boy and of indecent assaults on another six botvveefi 1989' and 1995 Basinger saves drug puppies Drug tests on 56 bedgly puppies have been halted! alter the actress Kim Basinger offered to adopt them The puppies were to have hail bones in their legs broken in a British-owned laboratory in New Jersey! during research under international guidelines into a drug to treat osteoporosis gled emotions a playwright summing up the theme of his play major weakness as a dramatist is his tendency to impose ideas on his characters from without He rarely does it in his best work Skylight and Racing Demon spring to mind but though he's never as grindingly mechanic al as Shaw he does sometimes use his characters as mouthpieces for debate This is particularly noticeable in View for it concerns one of major preoccupations He has long complained of the whine of against the theatre and the glibness of modish cultural commentary that dismisses the stage as hopelessly7 old-fashioned 1 agree entirely but here arguments that might make an excellent newspaper article have been turned into less-t ban-satisfactory drama Amy's View spans 16 years from 1979 to 1995 There is an undeniable fascination in seeing the effects of passing time and the ravages of age on the characters But there is also something worryingly predictable about the piece When Esme entrusts her business affairs to a neigh- IN THE past few years David Hare has given us his epic state-of-t he-na tion Trilogy and Skylight a magnificent play that combined a raw and wounding love story with a passionate analysis of the divisions in British society After these herculean endeavours it is perhaps not surprising that Amy's iew at the Ly ttelton should turn out to be an anti-climax The play is never less than absorbing sometimes bitterly funny and there are some affecting moments et you never feel 'that Hare has achieved the inkight that allows characters to take on a vivid inner life of their own There's a revealing moment in the third act during a row between Esme a distinguished actress and her daughter Amy whose ghastly1 television personality ot a husband has just deserted her Amy is frying to explain why she loved the man of whom her mother has alw ay disapproved "1 went with Dominic because he was the future I'm frightened of you because you're the past she says In my experience people never talk about those they love in such neat abstract terms This an individual describing her own tan Relative love: Judi Dench and Samantha Bond portray the raw emotions and passionate analysis of David latest production fierce defence of the theatre which becomes last refuge I have an uneas suspicion however that those who despise the theatre will find little here to change their mind Tickets: 0171 920 2252 CHARLES SPENCER demolition of her slick and selfish media star son-in-law is devastating Samantha Bond is equally good as Amy whose bleakly disproved by the play is that unconditional love can conquer all Eoin McCarthy has a harder time as the theatre loathing cultural guru who is all too evidently7 the villain of the piece But there is a fine sense of dawning humanity at the end and he delivers his voguish claptrap with trenchant assurance As well as being a refreshingly old-fashioned saga of family life View is a hour only too clear that it is all going to go horribly wrong And the joke about Esme appearing as a nurse in a hospital soap is so heavily signalled that it loses most of its humour What's not in doubt is the excellence of the performances in Richard production which successfully disguises if not entirely Conceals the drama's weaknesses Judi Dench is superb as the ageing actress watching her career and her life fall into sad decline Apparently scatty she gradually reveals enormous courage Her eryone tennis Britain's fastest growing newspaper A BRITISH WINNER AT WIMBLEDON? 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