Flashes of excellence can be found in the midst of any production so this list celebrates some of those breath-taking and/or memorable moments that really made theatregoing enjoyably fun this year
For reference, here’s my 2018 list, 2017 list, 2016 list, 2015 list and 2014 list.
Crying with laughter at the VAULT
I don’t think I have laughed so much and so helplessly for a long time as I did with improv group Sorry.
Jessica Hung Han Yun’s extraordinary lighting in Equus
Ned Bennett’s production of Equus had so much to commend but it was Jessica Hung Han Yun’s lighting work that really stood out for me
Cate Blanchett in the Dorfman
Whilst When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other – 12 Variations on Samuel Richardson’s Pamela might not have set the world on fire as a play, getting to see Cate Blanchett in such an intimate space was priceless.
Joanna Riding ‘loses her mind’
Imelda Staunton was certainly good in Follies but as a replacement, Joanna Riding more than excelled in her heartbreakingly good takeover of Sally.
Getting to see Marieke Heebink in Simon Stone’s Medea again
I first saw this production of Medea in Dutch without surtitles and in blew me away. So it was good to get to see it again a few years down the later this time with linguistic assistance.
Poetry with Helen McCrory
A real birthday treat, getting to hear Helen McCrory and others reading some of the best female poets around
Neil Austin’s lighting in Rosmersholm
I’d be lying if I said I loved this play but there was no denying how painterly beautiful Neil Austin’s lighting design was in the Duke of York’s Theatre.
Storme Toolis starring as Joe Egg
As the first disabled actress to cast in the disabled title role, Toolis impressed in this production but one hopes that this is just the first step for her rather than a one-off
Lungs reinflating
Despite loving Duncan Macmillan’s two-hander when it first emerged, I never imagined it would resurface in such a luxuriously cast production at the Old Vic.
Three Sisters in Nigeria
Inua Ellams and Nadia Fall relocating Three Sisters to 1960s Nigeria had no right to be as devastatingly perfect as this, all cast and creative firing on all cylinders
