Ivo van Hove’s take on All About Eve ticks all my boxes at the Noël Coward Theatre, great work from Gillian Anderson, Lily James and a stellar Monica Dolan
“I’ll admit I may have seen better days, but I’m still not to be had for the price of a cocktail, like a salted peanut”
This isn’t the production to change people’s mind about Ivo van Hove. His style is so thoroughly ingrained, his team of collaborators so deeply embedded, that you couldn’t play a drinking game watching one of his shows and stay standing. Live video feed, drink! Backstage people wandering round, drink! A moody slow rise, drink! But what you also get is an amazing calibre of actor throwing themselves headlong into the work, ever-innovative ways of using theatrical space, and the kind of emotional intensity that remains rare. Drink drink drink!
Now that we’re comfortably sloshed, I can tell you that I loved All About Eve (and I only had one G&T, honest). You’ll have to look elsewhere for critiques on how good an adaptation of Joseph L Mankiewicz’s film of the same name and Mary Orr’s play The Wisdom of Eve it is, I ain’t seen either and wanted to go into this sight unseen. What I can talk about is the startling insight offered by the actress’s-eye view, projected onto screens from a camera built into a dressing room mirror. About Gillian Anderson’s titanic performance. About Sheila Reid’s welcome return to the stage. About Monica fucking Dolan. Continue reading “Review: All About Eve, Noël Coward Theatre”