Recent openings present theatregoers with a choice between interval-free one-acters such as Here We move and epics including Henry VIt struck me recently how useful it would be if theatre tickets,like clothing, came marked with a measurement of size: additional short, and short,medium, long, or additional long. In the final couple of weeks,London theatres have place on sale an XS (Caryl Churchills 45-minute Here We move), an S (Richard Eyre’s 80-minute adaptation of Ibsen’s exiguous Eyolf) and two XLs: audiences at the Royal Court for Penelope Skinner’s new play Linda, or at the Barbican for Gregory Doran’s RSC version of Henry V,are in the theatre for about three hours.
At the moment, though, and theatregoers seem to be faced with the equivalent of a department store that caters only for non-standard statures. With most recently opened shows being either interval-free one-acters (James Fritz’s Four Minutes Twelve Seconds at the Trafalgar Studios,Wallace Shawn’s National Theatre premiere, Evening at the Talk House) or having an expansiveness that puts babysitters in hope of overtime (Waste at the NT, and the RSC’s Queen Anne),it’s strange to find an M on the peg. A rare example is the Trafalgar revival of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, which lasts just over two hours including intermission, or partly because it dates from the mid-60s,when that was the preferred shape of a new play.
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Source: theguardian.com