Thoughts on Chairs; 'As you like it' at the National Theatre.

Absolutely ages ago I leant a book called Theatre Materials: What is theatre made of? to one of my students. I don't know who it was, but I never got it back, which is a real shame as it's no longer published and it was a brilliant book. Bugger.

Joy!

It was Brecht, the incorrectly labelled poster boy of all things serious and educational who said that 'theatre needs no other passport than fun, but this it has got to have'. I very rarely find myself seeking out unadulterated fun or joy at the theatre. In this cynical, recession dipped world, joy feels a bit naive and irrelevant or, in the hands of the middle classes, a bit smug, much like a Richard Curtis film.