David Haig Archives - North West End UK

30Apr

By Zara OdetundeNo Comments

London

Minority Report – Lyric Hammersmith

Minority Report is a staging of a Nottingham Playhouse and Birmingham Rep co-production. This premise is best known for the 2002 film starring Tom Cruise. This play explores free will and the idea of justice in this adaptation of Philip K Dick’s short story of the same name, written by David Haig. The play opens with a ceremony of the 10th Anniversary of the British Pre-crime department. In which the CEO Dame Julia Anderton is extolling the virtues of detecting Pre-criminals. However, she soon finds out that she has been identified as a pre-murderer. She must go on the run in an attempt to prove her innocence and discover truths about her organisations that have been long buried. Jodie McNee led this play as Pre-crime CEO Julia, she commands the stage and explores so many emotions an...

Minority Report – The Rep, Birmingham

Science fiction doesn’t work on stage. There I’ve said it. Someone had to. What was the last great science fiction stage play you saw? No, me neither. It’s a genre born of, and best suited to, cinema. From Metropolis to Dune sci-fi’s visual imagery has played equal part to its plots and philosophy. Sadly, no matter how dexterous and inventive the stage design, it’ll never quite capture a cinematic experience. Though, without doubt, one of the more outstanding elements of this production is Tal Rosner’s ethereal digital design perfectly evoking the virtual world of the near future. The play, based of Phil K.Dick's short story riddled with Cold War paranoia, is about pre crime. The capacity to identify a murderer before they commit a murder and arrest them. Whilst this is explained by the...

Talking Heads by Alan Bennett: Playing Sandwiches – BBC iPlayer

Alan Bennett's original Talking Heads was five filmed monologues shown in 1988. At the time they were received with great acclaim and featured prominent and respected actors of the era. A second series was produced in 1998 with five new monologues and was again much lauded. Now in 2020 and filmed during the lockdown adhering to all social distancing measures, the original ten plus two new pieces written by Bennett himself last year have been remade with a new generation of respected actors. Some are better known that others, but all have the experience to make each monologue their own rather than a rehash of the original. Talking Head 5 is Playing Sandwiches. Originally filmed with David Haig in 1998, now it features the wonderful Lucian Msamati as park worker Wilfred Paterson. M...