I went out to see Jeffrey Bernard is unwell at the Garrick, thanks to my friend Chris. It was excellent, Tom Conti is fantastic as Jeffrey, poignant, but witty with a well crafty stage drunk manner. Lots of half trips and glances out to the audience for laughs, all well timed.
A lot of the reviews have been a bit down on the revival of this play, as it is a bit soft on alcoholics, playing up the romantic drunk image, this is true and Soho has changed a lot since it was first put in the early 90s. However, I feel that reviving this play much later would fail, it is very much of its time. When Chris and I directed and lit it in the mid nineties it was great fun, but felt a bit alien, neither of us had been to Soho, later when I visited in the later 90s the scene of the play had changed. Soho in the last ten years has changed even more. So sentimental as the play is, I enjoyed it, but I had two viewpoints on it.
A quick aside, whilst watching the play I couldn't get out of my head how much Dave Cross and Tom Conti look like one another.
Jeffrey Bernard is on at the Garrick until the 3rd September, if you are looking for a fun night out at the theatre I'd highly recommend it.
