Play review - "Arms and the Man" by George Bernard Shaw (1894)

 I can see why this is popular as the idea is great - a mercenary soldier winds up in the bedroom of a woman engaged to a idiot soldier. The mercenary has business like attitudes to fighting which is funny and the romance is well developed.

Play review - "Mrs Warren's Profession" by George Bernard Shaw (warning: spoilers)

 A first rate dramatic situation - daughter finds out mum owns a brothel - leading to lots of sensible chat from Shaw's sensible women. The piece probably lacks a crazy puritan to livens things up. The daughter starts and ends the same way - she's a bit of a bitch to reject her mother.

Play review - "The Highwayman" by John Godber

 Interesting take on the life of a highwayman, which has strong moments - gags about death, songs, effective use of three people. I enjoyed the use of a small cast and bare stage it worked well. The actors were efficient when more passion and ham would have been ideal.

Play review.- Ayckbourn#20 - "Just Between Ourselves" by Alan Ayckbourn (1976)

 Second tier Alan Ayckbourn because the family stuff hasn't aged well - the women making cups of tea, jokes about female drivers. It was presented in 1976, to be fair. As a drama this is fine - all set in a garage, the tale of two couples, one man tries to sell the other a car, both have marriage troubles, a woman has a nervous breakdown. This was written in a few days and feels like it - there's a lot of chat. It would be a decent night at the theatre.

Play review - "View from the Bridge" by Arthur Miller (warning: spoilers)

 I remember seeing this play with a girlfriend who wasn't a theatre fan normally but the piece really spoke to her - the overprotective dad figure. Here he's a uncle, excellently played in the audio version by Ed O'Neill, who is perhaps incestuously attracted to his niece but he also kisses the niece's boyfriend. The piece builds logically to his death at the hands of the Sicilian, and the Greek chorus device of the lawyer works well - who admits he envies the uncle in a way because he shows his real self instead of fifty0fifty.

Movie review - "The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart" (1970) **

 This film is wild. Don Johnson was plucked off the stage to star as a fboi college student rich enough to have his own apartment who wants to be a film director and sleeps around. He has sexual fantasies but real life is pretty good - he gets virginal Dianne Hull into bed, in part by really heavy-ing her in a rapey way, then sleeps with her chubby friend Holly Near via using the filmmaking dodge, and hooks up with a hippy Linda Gillen and the beautifuul Victoria Racimo but is still hung up on Hull.

There's some nudity, four letter words, and plenty of sex but the public didn't like it.  I wonder if this was meant to be a set in the queer world? Maybe life was like this. There's no real characters to hook into. Michael Greer comes off best as Johnson's friend.

There's a Hollywood mantra that characters need to be good at their jobs. If Johnson's character was into some decent cause like the anti war movement or was at least a decent filmmaker it would help. 

Movie review - "Year of the Gun" (1992) ** (warning: spoilers)

 Andrew McCarthy is an amiable leading man who could've had a longer stint as a semi-star. He's not a real star - Sharon Stone is. It's bizarre this film was made - an account of an American in 1970s Italy dealing with the Red Brigade. John Frankenheimer wanted it shot in black and white which would have made it more interesting. He also wanted a different leading man

Valerie Golino is very good and often nude as McCarthy's girlfriend.  They should have cast an Italian rather than John Pankow as an Italian lecturer.

It never answers the question why do we care. McCarthy sleeps with Golino, writes a novel, the Red Brigade think he's got inside information, kidnap him, but let him go. He's very passive. At least Stone has a proper job, taking photos etc

Sex scenes between McCarthy and Golino quite hot though him and Stone feels awkward. 

Maybe this would've worked if from Stone's point of view.