57. The Fat Girl Gets A Haircut & Other Stories - Roundhouse

It’s really difficult to know what to say about this one, which is the feeling I seem to be taking away from a whole heap of plays at the moment, though here at least I think the feeling is justified. The Fat Girl Gets A Hair Cut & Other Stories is a piece difficult to classify – it crosses the borders of theatre, performance art, modern dance, illusion and poetry.

15. As You Like It - RSC at the Roundhouse

I must admit, having already seen six serious plays at this point, it was relief to get a comedy and this is a production and play that I'm exceptionally fond of and had already seen several times. Weirdly I've been finding it much more difficult to work out what to say about the plays that I've seen lots of time. I'm sure I had lots of random thinky thoughts when I first saw this a year ago but possibly my brain had melted from all the theatre, because I've been struggling to remember any of them.

14. King Lear - RSC at the Roundhouse

For me the RSC production won out in the battle of the Lears - though it didn't really feel like a fair fight - between the Donmar's bad audience, Jacobi's illness, my awesome seats at the Roundhouse, the fact that this is a repeat visit so I'm able to pick out details, an interesting behind the scenes type thing in the morning and that I come pre-programmed to be fond of the actors - it was practically a David and Goliath scenario.

12. Julius Caesar - RSC at the Roundhouse

Going to say upfront this one was an utter joy for me. It felt like I had the best seat ever. This is a play that works for me on a lot of levels and I haven't seen the production for well over a year, so it felt very fresh again - but also the improvements the long run has made feels almost immeasurable. The performances in particular are much stronger and it's made it into a really great production (possibly even my second favourite of this ensemble's Shakespeare's following Romeo and Juliet).

11. YPS Hamlet - RSC at the Roundhouse

Ah... sadly I feel I might have to woefully short-change Hamlet a little here as I've fallen far too behind on these things and I've been putting writing this one off (I've already written my Caesar review and the ones for both Lears as I sit here at 2am trying to write this). Not even sure why I've putting it off, accept the odd feeling that I don't have much to say - which is no reflection on how much I enjoyed the production as I really loved it. I think partly it's that seeing this again, didn't really give me any new revelations about it. It's like I have very little to add, so here is what I wrote last time:

2. Romeo and Juliet - RSC at the Roundhouse

THIS WAS ORGINALLY POSTED AS PART OF MY TOP TEN PLAYS OF 2010 LIST, WHERE IT OF COURSE CAME IN AS NUMBER ONE :D :