88. American Trade - RSC at the Hampstead Theatre

American Trade was the third and final instalment of the RSC’s Hampstead residency and sadly I can’t quite shake the feeling that it’s lucky the long ensemble had New York to head off to as it would have been a shame to end such a marvellous tenure with a disappointing, uncelebrated and geographically peripheral end. As unfortunately American Trade suffered from the same problem as its two predecessors – interesting productions, strong performances but weak writing. Though not awful - like the other two plays, I thought there was great potential here but it may have needed longer to develop.

72. Silence - RSC and Filter at the Hampstead Theatre

Writing about this play, in itself, has proved to be an interesting experience and something of an opinion altering one. My overriding feeling when I left the Hampstead Theatre following Silence was of vaguely underwhelmed dissatisfaction. I certainly didn’t hate the piece but I definitely felt disappointed. Yet, as I’ve been working out what I want to say about it I’ve remembered more and more things that I loved, enough that under normal circumstances I might have been blown away. So why wasn’t I?

70. Ecstasy - Duchess Theatre

It’s taken me a little while to pick apart my feelings about this one, as I found it both an incredibly real, powerful performance and at the same time entirely emotionally ineffective for me. Which, I am going to point out right away isn’t the same thing as thinking it was bad – the production was clearly superb. It mostly just means that my reaction was complicated.

67. Stock Da'Wa - Hampstead Theatre

I must admit I really struggled with Stock Da’Wa – I felt like there was an interesting grain of an idea held within the story and performances but it had got lost in an overly melodramatic storyline and some questionable political overtones. To explain why, I’m going to go into some detail and though the play is over, if you don’t want to be spoiled for possible future revivals I wouldn’t read on.

55. Little Eagles - RSC at the Hampstead Theatre

Hmmm... I’ve been struggling to work out what I think or feel about this one, let alone what I should write. There were a lot of things I really liked about the play, when I reread it a week later the memory of lots of the scenes made me grin, and it’s a great story they’re telling, a story I’ve loved for years. But overall this didn’t work, there was something vaguely unsatisfying about the experience and it’s taken me a while to put my finger on what the problem was.

9. Tiger Country - Hampstead Theatre

Ah, Nina Raine is fast becoming one of my favourite new playwrights, I love the way her mind works and the way she uses words - so when I spotted that she was doing a play at the Hampstead Theatre I couldn't resist going and checking the theatre out at the same time (I liked it an awful lot). Though Tiger Country isn't a match for her Royal Court hit Tribes, I still think it has a lot to recommend it and contains a lot of the elements I really love in Raine's work.