Congratulations to everyone involved with The Pride, following the win at this evening's Olivier Awards.

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN AN AFFILIATE THEATRE (presented by Andrea Corr)

# The Royal Court Theatre’s production of THE PRIDE, Jerwood Theatre Upstairs

From The Official Laurence Olivier Awards Blog:

Alexi Kaye Campbell: “I’m very proud, its an amazing thing. Because it’s a group of people, we’ve all won, it’s a production so it’s really my play but it’s Jamie Lloyd who directed it, it’s an incredible cast, it’s an incredible sound designers, John Hart the lighting designer, all of us have won together.
It’s a good bit of motivation, it is amazing, its an incredible achievement, I’m very proud.”

The International Herald Tribune included The Pride in it's annual round up of the best London theatre in 2008.

The novice dramatist Alexi Kaye Campbell's extraordinarily accomplished "The Pride" had too short a run this month at the Royal Court's tiny Theatre Upstairs, which meant that only a select few were able to savor a fully able quartet of actors in Bertie Carvel, JJ Feild, Lyndsey Marshal and Tim Steed.

Difficult to say whether the reviewer for The Tribune really enjoyed it as he seemed to prefer highlighting clever comparisons.

What saves the play are its flashes of humour and its elements of fantasy, with spooky presences beautifully rendered in director Jamie Lloyd’s careful production. The cast – Bertie Carvel (Oliver), JJ Feild (Philip) and Lyndsey Marshal (Sylvia) – are better in the zesty contemporary scenes than in the clipped and taut 1950s world, while designer Soutra Gilmour’s dreamy set, with its clouded mirror reflecting and refracting images of the audience, brings the stage world into the real one. Since the 1950s, the sexual landscape has undoubtedly changed for the better, but human beings’ capacity for sexual misery remains something of a constant.

 

The Theatre Guide London compared JJ's performance to a parody of Noel Coward.

Feild makes the 1958 Philip almost a parody of Noel Coward without the wit, his emotions as tightly controlled as his clipped speech, but so buttoned-down that he constantly threatens to explode, while the 2008 Philip is healthy, self-accepting and unhappy only in his love life. Bertie Carvel shows us the two Olivers' loneliness and yearning while keeping them clearly individualised, while Lyndsey Marshal moves with ease between the deeply unhappy and the almost wholly carefree versions of Sylvia.

 

Forum members had two group outings this week to see JJ on stage in The Pride. Needless to say on both occasions, all the performances were amazing and we all really loved the play. The playtext itself is incredibly easy and enjoyable to read; and seeing the words come alive on stage was wonderful.

We had sent JJ a fruit gift basket at the beginning of the run, on behalf of all his fans on the forum and website; and he was incredibly kind to send us a very appreciative thank you note. With this in mind we all decided not try and meet JJ, or pester him in any way, so there are no photographs to share with you from our visits to the Royal Court.

Thanks to forum members for finding these good reviews.

The Observer

As the repressed husband, JJ Feild gleams with misery; Tim Steed performs an extraordinary morphing act in a batch of subsidiary parts. It's hard to exaggerate the subtlety of Lyndsey Marshal's and Bertie Carvel's performances. She goes from radiance to distress as if she were suffering climate change: it's as if she leaks tears. He, with his flutters and nervous smiles, is consistently transfixing - particularly in Fifties mode, when he manages to suggest he's spent his youth in a gaberdine mac reading the New Statesman. Even his profile suddenly seems in period. In these young actors you can see a bright new future for the theatre.

Sky Arts

I must mention how enjoyable this play was on a general entertainment level and how much the audience laughed – genuine warm, knowing laughter. With such a serious theme Alexi Kaye Campbell in his debut play, has managed to write a very relatable, touching yet humorous portrayal of the difficulties of relationships made more complex by human nature over-riding society’s expected behaviours.

Thanks to EW from the forum for sharing her photos of JJ taken when she saw the play last weekend. They have been added to the galleries. Needless to say she and her companions loved the play and thought JJ was truly amazing in his role.

MusicOMH posted their review of The Pride, and gave it 4 stars.

"JJ Feild, as the 1950s Philip provides a strong sense of a man, who though calm and collected on the surface, has been hollowed out by his inability to be the man he feels he should be."

David Benedict for Variety seemed to love the play.

Campbell's background as an actor serves him extremely well in his adroit handling of subtext, which the immaculate cast feasts upon. But it's the rigorous unsentimentality of Lloyd's direction that's most impressive. His actors are never allowed to indulge themselves through overt displays of the underlying pain and longing that courses through the play, instead leaving audiences to discover for themselves what lies beneath the surface.