John Baker’s Blog

Good stuff at Newcastle on Tyne’s Northern Stage yesterday. Two generals, Macbett and Banco, put down a rebellion. In payment for their heroic service, the Archduke promises to bestow on them land, titles and cash. But once the war is won and the rebel leaders are slain he reneges on the deal. Seduced by thoughts [...]

The famous opening lines in the Joseph Laredo translation, go like this:
Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know. I had a telegram from the home: ‘Mother passed away. Funeral tomorrow. Yours sincerely.’ That doesn’t mean anything. It may have been yesterday.
First published in 1942, The Outsider traces a few days in the life [...]

We were at the Manchester Royal Exchange yesterday to watch George and Martha strip each other of the individual and collective illusions embedded in the long night of their twenty-three-year-old marriage.
We knew it was a good play, but this production also has a great cast. Barbara Marten is wonderful as Martha, swinging wildly, like a [...]

Albee’s first job was writing continuity dialogue for a radio station. After leaving home to settle in Greenwich Village he held a variety of jobs - including three years as a Western Union messenger. The jobs supplemented a trust from his grandmother and were chosen because they were dead ends and would [...]