Hampstead Theatre

The stage at the new Hampstead Theatre is grand, broad high and close with the steepest of rakes. I don't strike lucky with its plays though. Last night's disappointment was Nell Leyshon's Comfort Me With Apples. It was heaped with awards and good reviews when it was last on, and has come back for a new production and tour. Maybe the second half improved, for we were well gone by then. A really poor production and one of those plays when getting loud and emotional about buried personal issues constitutes drama. Supposedly to be taking us into the truth about rural life, it starts with a village idiot character. The first half had not one arresting line of dialogue.