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| The 2012 theatre hits that got away | The 2012 theatre hits that got away |
| (6 months later) | |
| We've published our list of the best theatre shows of 2012, a group effort nominated by critics such as myself and Michael Billington, as well as the rest of the Guardian arts team. You can read about the winning entry, and look at the full top 10, here. | We've published our list of the best theatre shows of 2012, a group effort nominated by critics such as myself and Michael Billington, as well as the rest of the Guardian arts team. You can read about the winning entry, and look at the full top 10, here. |
| Such lists are both partial and extremely difficult to produce – not to mention frustrating, because of what we happened to see (or didn't). Even my personal top 10 missed out many of my favourite shows this year. One was Liverpool's outdoor puppet spectacular, Sea Odyssey, presented by Royal de Luxe. It was definitely the show to beat this year. Along with National Theatre Wales's The Passion from 2011, it would be high on my list of all-time great theatre shows. Joyous and heart-breaking, it felt like a gift from the city council to the people of Liverpool – one that was clearly cherished and valued by a massive audience. | Such lists are both partial and extremely difficult to produce – not to mention frustrating, because of what we happened to see (or didn't). Even my personal top 10 missed out many of my favourite shows this year. One was Liverpool's outdoor puppet spectacular, Sea Odyssey, presented by Royal de Luxe. It was definitely the show to beat this year. Along with National Theatre Wales's The Passion from 2011, it would be high on my list of all-time great theatre shows. Joyous and heart-breaking, it felt like a gift from the city council to the people of Liverpool – one that was clearly cherished and valued by a massive audience. |
| On a much much smaller scale, but no less of a gift, was Ellie Harrison's and Jaye Kearney's The Reservation, an intimate one-to-one piece about grief and remembrance, which I caught in Leeds. | On a much much smaller scale, but no less of a gift, was Ellie Harrison's and Jaye Kearney's The Reservation, an intimate one-to-one piece about grief and remembrance, which I caught in Leeds. |
| The biggest theatrical spectaculars of the year were the brilliantly eccentric and touching Olympics and Paralympics opening ceremonies, but Crying Out Loud's transformation of Piccadilly Circus and its environs into an all-day outdoor pop-up circus, Piccadilly Circus Circus, was memorable too – for its disruption of the spectacle of everyday life, the way it played with architecture, and the sheer joy it brought. | The biggest theatrical spectaculars of the year were the brilliantly eccentric and touching Olympics and Paralympics opening ceremonies, but Crying Out Loud's transformation of Piccadilly Circus and its environs into an all-day outdoor pop-up circus, Piccadilly Circus Circus, was memorable too – for its disruption of the spectacle of everyday life, the way it played with architecture, and the sheer joy it brought. |
| In fact it was a good year for circus, with Australian shows Kneedeep (in Edinburgh) and Cantina on London's South Bank demonstrating that small can be beautiful. Gandini Juggling's Smashed, part of the London International Mime Festival, really was smashing. | In fact it was a good year for circus, with Australian shows Kneedeep (in Edinburgh) and Cantina on London's South Bank demonstrating that small can be beautiful. Gandini Juggling's Smashed, part of the London International Mime Festival, really was smashing. |
| This year's Edinburgh fringe was also made memorable by Kieran Hurley's Beats, Rob Drummond's multi-layered Bullet Catch, Valentijn Dhaenens' extraordinary exploration of 2,500 years of oratory, Bigmouth, and the sizzling South African Mies Julie (which did make our overall top 10). | This year's Edinburgh fringe was also made memorable by Kieran Hurley's Beats, Rob Drummond's multi-layered Bullet Catch, Valentijn Dhaenens' extraordinary exploration of 2,500 years of oratory, Bigmouth, and the sizzling South African Mies Julie (which did make our overall top 10). |
| We highlighted Benedict Andrews' provocative and impassioned Three Sisters at the Young Vic, but I also loved the youthful impetuousness and modernity of Anya Reiss's version of the Seagull at Southwark Playhouse. Robert Icke's touring version of Romeo and Juliet for Headlong, which I saw at the Nuffield in Southampton, dusted off the play and made it feel new-minted. Greg Doran's RSC Julius Caesar had a similar quality, and was really punchy. | We highlighted Benedict Andrews' provocative and impassioned Three Sisters at the Young Vic, but I also loved the youthful impetuousness and modernity of Anya Reiss's version of the Seagull at Southwark Playhouse. Robert Icke's touring version of Romeo and Juliet for Headlong, which I saw at the Nuffield in Southampton, dusted off the play and made it feel new-minted. Greg Doran's RSC Julius Caesar had a similar quality, and was really punchy. |
| The new plays I most enjoyed were: Jackie Kay's Manchester Lines, which was staged by the Library theatre in an office block; Simon Stephens' Three Kingdoms, which was brilliantly staged and acted at the Lyric Hammersmith; Duncan MacMillian's Lungs, part of Paines Plough's Roundabout season at Shoreditch Town Hall; and Nick Payne's Constellations and Tarell Alvin McCraney's story of life in a black American boarding school, Choir Boy, both at the Royal Court. | The new plays I most enjoyed were: Jackie Kay's Manchester Lines, which was staged by the Library theatre in an office block; Simon Stephens' Three Kingdoms, which was brilliantly staged and acted at the Lyric Hammersmith; Duncan MacMillian's Lungs, part of Paines Plough's Roundabout season at Shoreditch Town Hall; and Nick Payne's Constellations and Tarell Alvin McCraney's story of life in a black American boarding school, Choir Boy, both at the Royal Court. |
| In Birmingham, the Stan's Cafe production of The Just Price of Flowers made sense of economic crisis, both in the 17th century and now. Kate Tempest's storytelling show, Brand New Ancients, sent a shiver down my spine at BAC. And I fell back in love with Howard Barker with Lot and his God at the Print Room. | In Birmingham, the Stan's Cafe production of The Just Price of Flowers made sense of economic crisis, both in the 17th century and now. Kate Tempest's storytelling show, Brand New Ancients, sent a shiver down my spine at BAC. And I fell back in love with Howard Barker with Lot and his God at the Print Room. |
| Other great revivals: Sarah Frankcom's wonderfully atmospheric revisiting of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending at Manchester's Royal Exchange; Joe Hill Gibbins' The Changeling, irreverent and shocking at the Young Vic; Simon Godwin's unlikely pairing of Pinter's A Kind of Alaska and Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, which reverberated off each other at Bristol Old Vic; Josie Rourke's The Recruiting Officer, which pitched the play just right at the Donmar; David Haig's heartbreaking turn in The Madness of King George III in the West End; and, right at the end of the year, Daniel Evans's version of My Fair Lady, which sang in Sheffield. | Other great revivals: Sarah Frankcom's wonderfully atmospheric revisiting of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending at Manchester's Royal Exchange; Joe Hill Gibbins' The Changeling, irreverent and shocking at the Young Vic; Simon Godwin's unlikely pairing of Pinter's A Kind of Alaska and Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, which reverberated off each other at Bristol Old Vic; Josie Rourke's The Recruiting Officer, which pitched the play just right at the Donmar; David Haig's heartbreaking turn in The Madness of King George III in the West End; and, right at the end of the year, Daniel Evans's version of My Fair Lady, which sang in Sheffield. |
| Young audiences were really well served too – by Matthew Robins's Something Very Far Away at the revitalised Unicorn; Tangere Arts' take on Coleridge, A Thousand Slimy Things, at The Royal Exchange Studio in Manchester; Punchdrunk's The House Where Winter Lives at Discover; and BAC's brilliant The Good Neighbour, which reinvented the format of family theatre with real imaginative flair. | Young audiences were really well served too – by Matthew Robins's Something Very Far Away at the revitalised Unicorn; Tangere Arts' take on Coleridge, A Thousand Slimy Things, at The Royal Exchange Studio in Manchester; Punchdrunk's The House Where Winter Lives at Discover; and BAC's brilliant The Good Neighbour, which reinvented the format of family theatre with real imaginative flair. |
| These were a few of my favourite things. How was your theatrical year? What did you rate? | These were a few of my favourite things. How was your theatrical year? What did you rate? |
| • This article was amended on 6 March 2013. The original referred to Matthew Lenton's, rather than Matthew Robins's show Something Very Far Away, and has been corrected. | • This article was amended on 6 March 2013. The original referred to Matthew Lenton's, rather than Matthew Robins's show Something Very Far Away, and has been corrected. |
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