Video transcript:

Krapp's Last Tape, starring Gary Oldman, at the York Theatre Royal, is a tiny, 50-minute play.

Was it worth spending two hours on the train to get up there?

Well, it's the story of a man looking back over his life, and he's doing this by listening to recordings that he made of him talking about his life when he was younger.

And it's a very reflective piece. It's a piece that is a real test for the actor that's playing the role.

There isn't a massive amount of dialogue. Obviously, they're acting alongside tape recording, so it's a lot of reactions, and it would be easy to overreact and do a lot, move around, move and do stuff. 

Luke Thallon in Hamlet for the RSC

I've seen a lot of Hamlet's, and watching director Rupert Goold and Luke Thallon's take on 'the Dane', it struck me that we haven't really had a mad Hamlet for a long time.

The prince might say that he is putting on an antic disposition and, as Polonius observes, make 'pregnant' comments, but there is something painfully cracked in his behaviour. There is an edge and danger that points to loss of mental control...but more of that in a moment.

It is a stormy production set on a large ship called the Elsinore in the early 1900s. The text has been tweaked with references to water replacing those about the ground and earth. The stage tilts as danger swells. 

The action is compressed into an evening and night, which heightens the tension and makes sense of Hamlet's tussle with his faculties - a lot happens very quickly.

Sensible edits, such as the players only performing the mime rather than repeating the play with words, make this a pacey production. There is no distraction of relations with Norway; the focus is very much on the royal court and Hamlet's deteriorating behaviour.

Luke Thallon's is a Hamlet that made my heart ache for the pain he seemed to be going through. He starts in a melancholy grief and descends from there to a point where he develops twitches and ticks as if the mental anguish is too much for his body to bear.

I've seen productions where the same actor plays the ghost and Claudius. Here, the ghost (Anton Lesser) pops up as other characters, causing Hamlet to recoil. Does it suggest his mind playing tricks on him, a form of paranoid delusion?

The Fifth Step promotional poster, Dundee Rep

David Ireland’s new play The Fifth Step had its first performance with a packed house at the Dundee Rep before transferring for a short run in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

It's a different play tonally to Ulster American (which I was ‘meh about) and Cyprus Avenue, which was grim, shocking (and excellent).

While not shying away from difficult topics, it feels 'relatively' gentler - for Ireland, anyway.

The fifth step refers to the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery stage, whereby wrongs, things you are ashamed of, are confessed to another, having drawn up your list as the fourth step.

The play opens with Luka (Jack Lowden) choosing James (Sean Gilder) as his sponsor. Well, it opens with a typically frank conversation that centres on James’ own sponsor, who was gay and whether gay men inevitably fancy all men.

(Luka thinks so based on his own thoughts about women and sex.)

He is struggling with the adjustment to 100% abstention from alcohol. His social life centres on pubs, and his friends aren't very supportive. He doesn't have a job, and when he’s not trying to get work, he spends his time watching porn and ‘relieving himself’.

He relieves himself rather a lot.

Hamlet, starring Billy Howle, a live recording from Bristol Old Vic

The fat has been cut from this Bristol Old Vic production of Hamlet, leaving the meat of the play. There is no Fortinbras subplot, the ghost and player scenes are stripped to the bare essentials.

It's a minimalist, stark modern set, just doors and a staircase - although the way it is filmed, you don't get to appreciate it in perhaps the same way you would watching it at the theatre. What you do get is the close-ups of the actors.

The only face you don't see is the ghost which is an interesting choice; Hamlet (Billy Howle) doesn't doubt for a second this cloaked, hooded figure is his father, but is it? Does he just want it to be?

Howle's Hamlet, in this trimmed play, becomes a man of action; there is little room for confirmation, doubt and indecision. In fact, he is manic, angry and enraged - mad in purpose or a loose canon?

This contrasts with the cool, quiet of Finbar Lynch's Claudius. If he didn't confess, you wouldn't believe he had a hand in Old Hamlet's murder rather, he is protecting the realm from an heir who swings from irritating to unhinged.

Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction and that's how I preambled my review of The Great Wave at the National Theatre back in 2018.

It was based on real events in the 1970s and 1980s when North Korean agents abducted ordinary people from Japanese beaches in order to steal their identities or learn the Japanese language and culture.

The play follows two sisters one who has been abducted and the other left behind living with her sister's sudden disappearance.  It's a nail-biting, emotional roller coaster of a play that brought to life events I had no knowledge of.

Which is your favourite play based on real events?

The Great Wave is one of several plays based on real events I've really enjoyed over the years, here are some other notable mentions:

Enron, Noel Coward Theatre - Took a very dry subject and made it interesting and entertaining - bonus points for velociraptors and light sabres.

This House, National Theatre - a dusty 1970s political crisis given a high-energy makeover by writer James Graham and director Jeremy Herrin.

Theatre-land is a mixture of new plays and revivals, but there are certain classics which regularly get staged - which have you seen the most? Is there a particular reason why you've seen one play more than any others?

The hands-down winner for me is Hamlet. I think I've seen 17 or more different productions, but I confess it was less than literary reasons that got me hooked initially.

Yes, Hamlet was one of the set texts in my final year at Uni but that year also saw the release of a film version of Hamlet starring Mel Gibson.

He was one of my teen crushes so; naturally, I ran to the cinema to see it and then went back to see it again... and again.

I have no idea if it was well done - I wasn't really watching it for the play - but it helped me get really familiar with the key speeches. Handy when exam time came around.

The very first production

The first stage production of Hamlet I saw was on a student trip to Theatr Clwyd. It was memorable for several reasons no least because one of the actor's costumes caught fire  - it was all fine, quickly stamped out by another actor without even a pause in their speech.

But it wasn't until I saw it again years later - in 2008 - with David Tennant as Hamlet that it really sparked my interest/obsession. The speeches were still familiar, and the production just opened up the play in different ways.

There is always a danger when you transport classic plays to a contemporary setting that the difference in society's attitude destroys the tension of the original.

Ibsen's original Hedda Gabler is a young woman, newly married who sees no future, trapped into a life in which she sees little purpose.

Cordelia Lynn's modern take - entitled Hedda Tesman - follows the basic plot of Ibsen's but Hedda is now an older woman with a grown-up daughter living in contemporary England.

Hadyn Gwynne plays Hedda as a woman bitter and twisted by resentment and regret at the promising career she gave up to have a child.

My first trip to New York, prompted by Ben Whishaw making his Broadway debut was pre-Rev Stan's Theatre blog (yes there was a time).

He was in The Pride at Lucille Lortel Theatre with Andrea Riseborough and Hugh Dancy and there was an encounter with Ben Whishaw afterwards which I wrote about on my old blog.

Having hinted at said encounter in a post on Rev Stan's Theatre Facebook page (check it out/like etc) I've been asked for the story (link to the original post is here).

This has been mildly edited because I know better now:

Yesterday was another mammoth walkathon clocking up about 16km (pedometer decided to reset itself halfway through the day). Did the International Center for Photography in the morning then walked down to the Empire State Building and onto the Flat Iron Building which has to be my favourite of everything I have seen.

August was dominated by Edinburgh for me but the London theatre wheels were still turning; here's my round up of my favourite bits of news, my theatre hits and misses and few celeb spots...(let me know if I missed anything while I was north of the border).

Sally Field and Bill Pullman in All My Sons, Old Vic - yep Hollywood comes London theatreland next year in a co-production with Headlong (Jeremy Herrin directs). No dates yet but already I can't wait. 

National Theatre's artistic director Rufus Norris steps into the breach - there has been a spate of understudies and theatre staff saving the day when actors are indisposed but last night's performance of Home, I'm Darling saw Norris take to the stage to play Jonny for Richard Harrison.

Foxfinder full cast - You may have missed my July round-up (I did) which (would have) mentioned that Iwan Rheon and Heida Reed had been cast in Foxfinder at the Ambassadors Theatre, well joining them is Paul Nicholls and Bryony Hannah. It opens for preview on September 6.

The Wild Duck, Almeida - Fans of Robert Icke rejoice, he returns to the Almeida with a production of Ibsen's The Wild Duck. Speculation has already started about who will be in the cast.  Opens October 15.

* I'm excited and nervous about the forthcoming stage adaptation of Patrick Ness’s novel A Monster Calls (the book is a favourite) but I couldn’t think of a better actor than Matthew Tennyson to take on the lead Conor. The production will have a run at the Bristol Old Vic from May 31 and the Old Vic from July 7.

* David Haig’s play Pressure (in which he also stars) is transferring from Park Theatre to the Ambassadors following a successful run at the Finsbury venue. Malcolm Sinclair and Laura Rogers co-star.

* Stan-fav Adam Gillen has been cast in Killer Joe, Trafalgar Studios, which stars Orlando Bloom and I'm really looking forward to seeing him in something very different to Amadeus. You can see photos of the cast in rehearsal over at What's On Stage and previews start on May 18.

* Kilburn's Tricycle Theatre has been renamed the Kiln Theatre post refurbishment with a new season that includes the UK premiere of Florian Zeller’s The Son.

* In a new twist on role swapping (recent role swaps: Mary Stuart, Almeida; RSC's Doctor Faustus and NT's Frankenstein to name just three) Hayley Atwell and Jack Lowden are to alternate playing Isabella and Angelo in Measure For Measure at the Donmar Warehouse.

* There is part of me that is excited and really curious and part of me that thinks: 'Gimmick to get repeated visits'. There is one version I'd particularly like to see but no way of knowing, having booked at ticket whether I'll get it. Previews start September 28.