Front Row: Evenings at the Theatre

by Beryl Bainbridge

Front Row is a collection of Beryl Bainbridge's best writing about the theatre. It contains fascinating insights into the work of such contemporaries as Alan Bennett, Alan Rickmann and Ronald Harwood, alongside amusing sketches of the actors Bainbridge worked with in her early years, including Judith Chalmers and Billie Whitelaw. And in her autobiographical introduction, Beryl Bainbridge evokes all the magic that the footlights possess for her.

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge DBE was an English writer from Liverpool. She was primarily known for her works of psychological fiction, often set among the English working classes. Bainbridge won the Whitbread Award twice and was nominated for the Booker Prize five times. In 2008, The Times newspaper named Bainbridge among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

Reviews

[Bookthesp1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a charming quirky book written ( or compiled) by Beryl Bainbridge, slumming it from her novelist role to review plays for the oldie Magazine.
This covers a 10 year period from 1992-2002 and Bainbridge visits a decent variety of productions from classics to musical theatre to Ray cooney farce. Her reviews are chatty; discursive, amusing and clever. There are often asides; tangential observations and comments; personal stories and quips. Each year has a header page listing notable deaths; events and a comment about a play. There are also photos of Beryl in her acting days ( Corrie et al) and her rather odd go to figure for theatrical wisdom - Herbert Jennings .
All in all a fun book that doesn’t take itself too seriously but adds quirkily to her novelist’s canon of work. If u want to smile with recognition or laugh at a description of stage business or admire the description of great acting then read this. Great fun. I’ve just reviewed a reviewer- frightfully good fun.

[Jazzy Lemon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant theatre reviews from a very talented writer.

[Maria]

check out other books by her

[Jeff Howells · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is rather a strange little book. It's made up of short theatre reviews by Beryl Bainbridge who was theatre critic for 'The Oldie' magazine in the nineties. It's probably a book for Bainbridge completists only as it's odd to read reviews of long gone plays/musicals and to be honest she doesn't really go into that much detail of them.