The perfect week – starting and ending at the theatre.  We had seen Collaborators at the NT Live broadcast in December, but its casting (Simon Russell Beale and Alex Jennings) ensured that I wanted to see it on stage.  Much as I applaud and appreciate the NT Live initiative, I do not believe it  can replace the intensity of experience – or replicate the depth of enjoyment – gained from being present in the theatre.

A second viewing increased my appreciation of this clever, well-crafted play and of Nicholas Hytner’s beautiful direction.  The two lead actors have long been my especial favourites and I hold for each of them a deep admiration and affection, so that it might seem I take it for granted that they will give extremely fine performances.    I don’t, of course.  It is a nightly miracle and a privilege to watch, deeply engaging, totally engrossing and absorbing, and utterly satisfying.

The following day I went to see my mother.  She suffers from Alzheimers and has reached the point where she is sometimes astonished to learn that I am her daughter.  Conversation is frequently limited to her total absorption in the uncertainties of her life – whether she should get up, get dressed, whether she has been told to do anything or should stay where she is.  A circular treadmill of present uncertainty.  When young, she had been a keen amateur actress and, when I was a student, we went to the theatre together as often as we could.  My talk of the National Theatre, of the performance, of Alex Jennings, all stirred recognition in her and she managed quite twenty minutes of interested conversation, aware of some of her enthusiasm from her past.  It was, in its way, a huge achievement.

A performance on stage is such a seemingly ephemeral thing – fleeting and fanciful.  It’s just play and pretend.  But I believe it enriches and rewards us very deeply, and its effects can be felt in our deepest selves when many other things have gone.    Meanwhile – Collaborators is great.  Go and see it.