Cultural Life: Dennis Kelly, playwright
Friday 17 February 2012
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Theatre: The last play I saw was Arnold Wesker's 'The Kitchen', at the National Theatre. Watching such a physical, and yet realistic, production, I couldn't help thinking about how far theatre has come in recent years. I also saw Christoph Schlingensief's 'Mea Culpa' at the Burgtheater in Vienna. Written on his death bed, it was really profound and visually quite amazing. Sandy McDade gave an incredibly committed performance in Lucy Kirkwood and Ed Hime's 'Small Hours', at Hampstead Theatre.
Television: 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' is the funniest comedy I've ever seen (below). It's an American sitcom about four people who, between them, have no redeeming features at all. Danny DeVito is great in the second series. I've also been watching a bit of the BBC's 'Sherlock'.
Books: I read a nice psychological horror story set in the Arctic, called 'Dark Matter', by Michelle Paver. I got through the slightly spy-ish 'Restless' by William Boyd and the warts-and-all revelations about colonialism in J G Farrell's 'The Siege of Krishnapur'.
Film: I watched 'Zelig' – it's just hilarious. The only annoying thing was the Woody Allen fans in the audience always laughing before the jokes. I also love kids' films. 'Rango' was amazing.
Comedy: We have great comedians in this country. Mark Watson, Sean Lock and Russell Kane are all very funny. But I have this strange pathological fear of people getting picked on during stand-up. I was once picked on by Ross Noble and that did little to dispel my fears.
Dennis Kelly's 'DNA' is on tour (hulltruck.co.uk/on-tour/dna). 'Matilda the Musical', is at the Cambridge Theatre, London WC2 (www.matildathemusical.com) to 21 Oct
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