Stockard Channing has made a successful return to the London stage after a ten year absence in Jamie Lloyd’s revival of Alexi Kaye Campbell’s family drama APOLOGIA at the Trafalgar Studios. The 73 year-old Tony and Emmy award winning actress plays the celebrated art historian, activist and ‘monstrous matriarch’ Kristin Miller who is at odds with her two sons and their partners who gather to celebrate her birthday. Central to the story is the debate about ‘bad’ sixties mothers and their abandoned-feeling offspring which surfaces when her recent memoir that omits her sons becomes a touchy subject. Quite brilliant,” wrote Ann Treneman in her Times review, Dominic Cavendish headlined his Telegraph review with “Stockard Channing is a contemptuous treat,” and ” Stockard Channing is in top form,” said Tom Wicker in The Stage.

I was very fortunate to see the play thanks to the generosity of Nick, a fellow ‘grapher, who I met at the stage door as we waited to meet Stockard prior to last Saturday’s performance. He had a spare comp ticket, which he kindly offered me. She popped out after the matinee to sign for us including this drawing and was very chatty and complimentary. So I got to see her on and off the stage – bonus!