Further than the Furthest Thing - Young Vic

Quite interested in this but:

"The Young Vic Main House has been transformed into amphitheatre style seating for this show, with audience members seated on tiered steps with cushions".

Anyone any idea of running time of previous productions before I decide if I can manage the cushion?! Thanks

The cushions on steps are putting me off too.

Aren't the YV benches basically cushions on steps anyway? 😂

WTF? Ok so the seat numbering is ridiculous and the good-natured volunteer ushers haven't a clue. The running time is close to 3 hours but our usher said " I think they're going to make cuts later this week" The backless seating is a Godsend for the local chiropractors - they should set up massage tables in the lobby. The slow revolve is so slow that a third of the audience could not see the 3 magic tricks which were performed early in the play.

But what about the play?

Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. 5 geographically untraceable accents descend on a remote island and behave in a manner which has no basis in any reality. Jenna Russell gives a committed performance and I admire her for it but what must she be thinking? Actually what must any of them be thinking. The direction is vague and arrogant. The design is spartan and then obscure. This is pretentious crap and we were not alone as we escaped into the night at the interval (90 minutes in) . Which leaves me to wonder - does everyone abandon the first two rows at that point? Bleah!

I haven't booked for this yet - and I book for most things in the main house Young Vic. I feared it was going to be uncomfortable and pretentious - one I can deal with but both!- no.

Did the cooking of an egg trigger any extreme reaction from the audience?

(They have removed it now from the warning list.)

There were definitely more people up there after the interval (and less downstairs) so I wonder if that's where they send the people that complain/can't handle about the amphitheatre seating?

Well I have returned mine, life is too short.

Me three!

At the risk of sounding like a shill, I’m confused about where the negative consensus on this thread has come from. There have been 3 posts: one mostly positive (mine), one very negative, and one mixed positive. Plus all the reviews I can find seem to either be 3 or 4 stars. I can understand looking at the description of a show and deciding it’s not for you, but I feel like I’ve missed where the consensus that the show is bad has come from.

I just went by the general vibe on here and the press, and I have decided that this year I'm not going to waste time/money with stuff that I am not sure about. Strongly considering returning my Black Superhero ticket too. Sadly

I didn't know anything about this play other than it might be about Tristan da Cunha, which apparently it is. Except that where the narrative meets history it is less clear that some of the pivotal events are true or that they all relate to this particular island. The tale of exile, for example, seems more to reflect events on the Chagos Islands. I suppose though that it is essential to include this, and a crucial fiction which is essential to understanding the character of Bill (the troubled islander excellently played by Cyril Nri) in order to make this an anti-colonial play. Because the history of Tristan is not a colonialist expropriation in the accepted sense, the islands belonged to no-one and had not even been visited by anyone till like the 17th century. Such population as settled there did so voluntarily and accepting a harsh, lonely existence which was not foisted on them. Likewise the evil pantomime capitalist thrown in - with a South African accent for good measure, the play being set in the sixties - is also an invention and has no basis in anything which happened there. Bizarrely, from the point of narrative, he then turns up in England as some sort of government official. So I would take the history of this with an islet of salt and concentrate on the mood of the piece instead.

As someone else has mentioned the mish-mash of accents does not seem to serve any purpose, dramatic or otherwise, other than to mislead at least some in the audience to think this might be about the Orkney Islands or somewhere in the Outer Hebrides. The repetitive language at times sounds poetic and at times, well, repetitive.

The acting is mostly very good, at least from Jenna Russell, Cyril Nri and Gerald Kyd - not entirely convinced by the younger islanders I'm afraid. Not entirely convinced you need a vocalist on stage when she is rather underutilised.

I don't want this to sound negative. Despite it being a slow-burner, as described elsewhere, it is entertaining and at times even absorbing and it is an interesting idea on a quirky theme about far-off places about which we know little which I enjoyed.