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Post by bram on Mar 4, 2024 16:06:58 GMT
I loved this for its honesty and fun. Excellent performances all round.
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Post by harry on Mar 5, 2024 0:04:49 GMT
I’m another one in the like not love camp. I was really enjoying it at the interval bar a few clunky bits of exposition (“remember when we were in that place and that person was doing this and you and me were doing this? Well I felt like that then.”)
I just wish so much more had remained unsaid or below the surface. Instead the last 20min of the play just seemed to be people screaming over one another and the final scene was so screechy.
It seemed to split the audience with a good half on their feet and loving it at the end but I also overheard another couple of conversations on the way out with people saying it was a bit shouty and soap opera-y at the end which pretty much sums up my feelings. Definitely pleased I saw it but for me it is by some way the second best of the two plays I’ve seen recently in London about a group of northen sisters with past secrets.
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Post by sherbetlemon on Mar 5, 2024 0:32:09 GMT
Which seats do the Friday Rush tickets tend to be? Any seats that should be avoided?
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Post by jek on Mar 5, 2024 8:44:43 GMT
sherbetlemon We had Friday Rush tickets for this last night. We were in the restricted view side circle seats - Row P - and they were fine. Miss a view of the odd bit but not much at all - and you can certainly still get the gist of what's happening. For a tenner they are a very good deal for an enjoyable night at the theatre.
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Post by prefab on Mar 5, 2024 22:57:37 GMT
Thanks to parsley and everyone else who suggested I go see this even though I disliked House of Shades. I just came back from the NT, and I thought it was a great play, full of well-drawn characters and memorable dialogue. It was also a lot funnier and warmer than I expected, even in the 2nd act. There were a few moments in that second act where I remembered one of the main problems I had with House of Shades: the cliched melodramatic scenes sometimes come so quickly one after the other that they seem comical to me. Overall, however, I thought she had a good control of tone throughout the play.
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Post by sf on Mar 9, 2024 0:30:17 GMT
Overheard in the lobby:
“I don’t really know anything about this play at all. Is there sex in it?”
So much of it is so good. Beth Steel knows the territory, she knows how to get big laughs, and she knows how to use family relationships to give a close-up on a bigger picture. It's cleverly directed and superbly performed, and Lorraine Ashbourne's Aunty Carol is a spectacular comic creation...
...and if you set out to write a play that is partly about latent racism, it's probably a good idea not to make your one non-English character a two-dimensional cardboard cutout, or to prove with his every line that you have no ear at all for the rhythms of Polish-accented English. It doesn't help, either, that Mark Wootton - who is otherwise very charming as Marek, and who does manage to transcend some of the bad writing - supplies such a bizarrely inconsistent accent, although the inconsistently-accented dialogue he has to deliver probably doesn't help.
It's a shame. This is a very entertaining evening, it's a play with a lot to say, it includes several memorable (female) characters and some raucously funny lines... and it shoots itself in the foot.
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Post by thistimetomorrow on Mar 13, 2024 23:07:35 GMT
Booked to see this after seeing all the positive comments and comparisons to Hills, but preferred Hills tbh. Another for the liked, but not loved camp.
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Post by Rory on Mar 17, 2024 10:54:22 GMT
This finished yesterday at the Dorfman. One of my favourite theatre experiences of all time. It has to be transferring, surely?
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 17, 2024 11:37:20 GMT
This finished yesterday at the Dorfman. One of my favourite theatre experiences of all time. It has to be transferring, surely? One would hope so. It should tour, of course. When was the last time the NT toured a play?
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Post by Being Alive on Mar 17, 2024 12:04:31 GMT
This finished yesterday at the Dorfman. One of my favourite theatre experiences of all time. It has to be transferring, surely? One would hope so. It should tour, of course. When was the last time the NT toured a play? The Macbeth that Kinnear and Duff did on the Olivier toured (but it was dreadful)
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Post by Rory on Mar 17, 2024 12:44:53 GMT
The Ocean at the End of the Lane was the last to tour, I think.
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Post by mrbarnaby on Mar 17, 2024 14:01:19 GMT
This HAS to transfer. And to SohoPlace please so they can retain the in-the-round staging
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Post by jek on Mar 17, 2024 14:40:09 GMT
Of course Nye is heading off to Cardiff. So maybe this could head to somewhere in/near Mansfield. The audience reaction would be interesting.
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Post by Jon on Mar 17, 2024 15:54:52 GMT
@sohoplace does have a gap after Red Pitch
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Post by robwilton on Mar 17, 2024 23:36:36 GMT
I have a contrary view to most. I found TILL THE STARS COME DOWN to be expertly performed, imaginatively directed, designed and lit - but with a cliched and predictable script, more like a heightened and extended episode of a soap opera, with less likeable and interesting characters than are found in, say, EastEnders. And in common with a large portion of the audience, I didn't find a single laugh in the entire evening! No exaggeration. I'm pleased for the few who leapt to their feet and whooped and hollered at the curtain calls, so perhaps the problem is mine - but I was very disappointed. I see it's been nominated for Best New Play at the Olivier Awards! Astounding - is this really the best of contemporary playwriting??
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Post by aspieandy on Mar 18, 2024 6:35:11 GMT
We must be close to double figures the number of posters referencing 'soap opera'.
It is intriguing that 10-hours in the life of a working class family is seen by many NT patrons as a 'soap opera'.
I wonder what the same people consider a long weekend in the life of a middle class family to be (Dear Octopus) - a drama, perhaps?
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Post by Latecomer on Mar 18, 2024 8:31:47 GMT
Saw it a second time on Saturday and I think what elevates it is that the production of the piece is so good, and the structure of the play is good too. So it’s one of those amazing plays that at the end you just sit there, slightly shell shocked, after being in another world completely. And you need a few minutes to get yourself together. I love that from a play. Or TV for that matter. The moment where you are so “in” the production that you forget it’s a play. Also that moment where you know something is inevitable, but you still think “maybe it won’t happen” ….true Tragedy!
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Post by mrbarnaby on Mar 18, 2024 9:04:26 GMT
Yes it’s soap opera, but the performances elevate it to a higher level in my opinion.
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Post by Rory on Mar 18, 2024 9:13:03 GMT
Yes it’s soap opera, but the performances elevate it to a higher level in my opinion. Absolutely. They are truthful characters. You get right inside their skin. You believe in every bit of it because they are so expertly drawn and brilliantly acted. And that is what has moved so many people about this play.
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