The Human Body - Donmar Warehouse

Oh dear...I am going Saturday...now really not sure I want to

3 hours 10. There was constant motion and the scenes were mostly short, but I did feel it (especially the 90 minute second half). 

What’s the Donmar policy on returns?

A 2.30pm would finish at 5.40pm, giving you 50 minutes to do the 20 minute walk to the National - I think you've got time?

3hours 5minutes tonight. But 45 minutes of the 2h 45 playing time is set changes.

Technically, this must be a nightmare. Short scenes, set changes with substantial objects coming on an off, rapid costume changes, videography.

The narrative sags. Keeley Hawes is great, but her romance with the Jack Davenport character doesn't ring true (maybe partly because we don't see any chemistry between them) - and that isn't helped by the filmed scenes, which just confirm the artifice. The tricky relationship with the husband isn't helped by the fact that Goodman Hill, unlike Davenport, is playing several other characters, which makes this relationship less substantial, even though the message the production is given, with the filmed sequences, is the other way around.

Then, there's an entire subplot about the Hawes character's attempts to be an MP, which give her an excuse to travel, but disrupts the politics of the ending..

I have mobility issues so it will be Leicester Sq to Waterloo, then walk to NT. I long for the time I could skip across the bridge from Charing Cross to South Bank. My real issue will be grabbing something to eat and drink, plus a loo stop, very tight for time. 

Thank you I will

Getting lower! Its close relation, Nye at the NT, is reporting a 2:50 runtime ahead of its first preview.

I'll post a fuller response tomorrow but I thought this was exceptional tonight and I completely adored it. A brilliant piece of writing with echos of old Hollywood stories, great direction and a super cast.

I forgot to mention in my comment above how amazing the whole cast is- the two main actors but also and maybe especially, the three supporting- they each play several characters and with the tight set changes and costume changes, it really is a feat and everyone was perfect. I can’t imagine how long it took for everyone to learn the movements (including the Donmar staff!) - the staging is really imaginative. There is humour and there is drama and romance. It’s hard to find fault to be hones.

Running time is back up on the Donmar site - 2h45m, including a 20 min interval.

Reviews seem to be mainly three stars, with praise for the leads but not so much for the play itself.

Saw this tonight and it's a very odd play that doesn't really add up to more than the sum of its parts, although it's parts are quite enjoyable regardless.

Some spoilers follow. . .

At one point, Keeley Hawes's Iris says that her love affair with Jack Davenport's George is the only "technicolor" part of her life. But this contrary production is determined to turn her love affair into the very black and white "Brief Encounter," which seems most odd.

It's especially odd since "Brief Encounter" can't be bettered as a black and white movie about a stiff-upper-lipped desperate period love affair, so the movie that's broadcast on the wall behind the actors is either a mere pastiche of "Brief Encounter" or it is a commentary that Iris's love affair is not "technicolor" at all.

In any event, Emma Rice, in her eternal optimism about the human condition, already made what amounts to a cheery "technicolor" play version of "Brief Encounter," and that was more fun than this.

But this isn't meant to be fun, anyway, as it's essentially a "woman trapped" kind of play, so the spiraling stage was one of my favourite parts of the production, which, coupled with the Bernard Herrmann type music, and boosted by Keeley Hawes's clench-teethed performance, made the production as much a doomladen version of Hitchcock's "Vertigo" as it was of Lean's "Brief Encounter." This worked doubly well, thematically, but also as a democratic method of giving those at the sides a good view of the actors.

Unfortunately, the production is neither as romantic as "Brief Encounter," nor as thrilling as "Vertigo," so it never really finds it's emotional thrust.

There was one ray of technicolor sunshine in the production tonight, and it was Flora Jacoby Richardson as Hawes's Iris's daughter, constantly rabbitting on enthusiastically about Princess Elizabeth's dresses, which, unlike the NHS, will never be available to ordinary people. This was constantly funny to me, as her passion for the dresses exceeded anyone's passion for the NHS, and if the point of her character was to suggest we shouldn't be gawking at royalty, this deeply failed, as the cheery kid's enthusiasm (she even gave Hawes the most joyous "thumbs up" after the bows lol) was way too infectious, especially when compared to the dourness of everybody else. Odd.

Even Bevan (not depicted) came across badly, described as using dehumanising Trumpian language, even if his accomplishments are the very best of Britain. Again, odd.

As far as Keeley Hawes's plays go, I preferred "Rocket to the Moon" to this, and preferred this to "Barking in Essex," but despite the fact she's never been in a truly brilliant production, she herself was terrific in all three of these, serving each play with exactly the notes asked of her, so I fully expect one day she'll hit the jackpot with a truly great play.

Of the supporting ensemble, I thought Siobhan Redmond magnificently morphed into a whole range of quirky characters.

For me, this weird portrait of a woman and an NHS going round in circles gets 3 and a half stars for it's intriguing but never-melding parts.

PS: This finished at 10:15pm on the dot, and I was out by 10:18pm.

I saw this last night and have to agree with much of what others have said. There's just a little bit too much going on in terms of the multiple characters, video scenes and never ending revolve for us to really focus at times on the nuances and depth beneath the surface. The scene which I thought was the best in the play was the longer beach scene at the top of Act 2, which didn't feel quite so rushed and allowed the characters to breathe a little.

Still, it wasn't dull at all and the staging is so dynamic that it didn't feel overlong (we were out at 10.10pm). I really liked the overall blue aesthetic of the set and props by Fly Davis, and I thought the acting was universally excellent. I must admit to being thrilled to finally see Keeley Hawes on stage, being a fully paid up member of the DI Lindsay Denton fan club (Line of Duty). And This Life means a lot to me as a show so I was very pleased to see Jack Davenport also. I liked the chemistry between them.