1,199 posts
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Post by theatrefan77 on Aug 1, 2018 15:22:15 GMT
It was great fun! Not the best production I've seen but a very enjoyable one. Very basic set but it's well acted. I know some people on this board are not to keen on Sophie Thompson but she a very funny Lady Bracknell and sounded a bit like Patricia Routledge.
Hope you enjoy it!
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724 posts
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Post by Latecomer on Aug 1, 2018 19:41:32 GMT
Great fun....thought it was excellent production. Actually quite touching the last scene, found myself surprisingly emotional! Word perfect at Saturday matinee and in fine shape.
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854 posts
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Post by bordeaux on Aug 3, 2018 12:00:04 GMT
Fascinating to read Billington's two-star review alongside Sarah Crompton's five-star one.
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5,593 posts
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Post by lynette on Aug 3, 2018 12:49:18 GMT
Just read the Billington and makes me glad I didn’t book but then I look at this thread and wonder..
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1,848 posts
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Post by NeilVHughes on Aug 3, 2018 12:52:40 GMT
Intriguing reviews.
Saw it last week in preview, found it great fun, did not really pick up on the issues highlighed in the poor reviews.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Aug 3, 2018 16:40:41 GMT
Fascinating to read Billington's two-star review alongside Sarah Crompton's five-star one. The five-star one, for Whatsonstage, is by Alun Hood.
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854 posts
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Post by bordeaux on Aug 3, 2018 18:17:14 GMT
Fascinating to read Billington's two-star review alongside Sarah Crompton's five-star one. The five-star one, for Whatsonstage, is by Alun Hood. Apologies. Thanks for pointing that out.
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394 posts
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Post by Distant Dreamer... on Aug 10, 2018 10:08:27 GMT
Wow...this production was beyond bad. Credit must go to the director who must have gone well out of their way to remove all comedy from the play. I left feeling very bored and confused.
Apart from the misdirection there are clear casting errors (and I'm not referencing racial casting) but some of the acting in the production is pleasant.
The production is ever so marginally saved by the wonderful comic turns of Fiona Button and Pippa Nixon.
As for the "added" homosexual kisses, bum pinching and erotic artwork...whilst mildly amusing, was it realty needed? If the intention is that Algernon is homosexual then why would he suddenly become so enthusiastically enrapt with Cecily?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2018 11:59:39 GMT
If the intention is that Algernon is homosexual then why would he suddenly become so enthusiastically enrapt with Cecily? I thought I read somewhere that Algy was supposed to be bisexual in this production? That would explain a bit of man kissing and then going gaga for Cecily. I'm all for it personally. I think it should be a rule that every production in London's glitzy West End has a touch of the gay about it. I also thought that Freddie Fox played Lord Goring in 'An Ideal Husband' as a bit bisexual as well so maybe they're going for a bit of a them in the late stages of this season.
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5,593 posts
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Post by lynette on Aug 10, 2018 17:04:42 GMT
I don’t object to Any kind of sexuality in the theatre ( the more the merrier) but do you think they are making more of these characters because Oscar Wilde was gay himself? It would be a shame if we thought gay people can only create gay characters and non gay people can only create non gay characters...etc etc.. are we moving that way? We make a lot of appropriate racial representation on the stage to the point that Maria in West Side Story now has to be played by a Latino actress. Do we see this becoming part of the actual writing too? So you can only write what you are. This plays into the problem with Shakespeare whom some say must have been abroad because he writes about places in Europe and must have worked with lawyers etc etc..No, he was imaginative and then did research, in the pub, no doubt.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2018 10:33:27 GMT
Well. I just adored this and I think, as a whole, it might have been my favourite of the Wilde season. It's all a bit more earthier and sexy than previous versions, less 'perfect' if you will and that's no bad thing.
The cast are fabulous with a capital FABULOUS and the main four leads are really rather wonderful. Both Pippa Nixon and Fiona Button are delightfully modern and genuinely funny comediennes and Sophie Thompson gives a gloriously funny 'Sophie Thompson' performance (which her detracters will hate), all disgusted looks and odd words dropped as deeply as her voice allows. I adore her personally so it all worked for me but she then flips the cartoon performance to be heartstoppingly touching when the big reveal is announced, showing that she's not quite a dragon. But it's all about Jacob Fortune-Lloyd for me. He pitches his performance right on the edge of a mix of constant indignation, irritation, exasperation and annoyance and it's really rather hilarious.
Also on the plus side, for those who lusted after Mr Bingham instead of Colin Firth in 'Pride & Prejudice' you also get a hunky gardener to keep you happy, Matt Crosby raising a titter just by carrying some luggage, a lot of gay goings on which would benefit every production in London's glitzy West End, some fabulous costumes and some marvellous hair from Stella Gonet (also fab). How she manages to get it to go in all those directions at once is a great skill.
Rather like Arnold Swishynecker, I'll be back.
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Xanderl
Member
Not always very high value in terms of ticket yield or donations
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Post by Xanderl on Aug 13, 2018 8:00:31 GMT
TodayTix has a 24 hour offer of £15 tickets (including top price stalls) for Importance of Being Earnest for the rest of the run.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 13, 2018 17:35:57 GMT
To me this has always been a gay play, with the Bunbury theme - a fake identity/persona to get up to mischief with. Not hard to see what is going on there. and I always assumed that Algy and Jack were rehearsing with each other, before the grown up business of the girls comes along.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2018 22:14:59 GMT
If the intention is that Algernon is homosexual then why would he suddenly become so enthusiastically enrapt with Cecily? I thought I read somewhere that Algy was supposed to be bisexual in this production? That would explain a bit of man kissing and then going gaga for Cecily. I'm all for it personally. I think it should be a rule that every production in London's glitzy West End has a touch of the gay about it. I also thought that Freddie Fox played Lord Goring in 'An Ideal Husband' as a bit bisexual as well so maybe they're going for a bit of a them in the late stages of this season. I don’t know how anyone can watch this play and not think that Wilde is having fun with the idea of the double lives lived by gay men of his era. The idea of bunburying seems like an in-joke as did the idea that you go to London to indulge lascivious desires and retire to the country to purge oneself of them. Though the women are funny and feisty (Wilde of course puts witty words in their mouths) they are essentially stupid and single minded in their determination to snare husbands while the men are dependent on their money. The men will no doubt continue with double lives even after marriage. Algernon being black is a telling sign of his father the major’s own double life. I actually loved this production. The play is of course exquisitely written: it almost feels like a coded message to the future. The colour blind casting was inspired and daring. I kept imagining Wilde’s ghost in the audience,amused that the play has stood the test of time., although if he was alive and writing today I believe the same fate would have befallen him in the #metoo era as it did in Victorian times. By the way does anyone else remember a production with an all black cast a million years ago? I think it was at theShaw Theatre
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3,066 posts
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Post by Dr Tom on Aug 28, 2018 17:01:21 GMT
Saw this this afternoon thanks to the £15 offer. Rear stalls, good view. Quite a few unclaimed seats and more after the interval. Lots of muttering nearby early on and two different phones going off. Don’t think it really worked for most people.
The lines are always witty. Some of the funnier moments were rather downplayed. The many same sex references did fit in (even when the servants were going at it), although the incestious relationship is more controversial if you think it through.
Probably the weakest production of The Importance I’ve seen, but at least they tried to make it memorable considering how often it’s been staged recently.
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5,593 posts
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Post by lynette on Aug 28, 2018 21:21:47 GMT
I think there is somewhere an explanation of the play in gay terms and yes, Oscar prob did mean it.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2018 22:10:36 GMT
I like the way that Wilde uses the town and the ****ry (sic) as metaphors - the country as a return to women and therefore conventional marriage in the church; and the town where the men can be true to themselves and engage in manly pursuits.
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382 posts
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Post by stevemar on Sept 2, 2018 18:18:26 GMT
The playing and direction of An Importance of Being Earnest really was a bit much. Why did they need all the man on man, woman on woman kissing, and crude picture in the lounge. Alas, the weakest of the three plays I’ve seen in this season. Not a disaster, mildly amusing and some good one liners of course.
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