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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2019 13:54:57 GMT
Hmm, can only see the Manchester Opera House dates so far. 15 to 19 October, The Alexandra Birmingham (surprisingly not the REP this time)
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2019 20:07:27 GMT
When this was on at the Brum Rep, there was an accompanying immersive theatre type ‘show’ called Seance,outside the theatre in a shipping container (yes, really!).A colleague of mine went to experience it.It cost him £8 for 15 minutes in the truck and he said that it was dreadful.He said it mainly consisted of sitting in the dark and listening to strange noises through headphones.Scariest thing I have ever seen on stage has to be ‘The Woman In Black’ at the very atmospheric Fortune Theatre in London.As scary as Susan Hill’s source novel and so much better than the inept and frankly silly movie of the same name.
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Post by partytentdown on Mar 19, 2019 20:21:11 GMT
When this was on at the Brum Rep, there was an accompanying immersive theatre type ‘show’ called Seance,outside the theatre in a shipping container (yes, really!).A colleague of mine went to experience it.It cost him £8 for 15 minutes in the truck and he said that it was dreadful.He said it mainly consisted of sitting in the dark and listening to strange noises through headphones.Scariest thing I have ever seen on stage has to be ‘The Woman In Black’ at the very atmospheric Fortune Theatre in London.As scary as Susan Hill’s source novel and so much better than the inept and frankly silly movie of the same name. Seance was at the Vault Festival in Waterloo this month.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2019 23:00:53 GMT
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Post by itsabouttogdown on Mar 19, 2019 23:18:51 GMT
Wow I can't believe this is touring lol. This is genuinely one of the worst things I've ever seen. It's absolute trash.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2019 10:26:01 GMT
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Post by duncan on Aug 31, 2019 9:22:12 GMT
Your mother sucks c**s in hell
Nicholas and Ward have been on the advertising for several weeks.
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Post by Rory on Aug 31, 2019 12:26:59 GMT
Paul Nicholas certainly now has the look for Merrin.
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Post by duncan on Sept 18, 2019 8:47:54 GMT
The Exorcist - Theatre Royal
Well now, I'm utterly scunnered by this one.
On the one hand its a very entertaining night out but on the other hand its an utterly abysmal version of the story - your mother doesn't suck chickens in hell, the vomit is atrocious and the head spin is so laughably badly achieved that it makes you wonder why they even bothered.
As a big fan of the book (and Legion) and the film version (and Exorcist III and I even have a soft spot for the Richard Burton Exorcist II) so its interesting to see whats been excised - poor old Kinderman doesn't even get a mention, Sharon at least gets a couple of mentions but is relegated to off screen and despite the ending (of film and book) clearly being set up earlier on in the evening they flub it and use a nonsensically different one instead for no apparent reason. They Chekov's gun the window a couple of times and then ignore it.
The lack of Kinderman also places it firmly in the realms of one man attempting to regain his faith.
Sophie Ward does her best with a reactionary role, Ben Caplan is wooden as Karras and Paul Nicholas gets top billing despite only being in it for around 10 minutes and then coming in and reading from a book for most of the time he's on stage. Tristram Wymark is having the most fun as Burke, indeed its the showy non-possessed role, and he does get to be the one big actual shock of the evening.
The Regan role is always going to be problematic and here the main issue is a lot of the performance is McKellan voice acting off tape rather than the actor in question. She also had to chuck a pillow out of the way to ensure the levitation worked without any issues.
Entertaining vapid nonsense but certainly not one to go out of your way to catch up on and it surprised me how full the theatre was on a Tuesday night for this. Three levels open and all looking fairly full from Row B of the stalls. The idiot sat next to me who decided 20 minutes in was the best time to hake about in their handbag for a packet of sweets and then open them should be shot into the sun.
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Post by duncan on Sept 18, 2019 8:58:03 GMT
Hmmm, I thought the whole thing was a bit of a dogs dinner, to be honest - things didn't get off to a good start: in trying to emulate the films opening scene with Father Merrin in the Middle East, obviously any production would have problems trying to copy that, but I'm afraid Peter Bowles wearing a turban while picking at a kebab just brought on a fit of giggles for me, which took a long time to cease. I can confirm the tour does not have a turban.
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Post by mammabat on Sept 30, 2019 5:46:36 GMT
i saw The Exorcist at Wimbledon on Saturday having seen it 3 times in London and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Set not as slick as London but then the show is only spending a few days at each venue so understandable.
The show is dark, as you would expect and focuses mainly on the torment of Regan’s Mother struggling to get help for her child. In both shows the portrayal of Regan has been stunning. This is an extremely challenging part with the constant evolving of a child being possessed by the devil. The second act focuses mainly on Regan and both girls have played the part nothing short of spectacular. Trying to think of an appropriate adj! Having to lip sync to the voice of Ian McKellen’s voice is mesmerising in itself without the phenomenal expressive actions required to portray an absolutely demonic child is mind blowing. You could hear a pin drop.
This show is graphic and it won’t be to everyone’s taste but to see the talented actresses portray Regan is something not to be missed.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Sept 30, 2019 14:58:02 GMT
Merged
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Post by xanady on Sept 30, 2019 18:15:50 GMT
^I can think of an appropriate adjective...but I’d better not type it,lol 😀
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Post by crabtree on Oct 24, 2019 21:45:04 GMT
Just back from a Manchester performance, and the head spin alone makes it worth watching, but definitely underpowered and the big exorcism could have done with a bit more bed rattling. Paul Nicholas, well barely ten minutes of him, and they missed the chance to stage the iconic entrance. The light was there. It felt a bit ponderous but some good moments. A rather clunky adaptation.
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Post by crabtree on Oct 24, 2019 21:57:22 GMT
and the poor cast, all that running u[ and down the stairs, with the actual upstairs being down stairs was very clunky staging. I wonder what effects the tour is missing. We did get such an annoyingly talkative audience and two ladies with a box of sushi.....!
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Oct 25, 2019 8:31:43 GMT
I hated the set. That hideous sliding wall coming in and out every five minutes. Other than that it was entertaining enough. Not scary though and they try to create tension and jumps with loud bangs and flashing lights. The unintentionally funny element is McKellan’s voice coming out of the young actress playing Regan. If that wasn’t incongruous enough, when speaking with his voice she adopted this sort of fey, exaggerated gesticulation that might have been fashioned on Sir Ian himself. It might have been more interesting to get Sir Ian to play the kid! As for the head spin, saw it coming a mile off because when that scene opens she’s clearly got a different wig on, and it looks backcombed to the gods. It’s huge, obviously to disguise the mechanism beneath.
Average 🧸🧸.5
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