4,631 posts
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Post by Phantom of London on May 11, 2017 21:20:37 GMT
This was so awful, course, stomach churning and thought provoking that I kind of loved it, well on the train home and cannot stop thinking of it, I am really conflicted. I don't get shocked, but a couple of times I had to look away in disgust. However you feel that the director wanted this to happen, so great acting gave a touch of authentic realism, but really you know or hope this is in the abstract.
Cannot decide if this should be a 1 Star or 5 Stars, still gathering my thoughts, or trying to makes sense of something that really didn't cross my mind until this evening, but have you ever met my friend Portia, she has beautiful eyes and that suggestive look, she is actually a sow.................
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4,631 posts
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Post by Phantom of London on May 13, 2017 18:12:53 GMT
Just thinking that they could have done a different version of this, by which I mean The Chicken, or who is Sylvia.
With Damian Lewis saying the immortal lines "Fair Is Foul, and Foul is Fair".
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515 posts
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Post by callum on May 13, 2017 20:03:16 GMT
The Pig, or Who is Sylvia? starring David and Samantha Cameron.
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1,103 posts
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Post by mallardo on May 20, 2017 8:01:38 GMT
I thought Damian Lewis was phenomenal in this hugely difficult role. I believed him in every moment which, under the circumstances, is the highest praise.
I felt at times as if he were channelling Gene Wilder in that other bestiality piece - the one that came first - the vignette in Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex in which Wilder, a psychiatrist, falls for a sheep brought to his office by a troubled patient. I wonder if that film was on Albee's mind while he was writing this? Wilder's character was named Doctor Ross - and Ross is the name of Martin's friend in the play. Coincidence?
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219 posts
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Post by PalelyLaura on May 20, 2017 16:56:16 GMT
Dayseated for the matinee today. Got there at 8.25 and I was 5th in line. The guy at the front had caught a 5.30 bus to London to get tickets for him and his wife as a surprise for her which I thought was really sweet. Overheard lots of theatre discussion including plenty of praise for theatremonkey!
Really enjoyed the play, more than I thought I would and more than I did Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Great acting from all involved. Surprisingly funny but definitely tragic.
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219 posts
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Post by PalelyLaura on May 20, 2017 17:34:35 GMT
Addendum: just opened Twitter and literally the first tweet I see is from a friend, 'Met this cutie today' - and pictures of a (in fairness, rather beautiful) goat.
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617 posts
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Post by loureviews on May 25, 2017 15:31:33 GMT
I saw this in late April but didn't add my review here, so:
Edward Albee’s 2002 play is only on its first UK revival, and perhaps this is understandable as the audience for a black tragi-comedy about bestiality may be rather specialised.
When we first meet Martin (Damian Lewis) and Stevie (Sophie Okonedo), their affectionate banter has the flavour of Noel Coward about it, mundane matters of forgetfulness and old school ties.
Hints that not all might be well come with a mysterious business card and an even more mysterious smell, which Stevie detects on her husband. However his admission that he is in love with Sylvia, who is a goat, is only met with laughter and a joke about ‘the feed store’).
Martin’s friend Ross shows up to interview him, and finds him preoccupied. Sensing a juicy story about an affair he’s primed to listen, enjoying the details until a photo of the other woman is revealed. Yes, she is a goat.
Act Two is a moment of revelation, with wife and son incredulous at the news of the identity of ‘a certain Sylvia’. This is Okonedo’s star turn, quietly smashing plates and trying to fathom how her perfect marriage has collapsed (‘I’ve never been unfaithful, nor even with a cat.’).
Martin’s ‘epiphany’ when gazing in the eyes of Sylvia seems normal to him, and he displays obvious bewilderment about the other members of his animal-loving support group, with their regret about toying with pigs, geese and German Shepherds.
What starts as an uncomfortable black comedy slowly turns tragic, with the gay son of the house (Archie Madekwe) struggling to accept his perfect dad could do such things. His disturbance moves the plot into other taboo areas, briefly, but it is Okonedo’s final entrance and the killer punch concerning Sylvia which underlies the tragedy.
Lewis’ accent seems as vague as his character, but he pitches the role well, and the set design with expanding walls and breakable clay and sugar glass items sets the piece off perfectly.
This play isn’t for everyone – from the gasps in the theatre it hasn’t lost its power to shock, and the language is as ripe as you might imagine given the subject – but if you want something a bit different you might want to give this limited season (into early June) a try.
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816 posts
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Post by stefy69 on May 26, 2017 6:24:11 GMT
Saw this yesterday and loved it very black and very funny and very powerful too.
Standout for me was Sophie Okonedo, what a powerful actress she is.
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