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Post by crowblack on Feb 4, 2020 9:50:04 GMT
Vicky Pollard meets The Archers I don't agree - I really enjoyed this, more so looking back on it - but in her radio 4 interview she says Mumsnet was an inspiration.
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Post by crowblack on Feb 4, 2020 9:46:29 GMT
Just seen on twitter that Manchester's Home had 2nd the biggest audience for this in the UK, so there is obviously an appetite for it outside London! Cineworld responded to my tweet to say they're going to start screening it at more venues from Friday. .
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Post by crowblack on Feb 2, 2020 21:57:36 GMT
No, haven't even heard of them, except as adverts when I was a kid! The horror festival preview screening in Manchester a few weeks ago sold out immediately so there is an audience here waiting for it.
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Post by crowblack on Feb 2, 2020 19:19:59 GMT
I'm not reading your posts yet because I really want to see it, but it's hardly on anywhere outside London, which is surprising and annoying - the only place it's on in my entire region is one screen at the city centre arts cinema (also one of the most expensive). I think it's on in two in Manchester - as far as I can tell, searching Odeon, Cineworld sand Vue's national listings, that's only three screens in the whole of the NW! I saw someone I follow on Twitter saying it's only on in one - again, a pricey art cinema - in their town Cardiff.
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Post by crowblack on Feb 2, 2020 16:13:15 GMT
Given that the media jumped on him And online 'cancel culture' too. I've always liked him, and trusted J K Rowling's judgment when she stuck by him. I hope people are less quick to rush to judgment and boyvcotts in future (fat chance!)
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Post by crowblack on Feb 1, 2020 23:02:22 GMT
something clicked for me and I was fully on board I think for me his behaviour reminded me of some people quite close to home so I wasn't prepared to cut him any slack!
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Post by crowblack on Feb 1, 2020 21:30:42 GMT
there is a long tradition of Faust puppet plays If I had Matthew Sweet's 'theatre time machine', one of my stops would be to see whatever it was a very young Peter Lorre was doing with Richard Teschner's puppet theatre in Vienna. The images I've seen of the puppets themselves are quite stunning.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 31, 2020 22:41:13 GMT
I think Uncut Gems is out on Netflix tomorrow - my Twitter timeline has been raving about it for weeks so I'm curious. Well, I wasn't mad on it - I just found the lead so utterly unengaging and stupid I couldn't give a toss what happened to him. And quite what the wife or nubile young girlfriends see/saw in him is beyond me
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Post by crowblack on Jan 31, 2020 16:56:57 GMT
not 2 as was widely believed! Not that surprising though - the current season debuted in the same week as the prince Andrew interview which rather knocked the gloss off, and the image of 'the Firm' has sunk lower since then, I think.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 30, 2020 23:44:29 GMT
Yes, it's ok - if you like Grant Morrison-type comics it's very much in that vein, though tbh I've forgotten the plot already! I think Uncut Gems is out on Netflix tomorrow - my Twitter timeline has been raving about it for weeks so I'm curious.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 30, 2020 21:03:08 GMT
I've just seen this with a couple of friends and while they loved it, I absolutely hated it. I think it's the most disappointing misfire I've seen since a VVV Dark Matter, and, as with that play, I've enjoyed most of this writer/director's previous work. The Robbie Collins review (Radio 5, youtube) and Daily Beast pieces are pretty much how I felt about it, with the additional complaint that, in portraying the Nazis as a bunch of goofy, camp clowns (honestly, you wonder how the Resistance manage get themselves caught and killed by such a bunch of cartoon goons!) it bizarrely relies on lazy schoolyard stereotypes - two coded-gay buffoons (rather ignoring what the regime did to gays there!) and a dumb fat woman.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 29, 2020 23:11:02 GMT
Is the stage high for that? No, it's not high (just average?) and I think front row will maybe give you more legroom to shift around too - I think you'll be OK. I was in row C but I'm only 5'5" so was also having to peer around the person sitting in front of me (the seats in those rows aren't staggered).
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Post by crowblack on Jan 29, 2020 22:04:55 GMT
This running time is going to put a lot of people off Yes, it's too much for me - I had a neck injury as a kid and The Welkin from the cheap front seats was difficult.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 27, 2020 23:25:20 GMT
If you're quick, 2hrs 54 mins in on today's BBC Breakfast is Maxine Peake talking about the play - it goes off iplayer tomorrow morning though!
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Post by crowblack on Jan 27, 2020 17:02:58 GMT
it's a combination of timing, luck and contacts As opposed to talent, looks and charisma, of which he has none.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 26, 2020 14:30:42 GMT
It's being NT-Lived on May 21st x Yes, I'll defo see it again through that. It's messy and frustrating but, having slept on it, I did love it. There were a lot of unexpected similarities/parallels with Mosquitoes, a play which I really loved, though the friends I saw it with didn't: they found it too overstuffed, but I really enjoyed unpacking it, and I'm doing the same with this.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 26, 2020 13:38:30 GMT
Good interview with Kirkwood on Front Row (BBC sounds/iplayer, 17 Jan). I think this is going to be NT-Lived so I will try to see it again through that.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 26, 2020 10:42:52 GMT
I guess no changes will be made then, which is a pity. I saw Mosquitoes in a late preview and there had already been changes from the published text (as you'd expect). On a return visit a few weeks later in the run, end of August, I spotted Lucy Kirkwood in the building, and there had yet more changes - it played more obviously as a comedy - so it seems she goes on revising.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 25, 2020 23:39:25 GMT
Hey your spoiler doesn't seem to be working. I click to open it and nothing appears. fixed now!
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Post by crowblack on Jan 25, 2020 23:34:53 GMT
Hey your spoiler doesn't seem to be working. I click to open it and nothing appears. I just tried to fix it but am having problems!
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Post by crowblack on Jan 25, 2020 23:29:45 GMT
I saw it this afternoon too, and enjoyed it, but agree that there is a stronger play in here if only she'd make more cuts and reshape it. As it is, the detail and digressions and curlicues she's fond of, interesting though they are, dilute the power, and there are some really powerful scenes and images here - it's just that often they get buried. I also think, like Common, this would have worked much better staged in the Dorfman in the round, where we could really focus on the women. I really hated the set here - I felt it worked against the themes, language and characters, far too clinical and modern, like a minimalist kitchen or spa hotel, overwhelming the bodies of the characters. Btw, I wonder to what extent specific actors are sought out for the resonances their previous roles carry and plays shaped around that, and how this play would work with a different lead: Maxine Peake played Myra Hindley, to whom Sally's case and words clearly nod, and a somewhat similar role to the character she plays here, in Three Girls, with Ria Zmitrowicz as one of the girls
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Post by crowblack on Jan 23, 2020 11:09:27 GMT
Yes, Trafalgar Studios with the same cast. Do go - it's excellent!
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Post by crowblack on Jan 21, 2020 17:42:54 GMT
Great interview with Toby Jones in today's Guardian btw.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 21, 2020 15:58:00 GMT
I thought maybe the back wall of the set was the actual real back wall of the stage and they were using it like the Almeida sometimes does with their exposed brick back wall (does anyone know?)
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Post by crowblack on Jan 20, 2020 17:27:45 GMT
More seriously, it was slang for that down south too, when I were a lad. I think that's where I heard it (that, or London-set sitcoms). Maybe it's just one of those things where a word used here in an unexpected context makes it stick and you suddenly start noticing it, though "banging on about it" is the expression I'm more used to.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 20, 2020 9:56:48 GMT
Btw, I'm from the North and haven't been aware of people using the rather ugly expression "wang/wanging on". Now I'm suddenly noticing it all over my (very arts/theatre/writer) Twitter timeline. When did it replace "banging on/going on"? Wang was a rarely used word for cock when I was younger.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 20, 2020 9:50:24 GMT
it’s to highlight the anytime/everytime nature of the story and setting. But who has a fire door like that in a domestic/country house? There's an extinguisher too - last time I noticed one of them on stage was The Ferryman, which also used naked flame in a 'busy' set (lots of paper on stage in Vanya) in a Victorian (hard to exit) theatre. Post Grenfell maybe they are more cautious about covering doors with flammable materials, even supposedly 'safe' ones, and it's a very deep set (last things I saw there were shallower so it was probably hidden).
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Post by crowblack on Jan 19, 2020 15:02:07 GMT
Regarding the door, appreciate the sign has to be there, but I was thinking along the lines of a fake door running diagonally from the end of the wall at the side, so the actors exit through that and then have space to exit through the real door. If that makes sense! I wondered if it was an audience safety precaution? It's an old theatre and a production using candle flames so maybe in an emergency it's an identifiable escape route they might need to quickly flag up? Also, post Bataclan it's not just fires they have to think of, as the bag searches attest (I had my bags searched 4 times going into venues on Friday).
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Post by crowblack on Jan 19, 2020 12:33:32 GMT
when Ciaran Hinds rang his bell, the clapper flew off towards the side of the stage No, that's deliberate! I was surprised by the emergency door - health and safety because of the candles, and maybe painting it would compromise its fire resistance? I saw this on Friday evening and really enjoyed it. Toby Jones is superb, and all the cast are good. Maybe it could do with speeding up in places - I sensed a bit of audience fatigue towards the end, and no ovation on the night I went, which surprised me, but the audiences tend to skew older/richer there than the cheaper venues I'm used to so maybe that's how it is here. A lot of laughter too though. I saw it from the front of the circle (the restricted view seat) and it looked gorgeous - it's a really handsome production (production stills have been added to their website, if you're interested). I wish they could film this for TV.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 14, 2020 0:22:12 GMT
'Mainstream' TV is streets ahead of 'mainstream' cinema at the moment - most of the films on today's list could have been made 30 or 40 years ago.
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