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Post by bordeaux on May 14, 2024 5:47:41 GMT
Exciting news. Haven't seen it for nearly 30 years. Matthew Warchus directing. Presumably he's not moving on, though, and is just doing a West End gig?
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Post by bordeaux on May 8, 2024 19:11:20 GMT
I'd love to see John Adams' Doctor Atomic, as I don't think that's ever had a revival since is 2009 UK premiere. I've no idea why. Given the conventionality of the ROH season it would be nice to have a couple of rarities in there too.
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Post by bordeaux on May 3, 2024 19:32:05 GMT
Saw an article for this. Headline uses that word 'reimagined'. All we see these days is 'reimagined'. Can people find other words, please, and can some directors stop 'reimagining' and just give us what the dramatist intended? Yes, it reminds me of a quote I read recently from Kenneth Tynan decades ago railing against the demand that theatre be 'relevant'. As he said, what narcissism it is to think that all plays should be about us. They're not - they're about other people, in other situations at other times. One reason we got to art, surely, is that we want to engage imaginatively with people who are not us, who are not like us, whose lives and experiences are very different. I want to know what it feels like to be a provincial Russian at the end of the 19th century, to be a young man growing into kinghood, a young woman on the Regency marriage market. Now sometimes a reimagining can be great, and so can a production which aims to put on stage as much of the original play as possible - I loved both Ostermeier's Enemy of the People and Nunn's Uncle Vanya. It all depends on the quality of the work. But you've really got to be good to muck around with a great classic. And I suspect that most of us are more interested in Chekov or Ibsen's mind than that of any contemporary reimaginer.
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 30, 2024 21:45:39 GMT
As someone who hasn't been much to Covent Garden in recent years (living out of London, children at home) and now able to go more, I do think there are some solid attractive revivals of operas I haven't seen for ages - Jenufa, Faust, Il Trovatore and others. It is a safe programme with no major thrills, though. I would like to have seen Deborah Warner back after her superb Wozzeck last year. Intrigued by the Bernstein and the Telemann. When do we hear about ENO, I wonder - it was more mid-May last year.
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 29, 2024 19:34:06 GMT
9.30 am tomorrow, it would appear from their Twitter feed.
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 25, 2024 9:21:12 GMT
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 21, 2024 17:04:33 GMT
The Bath Theatre Royal, hilariously, offers £1.00 off for over 60s, the same ludicrously stingy discount it offers students, under-16s and the unwaged!
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 21, 2024 14:41:54 GMT
Last year the new season was announced on April 26th which suggests it might be this week.... Saw the Lucia di Lammermoor last Friday: Katie Mitchell's production, revived, absolutely superb with astonishing singing from all three main roles. After a year (2023) in which I saw only 20th and 21st century opera, all excellent, it was nice to get back to some fabulous tunes and unashamedly gorgeous bel canto singing!
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 18, 2024 15:35:25 GMT
One thing I would have liked in the programme is a list of the music used. I noted Marriage of Figaro overture, something from the Four Seasons (Vivaldi's not Frankie Valli's). Anyone know what else was used?
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 18, 2024 8:28:58 GMT
I loved this too - amazing performance and direction/concept. I'd like to see more of Kip Williams' work if this is what he's capable of. I did worry in the opening 10 minutes that they were just sending the book up (deliberately over-acting the male-ness and the selr-regard, for example) but as the use of technology gets more and more brilliant and entertaining and thought-provoking, any initial doubts were swept away. The great thing about screens and mikes of course is that it is perfectly ok being in the middle of the Upper Circle, as I was, and everything is clear as a bell. I was perfectly happy to have spent more than I would normally spend on a ticket.
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 16, 2024 17:41:27 GMT
I notice that Bérénice has already been in Milan, Paris - where someone in the audience shouted out 'Speak up'- and New York where the New York Times described it as being crushed by Huppert's star power.
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 16, 2024 8:20:05 GMT
For anyone interested in Isabelle Huppert, she is performing this at the same festival, and presumably elsewhere: a monologue based on Racine's Bérénice, directed by Romeo Castelucci, very big name in European theatre circles, none of whose work has been seen in the UK, as far as I am aware. I must admit, I'd just rather see Bérénice done straight... www.ruhrtriennale.de/en/programme/berenice/133
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 15, 2024 10:32:21 GMT
.... will be interesting to see what else they do with the Bridge in its programming - hopefully more musicals like this! It is a pity that a producing theatre like The Bridge has run a single show for 22 months even though it obviously makes commercial sense. When Hytner/Starr launched The Bridge they said there would be 4 or 5 new productions each year. Their new Kings Cross theatre will also now not open till late 2026 at the earliest (converting from the Lightroom). Giant with John Lithgow which Hytner is directing at the Royal Court was actually a Bridge commission which has now had to go elsewhere. It probably makes very good sense and means that they will be able to do more of other things they want to do in coming years whilst other theatres struggle. The brutal truth is that there aren't enough great new plays out there for them to put on four a year in an auditorium that size. Indeed, have they put on any great new plays? I've enjoyed two or three of them but the great productions they've put on have been the Shakespeares: the Midsummer Night's Dream and Julius Caesar.
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 14, 2024 9:24:16 GMT
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Racism
Apr 12, 2024 12:22:15 GMT
Post by bordeaux on Apr 12, 2024 12:22:15 GMT
Breathtaking rudeness on Twitter/X about Francesca's casting. I hope she is shielding herself from it. The comments are absolutely shocking and racial abuse must not be tolerated. BUT…… It is worth discussing the current trend of black/white couple casting in the West End? I can name over ten recent shows where the lead love interests have been cast this way. In theory I couldn’t care less - but why is it never an Asian performer? Latino? Never a black performer with Indian heritage? Someone from Central Asia? It’s not. Ever. Should demographic of society be a benchmark of socially acceptable casting? A lot of performers say the same to me but daren’t mention it - an exceptional Japanese performers I know hardly works. Why are there hardly ever any Asian/black couples? Why are plus size characters in musical often now mostly played by women of colour? Are Asian performers ever used outside Miss Saigon/King and I/Pacific Overtures? The balance is not there - West End casting is often full of agenda and politics. Is this post BLM? Social guilt? Or is the West End spot on? I actually find the West End is obsessed with horrible LGBT stereotypes, it frowns upon certain UK regional accents, is xenophobic towards countries like Russia (while being pro Palestinian - where does this leave Israel) and ultimately BAME casting isn’t equal at all. People aren’t often racist - they are bored with identity politics. I hope you don’t all mind me sharing my views. Interesting. In what way is the West End xenophobic to countries like Russia and in what way is it pro-Palestinian?
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 12, 2024 12:17:18 GMT
Good stuff - thanks! War Horse to the NT? The tour hits London start of September. That’s the current plan I believe? It might have changed so don’t quote me. An adaptation of ‘ballet shoes’ for Christmas. The importance of being earnest too, with a very starry cast… Any hint of directors for Antigone and Importance?
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 11, 2024 23:26:04 GMT
Run-time is exactly two hours. I enjoyed this a lot. The performances are all first-rate and the atmosphere suitably Pinteresque, with language used as power games.
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 11, 2024 23:23:22 GMT
I loved this. Dark and funny and lots to think about, especially for someone, like me, who teaches German and loves Germany. Mostly horrible characters, but mostly believable with a couple of comic villains thrown in.
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 11, 2024 23:14:43 GMT
What a mess this is. I can't think what persuaded me to book so far in advance and spend that amount of money!
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 5, 2024 9:52:11 GMT
And both those productions are directed by Oliver Mears so they should be along soon...
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 5, 2024 8:17:04 GMT
I know there's been talk of guns/weapons used in this production but are there any loud gunshots or noises? Yes there are. Running time 3 hours 50 last night. I wouldn't have wanted it a moment shorter. I loved this. It has been superbly adapted by Icke and the updating works very well. I found it took me 20-30 minutes to feel fully immersed (though that may be the usual getting used to Shakespeare's language thing) but when I was in, I was in. McKellen is outstanding, as you would expect, funny and contemptible when he needs to be. Toheeb Jimoh confirms the promise he showed in the Almeida Romeo and Juliet last year. Good acting all the way down (Robin Soans as Justice Shallow, for example), though I think the northern accents for the northern rebel lords are a mistake - they sound in most cases like southerners putting them on. Perfect theatre day for me yesterday: Chekhov in the afternoon, Shakespeare in the evening (and John Singer Sargent in the morning!).
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 5, 2024 8:05:50 GMT
This is excellent, even with a stand-in for Vanya reading the script, James Lance being ill. They drafted in the impressive Pete Ashmore who was the son in The Circle there last year and on tour. I loved pretty much everything about it - Nunn's adaptation, the direction, every member of the cast and the feeling that here was a great play which the director wanted to bring to us without any buggering about with it. It certainly bears comparison with the great Vanyas I've seen (Blakemore/Gambon, Mitchell/Dillane and Mendes/SRB), though with a cast who were mostly unknown to me. I look forward to seeing what Andrew Richardson and Madeleine Grey do in future. And I'd love Nunn to keep going with this sort of thing - rather than new plays directed by his mates.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 28, 2024 9:40:11 GMT
I thought this was excellent from beginning to end. Reminiscent of other works about dictatorial bureaucracies - I thought of Vaclav Havel and Ismail Kadare - but also very funny and cleverly structured. I don't want to give any more away than that. I was pleased to have read so many wildly differing opinions on this site, so my expectations were lowered before going in.
If you wanted to be critical you could argue that this play costs Sam Holcroft nothing - there is no risk as she is writing about free speech issues that don't relate to this country; the fit is more with totalitarian regimes as they existed in eastern Europe before 1989 or perhaps with the Arab world now (see programme note by Lebanese author), Russia and China. If she'd wanted to create a challenging play about free speech issues in the west, she could have written about the hounding out of university jobs of professors who are gender critical feminists, say, or something like the Rushdie affair or something else involving Muslim protest. We all know what side we are in Holcroft's play; no one is going to be offended or outraged by her message.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 28, 2024 9:13:10 GMT
I thought this was tremendous. The updating, both by Duncan Macmillan and Thomas Ostermeier, worked for me - this seemed a highly plausible situation with believable characters and dilemmas. The town hall bit did drag a little - the brutal truth is that people in the audience have less of interest to say than Ibsen or Macmillan do - but I liked the way it returned to the real drama at the end.
I've seen the play twice before - an excellent David Thacker production of the Arthur Miller version at the Young Vic with Tom Wilkinson in the late 80s and the rather overblown one (too much going on on stage, too many bystanders) which Trevor Nunn did with Ian McKellen at the start of his NT tenure. I'd love to see Ostermeier do more - I missed the Hamlet and Richard III when they were over here.
Good to have read the mix of positive and negative reviews here before going - it means one's expectations are tempered and I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 26, 2024 17:44:54 GMT
Is there more to be announced? Yes, a couple more things - but they've got ages!
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 26, 2024 15:44:25 GMT
Worth pointing out that this is summer 2025! Exciting news, though.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 22, 2024 20:56:08 GMT
A couple more things announced for the Deborah Warner Ustinov season, though no play. In late June, early July a new dance piece from Kim Brandstrup, Echo and Narcissus. Then late July Catherine Wyn-Rogers singing Bach's Ich habe genug and other sacred songs. I must admit I'd like to see Warner direct a play there again.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 21, 2024 13:01:10 GMT
The same production will be at Bristol Old Vic, Malvern and Royal and Derngate, Northampton.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 20, 2024 21:17:38 GMT
I think he and Hytner could do a very good job with the Merry Wives of Windsor.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 20, 2024 21:14:46 GMT
I'd like them to bring back the Enescu Oedipe, which I didn't see first time round (2016) - it would mean a nice trio of Oedipuses next year. It's probably too soon to see the John Adams Antony and Cleopatra which I think will be at the Met next year. I'd like to see Barrie Kosky direct something again.
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