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Post by bordeaux on Apr 20, 2017 8:26:02 GMT
Have just booked promenade tickets for this next April. And a couple of cheapies for the Bean/Marx/Kinnear opener. Exciting to see some pictures of how the inside of the theatre looks with seating and there are two different seating configurations for different plays, one very much a thrust, the other less so. Feeling quite optimistic about the whole thing, or at least wishing it well. Looking forward to seeing SRB as Bach. Less interested in novels adapted as plays, as I've said before.
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 19, 2017 9:11:45 GMT
The first three productions - on sale now
We're thrilled to announce that The Bridge will open in October with a new comedy, Young Marx, by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman, directed by Nicholas Hytner with Rory Kinnear in the title role. This is followed in January by Julius Caesar, staged in promenade by Nicholas Hytner, with Ben Whishaw as Brutus, David Morrissey as Mark Antony, Michelle Fairley as Cassius and David Calder as Caesar. Then in April comes a new play, Nightfall, by rising playwright and novelist Barney Norris, directed by Laurie Sansom. See below for some more information.
Future productions at The Bridge
From summer 2018, productions will include a new play by Lucinda Coxon based on the novel Alys, Always by Harriet Lane; a new play by Nina Raine about JS Bach, played by Simon Russell Beale; flatpack, a new play by John Hodge; The Black Cloud, a new play by Sam Holcroft from the novel by Fred Hoyle; and Carmen Havana, a version of Bizet’s opera by Lucy Prebble with choreography by Miguel Altunaga and directed by Nicholas Hytner.
Some pretty impressive stuff in there, I have to say.
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 12, 2017 12:59:46 GMT
I've just received an email from the Royal Court saying that the front row seats I've booked are now no longer front row seats as they are putting a row in front. Which means they may be selling those seats soon. Might be worth looking out for.
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 11, 2017 14:22:32 GMT
Lesley Manville was fantastic in it, Jeremy Irons less so, so would prefer someone else taking over. I must say I went in assuming I would agree with that but I thought Irons was just as good - it was the last weekend and he was thoroughly in control of the lines and the character. It made me long to see him in other roles - a shame Richard Eyre's already directed John Gabriel Borkman as he'd be ideal for that, as would Lesley Manville (in another role, of course).
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 5, 2017 15:42:58 GMT
I saw the NT production in 1991 - wasn't very funny but totally misplaced in the Olivier of course.
Was that the same one I saw? I saw Courtenay in Edinburgh, it was a touring production, but I can't remember where it originated from. It would have been about that time though.
It also had one of the women from the Liver Birds in it.
The NT Harpagon was Charles Kay. Directed by Stephen Pimlott, Jeremy Sams translation. I remember it being very funny.
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Post by bordeaux on Apr 4, 2017 7:40:05 GMT
According to Daniel Rosenthal's The National Theatre Story: The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria by Fernando Arrabal, Spanish writer. Play written 1967, produced at the NT 1971, 28 performances from 3rd Feb to 10th July. Translated by Jean Benedetti and directed by Victor Garcia under a guest director policy which had brought Ingmar Bergman over the year before to direct Maggie Smith in Hedda Gabler. Victor Garcia was Argentinian; the play a two-hander. Laurence Olivier told Hopkins 'I think it's a load of rubbish, but Ken (Tynan) is very keen on it'. Garcia directed via an interpreter. Rehearsals were a 'nightmare' for Hopkins. Dale objected to being asked to perform naked and on Olivier's instructions the actors over-ruled Garcia and jettisoned huge sections of the text and stage business to cut a four-hour dress rehearsal down to a two-hour press performance that still baffled the critics.
1971 seems to have been a very difficult time at the NT with a number of flops (Scofield's The Captain of Kopenick a rare hit) until they were saved by the famous Blakemore/Olivier Long Day's Journey late in the year.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 27, 2017 14:15:31 GMT
You wait years for a Molière revival and then two crap ones come at once... Let's hope the forthcoming Bristol Tobacco Factory Tartuffe shows us the way to do it.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 24, 2017 19:16:42 GMT
Thanks everyone - I'll keep my eyes peeled for Arcadia Is the Coast of Utopia worth dragging out? - not sure who could afford to stage it I saw it at the NT on a saturday trilogy and thought it was superb! Wasnt surprised when it swept the Tonys a couple of years later tho apparently Stopppard revised it for that production. Jumpers? Yea please SRB revival was 2003 so its due. I certainly enjoyed the Coast of Utopia but remember it getting respectful rather than rave reviews, whereas the New York production got raves - somehow the director and/or Stoppard had done something to it in the meantime.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 24, 2017 14:07:38 GMT
The lack of a revival may be because technology has rendered some of the issues in the newspaper world at the end of the 70s to do with production dated. It may also be because, I seem to remember from reading it, the print unions are one of the targets, and some theatre folk might not be keen on putting on an anti-union play - even it it's only an attack on how one union abused its power. A lot of the debate on newspaper ethics and responsibility would have a lot of contemporary relevance, though, I think. And during the Murdoch/News of the World hearings there were a lot of articles quoting the line 'I'm with you on the freedom of the press, it's the newspapers I can't stand'. Could well be. Might explain why Pravda isn't being revived too. But syphilis isn't really a burning issue today and we get loads of revivals of Ghosts. I think generally speaking theatre audiences understand that plays are written for their times and such relevance as there is to our times has to be found or imposed on a classic. Perhaps we have to wait for more historical perspective for these plays to be liberated from the stigma of irrelevance. True enough - though it might mean that syphilis is a more successful metaphor than whatever shenanigans the unions were involved in involving signing in to work in the late 70s. But you're right about historical perspective. I like that Alan Bennett phrase 'that remotest of periods, the recent past'. Sometimes when I am watching a revival of a 70s play, say, the sexism jars whereas one just accepts 19th or 17th century attitudes in those plays as being understandable.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 24, 2017 12:36:38 GMT
Arcadia, The Real Thing and Rock and Roll are the three I've enjoyed most. I agree Arcadia is probably the most intelligent out of those although the problem with some of his works occurs when inteeligence outpaces accessibility. I do have a weakness for The Real Inspector Hound as well, from his short plays. I saw Night and Day with the replacement cast, Maggie Smith (not a bad option to have on your bench) and Patrick Mower. Surprised it hasn't been revived yet. The lack of a revival may be because technology has rendered some of the issues in the newspaper world at the end of the 70s to do with production dated. It may also be because, I seem to remember from reading it, the print unions are one of the targets, and some theatre folk might not be keen on putting on an anti-union play - even it it's only an attack on how one union abused its power. A lot of the debate on newspaper ethics and responsibility would have a lot of contemporary relevance, though, I think. And during the Murdoch/News of the World hearings there were a lot of articles quoting the line 'I'm with you on the freedom of the press, it's the newspapers I can't stand'.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 24, 2017 10:15:10 GMT
Arcadia is the best, the one where he most brilliantly integrates ideas, comedy, character, emotion (a gradually developing and convincing love story - not many of them on the modern stage) and structure/plotting. The Real Thing is very good too, though the portrayal of the committed dramatist is a bit of a caricature - it is perfectly possible to be a left-wing playwright and care about language. Professional Foul, the late 70s TV play is also a great piece of work, but for some reason it's not available on DVD; it's the one about British academics going to a conference in Czechoslovakia and getting involved with dissidents and the English football team. The one I'd like to see which has never had a revival as far as I can make out is Night and Day about the press in the late 70s. Ripe for a Menier hit, I'd have thought. Diana Rigg and John Thaw in the original.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 20, 2017 12:00:20 GMT
We fully intended going up on stage but ended up with front rows seats with a perfect view - so we stayed there. It did strike me that you could be very lucky with your view from the stage but equally might miss a lot of what was happening. A very interesting idea though - it was good to be know you could stretch your legs if you needed to. I actually watched a bit of A+C from one of the screens in the lobby. Did they use the onstage seats idea for Kings of War? As others have said, A+C was the weak link - it really seemed to drag toward the end, whereas C and JC had been slick and action-packed. I wondered about the decision to have very light, almost jaunty music in the scene changes - it didn't seem appropriate. I also noticed Angus Wright in the audience. Ruth Wilson, Ian MacDiarmid, Rupert Goold and Kate Fleetwood, Simon Stephens too. Overall, a pleasingly young audience, I thought. Those last two sentences not linked by the way.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 20, 2017 10:09:39 GMT
I thought this was extraordinary, though I agree it's a shame the last 30 minutes of A and C are so dull, and the Enobarbus death was silly. Amazing acting as has been said, a wonderful atmosphere, utterly contemporary too. Standing ovation from everyone, for once completely justified. Bring on Ossessione, or whatever he's calling it.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 20, 2017 9:58:13 GMT
I had mixed feelings about this; the first half is very good, though even that takes a while to get going, but after Chinatown the last 45 minutes of the show I found somewhat dull. The use of multiple actors to narrate and play the role of Evans works (though, as Parsley said of Beware of Pity, I think, there is a lot of telling not showing), and the stuff with screens is clever. But even to this fan of 1970s cinema there is something curiously unmoving about it all - the only prickle behind my eyes was when the theme tunes of The Godfather and Chinatown came up.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 14, 2017 11:02:53 GMT
Have just listened to this a couple of times having not done so for a few years (the Nathan Lane version). It's vey enjoyable - and staggeringly prescient/relevant to our present moment, especially in the US. You will hear lines you won't believe weren't rewritten for the Trump era. Very much looking forward to it. Having just re-read the sleeve notes, I note it's not surprising it's so relevant as the first production was written for the Nixon era, the extended Nathan Lane version for the Bush/Iraq war era, and now it is being produced in the Trump era. Which raises the terrifying thought - given that decline in leaders - will the political situation when we get the next revival in 15 years' time be even worse than now with an even more ignorant President than Trump?!
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 13, 2017 9:12:24 GMT
Have just listened to this a couple of times having not done so for a few years (the Nathan Lane version). It's vey enjoyable - and staggeringly prescient/relevant to our present moment, especially in the US. You will hear lines you won't believe weren't rewritten for the Trump era. Very much looking forward to it.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 8, 2017 11:50:31 GMT
I suppose the real question, though, is which contemporary writers can write these big new plays that will sell out a mid-sized auditorium for two or three months at West End prices. Duncan Macmillan, Simon Stephens, Jessica Swale, Nick Payne, Daniel Kitson, James Graham, Lucy Kirkwood, Lucy Prebble, Lee Hall, David Greig, Richard Bean etc. Not all get a consistent chance to write big plays but that's economics, not ability. Some great names there, certainly, and I really hope Hytner enables some of them to write big plays. My worry is that the economics of an unsubsidised theatre are less favourable to ambition than those of, say, the National. All I ask for is (a) no adaptations of great films and (b) no adaptations of great novels.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 7, 2017 15:14:56 GMT
It got raves in Edinburgh; I'd love it to tour further.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 6, 2017 22:56:09 GMT
I suppose the real question, though, is which contemporary writers can write these big new plays that will sell out a mid-sized auditorium for two or three months at West End prices. Jez Butterworth, obviously, though he is otherwise engaged at the mo; McDonagh perhaps with the right cast; Hare probably has a couple of plays left in him but I can't see anyone else of his generation or that born in the 30s producing much more. There are probably a couple of Pulitzer and Tony winners that haven't made it over here yet. Stephen Adley Gurgis' latest, Between Riverside and Crazy, say, or Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, the original cast of which included Sigourney Weaver and David Hyde Pierce (now, that would sell out). I suppose if Tracey Letts did something as good as Osage County, or Bruce Norris something as good as Clybourne Park, you'd be talking. Slightly off-topic, does anyone know which August Wilson plays haven't been produced in this country? I'd love to see Norris do a couple of them at the National. I did notice the other day that Yasmina Reza has a new one on at the Schaubuehne in Berlin, called Bella Figura and directed by Thomas Ostermeier, an intriguing partnership.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 6, 2017 22:39:46 GMT
Didnt Jennings play Angelo at Stratford back in the 90s? Could see SRB as the Duke tho. He did. I don't recall him as being terribly convincing, though. He always strikes me as being too reasonable - he doesn't do inner darkness as well as SRB, say, who was a brilliant Iago.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 6, 2017 19:33:44 GMT
Some wonderful suggestions here. Perhaps SRB and Alex Jennings could alternate the father and the lawyer in The Winslow Boy...?! I must admit I'm not sure the world is crying out for another production of it. I've never seen The Critic, and it would certainly be in my top 10 would-most-like-to-see plays.
Angelo in Measure for Measure is another role I could have imagined SRB in a few years back but perhaps he's too old now, though I imagine John Shrapnel was a similar age when I saw him at the Barbican in 1989-90 (in Hytner's production with Josette Simon, Roger Allam as the Duke and Alex Jennings as a hilarious Lucio, my first sighting of him). Or can Angelo be any age? If Mercutio can...
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 6, 2017 13:17:26 GMT
He''s worked quite a lot away from the NT, with Grandage a few times and the Sam Mendes Bridge project, and Spamalot. I think he's wrong for Borkman, he should stick to comedy where he is at his best, some Moliere plays for example. School for Wives? Or The Miser; shame Griff RJ has got there first.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 6, 2017 11:11:21 GMT
Hasn't Alex Jennings done a lot more Hytner-directed productions than SRB has? And he must be due for a stage project again He has. Cassius?!
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 6, 2017 8:16:31 GMT
SRB must be praising the heavens that Hytner is finally opening his theatre. Without him, who employs SRB any more, save a random RSC outing? Bring on the SRB fest. What "major" roles do we think Hytner will be giving to SRB in his first few seasons? Of course it's supposed to be new writing mostly so there won't be many classic roles, but the first ones that occur to me are Cymbeline, John Gabriel Borkman, Jacques. He was in the last Michael Grandage season too of course.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 6, 2017 8:05:52 GMT
It's probably issues with the director... I imagine the Royal Court has shorter rehearsal periods than McBurney is used to. Certainly compared to the Schaubühne, his last outing. And Complicité shows tend to develop over several months.
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 5, 2017 22:37:44 GMT
David Morrissey confirmed on his radio show that he will be Marc Anton in this production. Looking better all the time! Come on, SRB, you know you want that title role...
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 4, 2017 20:52:29 GMT
Pleased about Racing Demon, my favourite Hare play, and delighted it will have David Haig in it. Pleased to see Henry Goodman coming back to Bath too. Can't see the point in a Lady in the Van revival; not much of a play and hasn't there just been a film? And what on earth is the point of adapting North by Northwest for the stage? It's perfection as it is. Who thinks they can equal Cary Grant?
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Post by bordeaux on Feb 28, 2017 20:01:51 GMT
Is the present NT cast completely different from the original New York cast? Or did some actors transfer to London? It's been recast once so why not again? I think this is about the most exciting and unexpected tour news for nearly ever. Yes, he often recasts plays, does the same play in different languages. This is an advert for Vu du Pont, still doing the rounds in France. All looks fascinatingly familiar. www.theatre-odeon.eu/fr/spectacles/vu-du-pontClick on En vidéo.
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Post by bordeaux on Feb 26, 2017 11:01:50 GMT
Its odd isnt it! You would think the usual Chichester patrons would expect to see "Ian McKellen as King Lear" the casting will be interesting. In his last go at RSC ten years ago, the prospect of the long world tour put actors off and La Barber apart it wasnt exactly star packed. Still the prospect of two months on the south ciast may sugar the pill! How about alternating with say Pennington or Stewart as Lear and Gloucester? Thanks for the tip. Not star packed ? Tell that to the John Hefferman fans here. Also Romona Garai and Monica Dolan. And the unbelievably irritating Sylvester McCoy.
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Post by bordeaux on Feb 25, 2017 10:25:23 GMT
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