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Post by bordeaux on Jan 30, 2017 13:22:47 GMT
When I read it I presumed that it was a not very subtle attack on Robert Icke, the director of The Red Barn and one highly influenced by contemporary European practice (Oresteia, Vanya, 1984 etc,). Possibly so. My assumption was he wrote the book before that production and so had made himself look foolish. Possibly he is pissed-off the staging is so complicated he can't transfer it to Broadway. His criticism of high-concept Shakespeare is misguided if the alternative is his own catastrophically inept production of King Lear at NT where actors in generic old-style clothes marched across an empty stage, said their lines at each other, and marched off again. It misses the point entirely to question what the Merchant of Venice characters are doing in Vegas - it's a metaphor and provides useful cultural markers, Sir David, we're not bothered "why" they're there. To be fair, it seems to be Sweet who is criticising the Las Vegas setting, not Hare. I don't think Hare would have any problems with the Icke staging of The Red Barn as it was played as written. What he dislikes is plays where a wholesale betrayal of the original goes on.
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Post by bordeaux on Jan 29, 2017 21:45:07 GMT
The Hour We Knew Nothing Of Each Other by Peter Handke in 2008 2009 Our Class about the massacre at Jedwabne.
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Post by bordeaux on Jan 28, 2017 21:50:36 GMT
Oh I am just kidding with Dvid Hare with so much of his stuff put on in the National, it seems he makes every artistic announcement, I heard a while ago that the National are interested in bringing Oslo over, so could come over to the National eventually or go direct into a West End house or not come over all together, time will tell. I know what you mean, but given that he's just done two somewhat below-par adaptations for the National, he can't complain. Though it's been a while since he created characters I had any interest in (Skylight, perhaps). His best work in recent years has been the stuff based on interviews/research - The Permanent Way and Stuff Happens.
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Post by bordeaux on Jan 28, 2017 12:00:51 GMT
By today's announcement David Hare must feel put out. Also no announcement of Oslo coming over. I'd not heard of Oslo, so thanks for that heads-up. Would be great to see Jennifer Ehle on London stage again. Not sure I understand the David Hare reference? Why should he feel put out?
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Post by bordeaux on Jan 27, 2017 10:32:04 GMT
Do you feel personally shunned by Denise Gough or something? No, because I saw PP&T in the Dorfman and it wasn't really my thing. Denise Gough doing manic kickettes irritated me. Most of the show's praise and success focused on her performance and she is being deployed in the production's American expedition. But the UK taxpayers outside London who fund the NT and Headlong (and Home, I think the new co-producer) are to be denied the key ingredient. True, but does anyone begrudge her the opportunity to shine on Broadway? And one hopes the NT will make some money out of it which will go back into more plays...
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Post by bordeaux on Jan 27, 2017 10:29:29 GMT
A warning for those considering going to see Pinocchio at Christmas; it's directed by John Tiffany who must bear at least some of the responsibility for The Twits (along with adapter Enda Walsh) at the Royal Court a couple of years ago, the worst children's show I've ever seen.
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Post by bordeaux on Jan 27, 2017 10:15:33 GMT
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Post by bordeaux on Jan 26, 2017 21:01:02 GMT
Yes don't we know the season already?! We do, but perhaps there are some gaps to fill?
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Post by bordeaux on Jan 22, 2017 20:54:31 GMT
Can other forum members be blocked? Does Parsley know where the theatre board bodies are buried or something? Why is he tolerated? Why should he not be tolerated? I rarely agree with him but I enjoy being provoked by his posts, he is often witty and always a stimulating read. He obviously cares about the theatre and he's right about actors making speeches at the end of plays.
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Post by bordeaux on Jan 19, 2017 17:02:31 GMT
That's a little unfair on the British theatre-going public, Jan. Maybe once a decade you get a bit of nudity. The only occasions I can recall in 30 years of theatre-going here are Hitchcock Blonde and (a top half in) Red Barn. Oh, and Bent. If you spent a fortnight going to the theatre in Germany you'd see more...
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Post by bordeaux on Jan 16, 2017 12:24:41 GMT
Yes, surprisingly easy. Now just have to keep fingers crossed that no one decides to get married on May 12th 2018...
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Post by bordeaux on Dec 4, 2016 21:54:32 GMT
It seems to be a once a year treat - Hapgood last year, for example.
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Post by bordeaux on Dec 4, 2016 20:59:35 GMT
It sounds great. I'm hoping, given that it is Emma Rice, that it will tour, rather less expensively, to the regions...
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Post by bordeaux on Dec 2, 2016 12:36:47 GMT
Did no one else see 1953, Craig Raine's version of Racine's Andromaque at the Almeida, perhaps 20 years ago? Great cast, great director, dead play. Enda Walsh's version of Dahl's The Twits last year was also pretty awful.
Of course given that I love or loved some of the suggestion of worst plays ever above (No Man's Land, Grief, Scenes from an Execution - I saw the Glenda Jackson production - it may be that some people love the above.
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Post by bordeaux on Nov 27, 2016 10:43:56 GMT
I'd love to see some more John Guare - Six Degrees of Separation can't be the only great thing he wrote. The amazing-sounding 'Four Baboons Adoring the Sun' and 'Bosoms and Neglect', anyone know if the plays live up to the titles?
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Post by bordeaux on Nov 27, 2016 10:41:08 GMT
Yes, there is presumably an interesting thesis to be written about why there wasn't a great play written in English between Sheridan's The Critic, 1779, and Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession, 1893. A hundred-year drought. Many of the Romantics had a go, but none of their plays has lasted. How about "Money" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton 1840 ? I'm not sure I'd describe it as 'great'. Very good, certainly, a very enjoyable evening at the theatre (the John Caird NT production with SRB, Roger Allam and others was wonderful).
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Post by bordeaux on Nov 25, 2016 21:34:26 GMT
Yes, there is presumably an interesting thesis to be written about why there wasn't a great play written in English between Sheridan's The Critic, 1779, and Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession, 1893. A hundred-year drought. Many of the Romantics had a go, but none of their plays has lasted.
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Post by bordeaux on Nov 23, 2016 10:09:56 GMT
I wonder if The Coast of Utopia will ever be revived, I suspect it would be something Chichester could consider Would be good. It got respectful reviews when it played in London at the NT, but raves in New York, I seem to recall. Either Stoppard, or the director, or both must have done something to it in the interim. I certainly remember David Hare singing its praises somewhere - have looked online but can't find the quote.
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Post by bordeaux on Nov 22, 2016 21:59:12 GMT
Tom Stoppard's version of Schnitzler entitled Undiscovered Country. And his (Stoppard's) farcical On the Razzle adapated from the same Nestroy play that gave us The Matchmaker.
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Post by bordeaux on Nov 22, 2016 8:12:27 GMT
The Father by Florian Zeller is a recent UK example. I don't know when or whether it's going to the US. It obviously pays to be translated by Christopher Hampton.
Wasn't Boeing Boeing originally French? Big success in the 60s, then with the Warchus/Rylance revival in both the UK and US.
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Post by bordeaux on Nov 21, 2016 21:16:00 GMT
Savages by Christopher Hampton (the one set in South America) Night and Day by Tom Stoppard in a double-bill with Hare/Brenton's Pravda Serious Money by Carol Churchill The Way of the World by William Congreve Athalie by Racine The Game of Love and Chance by Marivaux Egmont by Goethe Penthesilea by Kleist The Mayor of Zalamea by Calderon The Persians by Aeschylus
All, incidentally, plays I haven't seen except the Congreve.
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Post by bordeaux on Nov 16, 2016 11:48:48 GMT
The world-famous Gang of 4 who were key players in the Chinese Cultural Revolution, or our parochial little Gang of 4 of interest only to middle-aged liberals ? Let me guess ..... Well let's take a look at Paul Chahidi and see how Chinese he looks, eh. (Don't get me wrong, I understood your little dig, but the way you went about it is kind of ridiculous.) Don't know how much I'm feeling this season. The last Arturo Ui may have been three years ago but I still don't feel I need another one yet. And although Steve Waters is responsible for two of my favourite new plays ever (The Contingency Plan: On The Beach and Resilience), everything he's done since has just felt a little flat. Combined with the recently(ish) inflated ticket prices (£20 for row C of the circle for heaven's sake, and that's before the hefty ATG booking fee!), I might just see if I can get £10 Monday tickets for the whole season and if I don't, then it was not meant to be. Really? I thought Temple was very good - great casting among other things. But you only get a great cast if you write great parts. I'm sure there is an appetite for plays about UK politics - look at the success of This House - and there is a contemporary resonance here as the more centrist elements of the Labour party wonder whether to split or wait their turn again. And the balance between an idealism that strikes many as absurd and a pragmatism that strikes many as cynical is a big issue - on the right and left. I imagine they are hoping to get a big name for Owen. I can't help but notice a resemblance to Tom Hiddleston...
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Post by bordeaux on Nov 14, 2016 9:09:34 GMT
Yes, this is a superb show and deserves a future life somewhere. I am sure it will appeal to those who like dark, macabre musicals, fans of Shockheaded Peter or some of Kneehigh's work, say. Daniel Evans was in the audience on Saturday, so who knows? The Bristol Old Vic has had an amazing year what with this A Long Day's Journey into Night, The Rivals amongst other things.
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Post by bordeaux on Nov 11, 2016 12:35:39 GMT
Hmm. Sex With Strangers Upstairs, two new plays Downstairs (Experience and Scarlett). Not quite the exciting full season I'd've expected from the first post. Indeed. Surely 'exciting' is new plays by major playwrights, a return to the stage of a beloved major actor or two, perhaps a revival of a modern classic unjustifiably neglected?
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Post by bordeaux on Nov 10, 2016 11:13:23 GMT
The RSC says that this is their annual family show in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Apart from the novelty thrill of the holographic Ariel, how does The Tempest fare as a family show? Agree. I wouldn't take my family to it. I assume they've said it simply to increase audience numbers for this expensive production. Oh. I am taking my 12 and 10 year olds. I assume the play's been cut to some extent... Not that I'm worried, the elder one was rather taken with The Hollow Crown.
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Post by bordeaux on Nov 5, 2016 17:44:51 GMT
Isn't it Company that is ripe for revival? Wasn't the last major one the Mendes one at the Donmar in the early 90s? I could see Evans playing the lead in that.
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Post by bordeaux on Oct 31, 2016 20:21:24 GMT
Hampstead announcement on 11 November. Ooh, thanks for that info. Plus I don't think we know Menier and Donmar past mid to late Feb, do we? It's shaping up to be an expensive year.
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Post by bordeaux on Oct 31, 2016 15:03:48 GMT
I can't quite believe how much stuff I've got booked for the first half of next year already... and there's still a Hampstead announcement some time soon no doubt.
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Post by bordeaux on Oct 31, 2016 15:01:53 GMT
I saw him in the 90's in Absolute Turkey at the Savoy, I might even try to make the trip to Bath. It does say 'Prior to West End transfer' on the website/booklet, but of course it will be half the price (or two-thirds, anyway) in Bath.
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Post by bordeaux on Oct 31, 2016 11:42:21 GMT
As far as I can work out, this might be only the third new play Mendes has ever directed (though he's done a few new musicals). He directed something set in a tank at the end of his Donmar career and then David Hare's The Vertical Hour on Broadway.
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