|
Post by Coated on Feb 5, 2017 20:19:45 GMT
Simon Russell Beale at Woolf Works at the ROH on Thursday. Nice to see a thespian popping in for some dance.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Feb 5, 2017 20:13:23 GMT
Yup, I missed that too. Clearly on a mission to reduce my information intake. And how did you know that the pesky password demand nearly foiled my booking? I should remember resetting them before I start booking. Or *gasp* remember a gazillion random passwords...
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Feb 5, 2017 12:26:22 GMT
How did I miss this? Thanks to you delightful people I'm now in possession of a couple of monkey nests - severe case of booking regret averted
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Feb 1, 2017 1:15:28 GMT
Yup, and there's plenty of availability right now for the rest of the run in the £32 bracket as well. Still expensive, but I had to get one due to a previous Buffy addiction.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Feb 1, 2017 0:06:48 GMT
Hmm. I don't think I got on with Written On Skin. The orchestration is interesting, the singing was excellent and the vocal lines were pretty good for a modern opera. Sadly I thought the libretto was utter pants. Neither emotionally nor intellectually involving, nor surreal enough to take off on in that way. It needs a competent dramaturg and someone who mercilessly removes the issue sign posting throughout the piece. At times it really felt as if someone threw in yet another issue 'Oh hey, let's mention, like, war, or like lack of water'.
The set is a two story house that takes up the entire stage, a bit similar to 2 of her NT production. The staging is very static, with little to no movement by the main characters but a few randoms moving about in slow motion in the upstairs part of the set. There is the obligatory view blocking table at the front of the set (though the effect is destroyed by the orchestra pit and the set being relatively far back on stage).
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Jan 27, 2017 19:09:43 GMT
As much as I love Rory I'm unsure he'll shine in this particular part (judging by the bit they filmed for RSC's Shakespeare 400 last year) though I think AM Duff was born to play Lady M, she was perfect! Fully agree. Kinnear will play Kinnear, Duff will be the most fear-and-awesome Lady M. bit torn on whether I should book for Duff, or let it slide to save myself from sitting through another Kinnear.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Jan 27, 2017 14:25:10 GMT
Agree, that's an oddly terrifying article, with a nice sinister flavour added by the translation via Russian.
Makes we quite happy that I deleted my Facebook account years ago, but doubly concerned about adds all over Google which have long ago become creepy and might become even more so by the sound of this trend.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Jan 21, 2017 23:31:56 GMT
Hmmm, saw this tonight. I'll stick to this being the best McGregor I've seen, but my initial love of 'Becoming' might have been down to just having read Orlando and loving the novel. It really does have longeurs, though some of the dancing is pretty spectacular.
The other two pieces 'I now, I then' (Mrs Dalloway) and 'Tuesday' (The Waves and Woolf's suicide note) do work, and are at times even poignant - not something McGregor has achieved before or after Woolf Work, in my opinion anyway.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Jan 20, 2017 15:20:23 GMT
The Mariinsky Swan Lake is 15 shades of awesome. Yes, like many Russian productions there is a happy ending, but that's easily offset by the wonders that is their corps de ballet. I would sell a small, unused piece of my soul for a regular supply of Mariinsky Swan Lakes.
Whether you think the Mariinsky is better than the RB or ENB depends on what you like, but they definitely win on the classics and pure technique IMO.
Anna Karenina had mixed reviews when it came to London previously, their Don Q is a bit more restrained than the Bolshoi's over the top fun version (but still miles better than the current RB version). I love any Bayadere and theirs is lovely but I can't remember whether they still have children blacking up (less lovely) or whether that was the Bolshoi. Russia does seem to happily ignore the 21st century for a number of issues...
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Jan 20, 2017 15:06:06 GMT
Yup, enjoy. If you're in the Amphi, you'll get the full glory of the laser show as well.
The middle piece (based on Orlando) was my favourite. It had a whiff of German Disco, but in a good way - it was also the piece less beloved by ballet purist but I'm apparently a sucker for gold lamé costumes and glitterball effects, Osipova and Watson were fab in it.
Woolf Works is one of the very very few things by McGregor I actually like.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Dec 30, 2016 12:06:36 GMT
If you get a little bit bored by some of the scenes in the first half, don't worry - most people I know forget about the slower bits once the second half starts and I've not yet taken anyone who didn't enjoy or love the second half. This seems to apply to both the ENB and RB versions.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Dec 22, 2016 23:02:22 GMT
Merry Christmas and may you all get as many mince pies as your little hearts desire
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Dec 18, 2016 0:47:01 GMT
Will Self and Tom Stoppart at ROH Rosenkavalier. In the same week as an entire basket of luvvies at Maria Stuart, including David Hare.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Dec 14, 2016 0:23:20 GMT
I couldn't see the point of this unless I wanted to listen to a two hour whine of 'Mozart is better than me'. Really disliked the channeling of Nigel Kennedy as Mozart and thought the play has aged very badly.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Dec 14, 2016 0:05:12 GMT
I'm a bit baffled by this, mainly why no one ever encouraged Pinter to apply his witty word smithery to an interesting plot.
I rather enjoyed the performance, but would happily never see the play again.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Dec 13, 2016 23:56:43 GMT
Bourne does dance theatre / modern dance, not ballet. Guess that doesn't really matter, but it's a bit like calling Wicked an opera.
I'm seeing this tomorrow but haven't seen the film before, so I'll be reading up on the plot before going in - sounds like people who know the film get more out of the show.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Dec 10, 2016 14:01:58 GMT
(they'd be better of learning spelling!) *off....!!! If only Mama Bear and Papa Bear hadn't forced Baby Bear to watch endless pantos he'd be spelling with the best of them...
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Nov 25, 2016 12:40:34 GMT
Maybe we could just let the ladies have water. And the men can hold it for them so they don't make a noise with it Could we have a 'someone give that bear a slap' emoticon
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Nov 1, 2016 23:50:49 GMT
Royal Opera House by a long way, followed by NT, Sadler's Wells, Almeida, Barbican & RSC.
I have an online calendar for all of my tickets to avoid (mostly) double bookings. The event title has the location, company, name of show and number of tickets if more than one / initials of person coming along. Works pretty well and one day I might transfer it to some sort of spreadsheet. Maybe. If I remember what any of those shows were. Or who was in them.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Oct 30, 2016 18:50:43 GMT
New employee doesn't work out. Everybody has a grumble and moves on. The world does not end.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Oct 25, 2016 23:05:55 GMT
I felt slightly sullied watching this, like accidentally stumbling over the favourite wank fantasy of a righteous, slightly crusty Islingtonian. Unless it was written by a thirteen year old, in which case I take it back and award a solid B for the creative writing exercise.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Oct 20, 2016 19:30:07 GMT
Works fine using Firefox and Puffin browsers on an iPad (iOS 9). Chrome has recently released an update that broke a bunch of things for desktop browsers, maybe they have done the same for the iPad version.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Oct 18, 2016 22:36:35 GMT
Best Medea I ever saw was at Teatro Technis a few years ago, 4 actors on stage and 3 audience members, including me. I was surprised that they didn't cancel it and once they got going I completely forgot about anything other than the gripping drama unfolding on stage.
Clapping was a bit awkward though at the end, 3 people don't make a lot of noise and I felt the need to supplement my effort with a stupid sounding comment along the lines of 'thanks for performing' and then scooted out of the theatre as if hounded by furies.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Oct 12, 2016 21:40:48 GMT
I enjoyed Imogen a lot more than I thought I would, but I wish that directors could move on from the adidas-stripes-for-edgy-plebs trope.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Oct 8, 2016 10:09:54 GMT
I don't know whether I need to thank or curse you shady b***** for this thread. I just harmlessly watched a couple of the posted links and all of a sudden I'm working my way through season 1-7 on Netflix. I'll probably have to join Drag Queens Anonymous to overcome my addiction. *dramatic flounce*
Not sure that I like the 'winner kills a queen' elimination style of this all stars. It was a little fun at the beginning, but it seriously started to suck over the last couple of eps.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Sept 15, 2016 21:24:25 GMT
I was coming in here to read about cakes and now I feel slightly disturbed about accidentally observing an ursine mating ritual. Wonder whether David Attenborough ever felt intrusive when whispering about birds and bees, and possibly bears.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Sept 9, 2016 22:26:07 GMT
Wow, sounds like they might need to replace ushers with bouncers.
New one to me tonight: guy sitting next to me constantly chewed his fingernails so loudly, it was like sitting next to an agitated hamster. Dude must have hard nails as well to sustain that level of chewing, unless he was literally chewing his fingers off. Luckily we found a quieter place to sit for the second half.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Aug 29, 2016 8:28:56 GMT
I liked this well enough. An slight but enjoyable play with a tiny bit of a bite. I'm not likely to remember this in 10 years time, but if someone reminds me of it I'll probably smile and mumble something about "oh, yes, that French farce you shouldn't take a romantic or first date to see"
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Aug 21, 2016 20:30:01 GMT
After what seems like months of ballet and opera and no plays at all, I'm seeing 3 (hopefully proper) plays next week. 2 of the Young Chekhovs on Mon/Tue, Truth on Thu.
|
|
|
Post by Coated on Aug 20, 2016 11:09:49 GMT
She doesn't really stop talking, it's quite impressive.
Hope she puts her money where her mouths is and watches at least 10 plays a year that were rated an average of 2 stars or less....cause bad acting and storytelling don't matter as long as you enjoy it, which you won't know until you've watched (read) it...
|
|