Giant - Royal Court

Sounds like there'll be a few Theatreboarders there tonight! Is there a place to have a quick chat?

Glad to see some were succeessful this morning. Maybe suggests the mixed *professional* reviews are having some effect on demand.

I was unlucky today. Will try again next week

Not trying to be facetious but do you mean the reviews have encouraged or discouraged people from going?

Personally I think of the reviews that the wider general public read the only one that wouldn’t be that encouraging would be the Telegraph. All the other main papers were 4 or 5 stars (nobody reads the Stage except industry). So I’d think the majority of people who didn’t know much / anything a week ago who’ve since read something will have read something positive.

They sold out pretty quickly today (and the RC tweeted to say the phone lines were clogged and to stop calling if it was for tickets for this evening). 9 months ago the RC would have hardly believed that possible!

Needs to transfer ASAP. John Lithgow is one of the bests, utterly convincing. It's a really, really scary show.

I could anticipate the weight of this show for this season even by reading the blurb initially! Succeeds spectacularly and another hit for the RC and definitely still keeps it a hit above the rest presenting these kinds of works.

Very important moment, imo. The men had seen and done things few had.

At 23, 24, Dahl had sat completely alone in cockpits confronting death every day; sh*tting and pissing himself, shaking and weeping, and all the stuff no one talks about. Facing his own humanity. He killed 5 German pilots, at least. Technically a war ace. Of the 15 he joined up with, 5 survived.

He and the gardener were war comrades (different places, different ranks). I doubt they would have spoken about the specifics of what they did in the war anymore than they would the specifics of the issue in hand - certainly not about the people they had lost, had loved, killed. The bond is with those who shared the burden (and who quietly live with it after).

The gardener came from that pure place where you fight and die for what you believe in.

Imo, no matter how warped it might seem to contemporary opinion, Dahl likely felt a duty to be true to himself, knew the likely consequences of the course of action he'd chosen and, obliquely, sought reassurance from his bonded comrade before making the phone call.

After failing at 9am yesterday to get the £15 seats, I did a refresh at about 5pm and managed to get 2 great central stalls seats, so definitely recommend checking the website throughout the day for returns.

I thought this was absolutely fantastic, such sharp writing and excellent performances all round.

Pretty perfect actually.

All four actors should be nominated for awards, as should the play.

Look forward to it's inevitable transfer - thank god there's a new play to finally get excited about after a fairly tepid few months.

Thought this was completely superb at today's matinee - razor sharp script and really wonderful performances.

Was sat front row and directly in front of Lithgow for the phone conversation monologue towards the end of the play. I was completely mesmerised at how utterly spine-chilling he was. One of the great stage performances of the last decade.

And Ian McKellen was in the house in stalls Row E... nice to see him in good health and he seemed to enjoy it!

£15 ticket on the Noticeboard for tonight 7th October

We were also at the Saturday matinee and loved it. We were in Row A of the circle which were great seats to take this in. All the performances were terrific - it felt like a privilege to see John Lithgow's work - how he mines the monstrousness and humanity of the character. Rachel Stirling was perfect, I felt she entirely understood that woman. Elliott Levey (always excellent) and Romola Garai (following The Years with this is quite a feat) were so detailed and surprising - you didn't want to miss a thing that they did.

Also so great to see the Royal Court buzzing, after a couple of truly dismal years, this is a spectacular comeback.

Someone has given this one star in the poll?! Really?!!