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Post by martin1965 on Mar 6, 2017 10:07:46 GMT
Wonder if anymore of the opening season will leak before the official unveiling next month?
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Post by profquatermass on Mar 6, 2017 10:39:42 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
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Post by Jan on Mar 6, 2017 10:40:31 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. 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. |
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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 martin1965 on Mar 6, 2017 11:27:05 GMT
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. 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? |
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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 Jan on Mar 6, 2017 13:44:47 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? Possible. How about Sheridan's "The Critic" ? Perfect for him and a role the major actors (Olivier, McKellen etc.) have played. The Shakespeare role he should have played is Richard II - too old now I suppose. |
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Post by profquatermass on Mar 6, 2017 17:15:46 GMT
Possible. How about Sheridan's "The Critic" ? Perfect for him and a role the major actors (Olivier, McKellen etc.) have played. The Shakespeare role he should have played is Richard II - too old now I suppose. He'd did Edward II which is the next best thing. Has he ever done any Coward or Rattigan? Either lead in the Winslow Boy would suit him Or he could advise Mrs Worthington not to put her daughter on the stage |
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Post by martin1965 on Mar 6, 2017 17:27:06 GMT
Possible. How about Sheridan's "The Critic" ? Perfect for him and a role the major actors (Olivier, McKellen etc.) have played. The Shakespeare role he should have played is Richard II - too old now I suppose. Yep think the R2 ship has sailed. Isnt the issue with Critic that it is short and has to be part of double bill? Guess finding the other play mat be the prob. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2017 17:30:53 GMT
Isnt the issue with Critic that it is short and has to be part of double bill? Guess finding the other play mat be the prob. Now, where did I put it? |
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Post by mallardo on Mar 6, 2017 17:35:55 GMT
SRB would be a wonderful Tattle in Congreve's Love For Love - didn't Olivier do it?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2017 17:40:00 GMT
SRB would be a wonderful Tattle in Congreve's Love For Love - didn't Olivier do it? Is it a small part? Olivier et al played small parts at the NT when it had a single company of actors appearing in several plays in repertore. But today's lead actors wouldn't do a small part now in a standalone show. |
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Post by Jan on Mar 6, 2017 18:05:33 GMT
Possible. How about Sheridan's "The Critic" ? Perfect for him and a role the major actors (Olivier, McKellen etc.) have played. The Shakespeare role he should have played is Richard II - too old now I suppose. He'd did Edward II which is the next best thing. Has he ever done any Coward or Rattigan? Either lead in the Winslow Boy would suit him Or he could advise Mrs Worthington not to put her daughter on the stage I saw him in Edward II. Quite an eyeful. |
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Post by Jan on Mar 6, 2017 18:30:00 GMT
Possible. How about Sheridan's "The Critic" ? Perfect for him and a role the major actors (Olivier, McKellen etc.) have played. The Shakespeare role he should have played is Richard II - too old now I suppose. Yep think the R2 ship has sailed. Isnt the issue with Critic that it is short and has to be part of double bill? Guess finding the other play mat be the prob. Olivier, typically flashy, paired it with Oedipus Rex. McKellen with TheReal Inspector Hound. McKellen was badly directed in The Critic and not much good. I'm sure Hytner could persuade Richard Bean to open his Carry On joke book again to pen a Modern Response to The Critic to pair with it |
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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 martin1965 on Mar 6, 2017 19:42:43 GMT
Didnt Jennings play Angelo at Stratford back in the 90s? Could see SRB as the Duke tho.
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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 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 martin1965 on Mar 7, 2017 6:26:14 GMT
Back on topic! To be honest dont think there are many current writers who would fill or nearly fill a biggish theatre. That new Reza play was written for that German ensemble, not even a sniff of any british theatre producing it. I hope the venture does well but im not 100% confident.
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Post by Jan on Mar 7, 2017 6:55:14 GMT
Back on topic! To be honest dont think there are many current writers who would fill or nearly fill a biggish theatre. That new Reza play was written for that German ensemble, not even a sniff of any british theatre producing it. I hope the venture does well but im not 100% confident. The writers who could guarantee to fill it are the obvious ones from the Hytner regime, Alan Bennett, Richard Bean, Tom Stoppard, the usual suspects. |
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Post by zahidf on Mar 7, 2017 8:41:19 GMT
Casting is more important surely? Big actor in a new play will sell the tics still.
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Post by Jan on Mar 7, 2017 9:12:16 GMT
Casting is more important surely? Big actor in a new play will sell the tics still. But it is a big theatre and a 3-month continuous run (apparently), it would need to be a mega-TV star or an American film star to sell the entire run purely on the actor - I remember when the Grandage/Dench "Madame de Sade" had tickets at all prices available towards the end of the run and they were both at the height of their popularity, Dench/Wishaw in "Peter and Alice" too I think. Spacey was in a few new play flops at the Old Vic too - I bet no-one remembers "National Anthems". |
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Post by profquatermass on Mar 7, 2017 11:44:21 GMT
I remember National Anthems and thinking it was perfect for the Donmar...
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Post by Deleted on Mar 7, 2017 14:26:07 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. |
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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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