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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2017 8:40:43 GMT
Saw this in Brighton last night. If you the following sounds fun do make sure u get yourself a ticket
-main character called Dick Willy
-all female characters GAGGING for sex with Barry from Eastenders
-the site of two men mistakingly thought to be engaging in homosexual acts (not once, not twice, not three times....)
If not then like me u will find this misogynistic, homophobic, badly written, even worse direction with a shoddy set and questionable acting, terribley terribley dated no matter how many (and after the homomphobia the recognition of words gets the biggest laughter) times u shout BREXIT, MAY, TRUMP, TWITTER all so f***ing depressing
However the audience, whom we were the youngest by at least 25 years, found it a hoot. Maybe I'm just a left wing liberal elitist and I should lighten up and embrace sh*tty comedy?
At the end they asked for us to donate to Brighton samaritans. The irony wasn't lost on me or my buddies
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Post by duncan on Mar 23, 2017 9:37:10 GMT
I booked for Glasgow about 6 weeks ago, so that looks a wise choice. Didn't know it was a Cooney, ah well.
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Post by Marwood on Mar 23, 2017 10:30:37 GMT
I saw this advertised when I was in Brighton a couple of weeks ago - what a cast : Barry from Eastenders, Chardonnay from Footballers Wives, Marlene from OFAH and the policeman from 'Allo 'Allo. Unfortunately I can't make it to Brighton while it is on, so thank you for wasting your money on seeing this Mrs. Lovett, thus saving mine.  |
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Post by wickedgrin on Mar 23, 2017 12:45:55 GMT
Going this afternoon! I love farce! This had a good run at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London with Donald Sinden and Michael Williams. Farce used to be a staple of the West End with No Sex Please We're British playing the Strand Theatre - now the Novello and Run For Your Wife - a very long run at the Criterion. Farce however, has just gone out of fashion.
This cast and production does seem very low rent however! Donald Sinden to Barry from EastEnders - says it all really.
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Post by theatremadness on Mar 23, 2017 13:18:03 GMT
Farce however, has just gone out of fashion. I'd very much argue the point that Mischief Theatre have certainly brought it back - and how! |
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Post by showgirl on Mar 23, 2017 13:48:05 GMT
I've never been a fan of farce but had my eye on this & booked once I'd seen just 2 of the many rave reviews. Only regret was being unable to catch it in Guildford, despite that stop on the tour including an unprecedented (for non-panto at that venue) 3 matinees in 7 days.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2017 14:26:58 GMT
Farce however, has just gone out of fashion. I'd very much argue the point that Mischief Theatre have certainly brought it back - and how! I'd argue that Mischief don't really trade in farce at all. I suppose Comedy About A Bank Robbery might qualify, but the Goes Wrongs are meta-farce, if we have to employ the F word at all. I rather feel they're their own thing though rather than saddling them with the weight of being associated with the likes of Feydeau and Cooney. |
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Post by theatremadness on Mar 23, 2017 14:46:11 GMT
I'd very much argue the point that Mischief Theatre have certainly brought it back - and how! I'd argue that Mischief don't really trade in farce at all. I suppose Comedy About A Bank Robbery might qualify, but the Goes Wrongs are meta-farce, if we have to employ the F word at all. I rather feel they're their own thing though rather than saddling them with the weight of being associated with the likes of Feydeau and Cooney. That's an interesting point - and indeed on Wikipedia (that font of all knowledge), they list Bank Robbery on the list of British farces, but neither of the Goes Wrong plays. Though when you just Google 'Farce', the "official" description is: "a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations.". Maybe not so much on the dramatic part, but I see even the Goes Wrong plays slotting into that description, meta-theatre or not! But totally understand your point entirely. In my head, they just come under the bracket of 'farce', as that's the easiest way I'd describe it to people who wanted to see it, but to whom 'meta-farce' would mean not much. But I guess farce covers a large area that I'm generalising for Mischief Theatre for the easiest way to describe their genre. I guess I, personally, just see them as farce for the 21st century, whose influences from (possibly) Cooney and very much John Cleese and, to an extent, Michael Frayn (is Noises Off like a half-meta-farce?) can't be denied. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2017 14:53:40 GMT
I suppose the issue for me is when I think of farce, I think of all the cringey examples of the genre I've seen that I just did not like at all. And I like Mischief, so I do try and distance them from farce in my mind. I suppose it's more likely that they're a contemporary example of a previously tired genre, and I should be separating them by era rather than a different genre all together?  (Noises Off is the Singin' In The Rain of farce - a beautiful example while also being a fabulous subversion.) |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2017 15:21:25 GMT
I've never been a fan of farce but had my eye on this & booked once I'd seen just 2 of the many rave reviews. Only regret was being unable to catch it in Guildford, despite that stop on the tour including an unprecedented (for non-panto at that venue) 3 matinees in 7 days. Raves? Where? Ray Cooneys twitter feed doesn't count |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2017 15:47:26 GMT
3* - the stage. Think they are being VERY kind
(Incidentally RC was there yesterday and he looks a good 20 years younger than his age. He's sat in N1 all week. He's a notorious notegiver.)
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2017 15:51:07 GMT
I've never been a fan of farce but had my eye on this & booked once I'd seen just 2 of the many rave reviews. Only regret was being unable to catch it in Guildford, despite that stop on the tour including an unprecedented (for non-panto at that venue) 3 matinees in 7 days. Also this only started this week so I think u may have been reading reviews for another production? (Reads like a) 3* - Telegraph |
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Post by Jan on Mar 23, 2017 16:11:14 GMT
Saw this in Brighton last night. If you the following sounds fun do make sure u get yourself a ticket -main character called Dick Willy -all female characters GAGGING for sex with Barry from Eastenders -the site of two men mistakingly thought to be engaging in homosexual acts (not once, not twice, not three times....) If not then like me u will find this misogynistic, homophobic, badly written, even worse direction with a shoddy set and questionable acting, terribley terribley dated no matter how many (and after the homomphobia the recognition of words gets the biggest laughter) times u shout BREXIT, MAY, TRUMP, TWITTER all so f***ing depressing However the audience, whom we were the youngest by at least 25 years, found it a hoot. Maybe I'm just a left wing liberal elitist and I should lighten up and embrace sh*tty comedy? At the end they asked for us to donate to Brighton samaritans. The irony wasn't lost on me or my buddies The fact they dared put this on for a Brighton audience is only slightly less preposterous than the fact they enjoyed it. Are you sure they weren't laughing ironically ? |
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Post by showgirl on Mar 23, 2017 18:02:05 GMT
Brighton was not the start of the tour - see my post re missing it at Guildford - this was earlier this month and, I believe, where it did begin.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2017 18:58:05 GMT
Brighton was not the start of the tour - see my post re missing it at Guildford - this was earlier this month and, I believe, where it did begin. Roger that. Do u have links to the raves? I'm astonished it got some |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2017 18:59:25 GMT
Saw this in Brighton last night. If you the following sounds fun do make sure u get yourself a ticket -main character called Dick Willy -all female characters GAGGING for sex with Barry from Eastenders -the site of two men mistakingly thought to be engaging in homosexual acts (not once, not twice, not three times....) If not then like me u will find this misogynistic, homophobic, badly written, even worse direction with a shoddy set and questionable acting, terribley terribley dated no matter how many (and after the homomphobia the recognition of words gets the biggest laughter) times u shout BREXIT, MAY, TRUMP, TWITTER all so f***ing depressing However the audience, whom we were the youngest by at least 25 years, found it a hoot. Maybe I'm just a left wing liberal elitist and I should lighten up and embrace sh*tty comedy? At the end they asked for us to donate to Brighton samaritans. The irony wasn't lost on me or my buddies The fact they dared put this on for a Brighton audience is only slightly less preposterous than the fact they enjoyed it. Are you sure they weren't laughing ironically ? Is there any other type of laughter in Brighton?! I think the crowd was of a certain age when this stuff was deemed edgy/cool/cutting edge? |
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Post by showgirl on Mar 23, 2017 19:31:01 GMT
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Post by hulmeman on Mar 23, 2017 19:47:21 GMT
Believe it or not, but Mr Cooney had another go at this play with a sequel "Two into One". I had the dubious pleasure of playing the hotel manager in it just last year. As much as I cringed at trotting out the lines, the audience loved it. They couldn't get enough Willey.
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Post by altamont on Mar 23, 2017 20:36:22 GMT
Believe it or not, but Mr Cooney had another go at this play with a sequel "Two into One". I had the dubious pleasure of playing the hotel manager in it just last year. As much as I cringed at trotting out the lines, the audience loved it. They couldn't get enough Willey. I remember seeing Two Into One in the 80's with Donald Sinden and Michael Williams. And I think I loved it then. Not sure what I would think now |
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Post by Tibidabo on Mar 23, 2017 21:17:37 GMT
Believe it or not, but Mr Cooney had another go at this play with a sequel "Two into One". I had the dubious pleasure of playing the hotel manager in it just last year. As much as I cringed at trotting out the lines, the audience loved it. They couldn't get enough Willey. *Peeps above parapet* Is this the right place for owning up to once playing Jean in Funny Money? 
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Post by hulmeman on Mar 23, 2017 21:36:23 GMT
Believe it or not, but Mr Cooney had another go at this play with a sequel "Two into One". I had the dubious pleasure of playing the hotel manager in it just last year. As much as I cringed at trotting out the lines, the audience loved it. They couldn't get enough Willey. *Peeps above parapet* Is this the right place for owning up to once playing Jean in Funny Money?
Own up away! It's an open confessional!!! |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2017 22:37:01 GMT
I was once in a yoof drama group and we went to see an am dram Run for Your Wife. Afterwards one of our group was really pissed off at the homophobia in it. He wud grow up to be......John Oliver! P
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2017 22:40:28 GMT
I was once in a yoof drama group and we went to see an am dram Run for Your Wife. Afterwards one of our group was really pissed off at the homophobia in it. He wud grow up to be......John Oliver! P Why haven't you posted About sexy ladies From The 80s And those dancing feet |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2017 23:00:09 GMT
I was once in a yoof drama group and we went to see an am dram Run for Your Wife. Afterwards one of our group was really pissed off at the homophobia in it. He wud grow up to be......John Oliver! P Why haven't you posted About sexy ladies From The 80s And those dancing feet I just want someone ONCE to acknowledge that I knew John Oliver as a kid. Anyway, iv posted on the Michael Douglas play |
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Post by wickedgrin on Mar 24, 2017 1:30:17 GMT
Oh dear...I should follow the adage of "if you've nothing good to say, say nothing at all" with this.
The play is just so dated - jokes and innuendo that were funny back in the 80's are simply quite offensive now. Just adding mentions of Teresa May and Donald Trump do not "update" it.
The whole production was third rate. A dreadful, cheap set that wobbled every time a door was slammed, supposedly a 4/5 star hotel that looked decidedly 2 star. No set dressing, starkly lit. A cast of TV names who were not up the job, it lacked pace - essential in farce - so the business appeared laboured and false. Several dropped cues and lines which slowed the pace further. Ray Cooney who was in attendance will have had plenty of notes to give the cast!
I felt sorry for James Holmes who had recently appeared at the Theatre Royal Brighton in the excellent Boys In The Band who was now in this!
The play ran out of steam half way through Act 2 where the plot convolutions simply ran out and the play ended abruptly simply because the hour was up!
Decidedly amateur! 1 Star!
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