The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui - Donmar

Started 10 mins late, run time 3hrs. Out at 10.45.

Big changes in the layout. Downstairs seating gone and replaced by tables and wooden chairs so action is in the round. Even the circle goes to 4 sides rather than 3.

Spent the first half with a grin on my face - very enjoyable performances and direction. Tom Edden steels several scenes from the prologue on. 2nd half darker, more violent.

There is quite a lot of audience participation - several individuals and collectively.

Overall it was in good shape for a first preview. Audience very enthusiastic.

I am really wanting to see this as it sounds very interesting but how easy is it to get klaxon tickets and how much are they?

I bought a Klaxon ticket the other day! You have to remember to be online around 10-15 minutes before midday and then you are allocated a random number in the queue when booking opens. I was 24th in the queue which went down quickly! All the stalls tickets were gone (or unavailable in the scheme) but got a front row side circle seat. I did not have any problem.

Loathe audience participation though! I am hoping I am safe in the circle!!

Downstairs various audience members are involved as a dead body, carriers of kerosene, defendant in a trial, etc. There is also one simple request for all audience activity right at the end. If you are downstairs, before it starts you might get to have a dance with some of the cast as the jazz plays in the Chicago club.

Thought I'd practice the Klaxon booking today. I'm planning to get two tickets either next week or the one afterwards.

Joined at 11.45 and started off at 150. By the time I got through what stall seats were available had already gone and remaining circle seats were nearing the extreme far side seats (I suppose those will be all right since this is in-the-round

Also noticed there are extra circle seats at the back of the stage. What are those bellboard27?

Does the pre-queue Klaxon webpage appear at 11.45 or earlier?

I got a Klaxon ticket, Circle second row side. I'm on the last seat of the row, so I can move once the play is started if I spot a better seat...

Not the dreaded audience participation ! Last time I saw any of that at the Donmar was Privacy.

That, however, was okay. I have my doubts about it this time.

Hope to see plenty of reassuring posts.

The audience participation in Privacy was part of the 'plot' as it were. And brilliant really. Though I didn't like the whole shebang. 

It is so inferior to the Henry Goodman version

It doesn't even seem like the same play

I too wasn't a big fan of this, though I feel like that might end up being a minority opinion. I suppose my main annoyances were:

1) It’s another example of what seems to be the emerging Donmar house style of assuming your audience is too stupid to get allusions if you don’t signpost them (literally in one case). It’s an incredibly timely play and I think we’re all smart enough to read that – there was no need to turn him into Arturo Trump. And if you’re going to turn him into Arturo Trump you have to do it better than this.

2) Audience participation – examples include people being brought up to pass stuff (so no speaking), someone being taken off stage to be shot and then brought in on a stretcher as a (shaking and giggling) corpse. I get that it’s Brechtian and I also get that part of this play is turning the audience into the passive, assenting public that lets dictators rise to power. It was still irritating, distracting and made me tense throughout the play.

At the end, the audience was asked to simply stand as part of the plot; the trouble is:

a – we are British and we hate that kind of thing
b – we’re not stupid and we know we’re being asked to be the passive, assenting public that lets dictators rise to power

The upshot being that we didn’t cooperate, apart from a few people. That created a very awkward situation in that the play was slightly derailed by it. So the actors shouted and threatened the audience for ages trying to get us to cooperate, including directing it at individuals in a way that started to feel like bullying (to me anyway). In the end, they gave up and pretending most of the audience was standing, and carried on. This was a preview so hopefully they’ll rethink it, if every night ends up like that.

3) I love this play but I have no prob with re-writes, versions of, inspired bys, new translations, etc. However the line ‘the bitch that bore him is in heat again’ is hugely powerful and incredibly relevant. If you’re going to cut it, you have to do better than ‘2016 was a sh*t year’. There were shades of the last two mins of Limehouse...

The audience was fairly warm at the curtain call so, as I said, I think this might be a minority opinion from a grumpy person!

Interestingly it didn’t feel long to me, whereas the Goodman production (which I loved and saw several times) did – perhaps because I was concentrating hard throughout, whereas this just washed over me. I wasn’t bored but I wasn’t gripped.

O hell. Sounds like the kind of thing I hate. They won't get me to stand at the end, honeybunch. But I have always wanted to see this play having missed it previously.