Common (NT)

I did leave at the intermission, mainly because the first half used up all my patience. It was way way way way too long and needs some fierce cutting and tightening up.

I'm seeing it again with a friend later in the run, and clearly didn't feel the need to know how the play ends on the day.

There's some rather good acting, a nice stage design (though perhaps that adds to the feeling of repetitiveness through its largely brown colour scheme) and a story that could be extremely topical. What happened with the commons then is happening in the modern job market now. Instead of giving way to sheep and being imported as factory fodder to the cities, people now are making way for automation and end up in service industry jobs if they're lucky.

I'm optimistic and hope that they really cut incisively to remove the bloat. If not, I don't think I'll manage the 2nd half at a later viewing. It's bad enough to sit 1hr 40 min for an entire play, it zaps my will to live if it's just for the first half. 

If he tells you he's "staying at home to prepare for Brexit negotiations" he's lying.

Just received this from the National:
Common: performance cancelled on Friday 2 June

With regret, we have taken the decision to cancel Friday's preview performance. Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused by this late change. Common is an ambitious and technically complex new play, and the company need additional time on stage to work on the production during the preview period.

Because the performance has been cancelled at short notice, we will automatically refund the cost of your tickets. If you would like to attend a performance later in the run, our Box Office will be happy to arrange tickets for you.

Please see dates and current availability for future performances here.

To book for a different performance please call the Box Office on 020 7452 3000 or email boxoffice@nationaltheatre.org.uk, including your preferred dates.

I booked a matinee in case this was long, but a 2.15 pm start is annoyingly early and if the first act is longer than some whole plays (I know it may be trimmed somewhat) and early reports are unfavourable, I may as well just ditch my ticket and take the £2 hit. It would have to be very good to be worth a prolonged session in the cheap seats but I'm not sure anything is worth 1 hour 40 mins for a single act. (And no, I did not book for Angels!)

I keep seeing Anne-Marie Duff in tedious productions at the NT, where she is stunning to watch. She must be doing it on purpose.

Ha! I must say, he could barely hide his glee.

I think this is code for 'the entire play is being re-written right now..'..

Indeed - see St Joan.  It's not as though I go for A-M D either, but her name and Cush Jumbo's made me think the work itself stood a fair chance of being decent or better.

Friday night's performance is cancelled. I got an email this afternoon

Just got home from seeing this tonight and I enjoyed it. I thought it was good and not as terrible as people have said it was. I did not really know what to expect but was willing to be openminded. I liked the staging of it and the direction was very good. I also liked the use of ensemble and the staging was good. The acting was also good but for me the script really let this down. Lots of what they were saying seemed a bit nonsensical and some of it got quite confusing but what annoyed me quite a bit was the amount of unnecessary swearing. It felt like it was just put there for no real reason and there are only a certain amount of times you can say the c word before it becomes a bit boring and a cheap laugh. Other that the actual script the rest of the production is quite good. Some others moments that were a bit odd included the not very real guts, stuffed toy dog, urination and weird crow animatronics.
All the cast were very good and Anne Marie duff good leading lady as well as some other good characters but thought Cush Jumna could have had a bigger part.
Overall I feel it is quite a good production of a not as good play



hust now I have looked at people's review on to edit ame they have all given it one star, yes it is not the best play but I have see worse. The points they make are valid and I agree with things they say but this is by far not a one star show ,maybe I am just being optimistic about the show. I wonder what they will be changing as they have canclled tommorows preview, 

I saw it today. 2 hours 45 mins.

It was very odd, most of it didnt work, but anne marie duff was very good, and i thought her character was fascinating. Its got potential, with some reworking i think

It's a strange experience watching a show that's about to be shut down for a day in order to... what? Fix it? One inevitably sits there wondering just what's going to change. It can't be a set issue. There's nothing technically challenging in that department. It must be about cuts and revisions. But it seems already to have been cut. It came in at 2.45 - a welcome 15 minutes less than expected. As for revisions, where to begin?

First of all, it's not a play about enclosures, the fencing off of common land by the landowning elites in order to consolidate their own hold on property and drive the peasantry into the cities to become grist for the Industrial Revolution's mills. That's all there but, really, it's a backdrop, a dramatic and violent setting for the main story which is a kind of She-Demon's Progress featuring a fascinating but bewildering creature called Mary (or is it Catherine?) returning home from London with plans for redemption and revenge. Mary is played by Anne-Marie Duff and she is so watchable - she is our hostess as well as our leading lady, chatting to the audience and telling us her plans like a female Iago - and interesting in herself that we might almost overlook the fact that she's in a play not quite worthy of her.

I used the word Demon because others in the play call her that and there seems to be something to it. She knows things she couldn't know - she's taken to be a fortune teller by some, and with reason - and there's a kind of magic to her that (without giving too much away) renders her virtually unstoppable. The magic element hangs over the whole play, a kind of Wicker Man thing, pagan rituals playing out in a world of superstition, brought to the surface by the turmoil and social upheaval. Mary is part of that but something more. She is also the Modern (in 1809) Woman. A woman using her brains and her willpower and her sexuality to extract what she wants from life - especially from men.

In fact, she has little use for men. She has come back to the downtrodden countryside to hook up once again with her half-sister (Cush Jumbo) and take her away from all this. That is her quest and the plot, such as it is, is how she goes about it. Ms Jumbo is excellent, btw, and the scenes between the two ladies crackle. But there are complications. There is a brother - incest is in the air - and there is also the feckless local Lord (Tim McMullan), hopeless at dealing with peasants, leaving the dirty work up to his brutal enforcer (Trevor Fox). McMullan is terrific, as always, but one wonders what there is about the part that made him want to play it.

So it goes. It's written by DC Moore in what passes for early 19th century jargon which makes it not always easy to follow, especially the case with a contingent of Irish labourers brought in to build the enclosure fences. One must pay very close attention which, in this case, is wearying.

And if Ms Duff is fascinating, as noted, she is also inscrutable. We can't, in truth, believe anything she says - her actions, at times, belie what she says - so we can't empathize, can't make a connection to her. At the end it all feels unresolved and the question becomes... so what, really, was the point?