661 posts
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Post by Oleanna on Apr 16, 2016 16:06:15 GMT
Absolutely hated this. The theatre is too big for such an intimate play. The production was good if a bit overblown (set moving etc.) music completely inappropriate.
Spall is giving one hell of an over-the-top;, hammy, performance. Not genuine at all.
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2,065 posts
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Post by Marwood on Apr 17, 2016 10:25:36 GMT
I liked this a lot, can see why some people might dislike Spall's performance but I thought moments of this were sublime (the smoking jacket, Mays speech about the hospital, and Spall eating the cheese sandwich (he seemed to be trying extra hard not to burst into laughter/choke while eating it) all sticking in my memory. Yes it was long and not a lot really happens, but it didn't drag at all. I was sat row E in the stalls and had a great view of proceedings, not sure if I'd enjoyed it as much sat back row of the stalls or up top (especially in the bit in the dark) though.
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2 posts
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Post by cazzle on Apr 17, 2016 20:29:20 GMT
I liked this a lot, can see why some people might dislike Spall's performance but I thought moments of this were sublime (the smoking jacket, Mays speech about the hospital, and Spall eating the cheese sandwich (he seemed to be trying extra hard not to burst into laughter/choke while eating it) all sticking in my memory. Yes it was long and not a lot really happens, but it didn't drag at all. I was sat row E in the stalls and had a great view of proceedings, not sure if I'd enjoyed it as much sat back row of the stalls or up top (especially in the bit in the dark) though. I saw this yesterday and loved it..... actually loved Spall's performance. As for seating l was in in a box to the right of the stage looking head on.... ticket was £30 and have to say fantastic view and very close up..... would definitely have this seat again for any performance, plenty of leg room, bag room etc . |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2016 18:40:55 GMT
Thoroughly enjoyed all three performances in this today. Loved the set too. They managed to shave fifteen minutes off the 3h10 published time, although we could have managed without the two intervals as others have stated.
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98 posts
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Post by stanne on Apr 28, 2016 18:44:42 GMT
Completely agree with other posters that all three performances are excellent. The running time for the matinee last Saturday was about 2h hours 50 minutes, much to my surprise, and the time absolutely flew past.
Didn't even object to the 2 intervals!
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2,342 posts
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Post by theglenbucklaird on May 1, 2016 9:08:41 GMT
The hardest play I have ever had to score. The Caretaker is my favourite play, ever, but I was not a fan of this version. So am I scoring this as a version of the Caretaker or as a trip to the theatre. Still confused so I sat on the fence and gave it three stars. Which is about right isn't it?
I am a big fan of Daniel Mays and thought he was excellent as usual. I loved the slow delivery of his speech, and the limp. And his take on the lobotomy speech was good. Loved the lighting getting lower during this part leaving just the spotlight on Aston. I think it was Mays performance that earnt the show it's three stars.
I wasn't a fan of Spall and Mackay. And why were they asked to use those squeaky voices? Saw the Jonathan Pryce version and he was a vastly superior Davies. I didn't think Mackay was menacing enough to play Mick. He didn't exude menace to me, maybe due to squeaky voice.
I liked the bag swap scene, thought this was done very well as an attempt to show the power struggle happening but I didn't like much of the direction like playing the show for laughs. Audience laughed at lots of moments I had never considered funny before but this was maybe due to the actors speaking in stupid voices. Even a laugh during Aston's monologue after '...but I didn't die. Anyway I feel much better now'??!!?
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1,510 posts
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Post by Steve on May 14, 2016 23:20:22 GMT
Finally got around to seeing this at today's matinee, and was lucky the actors were present (still galled I missed the Kathryn Hunter Cyrano at Southwark due to her indisposition on that play's final day), and I thought this was terrific! The play itself is a masterpiece, and this was a powerful rendering of it. The use of words as weapons, and blanking someone as a defense to that weaponry, was done here exquisitely, accounting for the long running time. The faster the delivery of words, the more power they contained, with George MacKay's Mick spraying words like a machine gun, Timothy Spalls' Davies firing them off like a repeating rifle, and Daniel May's Aston slowly slogging his way through every syllable of every sentence, a mere musket of a man. Daniel Mays' electroshocked hair reminded me of the "Bride of Frankenstein," but in May's Aston's limping lurching hunchbacked gait, I saw Frankenstein's Creature himself, creation of the medical experiment which crippled him, his sensitivity remininiscent of the lumbering Creature at it's most gentle. For me, Timothy Spall's Davies seemed like a more nascent version of Frankenstein's Creature, primitive unruly selfish action, perpetrated purely to fulfil bodily needs. No other Davies I have seen has been quite as brutish and as physical as Spall, with David Bradley being typically cunning, and Jonathan Pryce's slyly grinning fiend of a Davies being the most intelligent and sadistic. Spall, by contrast, never enjoys the pain he inflicts on Aston, the primitive impetus for elevating his status only ever located in the comfort of his feet, his body, his stomach. Spall's performance is bigger than those of Bradley and Pryce, which were in the smaller spaces of the Tricycle and the Trafalgar, partly because he must fill the cavernous Old Vic, but also because he is less a sly scheming thinker, and more of an instinctive flailing beast. There was a beauty in the tragedy of these two wrecked men, Davies and Aston, trying to make themselves more wholly human, at the unnecessary expense of each other. Although the smashing of a Buddhist peace doll was a bit on the nose as a metaphor for the intractability of man's inhumaity to man, these two wonderful actors did so much to make me believe, that my heart broke along with the doll. I'm very glad I caught this. It was wonderful. 4 and a half stars.  |
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