All About Eve - Noel Coward Theatre

It was pretty much exactly 2 hours last Friday.

Slips in the Grand Circle or Balcony?  They've been 'upgrading' people in the middle grand circle slips because the view is so bad (at least they're listening!).  My friend was upgraded to the second row stalls. When I went on Weds they moved me to the slips on the opposite side (couldn’t really see the point in that!). The most entertaining bit was watching them explain to people that they’d ‘upgraded’ them from the grand circle to the balcony (a central seat on the balcony rather than the slips of the grand circle). The four people I saw given balcony seats clearly did not feel like it was an upgrade!! (to be fair they hadn’t seen the view at that point). I think the grand circle slips are OK for what you pay, a good part of the stage is obscured but you can see the screen/s without any problem.

What, someone's liver grinding to a halt?!

Very much enjoyed it - though the Van Hove wizardry is not as seamless as it was in Network. But Anderson & James are superb. I was Row E of the gallery (literally the back of the theatre) and did feel quite disconnected, which was exacerbateed by the nutters around me and an old lady thrashing around and leaning forward so vigorously I thought she was going to launch herself off the edge. I would love to go again and try for day seats on Row B.

I have just noticed that the top premium seats have now gone from £150 to £175.

In the dayseat queue for today.
Arrived at 7:45, only one person in front of me.
Now it's 8:25 we are 8 people in the queue not sure there is a chance for people coming after

I will echo EmiCardiff on this. Didn’t move me at all but I found it intellectually interesting and overall very enjoyable. Part of it might be that I find the story that women are in competition with each other to be very old fashioned, and this did nothing to refresh, update or offer a different angle on it. Part of me wonders what Marianne Elliot might do with it (but I wonder that about a lot of things these days.)

I did love Gillian Anderson’s wardrobe. That dress at the end looked like it was made of golden mercury. I enjoyed the split-screen effect with live theatre and live video, but I couldn’t help think that this could have been more tightly integrated if the sound of the party had been audible instead of the music, which I found a bit intrusive at times. Having seen Tortured yesterday, I felt the same about much of the use of music there. It has a sort of alienation effect on me as I can’t stop thinking about how difficult it must be to keep a pre-recorded score in synch. Maybe someone who knows more about these things can enlighten me?

I thought Network was more successful, more layered. Not sure if that might be because it was my first time seeing an Ivo Van Hove production, maybe it gets played out very quickly?

Having watched this tonight, I’ve got mixed feelings about this production. While I enjoyed the performances (Gillian Anderson playing drunk was a definite highlight) from the entire cast on stage, there was something about its staging that just didn’t sit right for me. For me the use of the high tech Ivan Van Hove used here just seemed out of place for the production.

When I watched Network at the NT last year, I was blown away by its staging and what Van Hove created on stage. Though the high tech approach suited Network down to a T being set in a news room and all the creative camera work both on stage and behind the scenes really was great to watch unfold. In All About Eve, I don’t think employing the same techniques were as effective and at times was a distraction. Ok, there were moments I was impressed (e,g the ageing of characters), but overall having seen the majority of the same techniques previously, I was less impressed. My view with using a high tech approach is that it has to aid the plot moving forward, and here it didn’t unfortunately. Maybe if I this had been my first Van Hove production in this style I might have been more impressed. 



I’m in total agreement with your thoughts about the music.  At first I thought there was something wrong with the sound system, but after a few minutes I realised it was part of the production.  The undercurrent of music really was annoying when I was trying to listen to the cast.

Overall, I’m glad I got to see this production and got my money’s worth this evening, I just think a stripped back approach may have been better and more effective in delivering the plot. Just because you can go high tech, doesn’t mean you should. In this case less may have been more effective as in the case of Come From Away.

But doesn't anyone else find this type of underscoring, from van Hove especially, kind of patronising to its audience?

You should be feeling this now.

The stakes have just raised and I'm going to make sure you know this.

Whereas actually, a lot of the time, it just takes us out of the piece going "is that music/a repetitive drum beat? etc"

There's a saying that if you can hear underscoring or music, the designer hasn't done their job.

It does point to a controlling director though, wanting the audience to make sure they know what the director wants. I don't think this is Tom or PJ's fault though. They're merely following Van Hove's instructions and wants.

Van Hove's worst example of this was the video montage at the end of Network. Although I'm not sure many realised that by cheering, then booing, that they were aware how caught up they were in the system the play describes. In this way, Van Hove both wanted to give the audience a realisation, but at the same time one that was unnecessary: we'd just spent 2 hours understanding it.

His music and sound design instructions in Eve point towards this way of thinking about the audience once more. And it's just annoying.

I thought Gillian was excellent in this. brought a depth to the role which can easily be glossed over. Lily James- hmm. Not so much. she can handle the wet thing but I didn't really buy the flip. Loved Stanley T and Monica was the saving grace although I don't think that Rashan and her were cast well together. She just felt far too clever and astute to fall for him in the first place, when he's obviously a weak willed individual. Got so bored by the video stuff though- all very like goold's six characters but they at least went next door to Les mis!