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Post by theatremad on Nov 2, 2017 22:43:19 GMT
Just back from the first preview. Even allowing for first night problems I'm not sure this savable. Feels like Love's Labour's All at Sea to me, too much like the previous far superior productions {Specific problems}- No attempt at smiling at end of the letter scene
- Far far too much funny business during said scene from the 3 tricksters, totally ruins the letter
- Use of Rain it Raineth song far too much during the rest of the play
- Use of said song as a company wide Globesque jig at the end
- Orsino's court seems to be in mourning as much as Olivia's in look and feel |
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Post by oxfordsimon on Nov 2, 2017 22:51:16 GMT
If it doesn't feature naked buttocks during the yellow stockings scene, it is already well up on the previous RSC version. Malvolio would NEVER appear in a yellow jockstrap...
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Post by theatremad on Nov 2, 2017 23:59:59 GMT
If it doesn't feature naked buttocks during the yellow stockings scene, it is already well up on the previous RSC version. Malvolio would NEVER appear in a yellow jockstrap... Quite safe but wrong for other reasons. Sure this will be a marmite show with lots of people who love it, but for me it's got to radically rethink itself |
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Post by oxfordsimon on Nov 3, 2017 0:04:03 GMT
In many ways, it is a tricky comedy to get right - with the balance between slapstick, misplaced romance and cruel abuse tricky to achieve. I am not sure I am going to get to see it - but a shame if it has badly misfired. But it won't be the first time it has happened.
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Post by Jan on Nov 3, 2017 7:52:01 GMT
In many ways, it is a tricky comedy to get right - with the balance between slapstick, misplaced romance and cruel abuse tricky to achieve. I am not sure I am going to get to see it - but a shame if it has badly misfired. But it won't be the first time it has happened. Correct, the RSC has had numerous failures with this play - particularly bad was Sher playing Malvolio as a genuinely insane Greek Orthodox priest - during previews he realised it was a disaster but it was too late to do anything. Doran's with Richard Wilson was also an inexplicable total failure. Also the John Lithgow one. Trevor Nunn says it is an impossible play to cast in the theatre - but his film version was awful too. How was Adrian Edmondson ? He's not an actor at all really is he ? |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2017 8:45:40 GMT
Adrian Edmondson always set out to be an actor, and has got a reasonable amount of acting-acting under his belt since deciding that the comedy thing had been lovely but he was about done with it now.
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Post by moelhywel on Nov 3, 2017 11:02:08 GMT
I was also there last night and enjoyed it. It may not be the best version I've seen but within it's own parameters I think it works. I get the feeling that the RSC, having cast Kara Tointon and Adrian Edmondson, neither known for playing Shakespeare but very well known on TV, are hoping that people who wouldn't normally go to see a Shakespeare play will come to see this. It's a very populist approach and as near to a musical version you will get without actually turning it into a musical. There are two "new" songs in it which are alluded to in the play, Malvolio's "Please One and So Please All" and Feste's " Hey Robin, Jolly Robin". The original lyrics to these were discovered, familiar to Elizabethan audiences, and developed into fully-fledged musical numbers by Nigel Hess.
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Post by lynette on Nov 3, 2017 12:25:31 GMT
Not seeing this til Feb so it might be ok by then. 😳
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Post by martin1965 on Nov 3, 2017 17:46:21 GMT
In many ways, it is a tricky comedy to get right - with the balance between slapstick, misplaced romance and cruel abuse tricky to achieve. I am not sure I am going to get to see it - but a shame if it has badly misfired. But it won't be the first time it has happened. Correct, the RSC has had numerous failures with this play - particularly bad was Sher playing Malvolio as a genuinely insane Greek Orthodox priest - during previews he realised it was a disaster but it was too late to do anything. Doran's with Richard Wilson was also an inexplicable total failure. Also the John Lithgow one. Trevor Nunn says it is an impossible play to cast in the theatre - but his film version was awful too. How was Adrian Edmondson ? He's not an actor at all really is he ? I saw the "Sher" production at the Barbican when John Carlisle had taken over, it was one of the first rsc plays i ever saw but it was good. Lithgow was v good in a poor production, i only went to see him. Thr Briers one i saw at the Riverside directed by Branagh is prob still the best. Im going to this on 12th Night! |
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Post by Spectator on Nov 3, 2017 19:00:32 GMT
Adrian Edmondson always set out to be an actor, and has got a reasonable amount of acting-acting under his belt since deciding that the comedy thing had been lovely but he was about done with it now. Definitely. He was really good as a Soviet scientist in a dramatisation of the response to Chernobyl. |
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Post by oxfordsimon on Nov 3, 2017 19:04:23 GMT
I didn't Edmundson was poor in the BBC War and Peace - certainly a lot better than I expected.
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Post by bardophile on Nov 5, 2017 18:13:46 GMT
Oh my goodness I disagree! I saw the production on Thursday and again on Saturday - I thought it was joyous! I loved ade edmundson I felt he was the right degree of being funny rather than forced funny. I thought the music fitted well and added to a very light TN and the feste parts were particularly strong. Kara Tointon was very safe and focused on diction I think she will benefit from time and gaining security. Some of the blocking had been simplified on Saturday - notably viola’s ship had disappeared as had the errant potatoes! All in all I found it very festive and think alongside Christmas carol it will be a great fit.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2017 16:08:01 GMT
Thr Briers one i saw at the Riverside directed by Branagh is prob still the best. Im going to this on 12th Night! Me too! On both counts (although I sadly only saw the Briers on on telly - I had it on video for years and years.) |
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Post by Jan on Nov 9, 2017 16:22:36 GMT
Thr Briers one i saw at the Riverside directed by Branagh is prob still the best. Im going to this on 12th Night! Me too! On both counts (although I sadly only saw the Briers on on telly - I had it on video for years and years.) I’ve seen the play a lot of times but I think the Briers one was the only time it was set around Xmas (as this production is ?). Seems an obvious thing to do. |
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Post by lynette on Nov 9, 2017 16:32:59 GMT
Briers one was indeed v special. Saw it and then yes, got the video. Difficult to say why it was so good- the winter setting, the cast, the acceptance of the dark side? Anyway, fond memory. Looking forward to RSC's this season though having to wait til February.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2017 16:47:58 GMT
Briers one was indeed v special. Saw it and then yes, got the video. Difficult to say why it was so good- the winter setting, the cast, the acceptance of the dark side? Anyway, fond memory. Looking forward to RSC's this season though having to wait til February. Mine was taped off the telly (with very poor rural reception) and I watched that video to death! I remember loving Anton Lesser more than anything, he was just perfect. I loved the sadness and bleakness of the production - it wasn't very funny in my memory. |
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Post by Jan on Nov 9, 2017 16:54:09 GMT
Briers one was indeed v special. Saw it and then yes, got the video. Difficult to say why it was so good- the winter setting, the cast, the acceptance of the dark side? Anyway, fond memory. Looking forward to RSC's this season though having to wait til February. From what I remember (it was at the Riverside Studios wasn’t it) the stage area had no depth but was very wide, gave it a filmic quality. Anton Lesser at his best as Feste - I remember a moment where Feste realised long before anyone else, several scenes before the end, that Viola had a twin, a unique interpretation. |
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Post by lynette on Nov 9, 2017 16:58:22 GMT
Yes, I remember that. Anton Lesser wow what an actor.
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Post by Jan on Nov 9, 2017 17:09:06 GMT
Yes, I remember that. Anton Lesser wow what an actor. I saw Lesser play Hamlet around that time in the West End, Jonathan Miller production, set and costumes entirely monochrome. |
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Post by bordeaux on Nov 9, 2017 21:15:42 GMT
Yes, I remember that. Anton Lesser wow what an actor. Yes, gorgeous voice. I thoroughly recommend his poetry readings for Naxos audiobooks (and Aesop's fables for children): he and Simon Russell Beale share the duties on something called Popular Poetry, Popular Verse Vol 1. Great choice of classic poems including some interesting old-fashioned choices. His readings of Gray's Elegy in a Country Churchyard and Keats' Ode to a Nightingale are fabulous. Shame my copy is a cassette, otherwise I'd put it on in the car tomorrow. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 10, 2017 19:40:03 GMT
I have Anton Lesser reading all the Shardlake books on cd, he's wonderful.
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Post by theatremad on Dec 26, 2017 14:55:01 GMT
Very personal opinion alert.
Upstart CRow last night did a far better job of the play than this production without doing any of it
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Post by crabtree on Dec 26, 2017 23:49:35 GMT
I have a real love hate relationship with Upstart Crow, but laughed out loud several times last night, especially with the Love Actually reference round the bed, and then the rather special actress playing Queen Elizabeth. That whole scene was rather brilliant, especially the 'ginge'. And I adore Paula Wilcox and Lisa Tarbuck. It won me over last night.
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Post by martin1965 on Jan 6, 2018 20:04:51 GMT
Saw todays matinee. Thought it pretty good. With Edmondson and Tointon, it may get a WE transfer. Ensemble good, the late Victorian setting worked well i thought. Theatre was packed and enthusiastic response.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2018 21:09:19 GMT
Chichester and Haymarket?
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