76 posts
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Post by bingomatic on Nov 4, 2017 10:53:24 GMT
Hi
After a painful 2 hours (felt like 6) watching The Changeling 2 years ago I resolved never to return to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.
Until Romantics Anonymous turned up! So I'm going next week .. do they hire the cushions used in the Globe for the playhouse as well ? Should I take an inflatable cushion (any recommendations ? I'll need to buy one on Monday). Maybe a jumper ?
Any advise welcome, I don't fancy booking a physio appointment for the following day.
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1,504 posts
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Post by foxa on Nov 4, 2017 15:40:11 GMT
I didn't see any cushions that could be hired. Some people did roll up their coats and sit on those. If you can get a back row where you can lean back that really does help.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2017 15:51:52 GMT
Take yourself a cushion (put it in one of those tote bags so it looks less conspicuous) and don't sit down until the last possible minute. If you are the back row, have a bag or coat you can put behind you. If you aren't, do what you can to sit with best possible posture for the duration. (When I'm getting my eyebrows threaded, I pop a couple of painkillers before going in to keep the pain levels low. Is it worth trying something similar here?)
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1,351 posts
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Post by CG on the loose on Nov 4, 2017 15:54:35 GMT
The seats themselves are padded... is that new (yesterday was my first visit)? So additional cushioning only required for your back if sitting on the back row.
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19,803 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Nov 4, 2017 16:13:42 GMT
Any venue which requires this level of ‘adjustment’ from paying customers needs to rethink things.
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5,707 posts
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Post by lynette on Nov 4, 2017 16:16:27 GMT
Padded seats? How are they doing this? In single seats or as banquettes? Try to book an end so you can wriggle a bit. Have thick jumper and coat on to ease the way the bar cuts into your back if you are sitting where there is a back. I think baemax's idea of pre aneathesthising yourself is excellent, so either tablets or a good stiff drink. Otherwise there is nothing you can do. I am v reluctant to book anything there now and I wonder if it is a plot to eliminate older playgoers and get the youngsters in. Might they get a grant for that?
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1,119 posts
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Post by martin1965 on Nov 4, 2017 18:20:29 GMT
Padded seats? How are they doing this? In single seats or as banquettes? Try to book an end so you can wriggle a bit. Have thick jumper and coat on to ease the way the bar cuts into your back if you are sitting where there is a back. I think baemax's idea of pre aneathesthising yourself is excellent, so either tablets or a good stiff drink. Otherwise there is nothing you can do. I am v reluctant to book anything there now and I wonder if it is a plot to eliminate older playgoers and get the youngsters in. Might they get a grant for that? The awful programming might be a factor too L! |
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1,351 posts
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Post by CG on the loose on Nov 4, 2017 19:47:32 GMT
Padded seats? How are they doing this? In single seats or as banquettes? Try to book an end so you can wriggle a bit. Have thick jumper and coat on to ease the way the bar cuts into your back if you are sitting where there is a back. I think baemax's idea of pre aneathesthising yourself is excellent, so either tablets or a good stiff drink. Otherwise there is nothing you can do. I am v reluctant to book anything there now and I wonder if it is a plot to eliminate older playgoers and get the youngsters in. Might they get a grant for that? As banquettes - really quite comfy, no numb bum, just my back suffering a little from my own poor posture. Front row, so no 'bar cutting into your back' to cope with. |
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1,351 posts
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Post by CG on the loose on Nov 4, 2017 19:48:48 GMT
Padded seats? How are they doing this? In single seats or as banquettes? Try to book an end so you can wriggle a bit. Have thick jumper and coat on to ease the way the bar cuts into your back if you are sitting where there is a back. I think baemax's idea of pre aneathesthising yourself is excellent, so either tablets or a good stiff drink. Otherwise there is nothing you can do. I am v reluctant to book anything there now and I wonder if it is a plot to eliminate older playgoers and get the youngsters in. Might they get a grant for that? The awful programming might be a factor too L! Their current offering - Romantics Anonymous - is an absolute delight  |
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1,119 posts
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Post by martin1965 on Nov 4, 2017 20:21:23 GMT
The awful programming might be a factor too L! Their current offering - Romantics Anonymous - is an absolute delight It may well be but i was referring more generally to the past 2-3 seasons. The playhouse is a great opportunity for them to programme rhe neglected plays from the "jacobethan" period and they have failed thus far. Will be curious to see how the new AD does. |
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1,351 posts
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Post by CG on the loose on Nov 4, 2017 21:27:12 GMT
Their current offering - Romantics Anonymous - is an absolute delight It may well be but i was referring more generally to the past 2-3 seasons. The playhouse is a great opportunity for them to programme rhe neglected plays from the "jacobethan" period and they have failed thus far. Will be curious to see how the new AD does. Fair enough... I'm a newbie to the SWP and, in any case, easily pleased. If I leave a theatre with my heart singing, that's more than enough for me |
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Nov 4, 2017 22:46:39 GMT
The awful programming might be a factor too L! Their current offering - Romantics Anonymous - is an absolute delight Why are people being asked to suffer Elizabethan conditions to watch a modern musical though? |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2017 23:00:47 GMT
Why are people being asked to suffer Elizabethan conditions to watch a modern musical though? On the other night, EVERYONE leapt up at the end to give an immediate standing ovation. It seems that all the misery guts are boycotting the SWP and only nice people are attending now. There's no sense of the Elizabethan for this show. It feels more like a gorgeous, fully theatrical return for adults to their formative experience as primary school children huddled around a storyteller. GO SEE (if you're human). |
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Nov 4, 2017 23:23:00 GMT
Why are people being asked to suffer Elizabethan conditions to watch a modern musical though? On the other night, EVERYONE leapt up at the end to give an immediate standing ovation. It seems that all the misery guts are boycotting the SWP and only nice people are attending now. There's no sense of the Elizabethan for this show. It feels more like a gorgeous, fully theatrical return for adults to their formative experience as primary school children huddled around a storyteller. GO SEE (if you're human). So why stage it in an Elizabethan setting? |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2017 23:32:38 GMT
So why stage it in an Elizabethan setting? I was trying to explain that it has not been staged in an Elizabethan setting! The candelabra have all been removed so the lighting is entirely electric. The seats all have modern, bright red cushions. The theatre's permanent panelling has been integrated into the design. Only the positioning of the seats in this cod-Jacobethan playhouse remains. And, as I said, the effect in this show of this audience positioning is to wrap the audience around the luscious story being told and sung, in a similar way to a community gathered around the campfire, or a mass of children around a storyteller. Emma Rice has achieved a marvelous repurposing of the SWP as a sophisticated, modern folk-theatre. Come April, it will no doubt revert to being a cod-Elizabethan playhouse once more. But the magic will continue from now until the end of April! |
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19,803 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Nov 4, 2017 23:36:52 GMT
So why stage it in an Elizabethan setting? I was trying to explain that it has not been staged in an Elizabethan setting! It’s at the Globe. It’s in an Elizabethan setting. A few cushions doesn’t change that. |
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Post by Phantom of London on Nov 4, 2017 23:48:16 GMT
I hear they're going to stage Stephen Ward there.
Whilst he's there he can fix your lower back for you.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2017 23:54:52 GMT
The seats are now padded where originally they were (or seemed to be) bare wood, but I'm still taking my own cushion when I go.  |
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5,707 posts
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Post by lynette on Nov 5, 2017 0:03:03 GMT
The candelabra have gone? Wot? OMG. They get a unique selling point..and chuck it.
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Post by showgirl on Nov 5, 2017 5:33:08 GMT
Maybe everyone leapt up at the end not through enthusiasm but eagerness to escape what posters say is extremely uncomfortable seating?!
I have never visited this venue and am still keen to see this production but as I was unable to fit in a trip whilst the offer was available - and when, crucially, I would have been able to take advantage of advice above to book a seat with a wall to lean against - I will have to hope both to book via Todaytix (or similar) and to be allocated a not-too-uncomfortable seat.
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Post by kathryn on Nov 5, 2017 9:51:01 GMT
So why stage it in an Elizabethan setting? The candelabra have all been removed so the lighting is entirely electric. The seats all have modern, bright red cushions. The theatre's permanent panelling has been integrated into the design. Only the positioning of the seats in this cod-Jacobethan playhouse remains. And, as I said, the effect in this show of this audience positioning is to wrap the audience around the luscious story being told and sung, in a similar way to a community gathered around the campfire, or a mass of children around a storyteller. Emma Rice has achieved a marvelous repurposing of the SWP as a sophisticated, modern folk-theatre. Come April, it will no doubt revert to being a cod-Elizabethan playhouse once more. But the magic will continue from now until the end of April! They raised a hell of a lot of money to build a faithful reproduction of a Jacobean theatre. The company I work for donated £500k to the fund. We could have given that money to a lot of other very worthy causes. Repurposing it as a modern folk-theatre rather defeats the object. |
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76 posts
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Post by bingomatic on Nov 5, 2017 10:28:43 GMT
Thanks for the information. I hadn't realised they'd added padding to the seats. That's great news ! It really was uncomfortable when I last visited.
There can't be many theatres where the advice is 'pop a couple of painkillers and pack your own cushion'. However, I think I'll take a padded jacket and a tube of deep heat just in case.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2017 11:07:53 GMT
It's not the first time they've changed the basic gimmick of the theatre for a single production - ETT's 2015 (pre-Rice) touring production of The Odyssey used electric lights - and there's no reason it should be the last, if the occasional future production warrants it. One would hate to see any venue become truly stagnant by clinging furiously to a single cosmetic ideal for Every Single Production Without Exception, and while the candlelight may sort of be the point of the theatre, it's also a space that offers beauty, warmth, and intimacy.
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4,156 posts
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Post by kathryn on Nov 5, 2017 11:41:20 GMT
I still haven't been, I must admit. Too many reports of being very uncomfortable plus productions that haven't overly appealed and ticket prices that seem high. Thought I do have a colleague who is a proper fan and raves about it.
I just find crowing about changing the nature of the space a bit odd, since they went to so much trouble to create it. If they wanted a flexible modern space to experiment in they could have built one from the start, and I bet it would have cost a lot less and been a lot more comfortable as well!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2017 12:46:42 GMT
If they wanted a flexible modern space to experiment in they could have built one from the start Yes, but the present artistic director is now using what "they" wanted and built. As I say, it will revert at the end of April to academic discomfort and popular insignificance. |
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