Imperium - RSC

Alas, about 5 years too soon for me! Wonder if they've got a recording in the NT archive....

Anything likely to be popular at NT like Ant ‘n’ Cleo is priced commercially which only leaves stuff they put on for artistic reasons. This has the curious outcome that “difficult” plays are chosen for a scheme to expand theatre to new audiences. Travelex now is like some sort of punishment beating, wait till you see”Exit The King”

Plays the price of cinema ticket entice new punters in and then scare them off for life.

A Noises Off or Trainspotting at affordable prices for all wouldn’t harm the NT

The sad fact is these aren't great plays. Not dramatically anyway. The acting was only so-so when we saw these at Christmas, although a lot of the cast have bailed from doing the transfer.

The pricing is a form of insanity, especially if they aren't doing the normal trope of having them sky-high so that when they "discount" them on TKTS etc. the "savings" means they just become near regular top price.

I don't want the RSC to fail but they need to transfer their urgent, exciting plays, not these.

Saying that, do they have any urgent, exciting productions in their current/recent back catalogues?...

Indeed, and Delmac emailed me the same after I'd seen part 1, but £10 off is too little imo, given that it's all the more expensive seats which remain unsold - apart from the front row day seats and those at the back of the stalls.  Having kept a close eye on the site I can see the dynamic price changes but these only ever tweak the cost and rows covered of the cheaper seats.

I can't see him doing HV1. I think he recognises it's a bit...dull. Plus it's not on his list.
My money is on Measure for Measure. 
Love from a member of the website crashing fanbase. x

I really enjoyed this in Stratford, but I think a big part of that was being on the front row of the Swan, so the actors were right there swishing around right in front of me, spitting in our faces and brushing us with cloaks. I'm not sure it'd be the same in a more normal theatre.

If my Wetherspoons had more attractive men painted gold, I might go more often.

It's down to the ridiculous prices combined with the lack of star names. The RSC had similar difficulty shifting tickets for Much Ado / Love's Labour's Lost a couple of years ago which was much more crowd-friendly but similarly expensive

Richard McCabe is a fantastic, award-winning actor. People should be flocking for him (he also gave me Simon Russell Beale vibes in this) but it is too long, too expensive and put on at the wrong time of year. The weather is lovely, who wants to spend in the theatre.

The issue I had is that Part I is amazing but Part II is so lacklustre. The characters are underdeveloped and often portrayed by not very good actors, who thankfully are given the minimum to do in Part I. You barely see Cicero because by Part II he's living off the past glories of one and the staging isn't as epic as you would hope from a Roman drama. Part II first third is basically Shakespeare's Julius Caesar with the words changed. It is a shame because there are some great performances such as Peter De Jersey as Caesar, Eloise Secker as Claudia and Fluvia with Siobhan Redmond as long suffering Terentina. RSC needs to stop feeling like a doss house for actors who aren't quite up to the job (yet? ever?)

Well. Was it just me or did anyone else have to suppress the need to shout out "Lipschitz!" every time someone mentioned Cicero?

I only saw Part 1 but I thought it was a jolly day out for the most part. Someone needed to have taken a pair of scissors to the script though. There was a moment where I thought I'd step out of the theatre and discover that it was Sunday. Richard McCabe is marvellous and it's lovely that he obviously spent so much time taking notes at the Dame Sir Lord Simon Russell Beale School for Scene Stealing. He did more asides to the audience than Larry Grayson on an episode of 'The Generation Game', I thought it was a joy of a performance. Special mention to Joseph Kloska too who I thought was just smashing and he would have stolen the whole thing if it hadn't been for Nicholas Armfield's delightful Clodius who wasn't afraid to spend a good amount of time with his shirt off and Oliver Johnstone's lovely arms as Rufus. Nice to see Shona Spurtle getting some work after the sad demise of Air Scotia too.

I have to admit that it's got one of the most H.I.Larious endings to an act though. At the end of act 2 . .


I almost gave that a standing ovation.

Went to see this yesterday (both plays in one day). Richard McCabe was fantastic, as to be expected. He showed every side of Cicero - his charisma, arrogance, verve, wit, weakness and cowardice, all in one luminous performance. Joseph Kloska was a perfect as Tiro - warm, witty and wry, the perfect companion throughout the 7 hours of drama that unfolded. While I thought parts of the production were a bit old-fashioned and am dram, and there could be a lot of cutting (particularly in part 2 - the middle play is totally unnecessary) it was an enjoyable day all together. Agree that Joe Dixon was embarrassingly OTT in both of his parts. I cringed every time he spoke on stage. Hats off to Siobhan Redmond also who made her parts her own. 3.5 stars from me.