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Post by lynette on Mar 26, 2018 18:29:44 GMT
Macbeth isn’t poor because of the Olivier location. Othello was amazing in the same space. We can prob all name a few other productions that were great in that space but it is tricky. It magnifies the faults and I agree entirely with Eyre's assessment of the seating. I can’t hear from the circle. Remember they miked Utopia thank goodness as I was sitting up there for that one all day and I’ve sat up there for other things and been unable to hear. I promise you my hearing is fine. The concrete is unforgiving.
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Post by Jan on Mar 27, 2018 6:00:55 GMT
Macbeth isn’t poor because of the Olivier location. Othello was amazing in the same space. We can prob all name a few other productions that were great in that space but it is tricky. It magnifies the faults and I agree entirely with Eyre's assessment of the seating. I can’t hear from the circle. Remember they miked Utopia thank goodness as I was sitting up there for that one all day and I’ve sat up there for other things and been unable to hear. I promise you my hearing is fine. The concrete is unforgiving. I believe it's always been miked. Initially it was from fixed microphones distributed around the stage. What Nunn did was put radio mikes on the actors - the actors protested about that based on artistic concerns (that control of their voices was being taken away from them in some way) and so they went to some type of fixed microphone system which continues now. One of the first productions in there was the Albert Finney "Hamlet". He said that the only spot from which you could really command the stage and connect with the entire audience was right in the centre so his performance consisted of him standing there and bawling his lines. Design is also a problem - it you have big bits of scenery on there it can muffle the sound and distract the audience - some of the best designs I've seen in there have somehow tried to continue the circle of the auditorium onto the stage - years ago the brilliant Peter Wood "The Rivals" and more recently the excellent Polly Findlay "Antigone". |
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Post by alexandra on Mar 27, 2018 6:40:04 GMT
"One of the first productions in there was the Albert Finney "Hamlet"."
Wasn't that only in the Lyttelton? That's where I saw it, and I don't remember it transferring. Finney was in the first production in the Olivier, but it was Tamburlaine the Great, which was huge and fantastic. Sorry to be a pedant. Those productions were what turned me on to theatre as a kid.
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Post by jasper on Mar 27, 2018 7:46:14 GMT
"One of the first productions in there was the Albert Finney "Hamlet"." Wasn't that only in the Lyttelton? That's where I saw it, and I don't remember it transferring. Finney was in the first production in the Olivier, but it was Tamburlaine the Great, which was huge and fantastic. Sorry to be a pedant. Those productions were what turned me on to theatre as a kid. I saw Finney's Hamlet in the Olivier. As I remember the National opened with only the Lyttelton, then the Olivier and finally the Cottesloe. Finney did Hamlet and Tamberlane in rep. Hamlet ran a long time and even went on tour while the Olivier was being finished. |
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Post by Jan on Mar 27, 2018 9:29:42 GMT
"One of the first productions in there was the Albert Finney "Hamlet"." Wasn't that only in the Lyttelton? That's where I saw it, and I don't remember it transferring. Finney was in the first production in the Olivier, but it was Tamburlaine the Great, which was huge and fantastic. Sorry to be a pedant. Those productions were what turned me on to theatre as a kid. Hamlet did play the Olivier (and Lyttelton) but you are right that in his comments about the Olivier he was talking about the Tamburlaine production, not Hamlet as I remembered. |
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2,389 posts
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Post by peggs on Mar 27, 2018 11:33:15 GMT
Oh I had thought mics a more recent thing but actually just visible mics on actors rather than fixed else where. Interesting.
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Post by Jan on Mar 27, 2018 12:00:54 GMT
Oh I had thought mics a more recent thing but actually just visible mics on actors rather than fixed else where. Interesting. Yes, I was talking about non-musicals, I guess in musicals the actors are always individually miked ? I think during the Nunn era Simon Russell-Beale was one of those who objected to radio mikes. |
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2,389 posts
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Post by peggs on Mar 27, 2018 13:53:14 GMT
I thought everyone used to just project a lot, I was very impressed in such a space that it didn't come across as shouty, foolish me. Have been at performances and I think at nt when they must have used mics on clothing rather than in hair and you'd get that horrible noise if one character embraced another and squashed the Mic.
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Post by Jan on Mar 27, 2018 14:55:22 GMT
I thought everyone used to just project a lot, I was very impressed in such a space that it didn't come across as shouty, foolish me. Have been at performances and I think at nt when they must have used mics on clothing rather than in hair and you'd get that horrible noise if one character embraced another and squashed the Mic. In one thing I saw directed by Hytner someone knocked into part of the set by mistake and there was a big booming sound, obviously they had unluckily hit one of the microphones. Even an old-style actor like Michael Bryant used to say he struggled to project to the back of the Olivier as the concrete was unforgiving, hence the amplification right from the start. |
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