Translations (The Nash)

First preview last night. Look forward to hearing reports. I hope, for the NT, they don't have another Olivier flop on their hands. But can't help thinking this isn't the right venue for the play...

It seems to be selling very heavily with some dates sold out. Its a wonderful play with a superb cast, so as long as the production can adapt to the demands of the Olivier it should be fine. It has however only played intimate venues like Hampstead, The Cottesloe and The Donmar in London before but it gets bigger productions at The Abbey. Its such a big play with such big ideas and themes it should hopefully work. There is plenty suggested offstage in the text such as Ballybeg village, the potato fields and the soldiers camp etc that perhaps Ian Rickson and Rae Smith will evoke these to use the big space. Would be lovely to see Mr. Friel have two London hits this summer with Aristocrats at the Donmar also.

Some returns up on the site now - I've just grabbed a £15 row c one for press night which is great because with a 7pm start I can scamper off for the night bus home. I had booked a date in July but it clashed with a college reunion and I was thinking I wouldn't be able to see it because there are so few matinees.

First time ever posting a review so be kind and take what I say with a grain of salt.
I completed my six day London trip by seeing the first preview of Translations on Tuesday.
Entering the Olivier I encountered the ugliest set I ever witnessed in this venue. Three
quarters of the stage consist of scrubby rolling fields and the front quarter comprises
the muddy pit of the hedge school. There is a staircase stage right that leads to living quarters.
Friel's writing needs intimacy and that is what is lost in such a large venue. You get no sense of
the poetry and beauty of the dialogue. The acting is a mixed bag at the moment. Some are able to
project with clarity and emotion and others seem like they are mumbling. I realize it was a first preview
and some of these issues will work themselves out in time but I fear the venue will be the biggest
obstacle. Hope I am proved wrong by other board members that are smarter and more astute than me.

Good on you for posting your first review siteseer, fortunately smartness or being astute are not board requirements or I would not be able to say 'oh is that what it meant' so regularly. Hopefully the cast will bed in, the venue more of a stumbling block.

140min plus interval

Thanks siteseer for your first review - very interesting!

This is a play which I have read but never seen, so am really looking forward to it.  But if they've messed it up - eek!  The rehearsal photos look good (but of course, are intimate photos of the actors, so we don't get a sense of the set, etc.)

Well, for those fearing the worst, the play survives just about, in Ian Rickson's production.

It does feel like something is missing at the moment though. A drive, and power, a charge pulling us through the entire play to its (oddly abrupt) conclusion.

At the moment, a sluggish first half never really lands, although the second begins to give us the investments we so long for with the characters. It is annoying slightly that when we finally do feel onboard with everyone and events, it ends. Lights. Bows. Leaving the audience tonight wondering if a third act was missing as we left.

Rickson has added his own coda to the text, which we felt worked quite well, if a little Ivo-van-Hove-End-of-Network "Have you understood what I've been trying to say with this production?" to it.

For the Colin Morgan fans (steps back) he acquits himself well, but he isn't as great as he could be. And we don't think he'll get "there" by Wednesday's press night. There was something lacking in him, as though he cold act each thought but couldn't tie them all together. As a result, his character arc, which is quite substantial, feels a little flat, and fails to build to anything.

Dermot Crowley's Jimmy and Judith Roddy's Maire are the definite stand outs. The rest do well.

Weirdly the star of the show, for all the fears mentioned by other board members about the space, is the set and lighting. (Yep, its slightly one of those shows..). Most especially the stunning mist, fog, and eternally swirling cloud effects conjured by Rae Smith and Neil Austin's lighting.

Smith's circular tilt of a set is a vision of soil, grass, and bog, dotted with the tiny lights of neighbouring villages.

Along with THAT weather system at the back (and indeed overhead) it gives the play and it's actors something truly special to play in.

(Ignore the strange office portakabin clinging to the side Stalls left though...not needed at all...)

Unfortunately the production just doesn't rise to it, until it's too late. As we said, we wished for a third act, as then it would have ended on a dramatic and emotional high (even with the predicted horrors to come).

As it is, without a continuous momentum and building charge, it lessens the play, and, as mentioned before, Wednesday's press is too soon for it to be truly ready. A shame.

Try and catch it later in the run when the pace and action elsewhere should have caught up with the potential, especially in that exquisite design.

It seems every show in the Olivier now..

1. Has to be designed by Rae Smith and
2. Must consist of boggy earth all over the floor.

Rufus- leave now. Please. He’s killing this theatre.

Rufus might be, but Rae certainly isn't with this one.  The set really is a thing of beauty.

Thought this was fine but nothing outstanding - Colin Morgan was ok. Was totally mesmerized by the back projections on the set, the swirling fog and the lighting which as nash16 says was the best thing about the whole production.
Please can someone explain the ending to me? Really couldn't understand why Friel wrote it like that - was it meant to be just rambling musings rather than anything to tie it together?

The set isn't boggy, though. It's turf.