When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other (NT)

I enjoyed this a lot, so there!

Exactly like you'd expect a Mitchell/ Crimp production to be, and not exactly like you'd expect a Hollywood star vehicle to be, which is probably one of the reasons for the poor reviews. Although the audience last night seemed generally pretty appreciative. I was sitting in the side circle, at the far end from the stage, which had a clear view of everything other than the extreme corner of the stage.

Stephen Dillane was excellent (people who have seen his previous performances will be amused by the point where he tells Cate Blanchett to "stop mumbling") as was Blanchett. But TBH I would have preferred to see a version with someone less high profile so people who want to see Crimp / Mitchell would have been able to get tickets more easily.

Regarding ticketing - I could see around 10 empty seats. Unsold returns perhaps, as people aren't bothering to try for returns due to expectations of long returns queues? Or tickets which have vanished into the secondary market and remained unsold?

On the blood question above:


Woman on my row was holding forth beforehand about the fact that a scene had been cut out due to the person who fainted on the first night.
OK, sure!

Feel sorry for the people who wasted their time with the ballot.  All About Eve would have been a better choice for Cate Blanchett.

It was hardly wasting time though was it so I don't imagine they need you to feel sorry for them. You put your name down and if selected, then you get a chance to buy tickets.

And I imagine that Cate Blanchett felt that 'All About Eve' wasn't the "better choice" for her.

You really seem very down on this particular production. 

It was a frenzy the first day to enter the ballot, so much so, that the system crashed.  Then people were complaining about the wait time online to get tickets.   I'm sure there are some who are returning their tickets, feel it was a waste.  

Of course for her personally she can do whatever she wants.  But her as an actress, selling a product, All About Eve would have been better choice...because it has a broader appeal.

To be fair though, that isn't specific to this production though or even this particular theatre for that matter. There are threads and threads on this very board about websites crashing on ticket release day and people complaining about the length of time to wait in the queue to get tickets etc. I'm sure there are people who have returned their tickets and felt it was a waste of time. I felt the same about 'Hamilton' but hey ho, this is the theatre. You pays your money, you take your choice.

And it does sound almost rather insulting to an actress like Cate Blanchett, who has made a career out of mixing smaller scale work that won't attract large audiences with the big budget blockbusters, that people are criticising her for not taking the mass appeal route (perhaps just because they wanted to see her in that particular role) and instead taking something that sounds like a bit of a risk and might nourish her professionally even though it might not be a success or critically acclaimed. It would seem a shame that if an actor reaches a certain level of fame that we should just expect them to simply do mass appeal work from then on.

What on earth is NT's rationale for quietly throwing a few tickets onto the site? Don't get me wrong, I think selling remaining/returning seats online is great. But they should use some sort of formal system, like Friday Rush, rather than randomly passing out a few odd days without any notice. I mean, does this mean that anyone looking for tickets should be refreshing the site whenever possible during working hours on the off chance that a few tickets become available? I wonder if it was an IT/sales error or something, or perhaps testing the waters for a more formal online sale.

Anyway, best of luck to anyone still trying for tickets.

That is how you get tickets for any sold out production. Why should this be different?

Yes, I suspect the person fainted because they were ill, not because of anything on stage!