Wild Duck-Almeida theatre

Welcome to posting on the forum numtuckety - hope we hear much more from you. I've got tickets for this later in the run so am really looking forward to it.

In terms of putting in spoilers (but I don't blame you for taking your time with this - I had been posting for ages before I ventured my first spoiler!) - you need to go to create a post  so press the 'reply' button rather than 'quick reply.'  Once you do that, a new page opens. At the top of the - what is it? a tool bar?  There is a little open-mouth face icon on the far right side.  If you press that - it will insert the spoiler for you.  (I'm sure there is a better explanation somewhere.)

Re: seating I've never sat in the first couple of rows at the Almeida - I usually opt for the cheap pillar seats in Row F and on back, but I don't recall people at the front straining to see - so I wonder if there has been some change.

But I like doing spoilers my way :-)

I always aim for row F at the Almeida and very rarely have a problem seeing over heads. I think row E might be the secret "best" row, as I've seen enough famous people sitting in the middle section of row E to convince me that those are the house seats. It's such a small theatre that it doesn't affect your ability to see faces if you go several rows back.

Fortunately booked middle front row for this, have done for the past few plays, previously booked middle D / E and with no issues.

Good to hear positive feedback, had a feeling this could be one of the plays of the year.

Hello.

I am trying to think why it is restricted and suspect it might be because of staging or a pillar in the way? If they're not normally restricted then maybe because of staging? There is another level on top which might be obscured by the overhang?

Agree re Row E and think it is because the rake suddenly goes up quite a bit higher and the increments before Row E are really pithy.

On the rake thing, I'm 5'6" and if I have someone tall in front of me it can be like being behind a pillar in several of the Almeida stalls seats I've been in. The Donmar is really bad, though - and with only 4 rows in the stalls I don't see why they can't just increase the rake or raise the stage. 

The website says it's 2 hours 35 but you mentioned it was 3 hours, what time did you end up getting away?

I know it's only 25 minutes but it makes a big difference to what time I end up getting home!

They could at least make the back row a bit cheaper - but I think better would be to raise the stage a bit. When characters sat or lay down in Aristocrats I couldn't see them - I wasn't aware one was even on stage, and that was from row D in the centre stalls block.

Front row Almeida would be fine I think (has been the couple of times I've sat on it) - my post was mainly about the Donmar btw. At the NT Olivier, I was debating whether to get row A or row C, all at £15 and after advice here went for A because opinion here was that the rake was so poor there was the heads blocking issue. When I took my seat, I heard the people in row C expressing their annoyance about it.

Thanks, I just booked A6 for a matinee next month.

You never know what the Almeida will do to the configuration. I sat in the first row for Albion (a sort of U-shaped seating) and had actors potting and unpotting plants right in front of me.

The side stalls appear to have A as the front row, with AA the front in the centre stalls block. I rebooked earlier and booked row A in what seem to be newly released side stall seats (??) - at any rate, there seems to be a lot of availability there.

Ok so the first and most important thing to note, as a big fan of ducks in general is that there is a real duck on stage, but not for nearly long enough. A few measly seconds of actual duck time, a disgrace, I’m writing to the almeida about it. There’s more bird on stage in that incidental bit with the goose in The Ferryman.

No specific plot points but production spoilers below. This has been framed, relatively cleverly, in a sort of meta-theatre fashion, where the actors both portray their characters but at times comment from an outsiders perspective. They use handheld dynamic microphones to indicate that it’s a ‘meta’ line, which I think at first is quite off-putting and obnoxious. What’s especially nauseating at first is how characters will end every scene with “And scene” as the fluorescent house lights come up and they give some kind of commentary on events. A man walked out after 20 minutes, which I thought was a bit premature, but I presume was a reaction to this style. The first act is quite slow, and with the framing device tagged on, quite a bare set, an unclear plot, I can see why a few more people left at the interval. There was an unbearably long “family joy” 5 minutes of dancing which made me almost vomit. I was very unsure.

The second act though was a totally different experience. Suddenly there was drama on stage, an actual set, action, the themes the actors were professorially discussing in the first act actually started to be properly displayed and the explored. And it progressed in a manner I realise is Robert Icke’s “style”. Which I think I like.

The actors, especially Kevin Harvey and the young actress Clara Read were very good. It’s not the simplest child acting experience ever and she was very impressive. The design by the end makes sense, but the desire to appear hip and theatrical in the first act with minimal use of props or set or lighting was irksome.

For the forum readers who can’t stand loud noises: this definitely is not a play for you. Very loud bangs, unexpectedly, more than once. Slightly harrowing themes for anyone not familiar with the play.

But all that said, whilst problematic I enjoyed the evening, and would recommend those curious to get themselves a ticket. The themes of the play were well demonstrated and are rolling around my head today, which I think means the play has done its job. Not the raving review I gave Mary Stuart, but not bad at all. 4 stars.