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Post by Fleance on Apr 16, 2024 2:47:19 GMT
The ending -- with the song -- can be quite magical. Was that handled well? Did Nicholas Selby ever play the messenger Marcade in that final scene ? Perfect for him I would have thought. To my knowledge he never played Mercade. I believe his last Shakespearean roles were the regal roles of Duncan and Alonso, both at the RSC/Barbican. I saw both of those productions. |
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Post by richardh on Apr 16, 2024 8:08:02 GMT
Sorry to hear that, I was thinking of booking. I love LLL, having seen three RSC productions over the years. During lockdown, I watched three BBC versions, from 1965, 1975, and 1985. I much preferred the 1975 version, with Jeremy Brett, Martin Shaw, and Sinead Cusack. I’ve seen lots of good productions of it, it is rarely done badly. I recall the 1993 RSC production with my personal favourite Daniel Massey splendid as Don Armado. My first ever RSC production was of Love's Labour's Lost in 1991. Terry Hands' production with Simon Russell Beale, Ralph Fiennes, Paterson Joseph, Alex Kingston. What a cast in hindsight. I'll be interested to see how the new 2024 production makes what can be quite a demanding play with a lot of wordy in-jokes and references more accessible to a contemporary audience without dumbing-down. |
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Post by oxfordsimon on Apr 16, 2024 9:43:43 GMT
Am reviewing on Thursday so will share my thoughts!
The Masque of the Worthies is going to have to be radically rethought to fit a contemporary setting I would imagine.
Also I can't see a Sir Nathaniel in the cast list.
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Post by David J on Apr 16, 2024 10:15:51 GMT
Am reviewing on Thursday so will share my thoughts! The Masque of the Worthies is going to have to be radically rethought to fit a contemporary setting I would imagine. Also I can't see a Sir Nathaniel in the cast list. Wondering about getting rush tickets on Friday midday so love to hear your thoughts |
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Post by kate8 on Apr 17, 2024 9:28:42 GMT
Just seen the cast announcement for School for Scandal which confirms it will be sharing most of the cast, and the RST, with Merry Wives. I hope this means they are looking at ways of being more of a company again, even if on a smaller scale.
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Post by andrew on Apr 17, 2024 20:08:09 GMT
I quite like Loved Labours Lost. I can see what solotheatregoer means, it's quite broadly played, but I think like tartantraveller says it serves to make it a bit more appealing to those of us that aren't ardent fans of the bard. It goes too far at points (totally agree about the Backstreet Boys bit, some elements of the play within a play also come to mind) but the additions to the script generally felt earned and funny.
Luke Thompson is excellent, he's really proving himself to be a force in the theatre, and I'm looking forward to seeing something that really tests him and let's him really give something his all emotionally, Willem in A Little Life and this don't really quite let him go there. His funny bones are there. I don't think the crowd I was with were particularly his crowd, it felt more like a normal theatre group to me than an especially young set.
I also quite liked unexpectedly seeing Nathan Foad as Costard, he kind of steals every scene he's in. As I say I'm no Shakespeare expert so I can't be sure but I'd imagine this won't go down as an all time great production, but it feels very competent, I found it pretty funny, and the young vibrant cast were on fine form.
The song at the end was handled well. I'm glad I went.
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Post by laurenh on Apr 18, 2024 7:13:05 GMT
I have just received an email with the trailer for the Buddha of Suburbia. Really surprised to see that it is two and a half hours long without an interval. I know that is only the length of many films (and shorter, for example, than Oppenheimer) but it does feel like a long time without a break in a theatre. And I would have thought that the RSC would have wanted the interval bar takings. I see that Buddha of Suburbia has now acquired a 20-minute interval according to the RSC website. Which I'm sure will be most welcome (not least for bar takings). That's great. Thinking of going for it. Waiting on some reviews first. |
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Post by Jan on Apr 18, 2024 7:39:48 GMT
... the Backstreet Boys bit The usual RSC approach of trying to appeal to a present day youth audience by including a song from 25 years ago when the creatives themselves were young ? |
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Post by oxfordsimon on Apr 18, 2024 23:10:38 GMT
Just home from press night.
It isn't perfect. Some of the stagecraft shows a serious lack of experience in handling a thrust stage.
But the performances are all solid or better.
The updatings/interpolations work very well in context. Yes, even the Back Street Boys section!
Excellent physical comedy throughout. Costard and Moth were particularly well characterized. Excellent Boyet.
The tonal shift after a very well handled Worthies scene was well judged. Final song very haunting.
Overall an entertaining and fun production of a play that can be tricky to tackle.
I would happily see it again.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Apr 18, 2024 23:16:03 GMT
Me no likely the new RSC programmes.
Now cut down to A5. To save trees apparently. But it is thicker so not many!
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Post by Fleance on Apr 19, 2024 0:36:29 GMT
Me no likely the new RSC programmes. Now cut down to A5. To save trees apparently. But it is thicker so not many! Glad to hear it (the new size, not that you don't like it.) That's about the size the RSC used in their Aldwych days. Easier on the bookshelves. |
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Post by Fleance on Apr 19, 2024 0:36:43 GMT
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Post by sweets7 on Apr 20, 2024 19:05:49 GMT
Saw this today. Love Labours Lost. Really liked it. Fizzy fun. I will say though that Luke Thompson and Nathan F seemed significantly more able than the rest of the cast. Perhaps just experience. Loved the backstreet boys. It was funny. The ending: the end of salad days was good but I saw the one around 10 years ago which packed more of a punch with boys off to war. Also Thompson was very good. Made it all seem easy, but he was more a suave, laid back, cynical Berowne and Ed Bennett was definitely more expressive and slapstick.
Overall a nice afternoon at the theatre.
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Post by frauleinsallybowles on Apr 20, 2024 21:42:29 GMT
Has anyone whose been tell me how the sides of the stalls seating is? I've never seen a performance at the RST and wondering if the sightlines are particularly obstructed
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Post by oxfordsimon on Apr 20, 2024 22:25:17 GMT
On this occasion, side stalls might be better than front on.
The blocking is a bit clunky so the diagonals are not very well used.
I was sat in D25 and frequently couldn't see key moments
But sitting round to the side would probably have avoided the worst of this.
Of course each production is different so what is true for LLL may not be true for Merry Wives
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Post by Cleo on Apr 21, 2024 9:41:35 GMT
Has anyone who’s been tell me how the sides of the stalls seating is? I've never seen a performance at the RST and wondering if the sightlines are particularly obstructed I usually sit in the stalls on the side (row 1 to 4) as I prefer to be closer to the stage and the top price seats (front facing) are too expensive for me. As Simon says each production is different. I have sat in a restricted seat and for the price was ok. Some seats are slightly facing towards the stage (those nearest the purple seats on seating plan). |
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Post by Jan on Apr 21, 2024 10:26:20 GMT
I saw the one around 10 years ago which packed more of a punch with boys off to war. I've seen about 5 productions of it and I think every one of those (with maybe one exception) was set immediately prior to World War I - it is an obvious thing to do and directors do it. There have been RSC and other productions that were set in other eras but I think they're in the minority. In Trevor Nunn's NT production he even started and ended the play with WW-I trenches and fighting on stage, the whole thing presented as a memory of the injured Berowne. |
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Post by sweets7 on Apr 21, 2024 10:36:09 GMT
I saw the one around 10 years ago which packed more of a punch with boys off to war. I've seen about 5 productions of it and I think every one of those (with maybe one exception) was set immediately prior to World War I - it is an obvious thing to do and directors do it. There have been RSC and other productions that were set in other eras but I think they're in the minority. In Trevor Nunn's NT production he even started and ended the play with WW-I trenches and fighting on stage, the whole thing presented as a memory of the injured Berowne. Well they went for full on destiny encroaching here for the Princess. Which definitely works...if she was thee main character...which she's not. Which leaves you thinking how does this effect the rest of them. Anyway. |
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Post by sweets7 on Apr 21, 2024 10:39:12 GMT
I saw the one around 10 years ago which packed more of a punch with boys off to war. I've seen about 5 productions of it and I think every one of those (with maybe one exception) was set immediately prior to World War I - it is an obvious thing to do and directors do it. There have been RSC and other productions that were set in other eras but I think they're in the minority. In Trevor Nunn's NT production he even started and ended the play with WW-I trenches and fighting on stage, the whole thing presented as a memory of the injured Berowne. Well pairing with Much Ado...After the war worked a treat that time then. It is a play aboit the last blow out before adulthood approaches. And to be fair you couldn't get much more poignant generational catastrophe then that. Anyway it's a feel good day out. I'd happily waste my time with it again. |
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Post by iwanttix on Apr 21, 2024 11:58:42 GMT
I also quite liked unexpectedly seeing Nathan Foad as Costard, he kind of steals every scene he's in. I was happy to see him too, I didn't realise he was in it til he stepped on stage with a towel on his head! I'm not a Shakespeare fan really but I agree this a good way of being introduced to his plays. I went because I really liked Luke Thompson in A Little Life and I'm one of those who will go and see something for an actor I want to see regardless of what it is. I found it very funny and the physical comedy is right up my street. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2024 18:05:37 GMT
Anyone seen Buddha? Thinking of booking after opening.
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Post by richardh on Apr 22, 2024 5:38:35 GMT
Anyone seen Buddha? Thinking of booking after opening. Went to the second preview of Buddha last Thursday. I have a vague recollection of watching the original TV series in the 1990s as the music was by Bowie (which it isn't here). The cast are phenomenal, some covering several parts, and it is a lot of fun with a lot of dancing, although the adult themes and language mean it will certainly not be for everyone (don't take your maiden aunt unless she is especially broadminded!). In spite of content warnings in advance there were two children in with their parents and all looked a little uncomfortable at stages. I know of Emma Rice by reputation rather than through having seen any of her Wise Children shows but there are some totally bonkers elements in here, some of which I think she has incorporated into this from previous shows that she's done, which I won't divulge here. So great plaudits to the new RSC ADs for going with this as part of their first season - I think and believe it will do well. As for Love's Labour's Lost - I enjoyed it although for me the Christopher Luscombe production from 2014 is definitive and I watch the BluRay so all productions of it now inevitably get compared to that which makes it an impossible act to follow. I thought the Nine Worthies somewhat fell a bit flat in this interpretation and I missed the usual version of the final song. We seem to be in an era where directors feel that to do Shakespeare without radical cuts and rewrites makes it too difficult for the 2024 audience - I think directors should credit audiences with more intelligence - but this is definitely a feelgood version of a play that can occasionally be difficult to enjoy, and a feelgood show that fills the main house is exactly what the new RSC team needs. Stratford on Birthday weekend was certainly more upbeat than I have seen it since before the pandemic, which is great news. So cautious optimism here, but will be interesting to see how things progress when they do the tragedies and histories. Rupert Goold returning here to direct Hamlet later this year is at least a sign of bringing back directors who seemed to have been shunned during the later years of the Doran era. |
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Post by clarefh on Apr 28, 2024 8:07:51 GMT
I saw LLL this Friday - would agree with others that it’s a fun, fizzy production. The young cast give it an energy and it whizzes along, at times I did feel I’d have liked the direction to slow a little and let some of the lines breathe. The change of tone at the end - which is why I love this particular play - was well handled, and I liked the uncertainty of where most of the players would end up. It added a questioning poingnancy - had they learned, will they grow and change.
Thought Luke Thompson was excellent, he speaks the lines so easily and has a lovely nuance to his acting. Having seen him as Laertes in the Almeida Hamlet, I’d love to see him in more Shakespeare. Also enjoyed Nathan Foad and Jordan Metcalfe as Boyet. Felt some of the rest of the cast lacked a little depth and fluency at times, but not to the extent it affected enjoyment of the play. I’m not a huge fan of physical comedy but the majority of the audience really enjoyed it, and it is a key part of this play.
Theatre wasn’t full on a Friday night which is a shame. I’m glad I went though and if I was nearer wouldn’t mind seeing it again.
Went with a friend who is an occasional theatre goer as part of a weekend away. She’s now suggested we return for Hamlet instead of other plans we had so in that sense it has worked in getting at least one person to re engage with the RSC!
Meant to add was in front facing stalls and some of the sight lines were blocked at times. I do wonder if sides might be better for this.
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Post by richardh on May 21, 2024 8:08:36 GMT
It must surely be time to announce performance dates and booking dates for the remaining shows of the 2024 and early 2025 season? We know what they are as they were teased back in February when LLL etc were announced and at the time they said the booking period would be announced in "Spring 2024". LLL has now finished and there's a short gap before Merry Wives opens so the time must surely be right. Anyone have any inside information?
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Post by cavocado on May 25, 2024 11:30:24 GMT
It must surely be time to announce performance dates and booking dates for the remaining shows of the 2024 and early 2025 season? We know what they are as they were teased back in February when LLL etc were announced and at the time they said the booking period would be announced in "Spring 2024". LLL has now finished and there's a short gap before Merry Wives opens so the time must surely be right. Anyone have any inside information? I wish I did have inside info. I keep checking their social media just in case I've missed something. On the plus side it's nice to feel a sense of excitement again about booking RSC shows. |
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