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Post by lynette on Jan 20, 2020 19:17:32 GMT
Er, yes, ahem, 'wang' didn’t sit right for me either...
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Post by harry on Jan 21, 2020 13:39:27 GMT
it’s to highlight the anytime/everytime nature of the story and setting. But who has a fire door like that in a domestic/country house? There's an extinguisher too - last time I noticed one of them on stage was The Ferryman, which also used naked flame in a 'busy' set (lots of paper on stage in Vanya) in a Victorian (hard to exit) theatre. Post Grenfell maybe they are more cautious about covering doors with flammable materials, even supposedly 'safe' ones, and it's a very deep set (last things I saw there were shallower so it was probably hidden). Yes I can’t say I felt that I fully understood it (and yes I noticed the extinguisher too). I was really just pointing out that it is all there by choice and design rather than unfinished or serving a legal safety purpose.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 21, 2020 15:58:00 GMT
I thought maybe the back wall of the set was the actual real back wall of the stage and they were using it like the Almeida sometimes does with their exposed brick back wall (does anyone know?)
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Post by crowblack on Jan 21, 2020 17:42:54 GMT
Great interview with Toby Jones in today's Guardian btw.
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Post by intoanewlife on Jan 21, 2020 22:54:43 GMT
So the front row are rush on TodayTix? Decent view or is the stage too high?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2020 15:58:35 GMT
This destroyed me. I took the 38 bus home after, weeping enjoyably.
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Post by londonpostie on Jan 23, 2020 23:38:28 GMT
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1,848 posts
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Post by NeilVHughes on Jan 24, 2020 10:16:24 GMT
Reviews as expected have been positive, only seen 4* and 5* reviews so far.
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Post by ATK on Jan 24, 2020 13:30:27 GMT
So the front row are rush on TodayTix? Decent view or is the stage too high? Saw this from central row A. The stage is higher than I remember it for one of the Pinters, but still offers a great view of the action downstage (albeit sans feet). The massive table you can see in production photos obscures the action that takes place upstage for most of the play. You can see only heads behind the table, but unless I missed something completely very little important action takes place upstage, which is used mostly for entrances and exits.
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Post by kathryn on Jan 24, 2020 15:48:31 GMT
Oh dear.
I had only just sworn off Chekhov as just not for me, and now you lot are making this sound like something I should see.
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Post by vickyg on Jan 24, 2020 16:50:07 GMT
Oh dear. I had only just sworn off Chekhov as just not for me, and now you lot are making this sound like something I should see. That's exactly the way I feel. I have only seen the Cherry Orchard (Young Vic production a few years ago) and came out raging that the happenings onstage were basically entirely inconsequential to the meaning of the play. I hear that this version of Vanya contains laughs thought so...
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Post by lynette on Jan 24, 2020 22:10:13 GMT
I felt the same but am very glad I went. I wouldn’t mind going again and sitting nearer but the prices are eye watering.
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Post by theatrefan77 on Jan 26, 2020 0:24:27 GMT
Me too! Planning my second visit although I've noticed that B1 and B2 are now £45 each. They were only £25 during previews and the view was great, just very slightly restricted in a couple of moments.
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Post by demonbarber on Jan 26, 2020 1:26:19 GMT
Keep checking back on the TodayTix rush as well. I went on Wednesday afternoon and managed to get H11 in the stalls at around 12pm, amazing seat.
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Post by zahidf on Jan 30, 2020 9:02:03 GMT
Cheap tickets offer on todaytix now (35 pound stall seats)
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Post by peggs on Jan 30, 2020 12:23:08 GMT
Got a todaystix for this yesterday, it shows as sold out pretty immediately but then some tickets appeared about 45 mins later so worth checking. Gave me J row seat which was good though surrounded by irritation. Haven't processed what I thought yet and was distracted by annoying people and need to re read thread.
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Post by kathryn on Jan 30, 2020 12:26:47 GMT
Restricted view back of stalls for £25 on TodayTix - worth it? Some £15 restricted views available mid-week too, though I’d guess Rush would be better for the same price.
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Post by peggs on Jan 30, 2020 18:51:36 GMT
Have just written up my notes on this for my own record and appears I really rather enjoyed this. Toby Jones seems born to play Vanya, so rumpled and grumpy and quick and oh when the real despair hits. Adored Anna Calder-Marshall, not lots of line but always worth keeping an eye on. Peter Wight for ever being missed in the rounds of goodbyes. Rosalind Eleazar's beautiful beguiling but inert Yelana. And poor Sonya, poor trying to hold things together Sonya.
Lovely set with the intruding plant life and sagging bookshelves, have yet to go back through the thread to understand people's thoughts on those doors.
I think this play is uncomfortable for me, makes me look at my own life decisions too much when i'd rather not. It's so clever for a play where so little happens, the examination of all these trapped people.
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Post by peggs on Jan 30, 2020 19:03:02 GMT
Steve just read your review which is great and your interpretation of Richard Armitage's Astrov just made it click for me, I couldn't quite work out if I thought it worked, his enthusiasm for the environment palpable but did it all hang together and your analysis has just made me realise it really did work so thanks.
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Post by Forrest on Feb 2, 2020 15:47:40 GMT
I keep meaning to write about how much I've loved this, but can't seem to find the words...
I fell in love with Toby Jones' disillusioned, naive Vanya, a misfit wearing his heart on his sleeve and using his brash humour as a shield. On the other hand, Astrov's self-centered attention-seeking romanticism, environmentalism and martyrdom drove me mad (Richard Armitage was excellent, though). And I felt such admiration for Sonja's quiet determination to keep them all afloat, despite feeling invisible, maybe because she was the character with whom I felt I had most in common (as an ordinary girl always dreaming of something, and someone, extraordinary).
If it wasn't for West End's absurd prices, I would definitely go see it again, I thought it was simply magical. (That gorgeous set helped, too.)
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2020 19:35:33 GMT
I swore off Chekhov but a colleague saw this recently and raved about the comedy in it, so I’m thinking of risking it... Looks like F1 and F11 in the dress circle can be had for a reasonable price - I think I can put up with the pillars in view. But I saw on theatremonkey it said the seats are in an alcove. Are F1 and F11 definitely on the aisle though? (Sometimes with alcoves, the end of row seats are actually against a wall and bizarrely you need to sit in the middle of the row if, like me, you’re claustrophobic and need an escape route...)
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Post by jek on Feb 4, 2020 14:52:12 GMT
There was just a really nice interview on the BBC News Channel with Richard Armitage in the afternoon segment hosted by Simon McCoy. Ranged far and wide over the actor's career (e.g. North and South, Spooks on the TV, the Crucible on the stage). He was explaining that as something of a method actor (he underwent water boarding for Spooks) he went out with the Woodland Trust and planted trees in preparation for playing Astrov. He said that it was only once they started performing Vanya before an audience that they realised how well the comedy would come over. Anyway interview was on BBC News channel just after the 2.30 pm news if anyone wants to search it out.
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Post by theatrelover123 on Feb 5, 2020 11:28:51 GMT
Middle of Row H in the stalls for £20 from Todaytix for today's matinee. Often £95 for certain dates. Definitely worth not just grabbing the front row seats first off and waiting until the next batch or batches arrive on sale. Wahooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
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Post by floorshow on Feb 20, 2020 14:38:05 GMT
Well, this was lovely! Front row from Todaytix. Cast are delightful, set is lush and as good an adaptation as you could wish for - feisty and fun before the interval before settling back into a more traditional vibe while winding down during the second half. It's set a very high bar for The Seagull..
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Post by showgirl on Feb 21, 2020 4:47:27 GMT
I saw the matinee on Wednesday, using the Todaytix offer - not day seats as I needed the certainty of date/time/seat location. Quite remarkable that anything should draw me back to any play by Chekhov this soon, let alone this particular play as my sister and I are still trying to forget the turgid travesty that was Alan Ayckbourn's version, Dear Uncle, the first act of which we saw at the Theatre By The Lake in Keswick in September - so less than 6 months ago.
We had planned a whole day out round it including sighhtseeing en route and dinner in the theatre restaurant beforehand and though I booked before the production opened, I saw some good reviews. It was however one of the worst things I had ever seen and we left at the interval. I know Chekhov's characters complain of ennui, lack of purpose, missed opportunities, unrequited love and their general depression and lack of will to live, but if they evoke those feelings in the audience, it can be unbearably grim.
So I had sworn off Chekhov in general and Uncle Vanya in particular for the foreseeable, but the rave reviews and enthusiastic comments here lured me back. It was indeed the funniest version I had ever seen, largely due to Toby Jones, though I think his interpretation was possibly a bit too quirky. Nevertheless it was what lifted the play for me and made it, if still not exactly enjoyable, then worth seeing to redeem the work in my eyes. I'd never heard of Richard Armitage and again, wasn't entirely convinced by him as a doctor but can see why others would disagree and like him.
So overall I had the experience I was hoping for and my doubts were proven unjustified, but having sat through 2 h 40 of characters bemoaning the usual Chekhovian woes and emerging to a wet February day in overcrowded central London, I felt rather downcast myself.
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Post by edi on Feb 23, 2020 18:44:17 GMT
Chekhov is not a playwright I would go to see normally, I had it out of my system when it was compulsory at secondary school. All I remember is that nothing much happens in his plays and even that happens slowly. However the feedback from this forum and my partner's willingness to see Toby Jones made me get a cheap day seat. I was completely blown by it. This is not what I remember from school! The first part especially was very funny and I suspect it was mostly due to Toby Jones's delivery. He just played it so relatably, I didn't feel for a second that it was a far away Russian countryside family, it could have been any of us - well apart from the samovar and vast sitting room. We don't have so much space these days.
The set and lighting is beautiful and they created a little forest just outside of the house which was again very believable. I could almost smell the trees.
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Post by vickyg on Feb 27, 2020 9:26:37 GMT
I'm afraid this has solidified that Chekhov is not for me. I don't want to watch lazy people do absolutely nothing and complain that life is for suffering through. I'm glad I saw this version as, despite being ready for the noose an hour in, I could tell it was a good one. The performances were great and I'm sure made the play more palatable. I can't imagine a no laughs version...
I agree that the set and lighting are beautiful and I also believed that there was a nearby forest for the doctor to trudge through, but I also very much experienced the lack of purpose and ennui projected by the characters and that is not something I enjoy!
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Post by learfan on Feb 28, 2020 22:41:33 GMT
Saw this tonight. A good production of an all time great play. Toby Jones came into his own in the second half. Armitage and, Hinds very good too. Not sure about some of McPherson's additions particularly the soliloques. Sonia was at least ten years too young. Lots of people stood at the curtain, i wasnt quite that impressed.
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Post by showgirl on Feb 29, 2020 4:43:38 GMT
I didn't particularly notice Sonia's age though on reflection I suppose the actor was a little too young. What did jar for me was why she was the only character with a northern accent? None of the others had any discernible regional accent so it can't have been a directorial decision to emphasise the difference between the bright lights and the rural hinterland.
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Post by popcultureboy on Feb 29, 2020 8:14:26 GMT
Not sure about some of McPherson's additions particularly the soliloques Are those a McPherson addition? I remember Robert Icke had them too in his 3 and a half hour version at the Almeida a couple of years ago.
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