The Doctor - Almeida / Duke of York’s / Richmond & Brighton

Oh look, Robert Icke is adapting a play for the Almeida and Juliet Stevenson is in it, that's unus...

... no, I can't keep a straight face, soz!

'freely doctored'?

Billed as ickes last one as associate director.

Very exciting news. I have loved much of Icke's work. I love the little Schnitzler I've seen; Professor Bernhardi is near the top of my list of plays I'd love to see. I must admit I don't really like the 'very freely adapted' thing, but I'm sure it'll be interesting. And Vassa to follow - two rarely performed European classics: good to see in my view.

For anyone interested Robert Icke was Michael Berkley's guest on Private Passions on Radio 3 this morning. Clearly a man from whom ideas pour out - found it quite difficult to keep up with what he was saying at some points.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0005pkx

Some nice choices of music from someone to whom music is clearly important.

I disagree completely, I thought she, and Pearl Chanda, stood out. She played the posh home counties teen perfectly (and I taught enough of them to know!) This is my revival of the year so far.

I've loved Zmitrowicz in several productions before now, but I don't know what she was doing with Irina. I'm working on the assumption that was a one-off rather than her new way forward though.

Btw, she's also in 'Three Girls' which is back on iplayer at the moment.

Would love to see a revival of that.  I get the impression that he stuck much more  closely to Schnitzler than he did to a couple of other adaptations he did at about the same time (Nestroy, Molnar).

By the way, am I the only person bugged by the 'ph rather than the 'v' in the title of this thread?!  Couldn't it be changed?

Thank goodness for that.

Has anyone seen this/is going? 
Heard it's 3 hours long and only review on the twits suggests its pretty dire, so keen to know!
Seeing tomorrow so can report back... 

On the whole I enjoyed this, although I must admit I think very highly of Rob Icke as a director. It’s at times a difficult watch, and like with all his productions I left feeling empty, in a cathartic sense.
It’s a play with a lot to say, although some might say it’s trying to squeeze too much into the about 3 hours (it runs at about 2:50 I’d say). The points of the play are not made solely through the script itself, there’s some interesting directorial choices in there as well, especially in terms of casting.
Juliet Stevenson gives a great performance, and there's some good lighting choices and sound design (the drummer was very good I must say), and it’s nice to see that the Almeida have got more use out of the tables and the benches from Icke’s Oresteia.
I’ve got no knowledge of the original play that this is based on, so I can’t say how faithful this is to the play. Going in blind however, it does seems a story for our times and I left with a lot to think about. This probably isn’t my best formulation of my thoughts from tonight in the slightest, I’ll probably need a while to think about it in more detail before I can fully understand it, and my opinions of it. Nonetheless, and despite my enjoyment of it, I feel people will come down on different sides of the fence on this one, I don’t expect the rave reviews of his Oresteia or his Hamlet (although I wouldn’t be surprised or disappointed if there was widespread praise of it). Some of the choices made will divide opinion, although I feel that is what makes it so thought provoking, and I think why I on the whole thought it was a good piece of theatre. It’s a shame to see it’s Icke’s last one of Artisitc Associate at the Almeida, I hope we don’t lose him to the continent entirely.