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Post by Steve on Feb 9, 2023 16:47:15 GMT
Saw yesterday's matinee, and enjoyed it for the classical old-fashioned drama it is. Matthew Modine is a terrific Atticus, and in a massively underwritten part, Cecilia Noble proves what a remarkable actor she is, getting 10 lines of impact out of every one line! Some spoilers follow. . . I went because I wanted to see Matthew Modine in this, as he played Birdy in Alan Parker's "Birdy," a wonderful film, in which he spends the whole running time dreaming of and imagining he is a bird. So I figured if anyone understands what a sin it is to kill a mockingbird, he does. And he does. It's an impassioned and sensitive performance. I hadn't realised Cecilia Noble was in this, or I would have booked earlier. She has been pitch perfect in everything I've seeen her in, with "Nine Night" bensuring I'm a fan for life, her character eliciting more laughs per line than anyone ever. But of course, this is a drama, so not so many laughs, though those that are there she nails emphatically. Still, she's equally magical with drama, and even though her part is small, she carries an enormous amount of the emotional weight, being the conscience of the piece, along with Modine's Atticus. I refer to the piece as old-fashioned, as I'm not sure that if this wasn't based on a famous work, we'd see too many shows like this, that place the burden of defending the civil rights of black people in the hands of white people, and cast all the major roles as white, with all the monologues going to white characters. Nonetheless, this is not a "white saviour" drama, as such, just a little old-fashioned in it's focus, though it's focus on the awakening of the youthful white characetrs is nonetheless worthwhile, and well-done, particularly by Ellis Howard as Dill Harris. Perhaps I just wanted Cecilia Noble to have more lines lol! Simon Hepworth as Link Deas and Niall Buggy as Judge Taylor are both on point in their roles. It's a great cast right now. 4 stars from me. 
PS: On the first Tuesday on each month, "All Rise" tickets are released for the month. I scored two tickets, at £15 each, that way, in Row G of the Stalls, which was great value.
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Post by sfsusan on Feb 11, 2023 21:53:55 GMT
that place the burden of defending the civil rights of black people in the hands of white people, and cast all the major roles as white, with all the monologues going to white characters. Given the time and place of the setting, there wouldn't have been a black lawyer to defend Tom Robinson. There wouldn't have been black people on the jury or working in the court system. That's not to say that there isn't a need for a view of the proceedings from the black community's perspective... but that isn't what this is. I think news needs to include all perspectives, I'm not sure a given piece of art does. |
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Post by theatregoer22 on Feb 12, 2023 19:17:15 GMT
Does anyone know if you can purchase more than two £15 All Rise tickets at a time? Looking to try and get some next month and I may have two friends interested in coming with me.
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4,808 posts
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Post by Mark on Feb 13, 2023 11:32:18 GMT
Does anyone know if you can purchase more than two £15 All Rise tickets at a time? Looking to try and get some next month and I may have two friends interested in coming with me. Yes you can. I got three together. |
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Post by theatregoer22 on Feb 13, 2023 19:39:27 GMT
Does anyone know if you can purchase more than two £15 All Rise tickets at a time? Looking to try and get some next month and I may have two friends interested in coming with me. Yes you can. I got three together. Perfect, thank you! |
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1,867 posts
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Post by Dave B on Mar 1, 2023 8:37:15 GMT
We went last night, a second time for me and a first for my better half. The £15 front row seats are fab.
A show stop a short-time in, the house only came down halfway and they had to reset over about 5 minutes.
I really really liked Matthew Modine. I think Rafe Spall is great and his performance in Death of England was dazzling but I found Modine to be levels above here, more suited to the role. Not just the age difference but the gravitas and dignity, Finch isn't played with energy now and for me at least it added a lot more. Niall Buggy as the judge is fab, not least of all for his accent which seems to try South for his first appearance and then decide it is not worth it and instead we get a very Irish judge, amused me greatly. In fact I found all of the cast changes to really work, Anna Munden is great as Scout and really engages with the audience, placing more emphasis on her narration by looking at us a lot more, narrating while directly looking at me more than once but also clearly looking and bringing in the gods too.
I don't know what it was, maybe it was them or maybe it was me the first time around but I enjoyed this a lot more and with bonus points for Modine's death glare as he pauses on his line until a phone is shut off.
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Post by theatregoer22 on Mar 7, 2023 10:10:28 GMT
Anyone know why this months £15 tickets haven't gone on sale yet on TodayTix (I've checked both the website and app)? Am I looking at the wrong day?
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1,133 posts
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Post by Stephen on Mar 7, 2023 11:17:35 GMT
Anyone know why this months £15 tickets haven't gone on sale yet on TodayTix (I've checked both the website and app)? Am I looking at the wrong day? Maybe they go live at Midday? Not sure though. Think I’ll hold off and get the April release and see this again just before it closes. I wasn’t fussed about seeing Matthew Modine having enjoyed Rafe Spall so much. The reviews of his performance here have changed my mind! |
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Post by theatregoer22 on Mar 7, 2023 11:36:59 GMT
Anyone know why this months £15 tickets haven't gone on sale yet on TodayTix (I've checked both the website and app)? Am I looking at the wrong day? Update: TodayTix have said they don't know yet when this month's allocation will go on sale. |
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Post by theatregoer22 on Mar 28, 2023 10:19:04 GMT
The last lot of £15 All Rise tickets have finally gone on sale on TodayTix. Mostly Row R in the stalls plus some restricted view seats, but there are a few better seats available on some dates.
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Post by raiseitup on Mar 28, 2023 11:29:33 GMT
The last lot of £15 All Rise tickets have finally gone on sale on TodayTix. Mostly Row R in the stalls plus some restricted view seats, but there are a few better seats available on some dates. Thanks for the heads up! Managed to get a pair in the front row for Easter Monday, chuffed |
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Post by thistimetomorrow on Mar 28, 2023 12:25:38 GMT
The last lot of £15 All Rise tickets have finally gone on sale on TodayTix. Thanks for posting!! I had been sporadically checking because I wanted to see Matthew Modine. Grabbed a nice pair of Dress Circle seats. |
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Post by bwayboy22 on Mar 29, 2023 2:07:20 GMT
Managed to grab a couple of tix for the £15 All Rise seats next month. Taking a friend as a surprise and delighted with the seats. I saw it last year from Stalls row W with the deal, much happier to be in row G of the stalls for this trip!
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Post by theatregoer22 on Apr 16, 2023 0:22:27 GMT
Finally went to see this today. As someone who hasn't read the book, I found the first act fairly interesting but also bitty and confusing in places (particularly how the scenes not set in a court room, as it wasn't always clear what the point of them was). I also found that the sound wasn't great from where I was sat (Row R of the Stalls) as I couldn't hear every word the actors were saying, especially when members of the audience were rustling packets or whispering to each other. And it did take me a bit of getting used to seeing three clearly adult actors playing the child characters. I think sometimes their movements were a bit too exaggerated.
The second half though I thought was much stronger. It seemed to be more linear, with some impactful moments, so I left fairly satisfied in the end. I think I would give it a 3.75* rating overall.
As an aside, I hope more productions follow the All Rise model in future. Once the tickets went on sale, they were so much easier to purchase than Rush tickets and it was great being able to go with two friends of mine, as we usually hang out as a trio.
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Post by theatregoer22 on Apr 16, 2023 19:14:34 GMT
Finally went to see this today. As someone who hasn't read the book, I found the first act fairly interesting but also bitty and confusing in places (particularly how the scenes not set in a court room, as it wasn't always clear what the point of them was). I also found that the sound wasn't great from where I was sat (Row R of the Stalls) as I couldn't hear every word the actors were saying, especially when members of the audience were rustling packets or whispering to each other. And it did take me a bit of getting used to seeing three clearly adult actors playing the child characters. I think sometimes their movements were a bit too exaggerated.
The second half though I thought was much stronger. It seemed to be more linear, with some impactful moments, so I left fairly satisfied in the end. I think I would give it a 3.75* rating overall.
As an aside, I hope more productions follow the All Rise model in future. Once the tickets went on sale, they were so much easier to purchase than Rush tickets and it was great being able to go with two friends of mine, as we usually hang out as a trio.
Grr just noticed a typo on this that it won't let me correct now. It should say it wasn't always clear to me what the point of the non courtroom based scenes in the first half was, how they fitted in with the main storyline.
I also missed out a huge benefit of All Rise vs Rush, that is being able to book in advance. Most of my friends aren't keen on leaving things to chance on the day, especially as they have limited free time, so I'm expecting I'll mostly be using Rush for solo theatre trips.
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Post by theatrefan77 on May 21, 2023 23:05:58 GMT
Saw the final performance with one of the All Rise tickets. Great value for £15. Enjoyed it as much as my previous visit and hope it will comeback to the West End at some point.
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