406 posts
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Post by MrBunbury on Oct 13, 2022 13:15:53 GMT
I am quite happy that I got my ticket early for £20 and I saw the play on Tuesday :-)
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Post by orchidman on Oct 13, 2022 13:23:59 GMT
It's not a good enough play to pay top prices, especially because doing the play with 3 actors and a tedious amount of doubling (and then compounding that irritation by unveiling 7 more actors in the last scene) means I can't imagine it playing to cheap(er) seats at the back of the theatre.
Typical example of a minor writer trying to write a major play about momentous events and falling short because they are a minor writer. There's no more real depth to this than in Cabaret and at least there you get a proper West End show for your money.
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1,500 posts
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Post by Steve on Oct 13, 2022 20:00:19 GMT
I suppose this was the one show in a hundred that it paid to book in advance. I paid £25 for N7, the restricted view Stalls seat that gives you neckache from leaning forwards to avoid a pole, but allows you a mid stalls view for a reasonable price.
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Post by starlight92 on Oct 17, 2022 11:24:45 GMT
@mods, please can we have a poll set up?  Seeing this soon and I spent quite a lot on my ticket, so hopefully it's worth the money! |
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5,160 posts
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Post by TallPaul on Oct 18, 2022 14:32:10 GMT
Due to overwhelming public demand, poll now added.
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Post by starlight92 on Oct 18, 2022 16:52:43 GMT
Due to overwhelming public demand, poll now added. Hahaha thank you |
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1,089 posts
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Post by andrew on Oct 21, 2022 13:16:15 GMT
What time are people coming out of this?
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Post by theatremiss on Oct 23, 2022 22:47:46 GMT
What time are people coming out of this? I was outside about 2140hrs. |
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Post by lynette on Oct 29, 2022 13:00:51 GMT
It's not a good enough play to pay top prices, especially because doing the play with 3 actors and a tedious amount of doubling (and then compounding that irritation by unveiling 7 more actors in the last scene) means I can't imagine it playing to cheap(er) seats at the back of the theatre. Typical example of a minor writer trying to write a major play about momentous events and falling short because they are a minor writer. There's no more real depth to this than in Cabaret and at least there you get a proper West End show for your money. Disagree. A different kind of thing to Cabaret which is brilliant of course. This is a straight old fashioned play packed with difficult material, perhaps too much, the euthanasia programme and the Jewish genocide being both so huge. It is well written though to be honest I would have crossed out a few lines, especially at the very end and perhaps omitted the major and wife thing completely. But then that might have made the play too short for the West End . To be honest this should have been at The National. What on earth is the National for? Then the prices would have been more reasonable and more younger people, teenagers ( for whom the language is not too extreme) would see it and debate it. ) The doubling/tripling of the parts was slightly confusing though well done because they could have made the Levey do the major and it might have had more clout but I do not know what it says in the script. Little things like this I noticed but on the whole it packs a punch and should be seen. David Tennant must have found this hard to do. The costuming alone would have made most people vomit so well done to him. Just to add, I hate having to queue outside the theatre to get in and they wanted to put a sticker on phones to prevent the taking of photographs. I refused of course. What an insult to think I would stand up and take a photo of David Tennant. I did see why they do this at the end, see above comment on costuming but even then it was silly. The audience was silent all thu, not a cough, not a rustle from beginning to end. |
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Post by NorthernAlien on Oct 29, 2022 23:08:52 GMT
I saw this on Saturday evening (29th). Quite unusually for me, as part of a group of six. We agreed to share the ticket cost equally, meaning I paid £115 for this. This is, by far, the most I have ever paid for a theatre ticket. We were in rows E and F of the stalls (I was in E5). Tremendously good view - but for that price I'd dashed well hope so!
I thought it was very cleverly done, and showed in minute detail how a 'good' man can be led down the path that Tennant's character follows. There was a low murmur of horror (audible but appropriate), when Tennant changed costume towards the end of the second act, whilst continuing his everyday conversation with Sharon Small's Anne.
I thought there were some very interesting and effective small details - such as Elliott Levey's Maurice not speaking in reality after a certain point. The Night of Broken Glass was a moment I also thought was incredibly effectively 'staged', in a manner which made it very chilling. There are lots of little moments and details that you only pick up on later.
And I thought the coup de theatre and the last line were incredible in their effectiveness. I'll be thinking about this one for a bit. This is also the quietest I have observed an audience leaving an auditorium since I saw a production of The Permanent Way in the vaults underneath Waterloo before the pandemic.
"Enjoyed" is very much the wrong word, but as a piece of theatre this was superb, even as it was very challenging and confronting.
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952 posts
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Post by vdcni on Oct 31, 2022 23:35:15 GMT
What a terrible, terrible play. Actors I like seem to have made a habit of choosing duff material this year. This isn't as bad as Cock but really it is an empty play which bungles any real exploration of its subject.
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1,863 posts
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Post by NeilVHughes on Nov 1, 2022 7:46:57 GMT
Difficult more than terrible.
Went in with a false expectation, the story of a good man descending into the baleful. Halder is not a good man, from the moment he wrote his book which caught the eye of the inner circle we can see the foundation of who he really is, a man out for himself.
All the other roles being played by just two actors was sometimes jarring but flawlessly showed his indifference, all these people are just different colours of what he sees as basically the people there to support him, for him there are only two types of people, men & women.
Not helping his ‘friend’ was a moment of true sociopathy and his road to the denouement was cast.
An interesting choice for Tennant, came out thinking how today in Parliament, an insignificant person justified atrocities for their own good. The front page of the Metro this morning should shame us all.
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Post by dip on Nov 7, 2022 10:23:33 GMT
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471 posts
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Post by mistressjojo on Nov 12, 2022 10:41:46 GMT
David Tennant must have found this hard to do. The costuming alone would have made most people vomit so well done to him. Just to add, I hate having to queue outside the theatre to get in and they wanted to put a sticker on phones to prevent the taking of photographs. I refused of course. What an insult to think I would stand up and take a photo of David Tennant. I did see why they do this at the end, see above comment on costuming but even then it was silly. The audience was silent all thu, not a cough, not a rustle from beginning to end. He's played a Nazi before, albeit a spy pretending to be a Nazi ( Spies of Warsaw). And played one in a Big Finish audio. I saw this play twice last week and both nights someone was caught taking photos at the curtain call. Quite openly too, not even being sneaky about it. |
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77 posts
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Post by adolphus on Nov 12, 2022 15:07:48 GMT
Rumoured to be screened in cinemas early next year under the NT Live umbrella. Probably a recorded rather than a live broadcast as is increasingly the case. Will undoubtedly sell well
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471 posts
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Post by mistressjojo on Nov 16, 2022 10:24:00 GMT
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Post by talkingheads on Nov 16, 2022 12:48:22 GMT
Very thankful for this, ticket prices were ludicrous for even a remotely decent seat, NT Live is genuinely the best thing to happen to theatre this century.
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Post by margoc on Nov 16, 2022 14:36:51 GMT
Rumoured to be screened in cinemas early next year under the NT Live umbrella. Probably a recorded rather than a live broadcast as is increasingly the case. Will undoubtedly sell well Its being recorded during the matinee on the 23rd nov |
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Post by oedipus on Nov 18, 2022 9:34:44 GMT
Well, I could no longer wait for a discount to appear, so I bought an expensive ticket and went. I didn't know much about the play, but I enjoy serious, thoughtful theater, and figured this would be up my alley.
And it was. GOOD is more than just good. There were times I wished I could see the original, un-doubled version (however skillful the actors, there was a bit of whiplash in some moments); but both supporting actors were excellent (indeed, Levey was extraordinary, particularly as the Jewish best friend). And Tennant didn't disappoint.
In general, I found it a powerful evening, the more so because there were certain lines and scenes that (unfortunately) speak to the ugly and burgeoning cult of Trump. (When the ‘good’ professor started making excuses for the Nazis because it was a party in its childhood and you have to expect childishness and tantrums from a child, I winced. That’s absolutely the sort of rhetoric that dismisses the danger of Trump-ism.)
So: worth seeing, even at premium. Quite, er, good.
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183 posts
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Post by bee on Nov 20, 2022 13:38:56 GMT
I saw this last night. To be honest I found it a bit dull. It's well done, I can't fault the acting. I think possibly it was because I knew from early on where it was going to end up. There were no surprises, and the stories of his relationships with his Jewish friend and the women in his life weren't interesting enough to hold my interest either.
In general I think stories involving the Nazis are hard to do without lapsing into cliche and stereotyping. I remember having similar thoughts about Leopoldstadt when I saw that. It's a subject matter that has been covered so many times before in so many mediums that, in my case at least, my brain sort of switches off.
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3,586 posts
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Post by Rory on Nov 24, 2022 10:10:10 GMT
Extra, final week now on sale 2nd - 7th Jan
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630 posts
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Post by jamb0r on Nov 24, 2022 14:08:40 GMT
Extra, final week now on sale 2nd - 7th Jan Thanks for this! Been checking regularly for a reasonably priced return but no luck. Managed to get something suitable in this new week! |
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Post by dip on Nov 25, 2022 10:36:57 GMT
I saw this last night. To be honest I found it a bit dull. It's well done, I can't fault the acting. I think possibly it was because I knew from early on where it was going to end up. There were no surprises, and the stories of his relationships with his Jewish friend and the women in his life weren't interesting enough to hold my interest either. In general I think stories involving the Nazis are hard to do without lapsing into cliche and stereotyping. I remember having similar thoughts about Leopoldstadt when I saw that. It's a subject matter that has been covered so many times before in so many mediums that, in my case at least, my brain sort of switches off. I largely agree. I found the whole thing pretty tedious. There was a whole lot of assumed knowledge about the rise of the nazis, then they still expect to land an emotional suckerpunch with that ending. |
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Post by jm25 on Dec 1, 2022 22:40:59 GMT
Watched this tonight and really liked it. Admittedly it took a while to sell me on the staging and the switching between characters, but I was totally with it before too long.
David Tennant is always so brilliant and the ending in particular I thought was very powerful. It definitely justified the staging which, again, I’d found a bit jarring at first.
A very apt play for these times and there was a sort of a collective hushed silence when leaving - except for a lone “bloody hell!!” I don’t enjoy paying the crazy prices they charge at the Harold Pinter but I’d say this was about worth it.
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Post by kyvai on Dec 2, 2022 0:18:25 GMT
I also watched tonight and I’m not sure about this one. Not helped that because of the exorbitant pricing I went for front of the balcony, and bloody hell it is high up there, I’m not usually one for drama about heights but I honestly did not feel safe getting to my seat so spent the first 20 minutes still with a high level
If anxiety from that. The prices really are shockingly high at this theatre, and the seating shockingly bad in the areas I’ve tried so far.
The play itself - I think most of the criticisms of it - generally that it’s not actually shocking or surprising when it’s meant to
be, because we’ve all seen countless similar stories of how the Nazis did what they did by now, and it’s our history, our grandparents and great grandparents stories. But this was written 41 years ago now - the war ended 36 years before that - so 41 years ago perhaps we weren’t as “used” to this whole idea, and the audience was either there when it happened or it was their parents, they were that much closer to these events. At the time it was written it may not have seemed so unsubtle and predictable.
The acting was superb, and I’m glad I saw DT. All 3 of them gave very impressive performances, the split-second switching between characters/scenes/internal monologue/memories and current scenes was very well done every time. You’re definitely aware you are in the presence of great actors watching them do their thing.
Maybe this has been playing long enough now that it’s reasonable for discussion of the plot in more detail on here without if being considered a spoiler? I have questions about the ending.
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Seeing this soon and I spent quite a lot on my ticket, so hopefully it's worth the money! 
