Death of England: The Plays - National Theatre /@sohoplace

The website confirms that if you arrive after your scheduled time you will still get in but may have to wait.

Agree with mkb on the 24 hour limit on returns being a problem.



The need to rethink this. The Bridge by comparison allows a refund up to 2 hours before the performance if you have to self-isolate.

lynette would have thought they are likely to be the Dorfman ones as they can be set up in many configurations and will not cost anything.

lynette it is in the Olivier but as the Dorfman seats are not permanently mounted they would be relatively easy to set up there rather than buying or renting additional seating. All depends on how they are going to be affixed to the stage but that would be a problem for any seating.

Could be wrong but any other seating would be a waste of money especially with the redundancies that have been initiated.

Giles Teresa is out, emergency surgery. Part to be played by understudy Michael Balogun

Yes, this is a story waiting for the media to grab with both hands. Let’s hope the NT gets it out there. 

What a shame. About 20 minutes of good material in 90 mins of a show. Little drama. Little interest. Not much that hadn’t been said several times and places before. Death of England had a lot more nuance than this. Well performed in the main. I think there are more laughs to be gained from it and Michael needs to slow down and not gabble as much. But it’s an impressive achievement to hold the stage for that long, given the circumstances. Rufus came on at the top and gave a rousing speech. Seemed to well received but my feeling (based on responses throughout) is that the warm response was more for the performance rather than the material.

I had a single Rush ticket. Row DD, so the second row on the new stage. A lot of space, a lot of legroom(!) but not the most comfortable benches.

I enjoyed it .. mostly. I think it had a hard act to follow given Rafe Spall's performance. There's a different - even a lack of energy and I found myself, probably unfairly, comparing the two. That's not to say that Michael Balogun wasn't very good, as he was (but yes preview & understudy did mean needing lines a couple of times) and he got a very warm applause at the end and seemed quite touched by it.

It was an enjoyable night out and certainly happy with a Rush ticket for £10.

Also found the NT setup really good. 6.30-6.45 arrival on my ticket. I was there at 6.30 and plenty of staff directing you where to go, my drinks and programme on a table in the foyer. About 7.00 they started to move people in, taking certain rows and then seat numbers and putting a lot of effort into making the groups small enough to keep a distance. I was seated by about 7.10 and then on the way out, there were staff to slow people down and keep people for just a moment to let others filter out at a distance. I thought it was good work, I felt comfortable and safe throughout and would happily revisit under these conditions.

Yeah my date has been cancelled, looks like I won't be seeing this. Doesn't look like it was essential viewing anyway, so I'll not feel too bad.

What I find a bit puzzling is that a lot of the one-person-shows that have come out post-lockdown1 have been a bit disappointing (looking at things like Beat The Devil, etc). Surely theatres have their pick of the crop at the moment, why aren't they putting on absolute zingers?

I have to say, that's very nice of them!
(And so instead of two theatre trips, my birthday week now includes an online seminar on Machiavelli and a NT live stream. Getting old isn't that bad, I guess...)

Caught up with this today.

My brain did that awful thing of picking up small plot points and then picking at them distractingly throughout the play.
A problem of my suspension of disbelief, I know.

It went:
'So, why didn't he just get his colleague to drive him to the hospital?'
'Bailiffs always have to have official ID on them - it's pretty distinctive - and often end up working closely with police; looking at his ID should have calmed that situation down.'
'A woman in the middle of labour managed to give a socio-political analysis of his lifestyle? Really?!'

Eh, maybe being in an actual theatre would have helped my immersion in the piece. Sixty minutes in I was looking at Twitter.

The two monologues have been combined into a production filmed for television in the Lyttelton with Giles Terera and Neil Maskell. I have just watched it on Sky Arts - "Death Of England: Face To Face" - and I think it is works brilliantly in this TV version.

I won't try and describe it here, a better description than I can manage is in this 5* Guardian review

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/nov/25/death-of-england-face-to-face-review-state-of-the-nation-drama-is-a-fast-furious-triumph?fbclid=IwAR0Ss-MazskUcrj9UcO1xYvOU4NzgbKfi_BdHurKwsvsRGHjdi-TM_iNNIs

It is being repeated on Sky Arts on 1st December at 1.45am. Well worth setting your Freeview or Sky Box timer for.