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Post by Dawnstar on Jan 27, 2021 17:28:18 GMT
There used to be that studio space next door to the Old Vic that I think they owned but they let it to the NT and the NT let Peter Gill run it and they mounted full-scale productions there with no audience allowed in at all. A monumental vanity project for Gill. Maybe once every few years a production would make it from there to the NT. Are Ballet Rambert using it as their HQ now ? Any or all of the above may be incorrect, except the part about Peter Gill. Why did he not want an audience? Was he a terrible director? (I'm assuming he was a director. I've never heard of him.) |
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Post by Jan on Jan 27, 2021 18:28:16 GMT
There used to be that studio space next door to the Old Vic that I think they owned but they let it to the NT and the NT let Peter Gill run it and they mounted full-scale productions there with no audience allowed in at all. A monumental vanity project for Gill. Maybe once every few years a production would make it from there to the NT. Are Ballet Rambert using it as their HQ now ? Any or all of the above may be incorrect, except the part about Peter Gill. Why did he not want an audience? Was he a terrible director? (I'm assuming he was a director. I've never heard of him.) Peter Gill - director (not much good) and playwright (no information). Somehow he must have had friends in high places because they let him run it for 10 years doing whatever he wanted, workshopping stuff that never appeared. In the end I seem to recall they fired him and he wasn't happy. He still gets freelance work actually, he did something at the Donmar relatively recently, or they did one of his plays (or both). There were a couple of directors from his era who also always seemed to get work surprisingly easily, Mike Alfreds, Nancy Meckler, they would crop up with second rate stuff at the RSC, NT. Almeida, Donmar. Peter Gill did a truly awful Romeo & Juliet for the RSC once, embarrasingly bad, as did Nancy Mecler (the sticks one, Lynette). I think Michael Boyd was just doing a favour for his old mates. |
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Post by stevemar on Jan 27, 2021 20:08:12 GMT
I can’t comment on his direction abilities, but the production of Peter Gill’s The York Realist at the Donmar and Sheffield Crucible was wonderful.
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Post by lynette on Jan 27, 2021 21:40:09 GMT
Why did he not want an audience? Was he a terrible director? (I'm assuming he was a director. I've never heard of him.) Peter Gill - director (not much good) and playwright (no information). Somehow he must have had friends in high places because they let him run it for 10 years doing whatever he wanted, workshopping stuff that never appeared. In the end I seem to recall they fired him and he wasn't happy. He still gets freelance work actually, he did something at the Donmar relatively recently, or they did one of his plays (or both). There were a couple of directors from his era who also always seemed to get work surprisingly easily, Mike Alfreds, Nancy Meckler, they would crop up with second rate stuff at the RSC, NT. Almeida, Donmar. Peter Gill did a truly awful Romeo & Juliet for the RSC once, embarrasingly bad, as did Nancy Mecler (the sticks one, Lynette). I think Michael Boyd was just doing a favour for his old mates. I hear you, Jan. o the pain of those sticks. |
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Post by Jan on Jan 28, 2021 8:16:38 GMT
I can’t comment on his direction abilities, but the production of Peter Gill’s The York Realist at the Donmar and Sheffield Crucible was wonderful. Interesting. I haven't seen any of his plays as I don't go to new plays at all. Actually one time he did a very good small-scale production of Antigone, but on a large stage he was hopeless whenever I saw anything. He was a fixture at NT during Peter Hall's reign. |
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Post by peggs on Jan 29, 2021 0:52:16 GMT
Sticks? Was this even worse that the balloons that have scarred lynette ? |
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Post by Jan on Jan 29, 2021 13:41:05 GMT
Sticks? Was this even worse that the balloons that have scarred lynette ? Oh yes much worse - in this one the fight scenes between the Montagues and the Capulets were depicted metaphorically through the medium of Morris dancing. So it was integral to the production, the balloons were just peripheral. |
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Post by cirque on Jan 29, 2021 16:18:05 GMT
Oh God-I remember....awful and before Greg Doran's stewardship......still,the rot is thorough.
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Post by Jan on Jan 29, 2021 16:53:50 GMT
Oh God-I remember....awful and before Greg Doran's stewardship......still,the rot is thorough. For me the Peter Gill one, which only came 2 years before, was even worse, it was like a pre-war rep production with costumes to match - tunics and tights all round. |
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Post by lynette on Jan 29, 2021 21:44:08 GMT
Thank you for these wonderful memories guys. You know, I have not seen a really good R&J; maybe the David Tennant one back in the dark ages..
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 29, 2021 23:33:51 GMT
I have never seen a R&J that I enjoyed. Part of this is that Juliet is such a poor central character. I can find nothing engaging about her and that makes it unwatchable
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Post by David J on Jan 30, 2021 11:16:10 GMT
I find Romeo and Juliet starts off as a romance/comedy with some sword fighting here and there. Then probably the most interesting characters die off by the interval and the second act is a slow slog of a tragedy watching the planets line up for the lovers to die.
Only production I've liked was the Rupert Gould one
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Post by cirque on Jan 30, 2021 13:03:42 GMT
Goolds was good....Terry Hands with the iron balconies and the figure of Death stalking Verona......long time ago but,really Hands knew how to deliver on his stages.
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Post by Jan on Jan 30, 2021 16:02:39 GMT
I saw a definitively good R&J touring production by John Caird for the RSC. Daniel Day-Lewis and Amanda Root. Just perfect. Roger Allam as Mercutio I think. The great Robert Edidison as Friar Lawrence.
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Post by princeton on Jan 30, 2021 16:48:10 GMT
Gosh I'd forgotten that production which toured in rep with A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was their 1983 small scale tour which played school halls and leisure centres (ah those were the days) and my first R&J. I saw it at Castleford High School - in their sports hall. Roger Allam was indeed Mercutio - and he and Penny Downie were Oberon and Titania in the Dream. I wonder whether it's one of those plays which simply seems less good the older you are from the main characters.
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Post by Jan on Jan 30, 2021 17:59:23 GMT
Gosh I'd forgotten that production which toured in rep with A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was their 1983 small scale tour which played school halls and leisure centres (ah those were the days) and my first R&J. I saw it at Castleford High School - in their sports hall. Roger Allam was indeed Mercutio - and he and Penny Downie were Oberon and Titania in the Dream. I wonder whether it's one of those plays which simply seems less good the older you are from the main characters. Daniel Day-Lewis played Snug the Joiner in "Dream" - one of the greatest bits of luxury casting ever. |
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Post by peggs on Jan 30, 2021 19:17:26 GMT
Sticks? Was this even worse that the balloons that have scarred lynette ? Oh yes much worse - in this one the fight scenes between the Montagues and the Capulets were depicted metaphorically through the medium of Morris dancing. So it was integral to the production, the balloons were just peripheral. Oh my! Morris dancing with sticks instead of fighting? They got that, that isn't what the sticks are in morris dancing right? My only live seen R and J was that emo one at the globe with the fancy dress YMCA with a dancing dinosaur and a setup that meant you couldn't see the entire second half unless you were tall as they barricades the edge of the stage with giant flowers. So my experience would seem to fit in with others. I can remember reading it at school and thinking they were ridiculous for choosing to die for love, I clearly hadn't hit any great emotional heartbreak at that point. I quite liked the last rsc one when it was streamed last year, the one some critics got all excited as it was a 'diverse cast' which I think just meant the actor playing Romeo wasn't white. The Globe did some talks last year on race and mental health around the team that had been going to do R and J there which were very interesting. Looking at the use of language and race references in the text and around brain development in teens. Was quite insightful. But I suspect it's a play I'm never going to really like. |
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Post by Dawnstar on Jan 31, 2021 13:28:40 GMT
Thank you for these wonderful memories guys. You know, I have not seen a really good R&J; maybe the David Tennant one back in the dark ages.. Does the MacMillan ballet count? Because I love that. (I've never actually seen the play live.) |
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Post by ceebee on Jan 31, 2021 13:42:39 GMT
I saw a good RSC R&J many years ago with Julian Glover as Friar Lawrence - think it was the Adrian Noble era. Enjoyed it very much. Good old days - teh company is unrecognisable from the company I used to watch regularly in the 1990s.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jan 31, 2021 13:50:38 GMT
Thank you for these wonderful memories guys. You know, I have not seen a really good R&J; maybe the David Tennant one back in the dark ages.. Does the MacMillan ballet count? Because I love that. (I've never actually seen the play live.) I'm going to say no it doesn't count. Soz! I do remember a thread about which was better original or adaption. I think most agreed that West Side story and Kiss me kate beat the originals |
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Post by Jan on Jan 31, 2021 18:16:26 GMT
Does the MacMillan ballet count? Because I love that. (I've never actually seen the play live.) I'm going to say no it doesn't count. Soz! I do remember a thread about which was better original or adaption. I think most agreed that West Side story and Kiss me kate beat the originals "Merry Wives of Windsor" and the Vaughan Williams opera "Sir John in Love": Both equally poor. But, switching media, "Apocalypse Now" is better than "Heart of Darkness". |
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Post by bordeaux on Feb 1, 2021 11:48:08 GMT
I'm going to say no it doesn't count. Soz! I do remember a thread about which was better original or adaption. I think most agreed that West Side story and Kiss me kate beat the originals "Merry Wives of Windsor" and the Vaughan Williams opera "Sir John in Love": Both equally poor. But, switching media, "Apocalypse Now" is better than "Heart of Darkness". Verdi's Falstaff vastly superior to Merry Wives. |
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Post by Cleo on Feb 7, 2021 12:55:24 GMT
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Post by TallPaul on Feb 7, 2021 16:41:44 GMT
At least the Garfield Weston Foundation still likes the RSC. Of the little over £30 million in grants announced earlier this week, £750,000 was awarded to the RSC. That's the same as the Globe, but only half what the National Theatre was awarded. There isn't even a branch of Primark in Stratford!
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Post by lynette on Feb 8, 2021 14:21:18 GMT
So the Dream isn’t the play then? Must admit I am a little confused.
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