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Post by Jan on Oct 29, 2021 12:33:29 GMT
Bring Godwin back from US Godwin is an interesting case. He's the one very good Shakespeare director who you could say emerged at the RSC during Doran's reign. His production of Two Gentlemen of Verona at RST in 2014 was critically acclaimed. It did a limited run and they didn't transfer it. Two years later they had him back to direct Hamlet in 2016, again critically highly-acclaimed, they didn't transfer it but in 2018 he restaged it for a tour. In 2018 he directed a limited run of Timon of Athens in the Swan. It didn't transfer or tour in UK. In 2020 he restaged it in USA. So, in 7 years he's only directed three times for them and had one of those productions in London for three weeks. However, he's also directed Shakespeare three times for the NT in that period with Twelfth Night (2017), Antony and Cleopatra (2018) and Romeo & Juliet (2021) (all with strong casts). Even though the NT stage very little Shakespeare he's directed as much for them as for RSC. It's hard to escape the conclusion he's been poorly served by the RSC and well-served by the NT. How come the RSC didn't lock him into a long contract and let him direct two productions a year ? What is also odd is that this isn't an isolated case. Christopher Luscombe directed a highly-praised pairing of Much Ado and Love's Labours in 2014 at RST which they didn't transfer. Three years later he restaged it at Chichester and in the West End. In 2017 he directed Twelfth Night for them. Again, three plays in 7 years for a director who had great success with them. --- Jamie Lloyd is an interesting call for Doran's successor. I think he's a far better producer than he is a director - he can attract big names - that Pinter season he staged was remarkable for the commercial sector - maybe he's who they need if the ensemble approach is dead. |
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Post by oxfordsimon on Oct 29, 2021 14:30:19 GMT
As long as Lloyd is banned from using handheld microphones in any production. I don't want Shakespeare shouted at me
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Post by lynette on Oct 29, 2021 17:14:27 GMT
Christopher Luscombe is a very steady Shakespeare director. Spot on, gimmickless but good concept. I also wondered why not more from him. Tbh I can live without the edgy directors who go for hammering home a message and lots of Perspex. You know what I mean. I would like more Shakespeare, followed by Shakespeare with the occasional contemporary of Shakespeare 😁
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Post by Jan on Oct 29, 2021 19:26:47 GMT
Christopher Luscombe is a very steady Shakespeare director. Spot on, gimmickless but good concept. I also wondered why not more from him. Tbh I can live without the edgy directors who go for hammering home a message and lots of Perspex. You know what I mean. I would like more Shakespeare, followed by Shakespeare with the occasional contemporary of Shakespeare 😁 There should be room at the RSC for both types of director. The Robert Icke Hamlet was a Perspex production and better than the vast majority of the RSC’s recent plodding efforts. |
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Post by Dawnstar on Oct 29, 2021 20:28:23 GMT
Christopher Luscombe is a very steady Shakespeare director. Spot on, gimmickless but good concept. I also wondered why not more from him. Tbh I can live without the edgy directors who go for hammering home a message and lots of Perspex. You know what I mean. I would like more Shakespeare, followed by Shakespeare with the occasional contemporary of Shakespeare 😁 I really enjoyed his Love's Labours Lost (only time I've seen the piece) & Much Ado (which is my favourite Shakespeare). I saw them when they transferred to the West End though, having never been to Stratford. Judging by the direction this thread indicates the RSC has gone in, it looks like I'll never be going to Stratford! I agree about the perspex. If I'm going to spend 3 hours looking at a stage then I'd like it to look nice. |
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Post by ceebee on Oct 29, 2021 22:00:23 GMT
Christopher Luscombe is a very steady Shakespeare director. Spot on, gimmickless but good concept. I also wondered why not more from him. Tbh I can live without the edgy directors who go for hammering home a message and lots of Perspex. You know what I mean. I would like more Shakespeare, followed by Shakespeare with the occasional contemporary of Shakespeare 😁 Though Luscombe's "Love's Labours Lost" borrowed heavily from Ian Judge's landmark production in the 1990s even carrying forward some of the musical themes and blocking. |
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Post by oxfordsimon on Oct 30, 2021 0:15:34 GMT
The Luscombe LLL was strong. Melancholic and joyous where needed. His Much Ado was clunky and clumsy. It had a lovely set but it stopped there. The structure of the country house society didn't work. The humour was too slapstick. And the Dogberry more painful than usual. My feeling was he lavished all the love and time on LLL thinking that Much Ado could take care of itself. They didn't work together as intended.
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Post by Jan on Oct 30, 2021 10:10:08 GMT
And the Dogberry more painful than usual. Disagree. I thought Dogberry was the absolute highlight of both productions. In all other productions I've seen he's just a standard-issue comic character, but here suggesting his stumbles and verbal tics were because he had shell-shock/PTSD from the recently ended WW-I introduced a new dimension to the character and made the humour quite uncomfortable. The concept and setting for those two productions was set by Doran before he'd even hired a director. Same for that Romans season where he specified they had to be sword 'n' sandals productions that went out of fashion in the 1950s. Even when he's not directing himself he's still directing - not sure many high-profile directors would like that if they worked there. On Perspex - remember that Terry Hands/Derek Jacobi Much Ado, Cavaliers vs Roundheads, where the floor and wall panels were black reflective perspex that the characters used as mirrors - emphasised it was a world of vanity and self-regard. |
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Post by oxfordsimon on Oct 30, 2021 10:22:46 GMT
I could see that was the intention with that Dogberry but it was not played well enough to convince me. It felt like a parody rather than something authentic.
Convey a serious mental health issue through comedy needs a more nuanced approach than it was given. It felt imposed on the text rather than growing from it.
Just shows how we all take something different from performances. It might have been different in the Chichester revival. But for press night in Stratford it was clunky
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Post by Jan on Oct 30, 2021 15:23:47 GMT
I could see that was the intention with that Dogberry but it was not played well enough to convince me. It felt like a parody rather than something authentic. Convey a serious mental health issue through comedy needs a more nuanced approach than it was given. It felt imposed on the text rather than growing from it. Just shows how we all take something different from performances. It might have been different in the Chichester revival. But for press night in Stratford it was clunky In the strange way the RSC operates I saw it 2+ years after you after it had been restaged so maybe it was different - same actor though. I thought it was well done - I’m generally more doubtful about how mental health issues are handled by modern directors in dramas of the era rather than comedies, who doesn’t feel a twinge of embarrassment as the madhouse scene in The Duchess of Malfi hoves into view. |
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Post by lynette on Oct 30, 2021 17:54:54 GMT
Shakespeare does madness very well. With Malvolio he shows up the terrible treatment madness endured. With whatsisname in Measure for Measure he shows how madness can indeed be sanity when he refuses to be executed though this is not madness in same way, it is treated as such. Hamlet shows us that madness can be a way towards understanding and also misinterpreted again.Ophelia shows us a true nervous breakdown and the horror of it. And what about Othello, driven ‘mad’ ? And there must be more but Strictly is about to start and there are priorities.
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Post by lynette on Oct 30, 2021 17:57:52 GMT
The Luscombe LLL was strong. Melancholic and joyous where needed. His Much Ado was clunky and clumsy. It had a lovely set but it stopped there. The structure of the country house society didn't work. The humour was too slapstick. And the Dogberry more painful than usual. My feeling was he lavished all the love and time on LLL thinking that Much Ado could take care of itself. They didn't work together as intended. I’ve never seen a good Dogberry. I think of all of our Willie, we have lost this one, different side of a sense of humour. He is there to show us the integrity of lower borns as opposed to the aristos, nice popular concept. |
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Post by Jan on Oct 30, 2021 20:57:08 GMT
The Luscombe LLL was strong. Melancholic and joyous where needed. His Much Ado was clunky and clumsy. It had a lovely set but it stopped there. The structure of the country house society didn't work. The humour was too slapstick. And the Dogberry more painful than usual. My feeling was he lavished all the love and time on LLL thinking that Much Ado could take care of itself. They didn't work together as intended. I’ve never seen a good Dogberry. I think of all of our Willie, we have lost this one, different side of a sense of humour. He is there to show us the integrity of lower borns as opposed to the aristos, nice popular concept. Christopher Benjamin was perfect in the Terry Hands version at the Barbican - I think the part was recast for the transfer so he wasn’t in Stratford. He played it again later in the Greg Doran one I think. |
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Post by Dave B on Nov 15, 2021 15:08:55 GMT
Just received this from TodayTix - we are going on Monday next week.
Sales must be slow..
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Post by cirque on Nov 15, 2021 15:33:45 GMT
I think the recent RSC posts on this board help explain.
No real interest anymore by many previous audiences.
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Post by TallPaul on Nov 15, 2021 15:55:59 GMT
Any free of charge upgrade is, of course, to be welcomed, and physical tickets too, but I'm slightly disappointed that TodayTix weren't 'reaching out'. 🙂
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Post by Jan on Nov 17, 2021 14:50:13 GMT
I was a bit puzzled by the RSC marketing line for the Barbican "Comedy of Errors" "directed by Phillip Breen the master of comedy" or some such because I've never seen a comedy directed by him. I checked and he's directed four comedies for them prior to this including what Michael Billington said was the best "Merry Wives of Windsor" he's ever seen. But as far as I can see not a single one of those productions played outside Stratford. Which is fine (though maybe not for Phillip Breen) but that marketing message is going to be very ineffective for a London audience. Did they not consider this ? In the absence of any well-known actors in it I suppose their options were limited.
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Post by lynette on Nov 18, 2021 0:04:24 GMT
I was a bit puzzled by the RSC marketing line for the Barbican "Comedy of Errors" "directed by Phillip Breen the master of comedy" or some such because I've never seen a comedy directed by him. I checked and he's directed four comedies for them prior to this including what Michael Billington said was the best "Merry Wives of Windsor" he's ever seen. But as far as I can see not a single one of those productions played outside Stratford. Which is fine (though maybe not for Phillip Breen) but that marketing message is going to be very ineffective for a London audience. Did they not consider this ? In the absence of any well-known actors in it I suppose their options were limited. Which Merry Wives was it? If it was the one with the hairdresser scene, then yes, pretty good. If not, then meh |
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Post by Jan on Nov 18, 2021 7:15:47 GMT
I was a bit puzzled by the RSC marketing line for the Barbican "Comedy of Errors" "directed by Phillip Breen the master of comedy" or some such because I've never seen a comedy directed by him. I checked and he's directed four comedies for them prior to this including what Michael Billington said was the best "Merry Wives of Windsor" he's ever seen. But as far as I can see not a single one of those productions played outside Stratford. Which is fine (though maybe not for Phillip Breen) but that marketing message is going to be very ineffective for a London audience. Did they not consider this ? In the absence of any well-known actors in it I suppose their options were limited. Which Merry Wives was it? If it was the one with the hairdresser scene, then yes, pretty good. If not, then meh No (that one was directed by Bill Alexander). It was this one in 2012 which entirely passed me by. www.phillipbreen.com/merry-wives-windsor |
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Post by lynette on Nov 18, 2021 15:51:35 GMT
Which Merry Wives was it? If it was the one with the hairdresser scene, then yes, pretty good. If not, then meh No (that one was directed by Bill Alexander). It was this one in 2012 which entirely passed me by. www.phillipbreen.com/merry-wives-windsorI must have seen it but can’t remember it. I can only remember a couple of Merry Wiveses.. |
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Post by zahidf on Nov 20, 2021 10:05:38 GMT
10 pound todaytix rush seats available for this
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Post by Jan on Nov 20, 2021 13:17:41 GMT
10 pound todaytix rush seats available for this Does anyone know if they are doing day seats for this ? |
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Post by ceebee on Nov 20, 2021 18:58:18 GMT
10 pound todaytix rush seats available for this Does anyone know if they are doing day seats for this ? £10 rush via TodayTix and in person at box office. |
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Post by Dave B on Nov 23, 2021 8:41:43 GMT
We went last night. Moved up from cheap seats in the now closed gallery to the not so cheap seats, almost front and centre row E (right next to a couple of Rush ticket customers), so that seems even more worth the £10.
Thoroughly enjoyed it, in no small part due to the cast clearly having a ball and excellent performances all around. It does embrace the physical comedy, tottering over into almost pantomime at times but also nicely manages the.. smaller moments isn't the right phrase but I'm blanking.. like when Antipholus is locked out from his own house, there is strong visual and physical comedy but it does the absurdity (and shock, anger, fear) just as well.
A lot of empty seats last night, couldn't quite make out the higher levels but a number of stalls seats around us. A big contrast from the last time at the Barbican where the queues to get in for Anything Goes snaked around the lobby! A shame, I would expect strong reviews and hope that will help fill them up a bit.
Anyways, in short - jump on £10 Rush or Day tickets.
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Post by dlevi on Dec 3, 2021 6:10:37 GMT
Saw this last night in a house that was maybe a 1/4 full.I'm sorry to say that I found it rather pathetic. The actors seemed game enough but the fact is that Phillip Breen's overall concept (if that's what it was) was a mish-mash of half thought-out ideas which failed to coalesce around a central thought - not even something as basic as "being funny" or "reveal the dark under current of the different classes of society living together under the rigid laws of Ephesus". Because the concept wasn't unified, the design unclear and the enthusiastic actors completely at sea on the vast Barbican stage, it all seemed to exemplify the deep deep trouble the RSC are in. I wouldn't be surprised if this run is cut short ( the way Wolf Hall 3 was).
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