2,345 posts
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Post by zahidf on Oct 8, 2021 9:27:36 GMT
Ralph Fiennes will lead a new play by David Hare at the Bridge Theatre, titled Straight Line Crazy.
With designs by Bob Crawley and casting by Robert Sterne, the show will see Fiennes play influential New York Official Robert Moses, who cast a long shadow over the city's politics.
Nicholas Hytner will direct the piece, which runs from 16 March to 18 June 2022. Further cast and creatives are to be revealed.
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4,950 posts
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Post by TallPaul on Oct 8, 2021 9:54:52 GMT
In the words of Brenda of Bristol, "Not another one!"
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Post by talkingheads on Oct 8, 2021 10:11:47 GMT
One of my favourite clips of Fiennes is his extract of Pravda on the NT 50th DVD, this looks quite similar in tone so I'll book to see a matinee.
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Post by Jan on Oct 8, 2021 10:31:56 GMT
Ralph Fiennes will lead a new play by David Hare at the Bridge Theatre, titled Straight Line Crazy. With designs by Bob Crawley and casting by Robert Sterne, the show will see Fiennes play influential New York Official Robert Moses, who cast a long shadow over the city's politics. Nicholas Hytner will direct the piece, which runs from 16 March to 18 June 2022. Further cast and creatives are to be revealed. Bob Crowley I suppose - a great designer. Obviously this is just a try-out for Broadway. |
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Post by londonpostie on Oct 8, 2021 10:56:30 GMT
Beat The Devil - the piece they did together between lockdowns - stays with you like long Covid.
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404 posts
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Post by dlevi on Oct 8, 2021 15:23:23 GMT
This is clearly an attempt at another Pravda and for that I say: More power to them! Let's hope Sir David is fired up about this subject matter and creating a role for a great actor. To me his recent plays: "I'm Not Running" and "The Moderate Soprano" have felt tired.
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Post by Jan on Oct 8, 2021 15:41:30 GMT
This is clearly an attempt at another Pravda and for that I say: More power to them! Let's hope Sir David is fired up about this subject matter and creating a role for a great actor. To me his recent plays: "I'm Not Running" and "The Moderate Soprano" have felt tired. Pravda - which I didn’t much like when it opened , the biggest laugh was for a wooden model of a walking dog - was at least relevant to a UK audience and satarised some characters a UK audience would recognise. This is about New York and some character we’ve never heard of. Hare is obsessed by USA - even when he adapted a book by Georges Simenon he managed to choose the one out of hundreds set in USA. It makes his intemperate opposition to Brexit somewhat puzzling - Europe doesn’t seem to interest him much at all. |
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Post by justsaying113 on Oct 8, 2021 16:57:10 GMT
Oh Lord, more of Mr Hare preaching to us all. A once great playwright who's lost it!
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Post by alexandra on Oct 8, 2021 17:40:39 GMT
This is clearly an attempt at another Pravda and for that I say: More power to them! Let's hope Sir David is fired up about this subject matter and creating a role for a great actor. To me his recent plays: "I'm Not Running" and "The Moderate Soprano" have felt tired. Pravda - which I didn’t much like when it opened , the biggest laugh was for a wooden model of a walking dog - was at least relevant to a UK audience and satarised some characters a UK audience would recognise. This is about New York and some character we’ve never heard of. Hare is obsessed by USA - even when he adapted a book by Georges Simenon he managed to choose the one out of hundreds set in USA. It makes his intemperate opposition to Brexit somewhat puzzling - Europe doesn’t seem to interest him much at all. Rather odd post. Enron and the Lehman Trilogy were both American stories, and rather more successful here than in the US. Why shouldn’t we be interested in people we don’t recognise? Not saying it’s bound to be good, far from it, but the subject interests me. |
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Post by altamont on Oct 8, 2021 18:42:07 GMT
Moses is a fascinating character - largely responsible for the way New York City looks today, for good and ill. He was a major component of Ric Burns' (brother of Ken Burns) documentary series "New York" 20 years or so ago. This could be a great part for Fiennes.
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Post by Jan on Oct 8, 2021 18:42:08 GMT
Pravda - which I didn’t much like when it opened , the biggest laugh was for a wooden model of a walking dog - was at least relevant to a UK audience and satarised some characters a UK audience would recognise. This is about New York and some character we’ve never heard of. Hare is obsessed by USA - even when he adapted a book by Georges Simenon he managed to choose the one out of hundreds set in USA. It makes his intemperate opposition to Brexit somewhat puzzling - Europe doesn’t seem to interest him much at all. Rather odd post. Enron and the Lehman Trilogy were both American stories, and rather more successful here than in the US. Why shouldn’t we be interested in people we don’t recognise? Not saying it’s bound to be good, far from it, but the subject interests me. I'd be more interested in a play set in Germany or France or Italy - British subsidised theatre acts as if we're a mere colony of the USA. |
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Post by theoracle on Oct 8, 2021 19:28:09 GMT
I missed Beat The Devil so would be keen to see this. David Hare + Nicholas Hytner + Ralph Fiennes should be a winning trio on paper so was surprised by the reviews for the earlier production. Still, it sounds like an interesting topic and it'll be great to see the three working together. Does anyone know what the stage configuration will be? I can see first 2 previews are sold out already...
Also, do we know whats happened to Southbury Child? Would've thought Alex Jennings would still be keen to work at the Bridge.
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Post by jampot on Oct 9, 2021 0:23:52 GMT
I missed Beat The Devil so would be keen to see this. David Hare + Nicholas Hytner + Ralph Fiennes should be a winning trio on paper so was surprised by the reviews for the earlier production. Still, it sounds like an interesting topic and it'll be great to see the three working together. Does anyone know what the stage configuration will be? I can see first 2 previews are sold out already... Also, do we know whats happened to Southbury Child? Would've thought Alex Jennings would still be keen to work at the Bridge. Usual thrust stage. Interestingly the front two stalls rows aa bb are currently missing...Poss another reason first two nights are currently off sale.. |
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Post by lynette on Oct 9, 2021 14:43:57 GMT
There is a splendid series on New York by I think Ken Burns’ brother ( I apologise to both brothers ) in which they tell the story of the road planning etc. Amazing stuff. So should make a decent play
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Post by dlevi on Oct 11, 2021 8:31:48 GMT
Moses is a fascinating character - largely responsible for the way New York City looks today, for good and ill. He was a major component of Ric Burns' (brother of Ken Burns) documentary series "New York" 20 years or so ago. This could be a great part for Fiennes. Robert Moses is a fascinating character and in the upcoming remake of West Side Story is the unseen villain of the piece - destroying neighborhoods and making possible the economic divide that dominates NYC to this day. The Ric Burns documentary is really wonderful and there was a followup a couple of years later which was all about the World Trade Center from inception to destruction. |
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Post by altamont on Oct 11, 2021 9:19:43 GMT
Usual thrust stage. Interestingly the front two stalls rows aa bb are currently missing...Poss another reason first two nights are currently off sale.. Are the side front rows of the stalls on sale? They are usually £25 as I recall Thanks |
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503 posts
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Post by jampot on Oct 11, 2021 10:07:13 GMT
Usual thrust stage. Interestingly the front two stalls rows aa bb are currently missing...Poss another reason first two nights are currently off sale.. Are the side front rows of the stalls on sale? They are usually £25 as I recall Thanks They are indeed... |
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393 posts
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Post by altamont on Oct 11, 2021 11:06:10 GMT
Are the side front rows of the stalls on sale? They are usually £25 as I recall Thanks They are indeed... Thank you! |
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Post by mkb on Oct 11, 2021 15:53:53 GMT
I've booked two £25 side stalls seats. Oddly, the pricing key lists £15 seats for each level, but either they'd all gone by lunchtime, or they don't currently exist.
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1,319 posts
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Post by Dave B on Jan 27, 2022 14:47:05 GMT
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ppp
Auditioning
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Post by ppp on Mar 17, 2022 20:45:53 GMT
Any word of mouth on this?
Since, it began this week.
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1,093 posts
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Mar 17, 2022 22:44:04 GMT
I found it inexorably boring. Some decent jokes but lots of ludicrously long dialogue scenes. The second half is more interesting (reversing the order of the acts might be interesting). The woman sitting next to me was sound asleep during both halves!
There’s interesting stuff in it, about singular vision versus community, but there’s no real impetus, no single driving question, and no real stakes. The use of direct audience address to explain crucial plot elements felt tired, and I didn’t understand how one minor character who sporadically popped up to soliloquy about her life connected to the rest of the play.
Acting is decent (though no one seems to be playing their characters at 30 years older any differently) but Fiennes is just Fiennes.
Edit: the bit where someone, talking about Fiennes’ character, says: “He’s obsessed with building straight lines. He’s straight line crazy!” is almost beyond parody.
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Post by theatreman on Mar 19, 2022 2:04:11 GMT
Attended the Wednesday 16th performance. This was beyond boring. I can't understand why the heck Hare wrote this. Unlikable characters that didn't develop at all. Acting is good but no real confrontation or stakes in this. In the first part there was absolutely nothing happening. A real disappointment. People were leaving at the interval and those who stayed didn't seem impressed.
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Post by mrnutz on Mar 19, 2022 9:51:03 GMT
Oh no, I've got tickets for this in May 😭
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Post by theatremiss on Mar 19, 2022 9:59:41 GMT
Oh crapola, I’ve got a ticket for May and now with the price of train fares (more than my theatre ticket) I think I’ll have to really want to see this before I get on the train
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Mar 19, 2022 18:26:11 GMT
If you want to see this for cheap/free, I can recommend calling your local council and asking if you can observe the next urban planning meeting to discuss local road closures. It’s basically the exact same thing.
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Post by theatrefan77 on Mar 22, 2022 1:25:26 GMT
I enjoyed this. It's well acted and I found the story very interesting although the ending a bit unsatisfactory. Great set by Bob Crowley too.
Didn't know anything about Robert Moses before this play and I've been reading a bit more to understand how he became so powerful without being in office.
In the new West Side Story movie a banner protesting against Moses can be seen during a demonstration against evictions.
From Wikipedia: 'During the song "America", a group of Puerto Rican demonstrators appear, protesting their pending evictions, and one of them holds a sign condemning Robert Moses'
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 24, 2022 6:45:35 GMT
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Post by Jan on Mar 24, 2022 7:27:02 GMT
I can't understand why the heck Hare wrote this. Because he could. More interesting is why old Rigsby wanted to appear in it - promise of a Broadway transfer ? Just a guess. |
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Post by theatreman on Mar 25, 2022 23:37:09 GMT
I can't understand why the heck Hare wrote this. Because he could. More interesting is why old Rigsby wanted to appear in it - promise of a Broadway transfer ? Just a guess. Maybe he has committed to write the screenplay for Fiennes' next directorial effort. |
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