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Post by djdan14 on Apr 10, 2022 19:54:39 GMT
This is going into previews this week - anyone going?
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Post by Jon on Apr 10, 2022 20:09:43 GMT
This is now in previews - anyone going? It's not in previews until Tuesday as the first four previews were cancelled. |
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Post by Dave B on Apr 10, 2022 21:10:03 GMT
Middle of next month for us. The usual £20 front row seats and had to go quite a bit into the run to find 'em when booking opened.
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Post by teamyali on Apr 11, 2022 9:06:03 GMT
This is now in previews - anyone going? It's not in previews until Tuesday as the first four previews were cancelled. They cancelled the first four previews due to director Dominic Cooke getting COVID, then he had to do a virtual tech run while recovering. He just recovered in time for the Oliviers last night. |
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Post by djdan14 on Apr 13, 2022 20:45:47 GMT
Anyone been yet? Arrived in London today and see it quite heavily advertised on the underground. I’ve taken the plunge to book for Saturday
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Post by andrew on Apr 14, 2022 20:57:40 GMT
I'm waiting for the Theatreboard opinions to roll in before I book a ticket, so stung have I been by promising but ultimately rubbish National Theatre plays.
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Post by catcat100 on Apr 16, 2022 18:32:43 GMT
Really enjoyed this today.
Its a nice play which flows along quite nicely, its not one that has massive plot twists or will leave you in tears but its well done, very well acted and characters you believe in. So you end up leaving the theatre knowing that you've seen a good play. And there's some good welsh singing in there as well.
A good 4 stars from me.
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Post by Jon on Apr 16, 2022 22:41:52 GMT
Saw this tonight and it is a very solid play. Nicola Walker is great as Miss Moffatt but what I liked about the play is and I'll put it in spoilers to be safe The play has been reframed as a memory play with Gareth David Lloyd as Emlyn Williams constructing the play as it unfolds, it starts off with a bare set in Act 1 but by Act 2 it is a fully realised set. There is a moment in Act 2 where Emlyn stops the narrative in order to make changes which sounds weird but actually worked quite well. It's also made quite clear to the audience that the character of Morgan Evans is essentially a stand in for Emlyn himself. We had a 15 minute stop towards the end of the play due to an audience member falling ill but it ended at 2222 so not too bad a delay and the cast were able to pick up where they left off with ease. |
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Post by jampot on Apr 16, 2022 23:29:02 GMT
Saw this tonight and it is a very solid play. Nicola Walker is great as Miss Moffatt but what I liked about the play is and I'll put it in spoilers to be safe The play has been reframed as a memory play with Gareth David Lloyd as Emlyn Williams constructing the play as it unfolds, it starts off with a bare set in Act 1 but by Act 2 it is a fully realised set. There is a moment in Act 2 where Emlyn stops the narrative in order to make changes which sounds weird but actually worked quite well. It's also made quite clear to the audience that the character of Morgan Evans is essentially a stand in for Emlyn himself. We had a 15 minute stop towards the end of the play due to an audience member falling ill but it ended at 2222 so not too bad a delay and the cast were able to pick up where they left off with ease. Bizarre as something similar happened at the matinee... |
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Post by Jon on Apr 16, 2022 23:33:48 GMT
Bizarre as something similar happened at the matinee... The National must be prone to people falling ill! |
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Post by marob on Apr 16, 2022 23:36:05 GMT
Will have to try and catch this. The studio space at my local theatre is named after Emlyn Williams, with a bust of him outside, but I’ve never seen any of his plays.
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Post by Jon on Apr 20, 2022 19:04:26 GMT
I notice they have two performances that are being filmed, I wonder if it's for NT at Home or for archive purposes.
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Post by Being Alive on Apr 20, 2022 20:06:53 GMT
I notice they have two performances that are being filmed, I wonder if it's for NT at Home or for archive purposes. It's not on the upcoming slate that cinemas have received (we don't know from Sept onwards yet but I'd assume the Sept one would be the Katherine Parkinson Much Ado) |
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Post by dlevi on Apr 21, 2022 23:04:32 GMT
Saw this tonight and thought it was extremely satisfying. Dominic Cooke has found a way to frame the play so that it wasn't simply a revival of an old chestnut.A wonderful performance from Nicola Walker ( did we think she wouldn't be? ) a totally worthwhile and satisfying evening.
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Post by teamyali on Apr 22, 2022 5:53:20 GMT
I notice they have two performances that are being filmed, I wonder if it's for NT at Home or for archive purposes. I think NT answered a query about this on Twitter and they said they have plans for The Corn is Green to be in NT at Home, since no NT Live will happen. All of their shows have filmed performances that are in their archives now (their recent shows, Hex, Manor, Trouble in Mind, The Normal Heart, are all in their archives with filmed recordings. Even The Visit (the very long Lesley Manville play that was stopped by COVID) now has a recording available). Given the NT has a massive archive, how do the rest of the theatres preserve their archives? Does the Harold Pinter Theatre have a library of their previous shows? Where does the Almeida or Royal Court keep their files? |
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Post by kate8 on Apr 22, 2022 6:32:41 GMT
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Post by harry on Apr 23, 2022 7:53:51 GMT
Saw this tonight and thought it was extremely satisfying. Dominic Cooke has found a way to frame the play so that it wasn't simply a revival of an old chestnut.A wonderful performance from Nicola Walker ( did we think she wouldn't be? ) a totally worthwhile and satisfying evening. Yes, this is exactly how I felt. The things that are lovely about those “old chestnut” revivals are still lovely, and the production, staging and framing of the story manages to cut through elements that might seem especially dated, or theatrically abrupt. All the performances are great. There is a lot of humour and coupled with the relatively low stakes mean it’s a very warm, low stress, entertaining evening. Which might sound like damning with faint praise but I was genuinely moved and captivated throughout - I just mean I enjoyed not having to worry if someone was going to get stabbed or shot or beaten up at any moment! I’d never seen the play before but the story or some version of it has been told in multiple other plays and films down the years and it’s lovely to feel how this play has perhaps influenced them, and maybe how they in turn have influenced this production. All in all, very highly recommended. |
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Post by jek on Apr 23, 2022 8:16:28 GMT
We were there last night. I had no idea until we got there that it was press night. I think this skewed the audience in that it was much younger in the back half of the stalls where we were than I was expecting. There was lots of enthusiasm and a part standing ovation at the end as people saluted their friends in the cast. I'm old and knew the story well from repeated viewings of the film version with Bette Davis, which was one of those films that was regularly shown on BBC2 on Saturday afternoons in the 1970s. I also vaguely remember the Katherine Hepburn from 1979. You can see why, with a pedigree like that, Nicola Walker would want to take on the role. It was a treat to see her - the last time I saw her on stage was in The Curious Incident.
We did enjoy it but found the initial clever framing device to go on a bit too long (I felt a bit like I did once when I accidentally turned on audio description on my TV remote). We definitely enjoyed the second half more. I see it got a four star review in the Times and 5 stars in the Telegraph. I suspect it will be a winner in terms of getting audiences and the National must be thrilled about that. It was good to see the building back to its old buzzing self last night.
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Post by Rory on Apr 23, 2022 8:39:21 GMT
I think audiences have been starved of really classy, old school revivals so hopefully this will be a deserved big hit for the National (hurrah! It's been a while). Would love to see it.
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Post by kathryn on Apr 23, 2022 18:26:51 GMT
Really enjoyed this today! In fact I think it’s the best thing I’ve seen at the NT for ages.
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Post by fossil on Apr 24, 2022 16:14:02 GMT
Middle of next month for us. The usual £20 front row seats and had to go quite a bit into the run to find 'em when booking opened. If you have front row seats they may be changed. There is an extension to the front of the stage that overhangs all of the front row except for four of five seats at each end of the row so only these seats were occupied. I had a centre front seat for yesterday's matinee which the box office upgraded to an excellent centre stalls seat in the main block which I regard as a very good result for me. As for the play. I enjoyed it. The performances are excellent but I found the framing device somewhat irritating at times. |
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Post by showgirl on Apr 25, 2022 3:51:26 GMT
I saw this at Saturday's matinee and though I can see it was a good production (and very enthusiastically applauded at the end), it seemed inconsistent and did not cohere. Nicola Walker, of whom I'd heard but had never seen in anything, seemed either to be in a different play or to have been put there solely to show up and mock the other characters - speaking quickly, dashing about, running rings round everyone else for most of the time and relentlessly "modern" in all she said and did. I know this was partly the point and I haven't the advantage of reading the book to see how true to it this interpretation was but even her speaking style seemed anachronistic for the period setting. The squire, though entertaining, was a complete cariacature as was Miss Ronberry as the disappointed spinster, whilst Bessie Watty wouldn't have been out of place in an Oscar Wilde play. So a curate's egg but I'm glad to have had the opportunity to see it and clearly in this the NT appears to have the hit which it needs.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2022 21:42:12 GMT
I’d really like to see this, but the NT seem to still be insisting on masks in the auditorium and I find them very uncomfortable to wear for long periods (for various reasons I won’t bore you with, as I don’t want to derail the thread).
If you’ve seen this play recently, can you please give me a sense of what mask compliance is like among the audience so I know whether I can risk booking? Eg 25%, 50%, 95%…?
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Post by Jon on Apr 26, 2022 21:44:38 GMT
I’d really like to see this, but the NT seem to still be insisting on masks in the auditorium and I find them very uncomfortable to wear for long periods (for various reasons I won’t bore you with, as I don’t want to derail the thread). If you’ve seen this play recently, can you please give me a sense of what mask compliance is like among the audience so I know whether I can risk booking? Eg 25%, 50%, 95%…? The mask mandate wasn't enforced when I went. |
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Post by justinj on Apr 26, 2022 23:11:05 GMT
I’d really like to see this, but the NT seem to still be insisting on masks in the auditorium and I find them very uncomfortable to wear for long periods (for various reasons I won’t bore you with, as I don’t want to derail the thread). If you’ve seen this play recently, can you please give me a sense of what mask compliance is like among the audience so I know whether I can risk booking? Eg 25%, 50%, 95%…? Went tonight, bar a couple of signs there was nothing to suggest you need to wear a mask. I’d say about 5% of the audience were wearing masks, maybe less. |
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