Troilus and Cressida RSC

What a pleasure.

Apart from the post apocalyptic setting there was very little else to get in the way of the play, letting the text carry the play, the least you can expect but very rarely get with the popular plays a the Director has to to do his/her thing.

And the text, god Shakespeare was having fun, as close to linguistic jazz you can get, the interplay, rhetoric and just plain fun with words was exceptional.

All the ensemble cast were excellent, the puppet master Ulysses pulls the strings, a petulant Achilles is played and Pandarus brings the levity as he plays cupid, his introduction to the main players was a comic masterclass.

As learfan says only a short run, well worth the effort to see a little performed Shakespeare play, if it ever makes its way to London would see again in an instant.

I still like this play. War, sex, betrayal, satire, what's not to like? Casting women as some of the main usually male characters changed the angle a bit for me. I don’t think that making women actors act like men is helping the cause so to speak. They shouted their way though this. Yet there are other women on the stage who are being the usual regular gals in floaty dresses. So you are either a wimp or a warrior. But actually Shakespeare wrote three women in this play, Helen, powerless hostage, Cassandra to whom nobody listens and Cressida who is absolutely up front and honest and then has to play the game to survive. It is a man's world and a terrible, foolish, violent one. Cressida is something new, different even from say Juliet or Beatrice. She is the moral heart of the play. And she is crushed. Yes, maybe WH did have a bad experience with his Greek class. If you've been to the grammar school in Stratford it is quite understandable.

Super set, remarkable music. Good performances all round even with the shouting. Oliver Ford Davies really good. He speaks the text naturally but with the beats all in the right places, a masterclass. A bit long....could have benefited from a cut here and there. Nobody would have noticed, Greg.

Could it be that the Wooster Group production has actually hindered sales for this production? It is said that you are only as good as your last show - and so people who heard of that production were put off from giving this one a try? It is very hard to research why people don't buy tickets - as you don't know who to target. But it would be interesting to find out. This is a limited run with a reasonably high profile RSC cast of a rarely performed play - it should be doing ok on that basis alone.

It’s a lesser known Shakespeare play, it’s in Stratford, it’s not a school set text, it’s November so not the tourist season, and it’s on the main stage. Have they ever had more than 75% in those circumstances ?

I thought of seeing this on its cinema broadcast but my nearest option (Notting Hill) wanted to charge me £20. Seems very steep when you can presumably see the real thing for £10 on a day ticket. Is £20 the going rate for those broadcasts ?

This is a good production....certainly worth seeing as it will possibly be the last time such a title is seen on Main Stage.

They are virtually giving tickets away and thats sad for such good work but,in all honesty,RSC have headed out on collision course with their audience by clearly stating that the young generation are their target and the older and,of course,long time loyal audiences are disliked.RSC needs to cater across the ages and perhaps try to pull back those who have abandoned them in dismay.

Troilus works as does Tamburlaine.....fine work but simply not selling at all.

Do feel Greg needs to reinstall his passion and leadership-seems now that Erica Whyman is Artistic Director and Greg doing the odd passion project.

Who knows ?

The situation for them in London is even worse as they have no core audience left at all and there isn’t a single thing they put on that you can’t buy a discounted stalls ticket for around £10 for - including things that in the past would have sold out like the current Macbeth. I think in the last decade the only thing I couldn’t get a discounted ticket for was the Russell-Beale “Tempest”.

What were the mad max bits? I had no idea.

There you go again. They arent in their 80s ffs!

Ok, thanks.

Clearly branded as Mad Max take but apart from token bikes etc at start nothing else really.A big problem for theatre trying to hook young audiences is attempting to play their way-music,games,fashion etc...but-of course-their world is constantly changing so that the fluidity makes so called contemporary look dated very quickly.Same with rhythms and styles of speech.....what theatre can do is play the timelessness of work like this so that audiences can do their own joining up.You can be contemporary without selecting once thought popular images.Theatre will not replicate their world but can open up perspectives.I do believe this is the RSC trap.

Maria Ahberg's club settings reflect a rather dated type of club...the greatest resource is the power of the actor without falling back on 'nudge nudge'imagery.

Troilus shows RSC can create work of importance and value....yet,this looks dated as the Mad Max trailer from 1985 above shows and apocalyptic settings get tiresome.....I would love to see this Troilus in rehearsal clothes as a one off.Stripped of the visuals may well be very revealing.

Contemporary realisations can work..Icke/Scott Hamlet,Van Hove Roman Tragedies/Kings of War......RSC do not have right now a pool of directors or list of guests that are comfortable with the process.That's why so often it all feels just wrong.Does the use of school groups as Prologue in Romeo at Barbican illuminate the play..? I don't think so....

I think bravery is needed by RSC....brave to take their house dramatist and explore for everyone,without the tagline young people must understand everything. How many of us at 15 got it...its a growth process.

Dont want to seem preachy because that gets into RSC territory but do want to see this company as world leaders again which,right now,seems a long way off.