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Post by Forrest on Oct 21, 2021 13:01:49 GMT
schuttep , you make an excellent point on plays and sadness! However, I am in chaos between things I'm doing at the moment, so instead of replying properly I will just leave this here, in case you are not already familiar with it: "Air" was part of The Lockdown Plays podcast - a theatre podcast done by Tom Mothersdale, Wilf Scolding and Anoushka Warden during lockdown. It was read by Mothersdale and Lydia Wilson and it is wonderful. It's not exactly like seeing it on stage, but it's the next best thing, I guess. The podcast was hosted on Acast, but it's not there any more. It might be worth checking out Apple Podcasts, though, it might still be available there, it used to (I'd check, but I have a MacBook bought elsewhere so I cannot access the GB podcasts store).
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Post by londonpostie on Oct 22, 2021 22:13:36 GMT
This finishes tomorrow but managed to catch it on the way back from Lidl (read: massive detour). Unless barking up the wrong tree, I was onto Churchill early on this occasion. In fact it was a shame in so much I was gearing up for the next level when things went dark and it was time to file out. Anyway ... {Spoiler - click to view} I presume the Woman/Apple of his eye was wearing a green dress at every performance?
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Post by Forrest on Oct 23, 2021 9:04:26 GMT
I can confirm she did on the night I was there, londonpostie . Now I'm curious to know why you are asking! And yes, it is short, but sorry to hear it was too short for you. I thought it was really well rounded, although perhaps more captivating as a masterclass in writing and attention to detail than surprising in terms of where it went. As a bit of an off topic side note, I enjoyed Bassett's performance in "What if..." a tiny bit more than Heffernan's, only to have him completely sweep me off my feet in Maryland a week later. It was a rehearsed script reading but he'd done it before that same week, and he was clearly fully in character: and he was just superb!
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Post by londonpostie on Oct 23, 2021 9:21:12 GMT
@forrest , I've started writing notes on new works again. I find it very difficult to aviod pretention - I'm just a crap amateur but this is what I noted this morning >>
{Spoiler - click to view} I adored the visceral emotional intensity and honesty of this 1 Act, 16-minute reflection on grief and moving forward. It comes as we stagger through the societal carnage of, what will shortly become, 2-years of living and dying with Covid.
We start with a monologue delivered from the kitchen table as a man nibbles at his meal. He is aghast at the idea of someone spending ten years painting a perfect picture of an apple, and then spending the next seven trying to paint the exact opposite of an apple. Imagines that, he cries.
He is then presented with a vision, not in the biblical sense and distinct from ghost in the popular sense. It’s something like a person, perhaps sharing a vague – very vague – likeness with his partner.
What then emerges is perhaps for individual interpretation. For me, dear reader, it seemed He had spent so long grieving that his deceased partner, in this moment, develops form, some dimension. Is this a - frankly overdue - coping mechanism; after seven years was he conversing with his own subconscious through the powerful memory of his partner ..
There will come an answer, let it be, let it be.
The vision – wearing an apple-coloured dress - presents the idea of Her always being with Him – in his present, in memory – but him also choosing a future, from the thousands he might, with someone else. And if He so chooses, because he is still young, that future might include becoming father to a son.
In the opening monologue, it seems we don’t learn what happens after the ten years of painting and seven years of erasure. But we probably do; the Vision’s arrival is perhaps the start of Act 3 of that monologue.
Perhaps, also, in order to move forward as a society we must first choose to move forward individually, bearing our pain, choosing life.
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2,389 posts
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Post by peggs on Oct 23, 2021 21:36:33 GMT
I had not made that connect londonpostie so now I'm going oooohhh. Picked a copy up of the script today at the national, obviously didn't it since I failed to do so for a third of the price last week, and reminded myself how it ends. When I think when i've sat through things for hours that struggled to say anything it's amazing what this packs in. What a talent.
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Post by cavocado on Oct 24, 2021 8:53:26 GMT
I've ordered a copy of the playscript after reading this thread, especially londonpostie's thoughts. I loved this play, but I think there was a lot that didn't register with me, so it's been really interesting reading different people's interpretations. I really wish they were streaming it and I could watch again.
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Post by londonpostie on Oct 24, 2021 19:12:32 GMT
have to say I'm somewhat tempted to buy the playtext. I remember his first, spooken-out-loud monologue (apples), but the later one, where he was probably arguing with himself through Her, I don't recall well.
Also, perhaps it doesn't matter, but if anyone has a view on whether she died or just left him (i.e. the relationship died) then that would be interesting .. fwiw, I think we are led in one direction, however ...
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411 posts
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Post by schuttep on Nov 12, 2021 13:46:28 GMT
I always buy the playtext at the Royal Court because they're so cheap. Then if I want to treat it as an ephemeral programme, I can throw it away (relax, fellow serious theatre-goers, I never have yet!)
This one was £3. Actually, if you're a RC member and bought the playtext at the Samual French bookstall, you got it for £2.70, as I did.. A 10% reduction on all purchases at the SF bookstall with RC membership: bargain!
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Post by cavocado on Nov 12, 2021 14:58:33 GMT
I always buy the playtext at the Royal Court because they're so cheap. Then if I want to treat it as an ephemeral programme, I can throw it away (relax, fellow serious theatre-goers, I never have yet!) This one was £3. Actually, if you're a RC member and bought the playtext at the Samual French bookstall, you got it for £2.70, as I did.. A 10% reduction on all purchases at the SF bookstall with RC membership: bargain! Thanks for this. I'm a member but I'd never noticed there was a discount in the bookstall. Just checked the website and there's also a discount in the bar. How do they know? Do they check you against their database when you pay?
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411 posts
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Post by schuttep on Nov 13, 2021 11:33:27 GMT
You show your membeship card (available from the box office).
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