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Post by jadnoop on Jul 2, 2018 22:08:02 GMT
Wow. I'm still reeling from this.
It's definitely not for everyone. Abrasive, in-your-face, and very American. A fair few people walked out fairly early on, or didn't return at the interval. However, it really blew me away with its inventiveness, heart, and humour that managed to make you cringe, think, and laugh, often all at once.
Im sure I missed a fair few of the layers, in-jokes, and meta commentary. However, the one thing that stumped me was a choice about midway through the second act to show an image. No spoilers, but when this moment occurred it was like the entire audience drew breath. After 3/4s of a play sliding between silly humour and thought-provoking sincerity, you could've heard a pin drop. It felt like a fantastic, sobering culmination to a wonderful evening. So it felt slightly strange to return to another ~20 mins of story and light-hearted humour, after such a serious moment.
All in all, this is another wonderful play at the Dorfman. Five stars. It makes me regret missing Gloria, which I hope is revived somewhere in London soon.
If I wasn't seeing Roger Waters I'd get tickets to see the playwright interview on Friday.
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Post by jadnoop on Jun 23, 2018 23:34:25 GMT
Just came out of tonight's performance, and I'm not really sure quite what I thought of it.
I agree with some of the comments here: Rather than being lazy, my feeling was that the main character was someone with limited freedom or agency (controlled by the males in her life [boss, husband, doctor, lawyer, priest] as well as the expectations of her mother), feelings that were amplified by suffering from serious depression /mental problems.
Its interesting to see the comments about domestic abuse, both here and in the programme. I didn't see anything that definitively screamed '(physical) abuse' from the husband. He was certainly someone full of himself, and taking full advantage of his position in society, but I wasn't entirely sure if he was just too stupid to see his wife's problems, or if he saw them and didn't care. There was a line that I half-caught (something about him liking to see her shake when he went to touch her(?)), which might suggest the latter, but given that the play seemed to be entirely from her subjective experience, I wasn't clear if this was supposed to be an objective truth.
For me, I found the visuals hit and miss. The style appeared to aim for Terry Gilliam's Brazil or Orson Welles' The Trial, especially in the second scene in an office, but I'm not sure it ever really achieved those heights. Cinema can be so good at placing the viewer in the mind of a character, in large part because it has complete control over point of view, effects and sound. Here though, it didn't quite work for me. The background sounds in particular (drills, rain, trains, etc) didn't seem to overwhelm and oppress in the way that she clearly experienced it. The overall result felt like you were distanced from, rather than immersed in, the protagonists viewpoint.
The acting also seemed hit and miss. The main lady was great, as was her lover, but some others didn't quite ring true for me. In particular, the scene in the bar seemed to have some fairly iffy accents.
All in all, probably only 3 stars for me, but it was certainly a thought-provoking trip to the theatre. I probably preferred Belleville at the Donmar though, which had similar themes.
Incidentally, a question for those that know the play well. Was the script unchanged from its original? Some of it felt very modern, e.g. the overlapping dialogue during the trial. Similarly, was the couple to the left at the bar written as two males? I know there was a reference to Oscar Wilde, but it felt slightly strange to suddenly have two males in a play almost entirely revolving around male-female dynamics.
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Post by jadnoop on Jun 16, 2018 22:54:48 GMT
They should remove the urinals from the men's ( isn’t just saying men's so from a bygone age now most places are embracing all gender toilets) add a couple of toilets and then have all genders use both. The idea of removing urinals and making all toilets unisex has been mentioned a few times on this board. While I definitely agree that changes need to be made to deal with the ridiculous imbalance of queueing times, in my opinion removing the urinals isn't the best way forward. I don't say this because of issues of sexual equality, but simply practical factors. While less talked about than emissions, reducing water consumption is an important part of the sustainability agenda. While there are measures to reduce the water demand in toilets (low flush, water recycling, rainwater collection etc. [the latter two apply not just to WCs though]), urinals still generally use less than sit-down toilets. The other thing is time; part of the reason that the gents' moves quickly is that using a urinal is generally faster than a sit down toilet. My feeling is that a better approach would be to change the numbers of male vs female toilets in design standards (or use urinals alongside unisex toilets). According to this (https://www.washroomcubicles.co.uk/how-many-toilets-do-you-need/#sports_entertainment ) it seems that a 1000-seater theatre in the UK expecting 50:50 male:female should have 26 female WCs; 3 male WCs and 11 urinals. I haven't been in a ladies loos but I suspect that these numbers don't match with reality.
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Post by jadnoop on Jun 14, 2018 23:26:06 GMT
I'll be fair, I love Johnny Flynn's music, but I've never entirely forgiven him for The Low Road. Maybe I could've done if he were a stronger actor, but I've seen him in at least half a dozen plays now, and feel strongly he should save his acting for TV, if he must do it at all. His theme for The Detectorists is great. On first listen it felt a little too pastiche-y, but over 3 amazing seasons (well, 2 amazing seasons and 1 great one) it really grew on me. Heart felt, sweet and melancholy just like the show.
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Post by jadnoop on Jun 12, 2018 21:53:38 GMT
NT website says A&C starts in Sept at the Olivier. Since Hadestown starts 2 Nov then I'm afraid I have to give up hope that it will be playing when I arrive 27 Oct. Or am I reading this wrong? There are A&C events as late as January 2019, so I doubt it will be closed before November: www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/tickets/12392I'm pretty sure last year there was some overlap of shows (Pinocchio and Network around Christmas I think), so presumably it's possible for shows to overlap on the same stage.
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Post by jadnoop on Jun 10, 2018 21:46:53 GMT
Reading about some of this stuff is just so creepy. And it makes you a little sad about the mental welfare of some of these 'fans' that they can't see what they're doing.
However, in my opinion part of the problem is that celebrity culture as a whole is actively shifting towards breaking down the barriers between stars and their fans. This isn't necessarily the case for many of the people being discussed here of course. However, when you have tv shows where stars show the audience their homes & belongings, where magazines cover weddings & births, and tweets are fired off about every aspect of their lives, it shifts away from the idea that these people have private lives distinct from their public personas (or indeed the craft that they became famous for in the first place).
To be clear, I'm not suggesting that they are at fault. Just that modern 'celeb' culture, combined with the increasing ease with which information can be discovered and shared online, it strikes me as sort of inevitable that the extreme ends of fan culture will take things way too far.
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Post by jadnoop on Jun 8, 2018 23:33:06 GMT
Ugh. Being an audience member isn't that hard. Why is that so many adults seem unable to manage it? At the ballet today there was a lady constantly checking her phone. After being told that the light distracted others by her neighbours and the ushers (twice), she'd finally had enough of the selfish dancers on stage distracting her from instagram and left. I get that the ballet isn't for everyone, but if you'd rather chat to your mates on the phone, go!
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Post by jadnoop on Jun 7, 2018 13:26:52 GMT
A few events for Antony and Cleopatra are now online, so a bit more information: - Tim McMullan playing Enobarbus www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/tickets/12396- No dates yet, but the events seem to be going from late October to early January, so presumably that's the rough timescale for the play?
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Post by jadnoop on May 22, 2018 9:56:32 GMT
Certainly looks exciting and I like Tracy Letts. I'm assuming there will be gunshots. If anyone could post a spoiler warning me of them that would be much appreciated! I've only seen the film, and it was a while ago, but assuming that it was a fairly true to the play then; Yes, some gunshots towards the end of the play
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Post by jadnoop on May 22, 2018 9:44:00 GMT
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Post by jadnoop on May 15, 2018 13:31:54 GMT
I didn't see an announcement, but multi-buy discount tickets went live today. The site says that secret seats aren't available with multi-buy though so presumably they won't show up until the public booking opens.
Pretty excited to see Akhnaten again.
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Post by jadnoop on May 12, 2018 21:08:40 GMT
Just came out of tonight's performance, and I really liked this.
Given how somber & serious the blurb made it seem, this was a surprisingly fun & funny play that (mostly) zipped along nicely. It's definitely not for everyone, and the audience seemed split between those giving a standing ovation at the end and those shuffling in their seats during the performance. Knowing a little about people like Jackson Pollock and (later) pop art is probably useful, but I found this an engaging play that touched on pretty universal themes; stuff like the value of art, selling out, and time.
If the play had been too reverential towards Rothko then it would have been insufferable, but I felt it held a good balance; presenting him by turns as smart & eloquent, but also insufferable, pretentious, and deeply flawed.
The staging & sets were simple but effective, as was the lighting. And it goes without saying that both Alfreds were great (especially Molina).
The one possible negative for me was that the selection of paintings felt at times too literal in terms of reflecting the narrative. In the context of Rothko's speeches about his paintings being nuanced and alive, it felt too obvious/cheesy for the final two paintings to reflect the characters' choices. In contrast, the earlier mmoments of painting, or preparing the canvases were exhilarating.
All in all though, an absolute treat at £10. Thanks demonbarber for mentioning the deal.
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Post by jadnoop on May 12, 2018 16:15:29 GMT
Not sure about the first, but a film adaptation of Run For Your Wife came out in 2012 to very poor reviews and terrible box office. I suppose film performance doesn't necessarily equate to theatre performance, but that wasn't too long ago, so I assume it would make any potential investors nervous about using their money to stage it in the west end.
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BBC Proms
May 12, 2018 11:06:45 GMT
via mobile
Post by jadnoop on May 12, 2018 11:06:45 GMT
Well the gods were not in my favour today. After sitting in front of my computer for 2.5 hours I find that the proms I want is completely sold out. Gutted as I have always got seats in the past. If you're still online it may be worth trying again after logging in/out. The proms were all showing as sold out when I first tried (i.e. even selecting one seat gave a 'not enough seats left' warning). But when I logged out of my RAH account I could add the seats as usual.
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Post by jadnoop on May 10, 2018 11:15:00 GMT
Any Pinter afficionados able to comment on the different play options?
The two that are standing out to me at the mo are the first (One For the Road / The New World Order / Mountain Language / Ashes to Ashes), although from the blurb I wonder if 4 mini plays of torture & interrogation might be a little too relentless, or the last (A Slight Ache / The Dumb Waiter).
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Post by jadnoop on May 5, 2018 0:11:04 GMT
A French-Japanese website is reporting that Ninagawa's Kafka On The Shore will be performed in France in early 2019. Hopefully this means it'll come back to the Barbican around then too.
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Post by jadnoop on Apr 26, 2018 18:11:50 GMT
I think that's a quote from the Almeida's own press release. There were no quote marks in the post. So my question is still pertinent. If it is I would ask the writer of the press release the same question. As Rory says, it's the text marketing email from the Almeida that came out about an hour ago. So probably best to treat the more qualitative stuff with a pinch of salt, as that's just marketing bumf.
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Post by jadnoop on Apr 21, 2018 23:16:41 GMT
I enjoy a good dark thriller as much as the next person, but this really didn't do anything for me. It seemed to be aiming for sophisticated psychodrama, but only managed late night channel five thriller: From the dark visuals, scratchy video and colourless sparse sets to the music and sound effects that pointed out each emotion the audience should feel, it just felt uninspired.
The script was frustrating too. I assume that the writer did lots of research, but the killer's tics and mannerisms screamed cliche. Similarly the 'scientific' bits just didn't feel believable. I wasn't keen on the Royal Court's recent similar Girls and Boys, but that was much better than this.
The only real highlight was the acting which was good.
One final note; the audience seemed unusually noisy. Lots of crumpling packets of sweets, bottles of water, and coming & going from the auditorium.
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Post by jadnoop on Apr 20, 2018 14:06:56 GMT
I just don't know how seriously I can take someone's opinion on writing when they themselves write like a sixth former's idea of avant garde poetry... Is it not just a parody account? I mean stuff like... "Like a fake LV bag I can see it from miles off But some are deceived" and "Some people Probably inspired by me in the past Left before the end" ...who really talks about themselves and others in these terms? I assumed it's just a jokey account like the kind of thing you get on www.reddit.com/r/iamverysmart (?)
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Post by jadnoop on Apr 19, 2018 17:22:12 GMT
Theatre is more demanding on the intellect than cinema. With film it’s all done for you: you just slide into a dream world. I know this is a theatre forum, so it's inevitable that there will be a bias, but c'mon this is just a huge generalisation. By its nature theatre 'shows' less than (most) cinema, but that's hardly the same as being intellectually demanding. And while at the extremes film can be very lightweight, that's true of most artforms; I mean, think about the most populist end of theatre (Wicked, Harry Potter, Andrew Lloyd Webber, The Mousetrap, etc.).
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Post by jadnoop on Apr 17, 2018 18:57:04 GMT
Very conflicted about this. The play seems intriguing, I agree with (what I assume are) the politics of the piece, and the cast & staging sound really interesting.
However, something about the marketing makes me nervous that this is simply a lecture disguised as a play. I go to talks regularly, but I tend to be put off when an intriguing & nuanced drama gradually slides into lecture. Even if I agree with what they're trying to say.
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Post by jadnoop on Apr 17, 2018 1:48:38 GMT
To those that have been to this, are there programmes?
I went to a preview and there were none, but it wasn't clear if they had run out temporarily (or weren't quite ready), or if there was no plan for them. Cheers.
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Post by jadnoop on Apr 16, 2018 19:28:05 GMT
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Post by jadnoop on Apr 10, 2018 22:55:19 GMT
The reviews for the play and film makes this seem like it could be good. One reviewer mentioned both Glengarry Glen Ross, and Nine Queens which definitely seems like an intriguing combination.
However, the ticket prices are probably a little steeper than I'd pay on a punt. Is the weekly cheaper tickets deal they have on for Kiss of a Spider Woman a regular thing?
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Post by jadnoop on Apr 10, 2018 12:07:10 GMT
Today's the last performance, and it doesn't look like there will be an extension, but here are my 2c:
The reviews here seem to be fairly lukewarm, but I have to say I really enjoyed this. It didn't have the glitz and bombast of Aladdin (the only other Disney musical that I've seen), but this made it a more interesting play in my view. With Aladdin, the staging seemed to closely match the style and ott-ness of the film, which resulted in a visually exciting musical. However, the downside was that there was a niggling feeling of 'why not go home and watch the real thing?': why watch someone pretend to be Robin Williams, when I could hear the man himself? why watch an (admittedly impressive) magic carpet slowly flow up and down, when I could see through Aladdin's eyes as he whizzed through the cave? and so on.
While some of Pinocchio's staging didn't work (the huge ladders when the coachman arrives for instance), the plot sometimes seemed oddly deflated (the foxes motivation and demise felt incidental), and the special effects never felt truly magical, as a whole I found the musical far more interesting.
Having Pinocchio as the only human on stage worked pretty well, imo, and resulted in some wonderful moments (especially Jiminy Cricket and Gepeto's 'transformations' at the end). It was also great that they were happy to go very dark at times, although I did wonder if younger kids would get nightmares.
My main takeaway however, was that this was probably a play to see from right at the front. From the front few rows the other-worldliness seemed amplified and you really got a puppet/child's eye view: When the Coachman or Stromboli were on stage their odd, massive heads really towered over you, which worked well framed against the relatively simple backdrop. A busier stage (like Aladdin's) might have been more interesting visually for those further back I imagine, but didn't seem necessary from the front.
I wonder if this would have worked better in a smaller auditorium.
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