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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2016 20:42:59 GMT
Week after next for me. Better late than never, right?
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Post by BurlyBeaR on May 22, 2016 15:36:54 GMT
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Post by Flim Flam on May 25, 2016 18:23:11 GMT
The scene at the end with her mother was so devastating, sheer theatrical ecstasy. It was, wasn't it. I was sitting in the stalls and during a crucial point of her interaction with her mother (trying not to spoil it for Baemax here), two people in separate parts of the auditorium loudly groaned, almost in tandem. Not in a 'bad behaviour' sort of a way, but in genuine shock. As if they (and all of us in fact) were so engaged with her daughter's journey that it wouldn't take much for any of us to get up there on the stage and sort the mother out! Fabulous.
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Post by mallardo on May 25, 2016 18:26:11 GMT
The thing about the mother though - she's telling her daughter the truth.
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Post by Flim Flam on May 25, 2016 18:44:07 GMT
I don't disagree. She was telling her the truth. And truth can sometimes be brutal.
But I also felt that there was an element of 'chickens coming home to roost' there, in which the mother's attitude towards her daughter had contributed to the path the daughter had followed. And having followed the daughter's journey for most of the play, by that point, I felt that the audience were more invested in sympathising with the daughter and so experienced that scene more from the daughter's perspective. But my head was certainly spinning at that point, trying to reconcile those two contradictory stances.
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Post by mallardo on May 25, 2016 18:55:48 GMT
I absolutely agree with you - we're with the daughter and we experience the mother as cruel. It was only later, thinking about it, that it struck me that she was right and that her daughter had put her through hell. Both sides are true. A mark of just how well written this play is.
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Post by Jon on May 25, 2016 20:24:50 GMT
For anyone whose seen the play why does Emma/Sarah/Lucy give a false name, I assume being an actress. Claiming to be someone else comes natural to her
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2016 10:05:14 GMT
I think it may come down to how much you empathise with internalised emotional distress. If you recognise it easily in yourself, then the play will instantly hook. If it isn't something you are particularly conscious of - and a lot of people are lucky not to be - then it's a harder climb. Having seen this yesterday I've now read (rather than skimmed) the thread about this and found the above particularly relevant for my visit.
I went with two people neither of whom liked it much, largely because they found the central character totally unsympathetic in the first half, and not much more so in the second. One companion said that they were much more interested in the other people in therapy, which I suspect was because they were further along the recovery process and therefore appeared more reasonable.
Yes, Sarah wasn't a "nice" person on the face of it, but I felt that the play and her performance were true to the self involvement of an addict - as it is said, addiction is like a parasite eroding the original personality. I could see a person who had been acting in a horrible way (think of the phone conversation with her mother) and did terrible things, but also somebody who was in distress, denial and in desperate need of help but couldn't believe in the help she was being offered. Her intelligence was working against her as she was initially unable to let go of the strong negative beliefs she had.
The AA thing was interesting to me to (very good section in the programme about this): being an atheist I have always found the 12 step thing quite bizarre with it's notions of a higher power, but do understand that the strength is in being with people who really understand. The powerlessness being applied to the title words makes more sense to me than the original AA statement - still prefer the newer SMART recovery ideas though.
The scene with her parents was heart breaking, and I felt that there was a lot going on behind it. Sarah had caused no end of pain, distress and disappointment, but was something in her family the initial trigger for this? The father who remained uninvolved, the loved dead brother who had the more easy personality, the high achieving mother who wanted her daughter to be something she wasn't? Who knows, probably never one clear reason why one person becomes addicted and another doesn't, but lots of points to think about.
Very glad I saw this late in the day - unsettling and upsetting in many ways, but well worth the visit.
Wish I had gone alone as I think I would have enjoyed it more without the awareness of two slightly restless people sitting with me.
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Post by danielwhit on May 28, 2016 8:25:18 GMT
I'm just disappointed the National clearly don't deem this worthy of the NT Live treatment. It's Olivier winning and clearly a highlight of this (and last) year's theatregoing.
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Post by mrbarnaby on May 28, 2016 10:22:35 GMT
I guess the fact it (sadly) is not a sell out in the west end must make them nervous there is sufficient demand for cinema screenings.
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Post by Mark on May 28, 2016 10:32:21 GMT
I managed to get a dayseat for the matinee. £25 Royal circle 2nd row.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jun 5, 2017 10:07:30 GMT
Resurrecting this thread as the tour starts in the autumn. Tickets just £10 at HOME Manchester.
Any rumours about casting yet? And is this worth seeing without Denise Gough in it or was it all about her performance?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2017 10:38:07 GMT
Resurrecting this thread as the tour starts in the autumn. Tickets just £10 at HOME Manchester. Any rumours about casting yet? And is this worth seeing without Denise Gough in it or was it all about her performance? It wasn't worth seeing with Denise Gough in it to be honest . . .
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jun 5, 2017 11:29:52 GMT
Maybe that's why it's only a tenner! 😆
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2017 12:34:28 GMT
I quite liked the direction, worth a gamble for a tenner surely!
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jun 5, 2017 12:37:47 GMT
Indeed, and I live about a minutes walk away. I feel I should go out of a sense of duty.
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Post by nash16 on Jun 5, 2017 16:29:32 GMT
It's amazing. Ignore the naysayers. Book book book!
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Post by Rory on Jun 5, 2017 16:52:55 GMT
It's amazing. Ignore the naysayers. Book book book! [b I second that! It was high octane and enthralling! I thought Denise Gough was fantastic but it would definitely be worth seeing without her, too.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jun 5, 2017 17:03:15 GMT
According to the seat map they're staging it exactly the same way with the seats at the back of the stage. Is this intrinsic to the production in some way? Is there *shudder* breaking of the fourth wall? Sorry, I realise this will have been discussed previously but it's a hell of a long thread to trawl through!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2017 15:32:40 GMT
I absolutely LOVED it! BUT I had had quite a large amount to drink and was feeling very emotionally vulnerable so felt pulled along with the show!
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Sept 24, 2017 19:27:04 GMT
Seeing the tour tomorrow, Lisa Dwyer is the lead. Anyone been over the weekend?
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Sept 25, 2017 21:37:44 GMT
Well I’m not going to say I hated it but....
I spent the first half trying to remember where I’d seen the actress playing the doctor which was somewhat distracting. Not her fault, obvs.
Lukewarm reception from the audience. We don’t really go in for this self-indulgent stuff up here.
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Post by sf on Sept 26, 2017 23:35:37 GMT
Well I’m not going to say I hated it but.... I spent the first half trying to remember where I’d seen the actress playing the doctor which was somewhat distracting. Not her fault, obvs. Lukewarm reception from the audience. We don’t really go in for this self-indulgent stuff up here. I saw it this evening. That's Matilda Ziegler. You possibly remember her from 'EastEnders' in the late 1980s (a credit which is not in her programme bio for this) - she played Kathy Beale's secret illegitimate daughter. (...and it scares me that I remember that, because I haven't watched EastEnders since about five minutes after her stint in the show finished - in 1989, a quick Google search tells me.) As for 'People, Places and Things', I thought it was a brilliant production of a very, very patchy play. The best parts were very good indeed, but there were some big gaps between the best parts, and the first half needed to lose fifteen minutes. I suspect, too, that it really needs a thousand-watt star turn in the central role, and here it just doesn't get one. I'm glad I saw it - but I'm glad I saw it at a half-price preview.
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Post by Polly1 on Sept 27, 2017 7:41:52 GMT
Well I’m not going to say I hated it but.... I spent the first half trying to remember where I’d seen the actress playing the doctor which was somewhat distracting. Not her fault, obvs. I saw it this evening. That's Matilda Ziegler. You possibly remember her from 'EastEnders' in the late 1980s (a credit which is not in her programme bio for this) The Princess of Liechtenstein! I saw her recently in a play locally and that was all I could think about...
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Post by oxfordsimon on Oct 11, 2017 21:45:33 GMT
Sell out crowd for it in Oxford tonight. A few in their feet at the end.
As with many others, I found the writing to be somewhat uneven. Performances all very good. Staging very inventive and direction clear.
It is a towering central role and, for me, the real test of the writing will come when others seek to direct their own productions. If you don't have an incredibly strong central casting, I suspect the writing will feel less powerful.
For various personal reasons, certain scenes were very uncomfortable for me to watch. Probably in a good way but it did make it hard to be fully swept up by it all.
Oh and I hated the final minutes of the script. Real sense of a writer who really didn't know how to bring it to a close.
3.5 to 4 stars, I think. I will know for certain in the morning!
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Post by Being Alive on Oct 12, 2017 18:36:18 GMT
I can’t really afford to go to this BUT if it’s good enough to fork out the £30 I will. I’m gutted I missed Denise at the National and it seems to be interesting. Thoughts/opinions are appreciated. I’ll go on the general consensus.
Thanks!
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Post by Rory on Oct 12, 2017 18:40:38 GMT
I loved it when I saw it in the West End, so I would thoroughly recommend taking a punt on the tour.
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Post by lou105 on Oct 12, 2017 18:41:23 GMT
I saw it this evening. That's Matilda Ziegler. You possibly remember her from 'EastEnders' in the late 1980s (a credit which is not in her programme bio for this) The Princess of Liechtenstein! I saw her recently in a play locally and that was all I could think about... Just seen this- she's also in Mr Bean..
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Post by greenandbrownandblue on Mar 2, 2024 12:19:46 GMT
Listening to an interview with designer Bunny Christie on the Theatre voice podcast, there's a West End revival coming. Original creative team by the sounds of it.
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Post by Being Alive on Mar 2, 2024 12:20:23 GMT
Not just original creative team...👀
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