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Post by mrbarnaby on Oct 3, 2018 20:58:48 GMT
So much nonsense being said on here.
1. Cate Blanchett is a stage animal. She’s played huge stages, and small ones, and commands both with huge skill. Her performance in Gross und Klein was one of the most dazzling I’ve ever seen, and that was on a huge stage. She had the physicality of a dancer.
2. She won’t be doing this for money. The National will be paying her the same as any other leading actor in a play there. She’s doing this (and I hate the phrase) because of the work.
3. If I don’t get tickets I will go INSANE.
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Post by crowblack on Oct 3, 2018 21:38:09 GMT
So much nonsense being said on here. 1. Cate Blanchett is a stage animal. Hey, I was only wondering because I've never seen her on stage and on screen her style is very subtle, small gestures, slight movements, she does so much with her eyes! All I've seen of her on stage is a tiny fuzzy clip of Hedda Gabler, filmed up close. I wondered how her style (having only ever seen the screen aspect of it) would work if I was sitting at the back of the Olivier. Oh, and to clear up confusion - I was not for a minute suggesting Blanchett had stage fright in that earlier post! I was talking about Olivia Colman's much-discussed stage fright and a possible reason why her play Mosquitoes was put on in the smaller Dorfman space when there was clearly great demand for tickets - like this play, it was a production where the lead actress's name was trailed months in advance of tickets going on sale, with high ticket demand but was on in the NT's smallest space.
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Post by vdcni on Oct 3, 2018 22:53:22 GMT
I'm sorry I'm just completely mystified how people don't understand what a draw Cate Blanchett is.
After all the average theatre goer won't know who Martin Crimp and Katie Mitchell are.
Even though I do know how bad they are likely to be and as much I'd rather see her in a classic role with an interesting director I will still try and see her in this instead of that's my only option.
After all Gross and Klein was a terrible play but she was still worth watching. Though I could have done without the 4 rounds of applause she forced on the audience.
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Oct 3, 2018 23:09:36 GMT
Even though I do know how bad they are likely to be and as much I'd rather see her in a classic role with an interesting director I will still try and see her in this instead of that's my only option. This just does not make any sense to me. Why go to something you are probably going to think is ’bad’? i liked Gross und Klein but it had a European sensibility that I can see may not translate.
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893 posts
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Post by vdcni on Oct 3, 2018 23:14:50 GMT
Well the direction and play may be bad but the acting will make up for it. There's a good chunk of plays in a year where that is the case. It's not exactly unusual.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2018 23:27:47 GMT
1- the play is being staged in The Dorfman at the specification of the director who wanted this space due to the nature of material and the content necessitating intimacy Katie Mitchell is particular about such matters This “shove it in the largest auditorium” concept is bizarre Yes they could stage in at Wembley and just do one night
2- the show was programmed and pencilled into the schedule BEFORE it was cast
3- not everyone will be subject to the indignity of a ballot
Best wishes to you all
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Post by crowblack on Oct 3, 2018 23:44:16 GMT
There's a good chunk of plays in a year where that is the case. I'll go if there's an actor I like giving a great performance in a bad play - Erin Doherty made The Divide worth seeing, and Ben Whishaw Against.
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Post by adolphus on Oct 3, 2018 23:55:27 GMT
"not everyone will be subject to the indignity of a ballot"
Only the smelly and lazy poor I guess
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Post by jadnoop on Oct 4, 2018 4:20:05 GMT
But the normal system amounts to a ballot anyway; albeit one where not everyone has an equal chance.
Under the normal queue-IT system, everyone is randomly assigned a queue number at the start of the sale. The difference between this and a fair ballot is that it (a) requires you to be available at a specific time (b) allows people to effectively enter multiple times by having multiple computers, and (c) has multiple 'ballots' for those who can afford membership.
I get that a ballot is frustrating, but it hardly makes sense to complain on the grounds of access/fairness.
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Post by nash16 on Oct 4, 2018 14:27:37 GMT
Aha, but I'm not using that argument about football lol. (Where did that comparison come from?) Talking about state funded / sponsored / subsidised events with "big name stars" in events or buildings paid for using taxpayers money. Still not sure about the football...
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999 posts
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Post by Backdrifter on Oct 15, 2018 11:21:14 GMT
I still shudder when I think of the A level group I took to see Crimp's 'Cruel and Tender' at the Young Vic. That was grim to the max. Yes that was appalling. It did feel like a form of theatrical torture. I still shudder when I think back to the KM-directed Crimp play Attempts On Her Life, at the Lyttleton in 2007. It was one of the five worst evenings at the theatre I've experienced. It reminded me of Vulva's play in an episode of Spaced. It was as though KM had imagined what people who hate theatre think of when they want to condemn "experimental" theatre as being a load of pretentious luvvies arsing about, then intentionally staged that. Two months later I saw Crimp's version of Brecht's The Jewish Wife, directed by Mitchell at the Young Vic, and it was excellent. It demonstrated the opposite extreme of her work, when she abandons her formulaic trademarks and keeps things minimal and focused. As per her aforementioned Rutherford & Son in the Cottesloe (1994-ish?), a superb and engrossing production. I've only just come to this thread and it's been interesting and amusing going through the posts. Is anyone going, or wanting to go, purely because they think she's beautiful?
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Oct 15, 2018 12:27:36 GMT
One of the best production/play combos that I've seen and, with Cleansed, two productions of the best contemporary texts that show Katie Mitchell to be among our very best directors.
Different strokes and all that.
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Post by Backdrifter on Oct 15, 2018 13:49:15 GMT
One of the best production/play combos that I've seen and, with Cleansed, two productions of the best contemporary texts that show Katie Mitchell to be among our very best directors.
Different strokes and all that.
The quotes aren't showing up but I assume you mean C&T and AOHL? Certainly the latter was indeed very divisive as I recall, with little or no middle ground. The pattern I've had with KM is I've really enjoyed her work when she's at her most restrained and relatively trope-free. I meant to say earlier, I'm with those who think the title of this play is really stupidly annoying.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2018 13:52:04 GMT
Isn't it just an AWFUL title? It already sounds like the kind of pretentious nonsense that convinces the non-regular theatre-goer that theatre really is as incomprehensible and inaccessible as they fear it is, and that's *before* you get into the whole Katie Mitchell/Martin Crimp thing.
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Oct 15, 2018 14:54:13 GMT
One of the best production/play combos that I've seen and, with Cleansed, two productions of the best contemporary texts that show Katie Mitchell to be among our very best directors.
Different strokes and all that.
The quotes aren't showing up but I assume you mean C&T and AOHL? Certainly the latter was indeed very divisive as I recall, with little or no middle ground. The pattern I've had with KM is I've really enjoyed her work when she's at her most restrained and relatively trope-free. I meant to say earlier, I'm with those who think the title of this play is really stupidly annoying. Note sure where my quote went but I was referring to Attempts on Her Life and Cleansed, I never saw Cruel and Tender. The first two are most definitely seen as among the best of contemporary texts but both are pretty challenging, either through formal experimentation or subject matter. I find it strange but the one of those that really causes friction is playing with form whilst you can have all sorts of carnage onstage and people don't bat an eyelid as long as it's done within a realistic style.
On the other hand I found Mitchell's most recent production here (La maladie de la mort) to be not to my taste. Self obsessed people and a pretty bog standard runthrough a relationship. Her use of live film was much better integrated in her Fraulien Julie or The Forbidden Zone.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2018 9:42:15 GMT
Ooooh, there's some fancy artwork for this production. Cate. Stephen. A car. "A ballot? Stone the flamin' crows Stephen, there's a ballot? We need tickets you great galah! Put your foot down driver! "
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Post by showgirl on Nov 21, 2018 9:51:26 GMT
Bearing in mind some of the NT's less popular productions recently (being kind & not saying "flops"), maybe the title should be "When We Have Sufficiently Tortured You"?
Though so far the Dorfman has been an exception, any torture being limited to the seats.
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Post by peggs on Nov 21, 2018 9:54:17 GMT
This is on the front page of the telegraph today.
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Post by lynette on Nov 21, 2018 11:30:57 GMT
Isn't it just an AWFUL title? It already sounds like the kind of pretentious nonsense that convinces the non-regular theatre-goer that theatre really is as incomprehensible and inaccessible as they fear it is, and that's *before* you get into the whole Katie Mitchell/Martin Crimp thing. Has someone covered this, if so, apologies but it is based on one of the most awful books ever written.
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Nov 21, 2018 11:43:51 GMT
This is on the front page of the telegraph today. So now we’re going to be in the pot with those who otherwise wouldn’t have given a damn about seeing it. If they’d just sold it as normal then it would still sell out but the audience would be more like its natural one. Seeing as I could get two tickets on the off chance that I win and would only get one, is there anyone else in a similar position who might want to pair up? If they only allow for two tickets on the same performance it might be difficult, though. I’m aiming for 19th February or possibly 26th January (preference for matinee but can do evening as well).
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Post by crowblack on Nov 21, 2018 12:29:58 GMT
I don't think so, but I agree it's off-putting. Sounds like the sort of thing you'd see on an 80s LP along with a pic of David Sylvian staring at a wall. But it's Cate Blanchett so yeah of course I'll try to get tickets.
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Post by peggs on Nov 21, 2018 15:13:46 GMT
I suspect you'd be able to shift a second ticket, I thought the same Thu g in the way you consider all eventualities of something that is never going to happen. Or return the second if you couldn't?
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Post by Steve on Nov 21, 2018 16:36:47 GMT
Isn't it just an AWFUL title? It already sounds like the kind of pretentious nonsense that convinces the non-regular theatre-goer that theatre really is as incomprehensible and inaccessible as they fear it is, and that's *before* you get into the whole Katie Mitchell/Martin Crimp thing. Has someone covered this, if so, apologies but it is based on one of the most awful books ever written. Since the book is basically "The Sex Pests Appreciation Society," I think we can be certain that Crimp is going to have his own take on it lol. I mean, I just saw his "Dealing with Clair," and it burns with loathing for men, so my worry would be that the piece will be obvious, with zero nuance. :0 I have hope and faith, though, that Cate Blanchett's involvement means the piece will be more interesting than that.
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Post by bordeaux on Nov 22, 2018 7:46:41 GMT
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Post by crazyscientist on Nov 22, 2018 10:03:17 GMT
I’m reading the terms and conditions for the public ballot just now and they state that the ballot is only open to UK residents?! Will they actually enforce this? I think I’ll just enter anyway
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Xanderl
Member
Not always very high value in terms of ticket yield or donations
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Post by Xanderl on Nov 22, 2018 10:18:56 GMT
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Post by viserys on Nov 22, 2018 11:41:43 GMT
Scratch that. "You will be invited to login or register." In other words, not unless you register multiple times - and I'd guess risk getting weeded out. I think that's quite fair - better than hardcore fans signing up under their own 20 fake adresses and 20 addresses of various family members and their pet hamster. As for not being guaranteed a ticket - with such a huge demand, I think it's fair too. You get your chance, but if you sit back and dawdle and miss the windows, why shouldn't someone else get the chance?
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Nov 22, 2018 12:13:05 GMT
Site already fallen over, the error message I get says 'backend is unhealthy' which would seem to suggest a trip to the Doctors.
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Post by jek on Nov 22, 2018 12:15:39 GMT
I got an error 503 first byte timeout. I realise there is no urgency to this - just happened to be in front of a computer when they sent out the email saying that the ballot was now open.
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Post by ellie1981 on Nov 22, 2018 12:24:09 GMT
It’s open for the whole week, right? Think I’ll just come back tomorrow.
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