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Post by Rory on Sept 8, 2018 10:21:09 GMT
Although SF may have had a hand in My Night with Reg Either we really, really want the details of that, or it needs re-phrasing perhaps? The WE transfer of Reg was produced by Arielle Tepper Madover, Eleanor Lloyd and Nica Burns. No SFP involvement.
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Post by crowblack on Sept 9, 2018 6:13:21 GMT
It really is a high stage, and the cheap stalls at the back are awful. If you can't get a discount I don't know what the stage used to be like, but I presume it has been lowered, when I compare it to seatplan pics from Stomp, because yesterday row D was fine - the stage low enough to see the actors' feet and I'm about 5'6". I couldn't see papers when they were rested on the breakfast table surface but the characters lifted them so that wasn't a problem at all. As posted above, there are £40 preview seats currently at £25 on londontheatredirect. I'll type some thoughts later but I've just got in from the overnight bus so knackered.
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Post by crowblack on Sept 9, 2018 15:51:50 GMT
Well, I enjoyed it, though I feel there's a more intense play in there that needs to come out and hasn't yet. I know it's a revival but I think the writing, especially around the denouement, could do with more work/changes. The cast are good, and I went in part to see Rheon, though I feel the dynamic would have been different with a younger actor - he's 33 though supposed to be 19 and fresh out of training - and a more earthy, physical actress as the female farmer.
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Post by Ruby Sue on Sept 11, 2018 8:09:54 GMT
What's the current running time of the play? I've had a scout about online & can't find anything at the minute. Thanks!
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Post by crowblack on Sept 11, 2018 8:20:53 GMT
Around 2 hours, including interval.
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Post by noboiscout on Sept 11, 2018 12:46:14 GMT
Full disclosure - We didn't return after the interval last night. A mediocre play, acting not great - and direction poor. You know things are off kilter when the audience laughs at stuff that isn't meant to be funny. I felt that Paul Nicholls was best of a bad lot. Iwan Rheon was acting like an automaton - but I blame the director. And I know he is meant to be a brainwashed servant of the government. Perhaps he warmed up in the second act. I was really looking forward to this and had high hopes, but almost all of the amateur productions I saw at the Edinburgh fringe were superior.
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Post by crowblack on Sept 11, 2018 13:19:21 GMT
almost all of the amateur productions I saw at the Edinburgh fringe were superior. Perhaps unfamiliarity with it helps? I knew a vague outline but had never seen it before, so seeing the story unfold made it enjoyable even though I thought it could have been much tighter and the sexual dynamics didn't really work. According to the programme there's a film in the offing and there's a lot of potential there (rework the ending though!).
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Post by noboiscout on Sept 11, 2018 15:08:00 GMT
almost all of the amateur productions I saw at the Edinburgh fringe were superior. Perhaps unfamiliarity with it helps? I knew a vague outline but had never seen it before, so seeing the story unfold made it enjoyable even though I thought it could have been much tighter and the sexual dynamics didn't really work. According to the programme there's a film in the offing and there's a lot of potential there (rework the ending though!). Sorry - I haven't seen it before. I just enjoyed all the amateur productions of other stuff at Edinburgh, more than this professional production in London. I agree there is a lot of potential, and the premise is good. I feel sorry for the poor foxes being made scapegoats for all their ills - if a fox can be a goat...
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Post by crowblack on Sept 11, 2018 15:17:46 GMT
amateur productions of other stuff at Edinburgh, more than this professional production in London. That's probably a general thing about young actors/directors though - they have an urgency and energy which older actors too often lose. Most of the performances I've really enjoyed recently have come from emerging rather than established actors.
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Post by catcat100 on Sept 12, 2018 1:18:05 GMT
'Dystopian Drama' are two words which will get my attention any day. So was looking forward to this. Unfortunately it just didn't quite deliver.
crowblack got it spot on by saying 'there's a more intense play in there that needs to come out'. I didn't get the feeling that their lives were in danger, that this was such a bad dystopian land. Sending a young newly trained inexperienced foxfinder didn't really have the gravitas to induce fear into the family.
But it does redeem itself with the overall subject of the play, finding foxes, and how it allegorizes (is that even a word) itself to the real world. You could compare it to communist hunting in america in 60s/70s, Trumpism and Brexitism today all looking out for a fox of some sort.
Overall 3.5 stars. Not a bad play, looks are quite good, just has more potential. Think tickets are still quite cheap so worth a punt for a rainy evening.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2018 21:28:19 GMT
almost all of the amateur productions I saw at the Edinburgh fringe were superior. Perhaps unfamiliarity with it helps? I knew a vague outline but had never seen it before, so seeing the story unfold made it enjoyable even though I thought it could have been much tighter and the sexual dynamics didn't really work. According to the programme there's a film in the offing and there's a lot of potential there (rework the ending though!). I had never seen this before either. Very atmospheric play. Quite an achievement given it’s a first play. Agree with other’s reservations however. Needs another draft. Think it will make a much better film and look forward to seeing it.
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Post by lonlad on Sept 12, 2018 23:07:07 GMT
Wow, borderline excruciating and one of the duds of the year. How the gifted Rachel O'Riordan allowed this to get to this point is really unfathomable but suffice it to say on the basis of tonight's final preview that the audience was chuckling not once but repeatedly at a combo of the writing, staging, and acting and that the cataclysmic denouement counts for precisely nothing. The allegorical aspect to it all is so labored and phony that you can't take it seriously for a minute. And why Iwan Rheon wanted THIS of all plays to bring him back to the London stage will be a (short-lived, I suspect) mystery.
Quite a few line flubs tonight and two of the cast of four need to at least try to SPEAK UP. Then again, maybe they were embarrassed by the self-important nonsense they have to deliver, in which case inaudibility may be the way to go.
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Post by showgirl on Sept 13, 2018 3:48:52 GMT
Given all the great work which gets rave reviews and sells out short runs at the Finborough, what a shame that this was one of the few plays to transfer - but then that applies to many smaller venues' productions.
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Post by crowblack on Sept 15, 2018 13:01:00 GMT
Still seems to be the case, judging by Twitter. TV actor problem, maybe? Most of the critics seem underwhelmed. I found it frustrating in that there's a lot of potential here but for several reasons it isn't coming out. It does have the problem of a lot of SF/AU, which is good concept but shallow characters and a plot that promises to deliver more than it does. As a SF reader I'm sort of used to that, though. And it did engage me, after some real disappointments - I hated Allelujah, Mary Stuart and Pity, was bored in Nightfall and annoyed by Aristocrats, and didn't find my mind wandering in this as it often does in theatres.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2018 8:41:09 GMT
Well. I think I may use 'Foxyfinder' as the title of my memoirs about hanging around the stage doors of London's glitzy West End.
The set was rather lovely I thought. I do like it when they put a tree on stage. Iwan Rheon has lovely hair and I liked his little Welsh accent slipping out every now and again. And if you like a touch of self-flagellation during a night out at the theatre, you will be in heaven here. I also suspect that Heida Reed (or the tongue-twisting Heiða Rún Sigurðardóttir if we're being correct) has never set foot on a farm in her life but she is very pretty so I'll forgive her. On the plus side, Paul Nicholls does some lovely stomping about and "oooh I'm going a bit mad" work as well as demonstrating his range of accents from somewhere resembling the West Country to Northern Ireland via Oldham. Sometimes all in the same sentence. Which was nice.
But oh, isn't it a grotty theatre? The back of the stalls and the bar area look like they've knocked through into an unused cupboard in an old office block and thought "yeah, that'll do". Sort it out Cameron.
And no foxes were harmed during this show. Because THERE WEREN'T ANY! I felt short changed. There were some dead rabbits though if that's your thing.
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Post by andrew on Oct 2, 2018 22:32:58 GMT
Are there any reports about day seats for Foxfinder? I wonder how early I should get there for a Saturday matinee...
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Post by raiseitup on Oct 3, 2018 10:35:14 GMT
Are there any reports about day seats for Foxfinder? I wonder how early I should get there for a Saturday matinee... Might be a bit more popular on a weekend, but unsold front row day seats are put on the Ambassadors website, a quick look for today and none have been sold yet…
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2018 10:48:48 GMT
The stage in this theatre looks really high though. Can you actually see anything from the front row? Without a neck brace?
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Post by Rory on Oct 3, 2018 11:02:42 GMT
This tweet shows the stage:
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Post by galinda on Oct 3, 2018 13:44:25 GMT
I just got an email saying it is closing 20 October had tickets for November so won't get to see it now.
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Post by Rory on Oct 3, 2018 14:31:40 GMT
If this is true, I really feel for the cast, and for the author Dawn King, who waited for years for the option on her play to come to fruition. Unfortunately it seems that the slew of 2* reviews just couldn't sustain an already ambitious 4 month run, despite a recognisable TV cast and an interesting subject matter which was very timely.
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Post by Rory on Oct 3, 2018 14:40:09 GMT
It is true, sadly. What a shame.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2018 14:51:51 GMT
I'm not really surprised. It was so sparsely attended when I saw it recently that even the tumbleweed from 'Heisenberg' decided to give it a miss.
Such a shame but I think the cast were far better than the play deserved really.
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Post by zahidf on Oct 3, 2018 14:54:41 GMT
Shame but I guess the bad reviews was just too much for it
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Post by lonlad on Oct 3, 2018 15:08:21 GMT
I'm amazed it got as far as it did -- it was dismayingly awful.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2018 15:23:23 GMT
I haven't seen it yet, but sad to see any show have such a short run.
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Post by Rory on Oct 3, 2018 15:50:35 GMT
Wonder what could fill the 11 week gap in the Ambassadors before the next show, Songs for Nobodies, starts there on 9th January? I could see Spamilton coming in from the Menier but I'd prefer something recent from Bath or Chichester like Copenhagen, Switzerland,The Meeting or God of Carnage.
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Post by viserys on Oct 3, 2018 16:09:41 GMT
Oh sadness, I had hoped to see it on my next trip over in November. Surprised the starry cast didn't draw more people.
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Post by sherriebythesea on Oct 3, 2018 19:14:56 GMT
I had planned on seeing in November also. Just kept putting off getting tickets so guess that's a good thing
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2018 19:58:05 GMT
Sad to see this closing for the sake of the creatives and the female playwright but she should have been encouraged to rewrite for the WE. The play came across as having been written by an extremely gifted GCSE student.
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