32 posts
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Post by Cleo on Apr 21, 2024 9:41:35 GMT
Has anyone who’s been tell me how the sides of the stalls seating is? I've never seen a performance at the RST and wondering if the sightlines are particularly obstructed I usually sit in the stalls on the side (row 1 to 4) as I prefer to be closer to the stage and the top price seats (front facing) are too expensive for me. As Simon says each production is different. I have sat in a restricted seat and for the price was ok. Some seats are slightly facing towards the stage (those nearest the purple seats on seating plan).
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Post by Jan on Apr 21, 2024 10:26:20 GMT
I saw the one around 10 years ago which packed more of a punch with boys off to war. I've seen about 5 productions of it and I think every one of those (with maybe one exception) was set immediately prior to World War I - it is an obvious thing to do and directors do it. There have been RSC and other productions that were set in other eras but I think they're in the minority. In Trevor Nunn's NT production he even started and ended the play with WW-I trenches and fighting on stage, the whole thing presented as a memory of the injured Berowne.
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180 posts
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Post by sweets7 on Apr 21, 2024 10:36:09 GMT
I saw the one around 10 years ago which packed more of a punch with boys off to war. I've seen about 5 productions of it and I think every one of those (with maybe one exception) was set immediately prior to World War I - it is an obvious thing to do and directors do it. There have been RSC and other productions that were set in other eras but I think they're in the minority. In Trevor Nunn's NT production he even started and ended the play with WW-I trenches and fighting on stage, the whole thing presented as a memory of the injured Berowne. Well they went for full on destiny encroaching here for the Princess. Which definitely works...if she was thee main character...which she's not. Which leaves you thinking how does this effect the rest of them. Anyway.
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180 posts
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Post by sweets7 on Apr 21, 2024 10:39:12 GMT
I saw the one around 10 years ago which packed more of a punch with boys off to war. I've seen about 5 productions of it and I think every one of those (with maybe one exception) was set immediately prior to World War I - it is an obvious thing to do and directors do it. There have been RSC and other productions that were set in other eras but I think they're in the minority. In Trevor Nunn's NT production he even started and ended the play with WW-I trenches and fighting on stage, the whole thing presented as a memory of the injured Berowne. Well pairing with Much Ado...After the war worked a treat that time then. It is a play aboit the last blow out before adulthood approaches. And to be fair you couldn't get much more poignant generational catastrophe then that. Anyway it's a feel good day out. I'd happily waste my time with it again.
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Post by iwanttix on Apr 21, 2024 11:58:42 GMT
I also quite liked unexpectedly seeing Nathan Foad as Costard, he kind of steals every scene he's in. I was happy to see him too, I didn't realise he was in it til he stepped on stage with a towel on his head! I'm not a Shakespeare fan really but I agree this a good way of being introduced to his plays. I went because I really liked Luke Thompson in A Little Life and I'm one of those who will go and see something for an actor I want to see regardless of what it is. I found it very funny and the physical comedy is right up my street.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2024 18:05:37 GMT
Anyone seen Buddha? Thinking of booking after opening.
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Post by richardh on Apr 22, 2024 5:38:35 GMT
Anyone seen Buddha? Thinking of booking after opening. Went to the second preview of Buddha last Thursday. I have a vague recollection of watching the original TV series in the 1990s as the music was by Bowie (which it isn't here). The cast are phenomenal, some covering several parts, and it is a lot of fun with a lot of dancing, although the adult themes and language mean it will certainly not be for everyone (don't take your maiden aunt unless she is especially broadminded!). In spite of content warnings in advance there were two children in with their parents and all looked a little uncomfortable at stages. I know of Emma Rice by reputation rather than through having seen any of her Wise Children shows but there are some totally bonkers elements in here, some of which I think she has incorporated into this from previous shows that she's done, which I won't divulge here. So great plaudits to the new RSC ADs for going with this as part of their first season - I think and believe it will do well. As for Love's Labour's Lost - I enjoyed it although for me the Christopher Luscombe production from 2014 is definitive and I watch the BluRay so all productions of it now inevitably get compared to that which makes it an impossible act to follow. I thought the Nine Worthies somewhat fell a bit flat in this interpretation and I missed the usual version of the final song. We seem to be in an era where directors feel that to do Shakespeare without radical cuts and rewrites makes it too difficult for the 2024 audience - I think directors should credit audiences with more intelligence - but this is definitely a feelgood version of a play that can occasionally be difficult to enjoy, and a feelgood show that fills the main house is exactly what the new RSC team needs. Stratford on Birthday weekend was certainly more upbeat than I have seen it since before the pandemic, which is great news. So cautious optimism here, but will be interesting to see how things progress when they do the tragedies and histories. Rupert Goold returning here to direct Hamlet later this year is at least a sign of bringing back directors who seemed to have been shunned during the later years of the Doran era.
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Post by clarefh on Apr 28, 2024 8:07:51 GMT
I saw LLL this Friday - would agree with others that it’s a fun, fizzy production. The young cast give it an energy and it whizzes along, at times I did feel I’d have liked the direction to slow a little and let some of the lines breathe. The change of tone at the end - which is why I love this particular play - was well handled, and I liked the uncertainty of where most of the players would end up. It added a questioning poingnancy - had they learned, will they grow and change.
Thought Luke Thompson was excellent, he speaks the lines so easily and has a lovely nuance to his acting. Having seen him as Laertes in the Almeida Hamlet, I’d love to see him in more Shakespeare. Also enjoyed Nathan Foad and Jordan Metcalfe as Boyet. Felt some of the rest of the cast lacked a little depth and fluency at times, but not to the extent it affected enjoyment of the play. I’m not a huge fan of physical comedy but the majority of the audience really enjoyed it, and it is a key part of this play.
Theatre wasn’t full on a Friday night which is a shame. I’m glad I went though and if I was nearer wouldn’t mind seeing it again.
Went with a friend who is an occasional theatre goer as part of a weekend away. She’s now suggested we return for Hamlet instead of other plans we had so in that sense it has worked in getting at least one person to re engage with the RSC!
Meant to add was in front facing stalls and some of the sight lines were blocked at times. I do wonder if sides might be better for this.
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