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Post by zak97 on Dec 24, 2016 15:04:51 GMT
Inspector Calls wraps up around the time this finishes at the NT. Likely? An Inspector Calls keeps extending its run. It's going very well, lots of schools visiting because every school studied the text. I mean it's one of the few shows on GILT to completely sell out its run. What theatres are available for this? Noel Coward springs to mind but they keep extending Half a Sixpence Well if it won't be an immediate transfer the Apollo, Vaudeville, Gielgud and Harold Pinter will all be empty come some point.
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Post by Jon on Dec 24, 2016 15:08:10 GMT
An Inspector Calls keeps extending its run. It's going very well, lots of schools visiting because every school studied the text. I mean it's one of the few shows on GILT to completely sell out its run. What theatres are available for this? Noel Coward springs to mind but they keep extending Half a Sixpence Well if it won't be an immediate transfer the Apollo, Vaudeville, Gielgud and Harold Pinter will all be empty come some point. The Vaudeville is too small, I would think either the Gielgud or Pinter
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Post by loureviews on Jan 7, 2017 17:20:02 GMT
I have to formulate my thoughts properly but that was a fantastic production of a difficult play.
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Post by Phantom of London on Jan 7, 2017 19:07:23 GMT
Not saying this will go in the Playhouse. But is An Inspector Calls still planning on closing in March? It is selling well.
This could go into the Piccadilly for a limited run.
The Ferryman has the Gielgud, think they're just waiting on reviews.
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Post by foxa on Jan 7, 2017 22:55:28 GMT
I saw this Friday night and like loureviews I'm still formulating my thoughts.
I loved A View from the Bridge and I would say this didn't work nearly as well but - this is an admission - I've never read or seen Hedda before and that was partly why I wanted to go. Having now seen it, I love the play - isn't she an absolutely infuriating character? There is something about her angst and need for attention that felt very modern and relatable. Thought Marber's adaptation worked really well though you always wonder when something is updated why they don't have mobiles or laptops - they had a video entryphone but that was about it for technology. I had some of the same hesitations as Nash expressed here a couple of weeks ago: Rafe Spall's performance was stagey/awkward/annoying; the repetition of 'Blue' and then the ubiquitous 'Hallelujah' seemed lazy sound design. The staging was often ugly and, at times, perverse. A huge stage where the middle is rarely used. A lot of action took place on the extreme SL so from our slightly restricted view seats (we could see 7/8s of the stage from the slips) we actually missed quite a bit (had to strain to see anything on the sofa.) The entrances were odd - sometimes from the audience, sometimes, in the second half, emerging from behind furniture. Poor Sinead Matthews was cowering behind an ugly chair for a long time before she finally struggled out.
And yet, I was interested throughout and was glad to see it. Sinead Matthews and Ruth Wilson had a terrific scene together and some of the moment by moment work was so good - with the actors really mining the lines and, at times, finding a rich dark humour.
Husband's comment: 'It was a bit like the Pompidou Centre - everything's on the outside.' (This is him regretting the lack of sub-text and subtlety.) He consoled himself by watching an old film of Glenda playing the role and muttering, 'Now that's a Hedda.'
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Xanderl
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Not always very high value in terms of ticket yield or donations
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Post by Xanderl on Jan 8, 2017 12:51:31 GMT
Thought this was great, best production of Hedda Gabler I've seen I think. Sat in the front row of the stalls which was great for this staging although... {Spoiler - click to view} I was worried about the tomato juice. Entertaining prop malfunction at the start of act 2. The maid goes to light the fire in the middle of the stage using a match. Strikes the first match which immediately goes out, so discards that, gets another match out and is about to light the second match when the fire magically lights itself Felt sorry for the actress trying to maintain her stony faced demeanor in the face of a big laugh from the audience.
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Post by loureviews on Jan 8, 2017 14:51:16 GMT
Yes the fire malfunction was amusing but these things happen.
Might be a spoiler in your post there about something else. I was thinking how to refer to it without removing the element of surprise for later audiences.
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Post by loureviews on Jan 8, 2017 19:24:51 GMT
My thoughts, ported over from my blog:
Ibsen's difficult late play comes to the National Theatre in a new version by Patrick Marber, directed by Ivo van Hove. In a modern production, set in one white box, minimally furnished, and airless except for one window (adding to the oppression of the story), it begins with two figures already on stage, one sitting motionless on a chair to the side, and one playing the piano, occasionally flinging themselves forward on to the keys in frustration or despair.
The former is the maid, Berte (Éva Magyar), who throughout the play is present, seeing everything along with the audience, but ignoring all just as she is largely ignored. The latter is the titular Hedda Gabler (Ruth Wilson), newly married to academic Dr Tesman (Kyle Soller, here using his American accent rather than the one we have grown used to in his appearances as the doomed Francis Poldark on television) but bored and without purpose.
"Academics are no fun!" she whines, and even stapleguns flowers to the walls when she is particularly fed up. Not for this new bride the glow of happiness - even the expensive house she now lives in is theirs purely through a quirk of fate, a caprice that made Tesman think she had "set her heart on it." She is trapped in circumstances she is powerless to change, in a cage from which she can not break free.
For Tesman's part he can't believe his luck, not just that the General's daughter has chosen him, but that he has "special access" to her body. This makes him just as unsympathetic a character as their supposed friend, Brack (Rafe Spall) who is a smooth but repellent sexual predator who, in the final few scenes of the play, defiles and abuses Hedda in a most appalling and shocking way, helped by an inspired use of prop design to provide the gore often missing from this play.
Hedda Gabler is a proud woman, but not in any way a nice one. She torments her school friend, Mrs Elsted (Sinéad Matthews) and ruins her life, under the cloak of supposed kindness. She goads the weak-willed career rival of her husband's, Lovborg, her former lover, into desolation and destruction while fantasizing of the beauty of his "wearing vine leaves in his hair". She lies, cheats, manipulates, and destroys. She is a viper in her words, too, hurting the kindly but interfering Tesman aunt (Kate Duchêne), and pushing away her devoted husband.
This production may rely too much on musical interludes ('Blue' by Joni Mitchell appears several times, and 'Hallelujah' the Leonard Cohen song, as rendered by Jeff Buckley - but clumsily edited - cuts into one scene), but its sparseness and the decision to stage much of the action on the fringes of the stage worked well for me, as it forces the eye to follow the characters as they separate or interact. Entrances and exits are blurred, so we end up unsure as to the proportions of the room(s) we are viewing. A video entry phone is the only concession to technology.
Marber's adaptation may bring more laughs to the fore than the piece requires, but there is no denying the cumulative power of script, direction, and performance. Wilson, Soller, Spall and Matthews are all excellent, with only Chukwudi Iwuji's Lovborg missing that final note of mental disintegration that his fate would seemingly require. Hedda's final act may shock some, "People do not do such things", but at least the events of this production are delivered in such a way that she clearly does not have a choice if she is not to spend her days in a living hell.
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Xanderl
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Post by Xanderl on Jan 9, 2017 13:41:24 GMT
You must have been sitting near me in that case! I was at the end of row A on the side where the cup flew. Impressed how the actor dealt with it in character when making his exit.
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Post by theatrefan77 on Jan 9, 2017 13:47:36 GMT
A few £29 and £39 tickets available now for January 25th!
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Post by loureviews on Jan 9, 2017 16:03:11 GMT
I completely missed the flying cup from up in the circle at the Saturday matinee.
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Xanderl
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Not always very high value in terms of ticket yield or donations
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Post by Xanderl on Jan 9, 2017 18:48:58 GMT
I was at the matinee, though? Were you? Impressive if he manages to wang it that far every performance... yes, I was at the matinee. agree it was impressive!
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Post by mallardo on Jan 10, 2017 11:25:41 GMT
I thought this was a brilliant production - clear, illuminating, totally in harmony with the spirit of the piece, resolving virtually all of its problematic elements. And Ruth Wilson is stunning.
A few points:
This was the most sympathetic portrayal of Hedda I have seen, in part because of Wilson whose realization of Hedda's own desperate self-loathing is so deeply felt throughout. But also because of the staging and design.
The production begins a half hour before the curtain goes up (figuratively) with Hedda onstage noodling at the piano, slumped in her dressing gown, a woman already in torment. A woman, just back from her honeymoon, who has surrendered to her fate, who does not even bother now to get dressed. The big entrance she usually gets with her sneering and her "what a dump" attitude, followed by her gratuitously cruel remark about Aunt Juliana's hat, has been undercut here by van Hove's mise-en-scene so that we already know that her nastiness and her lashing out come from a place of pain and hopelessness. And we can empathize.
This is reinforced by the big empty white room which is the Tesman apartment, a prison from which the only way out is to exit out of the play itself, into the audience. Berte, the maid, seated onstage, watching everything, is her warder - and, later, accomplice. The other characters have lives outside, Hedda does not. She is trapped, and permanently so.
Hedda is the archetypal 19th century woman, which is to say, she has no power. Power comes through men and she thought she had chosen, in Tesman, a man through whom she could achieve it. Tesman, of course, is usually played as something of a fool, an older man, a no hoper, which always reflects badly on Hedda's judgment. But that is not the case here. Kyle Soller is a young, handsome, virile man, a plausible match for her. That he falls short of her expectations amplifies her tragedy. We can understand her crushing disappointment.
The other character who seems transformed for the better is Judge Brack. As played by the excellent Rafe Spall he is not so much the arrogant town plutocrat whose good manners and sleek style are a cover for the bullying sociopath he eventually reveals himself to be. Instead he is a looming evil presence throughout, a veritable Mephistopheles. If this cuts down on his character arc it underlines Hedda's predicament. The ending of the play is foreshadowed from the beginning. Given these people and her situation, there is no other way things could have gone for her.
And, by the way, the ending, especially Brack's final line, which has been known to get laughs in other productions, works spectacularly well here. It's a breathtaking moment and the perfect climax to the drama.
Bravo to all concerned.
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Post by loureviews on Jan 11, 2017 18:10:15 GMT
True about the ending. Deeply moving and not for laughs at all.
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Post by Honoured Guest on Jan 13, 2017 16:20:46 GMT
Spooky.
Is there also a flying saucer?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2017 10:34:24 GMT
You see, it's always interesting to see other people's views of the same production that you've seen. I didn't get what was particularly moving about the end myself. I found Hedda just so deeply unlikeable in this production that the end result couldn't have come quick enough for me. I do agree Ruth Wilson was terrific though, especially as she made no attempt whatsoever to try to elicit any sympathy from anyone (the other characters or the audience). It did give the production quite a clinical feel though.
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Post by nash16 on Jan 14, 2017 15:52:27 GMT
You see, it's always interesting to see other people's views of the same production that you've seen. I didn't get what was particularly moving about the end myself. I found Hedda just so deeply unlikeable in this production that the end result couldn't have come quick enough for me. I do agree Ruth Wilson was terrific though, especially as she made no attempt whatsoever to try to elicit any sympathy from anyone (the other characters or the audience). It did give the production quite a clinical feel though. We felt the same way. And the ending was very much laughable to us. They made no effort to make those, let's face it, slightly ridiculous sounding final lines, make more sense or be in any way moving. All stilted and placed bodies. From the moment Rafe Spall's Brack started going psycho (tomato sauce time onwards), it lost us. Ruth Wilson was cold, yet impossible not to watch. Ivo van Hove seems to specialise in clinical productions. The heating never seems to be on in his shows…if that makes sense?
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Post by olly2288 on Jan 16, 2017 0:02:24 GMT
I know this is pretty sold out but does anyone have any experience of the NT's rush ticket system or day seating with this one?
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Post by Jan on Jan 16, 2017 7:01:39 GMT
I know this is pretty sold out but does anyone have any experience of the NT's rush ticket system or day seating with this one? I saw this one recently on Friday Rush. It is a quirky system and it takes a couple of weeks to work out how to navigate it optimally. The seats they offer for this production are terrible though, far back corners of the circle (this is not the case for all productions) and a small part of the stage is not visible. My estimate is that they make about 15-20 seats available in this way. On the play, as has been noted the interpretation of Hedda and (especially) Judge Brack are very different to how they are usually done and so interesting. I saw this play and Mary Stuart back to back - strikingly similar direction.
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Post by olly2288 on Jan 16, 2017 22:48:44 GMT
I know this is pretty sold out but does anyone have any experience of the NT's rush ticket system or day seating with this one? I saw this one recently on Friday Rush. It is a quirky system and it takes a couple of weeks to work out how to navigate it optimally. The seats they offer for this production are terrible though, far back corners of the circle (this is not the case for all productions) and a small part of the stage is not visible. My estimate is that they make about 15-20 seats available in this way. On the play, as has been noted the interpretation of Hedda and (especially) Judge Brack are very different to how they are usually done and so interesting. I saw this play and Mary Stuart back to back - strikingly similar direction. Thanks so much for your advice on that, much appreciated!
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Post by drmaplewood on Jan 17, 2017 14:46:21 GMT
I know this is pretty sold out but does anyone have any experience of the NT's rush ticket system or day seating with this one? Friday Rush'd a few weeks back, as mentioned they are at the back of the circle but view etc is fine wherever you sit. I went to get dayseats for Love last weekend and most people were still able to get Hedder tickets on a 2 show day if they turned up around 9am. I couldn't get past the interval of this though, so I would advise not wasting your time but that's another matter!
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Post by nash16 on Jan 17, 2017 18:39:34 GMT
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Post by andrew on Jan 22, 2017 0:33:40 GMT
Ruth Wilson made a speech tonight at the curtain call, referencing the march today in support of women's rights. She highlighted that Ibsen was writing about these issues over a century ago and that their performance represented them marching in solidarity with those who protested in the streets. She walked off in tears by the looks of it.
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Post by popcultureboy on Jan 22, 2017 1:04:03 GMT
For me, it's pretty clear that all the poor choices can be laid at the feet of Ivo van Hove. Having seen the main trio give superior performances elsewhere to the work they're doing here, I lay 100% of the blame on the director. Nobody is in the same play as anybody else, and not a single person on that stage seemed confident of the choices van Hove was asking them to make. Hedda was my 4th time seeing a production directed by Ivo van Hove. There will not be a 5th. He is the emperor's new clothes in the extreme.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2017 9:32:51 GMT
Ruth Wilson made a speech tonight at the curtain call, referencing the march today in support of women's rights. She highlighted that Ibsen was writing about these issues over a century ago and that their performance represented them marching in solidarity with those who protested in the streets. She walked off in tears by the looks of it. Self entitled wealthy actors Making political speeches NOT a good thing Embarrassing and inappropriate What a shame she didn't channel such emotion into the performance people have paid to see
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Post by vdcni on Jan 22, 2017 10:26:07 GMT
Ruth Wilson made a speech tonight at the curtain call, referencing the march today in support of women's rights. She highlighted that Ibsen was writing about these issues over a century ago and that their performance represented them marching in solidarity with those who protested in the streets. She walked off in tears by the looks of it. Self entitled wealthy actors Making political speeches NOT a good thing Embarrassing and inappropriate What a shame she didn't channel such emotion into the performance people have paid to see That's just as much of a Daily Mail comment as the one about doctors pensions you rightly criticised in the NHS thread.
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Post by Jan on Jan 22, 2017 10:38:35 GMT
Ruth Wilson made a speech tonight at the curtain call, referencing the march today in support of women's rights. She highlighted that Ibsen was writing about these issues over a century ago and that their performance represented them marching in solidarity with those who protested in the streets. She walked off in tears by the looks of it. Self entitled wealthy actors Making political speeches NOT a good thing Embarrassing and inappropriate What a shame she didn't channel such emotion into the performance people have paid to see Agree. She's paid to perform and she shouldn't abuse her position to hector a captive audience (99.99% of whom agree with her anyway). It's like travelling on Southern Rail and having the driver come on the intercom and denounce the government's transport policy. Just incidentally it seems her commitment to women's rights didn't extend as far as questioning the director's motivation for his handling of this play which could easily be argued to be misogynistic.
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Post by mallardo on Jan 22, 2017 10:49:26 GMT
I would argue that, in fact, the director has made the play far less misogynistic - Hedda is clearly the victim of a male-dominated world in this production.
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Post by Jan on Jan 22, 2017 10:58:39 GMT
I would argue that, in fact, the director has made the play far less misogynistic - Hedda is clearly the victim of a male-dominated world in this production. However, as newspaper reviews and others here have commented, the production is unique in making her totally unsympathetic right from the start.
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Post by mallardo on Jan 22, 2017 11:26:39 GMT
When is Hedda ever sympathetic at the beginning of the play? In this production the director has provided a context for her behaviour which, in fact, changes our view of her. As I've said elsewhere here, this is the MOST sympathetic Hedda I've seen.
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