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Post by kairi19 on Oct 3, 2022 13:48:20 GMT
I find it strange that the theatre haven't made any posts about it across any of their social media channels or their website... Or is that normal?
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Post by Dave B on Oct 3, 2022 14:11:47 GMT
Cancelled again tonight. Not great when it was already such a short run to start with. Oh wow.
I got off the phone with them just minutes ago as I had to change our booking for this week until next week. No issue with that, lovely helpful lady who transferred the tickets instantly. New tickets in my inbox before the call was over.
Odd.
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Post by stagebyte on Oct 3, 2022 17:33:45 GMT
A fair few complaints on Twitter of poor communication over the cancellations: trains/hotels booked. However the Rose has been swift in changing opening night to tomorrow now. Very strange no reason has been given and Carrie says she’s still in rehearsal. She did a Q and A today but no explanation at all.
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Post by musicbox on Oct 3, 2022 22:20:17 GMT
Tonight being cancelled as well is really...bizarre? I can't remember ever seeing a show opening like this with zero communication.
I've had a look through the website and it looks like the entire run is selling very badly, which is a shame.
I really hope this doesn't turn out to be another flop for Carrie, it's starting to look like her theatre career is hitting a wall at the moment! Saying that she's also doing a solo tour next year so I assume she'll be fine.
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Post by Jan on Oct 4, 2022 6:11:07 GMT
I've had a look through the website and it looks like the entire run is selling very badly, which is a shame. Maybe the locals didn't believe the Rose marketing that this play is "full of mischievous humour".
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Post by zephyrus on Oct 4, 2022 11:02:38 GMT
Brecht can be a tough sell at the best of times and this theatre is notoriously difficult to fill. I've seen quite a few productions at The Rose, and the only time I've been there and the auditorium was more than 1/3 full was when they had Dame Judi in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
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Post by Mark on Oct 4, 2022 11:19:56 GMT
I'm going to what is now the first performance tonight. Never been to the Rose before and the decision to go definitely rests on Carrie being in the cast, rather than the play itself.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 4, 2022 11:25:47 GMT
The casting choice is splitting their audience. CHF’s fans tend to be younger girls who likely have a limited interest in Brecht. And do Brecht fans want to see an influencer and MT performer who has no training or straight acting experience? I was desperate to see this when it was first announced because I love Brecht but CHF’s name has given me serious reservations; I’m going to hold off on booking until reviews or at least forum posts start to come in. I have quite a few friends who love Brecht and would have booked straight away if there’d been a respected stage actor in the lead (or even an unknown) but are wary of the stunt casting, and what it might indicate for other changes.
Otoh she’s a name so clearly people will see it for her, or out of curiosity to see her first straight acting role.
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Post by musicbox on Oct 4, 2022 22:36:39 GMT
I have no words...
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Post by Mark on Oct 4, 2022 23:41:48 GMT
Yeah…. That was a real…. Did that really just happen moment.
For a first preview it felt like it nipped along quite nicely after a slow first 20 minutes, although it is long (3 hrs give or take). Hard working ensemble of actors, very “Brecht”, but I liked it! Thought it was a good role for Carrie, lots of singing throughout the show. Nice to see a variety of age groups tonight, including some school groups.
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Post by Jan on Oct 5, 2022 5:59:34 GMT
That is an authentically Brechtian reaction - breaking the fourth wall and directly engaging with it as a piece of theatre whose whole purpose is to inspire action. It also shows the downtrodden masses (the audience) seizing control from their ruthless overlords (Christopher Haydon). Only the bourgeoise will complain about this.
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Post by musicbox on Oct 5, 2022 10:36:47 GMT
That is an authentically Brechtian reaction - breaking the fourth wall and directly engaging with it as a piece of theatre whose whole purpose is to inspire action. It also shows the downtrodden masses (the audience) seizing control from their ruthless overlords (Christopher Haydon). Only the bourgeoise will complain about this. I’m definitely not bourgeoise, but I definitely also find it a bit rude and entitled to get up and move a set piece because it’s ruining your view.
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Post by mkb on Oct 5, 2022 13:27:24 GMT
I rather admire the chutzpah of the audience member who moved the open suitcase. Let's face it, if we all took matters into our own hands like that, set designers and directors might start showing a bit more consideration to, you know, actual paying punters.
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Post by ladidah on Oct 5, 2022 13:44:39 GMT
The casting choice is splitting their audience. CHF’s fans tend to be younger girls who likely have a limited interest in Brecht. And do Brecht fans want to see an influencer and MT performer who has no training or straight acting experience? I was desperate to see this when it was first announced because I love Brecht but CHF’s name has given me serious reservations; I’m going to hold off on booking until reviews or at least forum posts start to come in. I have quite a few friends who love Brecht and would have booked straight away if there’d been a respected stage actor in the lead (or even an unknown) but are wary of the stunt casting, and what it might indicate for other changes. Otoh she’s a name so clearly people will see it for her, or out of curiosity to see her first straight acting role. I agree with this, it's a hard sell overall.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Oct 5, 2022 14:01:15 GMT
I rather admire the chutzpah of the audience member who moved the open suitcase. Let's face it, if we all took matters into our own hands like that, set designers and directors might start showing a bit more consideration to, you know, actual paying punters. Agree, designers, directors and critics should all sit in the terrible seats from time to time
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Post by stagebyte on Oct 5, 2022 17:01:40 GMT
I rather admire the chutzpah of the audience member who moved the open suitcase. Let's face it, if we all took matters into our own hands like that, set designers and directors might start showing a bit more consideration to, you know, actual paying punters. The biggest question is will director take notice and move it out the way tonight.
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Post by stagebyte on Oct 5, 2022 17:02:53 GMT
When is press night?
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Post by Dave B on Oct 5, 2022 17:16:44 GMT
Tomorrow - no change after missing two previews.
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Post by FrontroverPaul on Oct 5, 2022 23:57:51 GMT
As a fan of musicals and of Carrie Hope Fletcher but not of serious plays would board members recommend I book this ? Are there many Carrie musical numbers in it ? Thanks.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Oct 6, 2022 7:14:23 GMT
I saw it years ago. I remember it being a bit serious and dour. I don’t even recall any singing.
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Post by TallPaul on Oct 6, 2022 7:26:41 GMT
It's been 'reimagined', I think. Lots of singing throughout, according to Mark upthread.
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Post by bordeaux on Oct 6, 2022 9:05:49 GMT
From Wikipedia: Brecht wrote a number of 'songs' as part of the piece, and one of its main characters is called the Singer. In 1944 the production was scored by Paul Dessau. Though there is no officially published score, the show is generally played with original music and songs performed by the cast. Many composers have created unique original scores for The Caucasian Chalk Circle. One score performed regularly is by American composer Mark Nichols, who based his music on traditional Georgian folk harmonies in polyphony. Georgian composer Giya Kancheli made an iconic score for the production of Rustaveli Theatre in Tbilisi.
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Post by jek on Oct 6, 2022 16:24:58 GMT
We saw a version of The Caucasian Chalk Circle directed by Amy Leach at the Unicorn back in 2015 and I remember being very taken with it. Obviously being at the Unicorn it was very much aimed at a younger teenage audience. The dilemmas it dealt with seemed important ones to air to a young audience. I can't remember much in the way of singing.
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Post by jaggy on Oct 6, 2022 16:35:59 GMT
The Complicité/ National production in the 90s had singing. Not much though.
Has anyone seen this yet and willing to give a review?
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Post by Dave B on Oct 6, 2022 23:34:16 GMT
We are going Tuesday with £10 secret seats after this weeks rescheduling, will happily pop up some thoughts afterwards.
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Post by bordeaux on Oct 7, 2022 8:53:51 GMT
The Complicité/ National production in the 90s had singing. Not much though. Has anyone seen this yet and willing to give a review? The Complicité show was one of the greatest things I've seen in 30+ years of theatre-going, easily one of my top 10 productions of a non-Shakespeare classic. My German friends who saw it in Berlin when it toured said many German critics were also saying it was the best Brecht production they'd ever seen.
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Post by jaggy on Oct 7, 2022 13:05:00 GMT
The Complicité/ National production in the 90s had singing. Not much though. Has anyone seen this yet and willing to give a review? The Complicité show was one of the greatest things I've seen in 30+ years of theatre-going, easily one of my top 10 productions of a non-Shakespeare classic. My German friends who saw it in Berlin when it toured said many German critics were also saying it was the best Brecht production they'd ever seen. Fortunately, it got a proper archive recording by the V&A so I was able to watch that. It really was brilliant theatre. I wish I could have seen their production of The Visit with Kathryn Hunter.
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Post by TallPaul on Oct 7, 2022 15:15:41 GMT
There are 28 songs in this version, according to the Variety interview with CHF in the Bad Cinderella thread.
I don't think I've seen many musicals with 28 songs!
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Oct 7, 2022 18:30:42 GMT
WoS.
Carrie “holds her own”. Is that a case of damning with faint praise?
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Post by Dave B on Oct 12, 2022 7:55:04 GMT
We saw it last night. The place was reasonably busy but there were at least two school groups, one quite large taking up maybe half the circle. Our £10 secret seats (BO assign best available seats 24 hours before) were great seats, third row. Very happy with them and there were a few good but empty seats around, if anyone is interested in seeing this, I reckon it's worth a shot.
It's long! 19.30 and out at 22.18. The first half feels really long, only 55 minutes left after the interval so clearly a lot packed in before then. A whole lot going on all the time and it mostly works. The set is odd, it looks like someone just decided they were having a balcony at the back and then it was staged under orders to use the balcony. It has one or two small scenes that a balcony is effective for but otherwise it has cast up and down ladders for no reason at all, this got really old really fast. Far better work with the beds that move and are often repurposed
Cast. Not really being an MT fan, I only dip and out of the Musicals section here but I get the impression that Carrie Hope Fletcher is divisive and that's really all I had going into this. She's more than fine in this, her singing is great and her acting is good throughout with some moments (notably in her relationship with the solider and then the young child), no complaints about her at all. Slinger looks to be having a ball, a few minutes without even a line in the prologue and then most of the second half becomes his show which is quite a change. The cast throughout are adept at moving between roles though some allowance for the sheer variety of accent and some clear choices to play with, put them on strongly.
The music is .. present. It's all done with a single guitar and the Singer and guitar player is good but it's bland and inoffensive and just comes and goes and without a strong singing performance from CHF would feel really sluggish. The rest of the cast are decent though and their harmonies and chorus is well done, a range of talent in the singers but that felt embraced and deliberate which I liked. Oh yes, 28 songs... maybe? Some of them are seconds long. This is not a musical and if you were going to see CHF sing, she has oh maybe 5 or 6 songs and only a couple of them are more than 90 seconds. It's very much not a musical!
Overall, respect to The Rose for putting this one on. They have not cut costs or taken shortcuts, money has gone into this. I didn't love, I didn't hate it. I'm quite happy having spent a tenner on a ticket and we had a decent night out. My partner enjoyed it a bit more than I did, she reckons 3.5 stars. I'd go with 3 while noting that it gets a bit of a boost from the effort it's cast put in.
Finally, and most importantly - nobody stood up from the audience to move a prop last night.
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