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Post by alicechallice on Nov 27, 2022 16:21:51 GMT
As long as you read the synopsis beforehand (maybe the whole thing if you have time!) you will be fine - you won't understand everything they say but you'll get the gist. Not sure it is as enjoyable as modern plays where you can just relax, rather than having to concentrate hard to understand. Only one by S I have genuinely enjoyed was the recent NT production of Much Ado About Nothing, maybe because it was a comedy with fewer complicated monologues...? Thanks... I and native British partner struggled even with Much Ado at times. Specially with Catherine Parkinson. I may give it a miss unless ppl start raving about it Was that also because she never seems to be able to open her jaw much when she’s speaking? It’s like trying to hear somebody muttering behind you in the queue at Gregg’s with her sometimes!
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Post by joem on Nov 27, 2022 19:18:27 GMT
These reports do seem to confirm my fears that too many directors seem to want to direct the play they want it to be rather that directing the text as written. Othello may be the title character but Iago is always going to be the most interesting figure on stage. The only way to really alter that balance is to write a new script. And then you can't use Shakespeare as the draw. I know the rise of the dramaturg has given some directors permission for the idea that they can completely reshape a text. And whilst that is technically true, it is very rare that a director is a better writer than Shakespeare. Yes, it has been happening for centuries. Through history we have had Lear rewritten to have a happy ending, Merchant ending after Act 4 to put all the focus on Shylock and many, many others. But none of these adaptations have persisted in the repertoire. The originals have. If a director doesn't have faith in the text, they should not direct it. Can we have a post of the month feature so I can vote for this? I absolutely agree with this. I dislike dramaturgs - other than when they craft a work from a multiplicity of sources raher than just dump themselves on a big name - and whilst it is perfectly legit to be "inspired by" or "after" as visual artists say, it is bordering on the dishonest when you are invited to part with your hard-earned cash to see a play by someone in HUGE lettering and end up paying to see the meddlings or muddlings of someone in very small lettering. I'll go to this anyway because I'm very fond of Giles Terera but honestly let's be more honest about who has done what so audiences can make up their minds what they want to see.
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Post by londonpostie on Nov 29, 2022 8:47:57 GMT
To echo others, Paul Hilton is a considerable success (as Iago), though he carries too much of the production.
Giles Terera seems to have quite the following. Heartening to see the building busy and buzzing again.
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382 posts
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Post by stevemar on Dec 1, 2022 9:07:13 GMT
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Post by oxfordsimon on Dec 1, 2022 12:39:04 GMT
From the photos, it looks like at least some of the actors are wearing microphones
Is that really the case?
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382 posts
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Post by stevemar on Dec 1, 2022 12:57:41 GMT
From the photos, it looks like at least some of the actors are wearing microphones Is that really the case? I haven’t seen this, but its fairly common or even these days almost the default in the Olivier and Lyttelton for the actors to have microphones. I realise that the theatre acoustics and ability to project should be enough, but particularly with other sound effects to be heard over or just quality of sound, I think microphones are fine.
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Post by alessia on Dec 1, 2022 13:08:43 GMT
From the photos, it looks like at least some of the actors are wearing microphones Is that really the case? Yes I was in front row and they are
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Post by lonlad on Dec 1, 2022 14:17:19 GMT
Everything now is miked, BEST OF ENEMIES deafeningly so - you'd think they were playing Wembley Arena.
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Post by harry on Dec 1, 2022 14:51:35 GMT
Reviews seem to be very strong but I didn’t find it nearly as interesting, enjoyable or radical as most of the press seem to. Not a patch on the relatively recent Adrian Lester / Rory Kinnear version in the same building for my money.
As many have said it’s Paul Hilton’s show and he’s doing fine work, and aside from Roderigo (who was doing some very shouty hand-gesture-y acting) most of the other performances are good, especially Tanya Franks as Emilia who comes closest of anyone to awakening some proper emotion in the audience.
But the production is so full of sound and light it’s hard to care. The sound booms and the lights jitter so it plays like a horror film… until it doesn’t and the final bedroom scene seems like they ran out of technical rehearsal time. This contrast of mega concept, followed by stark plain performance on a basically bare stage strangely has the affect of making all the deaths seem especially silly - just lots of people running at each other with knives and then falling neatly in position in an almost parody of the end of a Shakespearean tragedy.
So, not for me, ultimately, but clearly many found something in it that passed me by.
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4,969 posts
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Post by TallPaul on Dec 1, 2022 16:56:49 GMT
Poll added.
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5,596 posts
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Post by lynette on Dec 1, 2022 18:08:07 GMT
From the photos, it looks like at least some of the actors are wearing microphones Is that really the case? I haven’t seen this, but its fairly common or even these days almost the default in the Olivier and Lyttelton for the actors to have microphones. I realise that the theatre acoustics and ability to project should be enough, but particularly with other sound effects to be heard over or just quality of sound, I think microphones are fine. The acoustics are awful in both Olivier and Lyttleton but no excuse for mikes. Imo the actors should be able to sort it out.
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Post by Jan on Dec 1, 2022 18:23:18 GMT
I haven’t seen this, but its fairly common or even these days almost the default in the Olivier and Lyttelton for the actors to have microphones. I realise that the theatre acoustics and ability to project should be enough, but particularly with other sound effects to be heard over or just quality of sound, I think microphones are fine. The acoustics are awful in both Olivier and Lyttleton but no excuse for mikes. Imo the actors should be able to sort it out. The actors have been amplified in the Olivier at least almost since the NT opened, I think initially with fixed microphones. Sometimes it was so badly done that it sounded like the actors were behind you at the back of the stalls.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Dec 1, 2022 18:25:44 GMT
Absolutely. If you are a properly trained actor then projection really should not be an issue. If your training is lacking, get to a vocal coach and get sorted.
If your sound designer is intent on a soundscape that drowns out natural voices, tell them to change the sound balance or get a new designer.
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Post by londonpostie on Dec 1, 2022 19:34:21 GMT
As far as I know, productions have been using mics since technology allowed; a discreet pickup and a pack stuffed adjacent to your unmentionables. Not sure about The Globe, though.
The artistic decision in this production is to wear very visible mics strapped to the side of actors heads a la Jamie Lloyd's recent Cyrano (and The Seagull). It worked well in Cyrano, not at all for The Seagull (IMO!).
I'd imagine Mr Terera will be particularly comfortable with headsets given his West End musical background.
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Post by lynette on Dec 2, 2022 23:47:02 GMT
The acoustics are awful in both Olivier and Lyttleton but no excuse for mikes. Imo the actors should be able to sort it out. The actors have been amplified in the Olivier at least almost since the NT opened, I think initially with fixed microphones. Sometimes it was so badly done that it sounded like the actors were behind you at the back of the stalls. Stoppard had them for that trilogy faux Chekhov thing. The one with video screens…I don’t think there was much miking before then. In the early days i learnt not to go into the circle as the sound is so poor there, not the actors’ fault I don’t think. And in the very early days at the old RSC theatre in Stratford you could hear a whisper in the last row of the Gods where you would mostly find me. And right at the top of the ROH you can hear everything clearly. There is a reason theatres were built like they were. Making the Olivier an amphitheatre was a mistake.
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Post by mkb on Dec 4, 2022 2:59:15 GMT
Paul Hilton is so deliciously evil in a superlative performance as Iago that, as directed, it is astonishing that no-one sees through him.
For Othello, I could not shake off the image of Giles Terera's brilliant turn in Blues for an Alabama Sky, so recently on the same stage. His Moor nimbly dances around a boxing punch bag like a featherweight boxer, but he doesn't quite cut it as a lauded warrior. His delivery of Shakespearean dialogue is good but not great.
Unlike an earlier poster, I thought Jack Bardoe excelled as Roderigo. I also enjoyed Martin Marquez's Duke, Kirsty J Curtis's Bianca, Tanya Frank's Emilia, and Rory Fleck Byrne's Cassio. I initially thought Rosy McEwen's Desdemona underpowered, but her performance grew on me in the second half.
The set design and sound/lighting effects lend to the feel that we're in some other-worldly hellish descent. The whole cast apart from Othello and Iago are billed as also playing "System". I wasn't sure what this meant. It felt like Iago was playing to his imagined audience in his head. It came across as a bit muddled.
This interpretation did not seem to add much to previous versions. I certainly could not discern an Othello-centric take.
It was gripping, but flawed in comparison to what I've seen before. It's somewhere between three and four stars, but because many of the cast are so good, I'll go for four.
First half: 14:03-15:14 Second half: 15:36-16:55
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Post by bordeaux on Dec 4, 2022 10:37:02 GMT
The actors have been amplified in the Olivier at least almost since the NT opened, I think initially with fixed microphones. Sometimes it was so badly done that it sounded like the actors were behind you at the back of the stalls. Stoppard had them for that trilogy faux Chekhov thing. The one with video screens…I don’t think there was much miking before then. In the early days i learnt not to go into the circle as the sound is so poor there, not the actors’ fault I don’t think. And in the very early days at the old RSC theatre in Stratford you could hear a whisper in the last row of the Gods where you would mostly find me. And right at the top of the ROH you can hear everything clearly. There is a reason theatres were built like they were. Making the Olivier an amphitheatre was a mistake. I think it was presumably Nunn rather than Stoppard going for mikes! It was certainly under Trevor Nunn that miking became normal.
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Post by Jan on Dec 4, 2022 12:43:26 GMT
Stoppard had them for that trilogy faux Chekhov thing. The one with video screens…I don’t think there was much miking before then. In the early days i learnt not to go into the circle as the sound is so poor there, not the actors’ fault I don’t think. And in the very early days at the old RSC theatre in Stratford you could hear a whisper in the last row of the Gods where you would mostly find me. And right at the top of the ROH you can hear everything clearly. There is a reason theatres were built like they were. Making the Olivier an amphitheatre was a mistake. I think it was presumably Nunn rather than Stoppard going for mikes! It was certainly under Trevor Nunn that miking became normal. Nunn introduced direct miking of the actors, they had been amplified by fixed microphones years before that.
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Post by Fleance on Dec 4, 2022 19:37:31 GMT
I thought it a fine production with generally excellent performances. However, there was one cut that bothered me. At the end of the play, Othello speaks the lines: "I have done the state some service, and they know't. No more of that." The lines following are cut from this production. I'm particularly concerned by these cut lines:
"...in Aleppo once, where a malignant and a turban'd Turk beat a Venetian and traduced the state, I took by the throat the circumcised dog, and smote, him, thus."
That cut line gives us the information that Othello is a Black African and not actually a Moor. A Moor would not have used the term "circumcised dog," presumably being circumcised himself.
The term "Moor" was used loosely in Shakespeare's time, to refer to any people of colour; the cut line gives us more accurate information about Othello.
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Post by tmesis on Dec 4, 2022 21:41:02 GMT
I enjoyed this hugely last night. The 3 hours running time absolutely flies by. I was fortunate to be in the middle of the front row, only around three feet away from the actors at times, and the intensity was almost overwhelming. The production was dark, quite stylised but so effective. I found Terera the equal of Hilton in terms of performance with a particularly good Cassio from Rory Fleck Byrne.
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Post by theatremiss on Dec 5, 2022 21:47:39 GMT
Reviews seem to be very strong but I didn’t find it nearly as interesting, enjoyable or radical as most of the press seem to. Not a patch on the relatively recent Adrian Lester / Rory Kinnear version in the same building for my money. As many have said it’s Paul Hilton’s show and he’s doing fine work, and aside from Roderigo (who was doing some very shouty hand-gesture-y acting) most of the other performances are good, especially Tanya Franks as Emilia who comes closest of anyone to awakening some proper emotion in the audience. But the production is so full of sound and light it’s hard to care. The sound booms and the lights jitter so it plays like a horror film… until it doesn’t and the final bedroom scene seems like they ran out of technical rehearsal time. This contrast of mega concept, followed by stark plain performance on a basically bare stage strangely has the affect of making all the deaths seem especially silly - just lots of people running at each other with knives and then falling neatly in position in an almost parody of the end of a Shakespearean tragedy. So, not for me, ultimately, but clearly many found something in it that passed me by. I’ve not seen it yet, I think in Feb. But I totally agree the Kinnear/Lester production was rather good, with Kinnear being the stand out performance imho. I do judge this play by how well Iago is portrayed.
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Post by theoracle on Dec 9, 2022 0:39:06 GMT
I must say I really enjoyed this. I was a little concerned about the 3hr run time but both acts whizzed by for me and the suspense was held very well throughout. Giles Terera was very much in his element as the titular character and was pleasantly surprised to see how in shape he was when he takes his shirt off... Paul Hilton was deliciously cunning as Iago and you could feel the reaction of those around you as we watched him manipulate the other characters leading to the ultimate tragedy in the end. Tanya Franks also gave a very memorable performance - her outrage at the final scene and her naivety around Iago is totally believable. I also really loved how this set fills the wide Lyttleton stage whilst remaining rather minimalistic with the ensemble cast filling most of the space and the projections adding that touch of intensity too. Very highly recccomend this!
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Post by jm25 on Dec 9, 2022 23:38:39 GMT
I liked it. I agree with everyone about the 3 hour run time not being a problem, but I would say the pacing in the second half feels stronger.
The cast is solid but Paul Hilton is the clear standout. I also quite liked the minimalist set design - and that type of thing isn’t usually my cup of tea! I think the largeness of the stage allows the other actors in the company to use the space in an interesting enough way that you don’t miss a more traditional set.
I went into this aware (obviously!) of Othello but not having read/seen it and certainly not familiar with its performance history. To me it seemed to focus fairly equally on Othello and Iago, which I liked.
3.5 stars from me, generously rounded up to 4 for the poll!
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Post by dlevi on Dec 10, 2022 10:58:11 GMT
While I didn't particularly like Mr Dyer's social agenda based re-thinking of what the play was about ( the need for the society around Othello to see him fail, Women's empowerment etc.) I thought the design elements of the production were outstanding as were the committed performances by the actors. The production held my attention through out. Not a triumph by any means but in no way a disaster.
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Post by Dave B on Dec 11, 2022 20:07:57 GMT
Well, the front row £20 were an absolute smash here. Other than that.... The set design and sound/lighting effects lend to the feel that we're in some other-worldly hellish descent. The whole cast apart from Othello and Iago are billed as also playing "System". I wasn't sure what this meant. It felt like Iago was playing to his imagined audience in his head. It came across as a bit muddled. I think there is some other intent here. The ensemble, 'System' have small but clearly choreographed movements as they are sat on the set in the background throughout. Towards the end, in particular as we see the blood and violence, the movement happens a lot more often and even more choreographed so that it almost ripples through the ensemble. I thought the intent was a computer glitch, like there was just a little stutter - more than once I thought they were doing a version of a glitch in the Matrix.
There isn't much more in the production that I noticed around this but combined with the System listing in the programme... I am puzzled - it certainly seems to be suggesting something.
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Post by Latecomer on Dec 11, 2022 21:41:15 GMT
Saw this with my daughter. We first saw Othello at the Donmar and that started ALL my theatre-going. I thought this was a bit flawed, in that Paul Hilton looked and acted like an unpleasant villain all the time….as my daughter said “you could believe people thinking Ewan McGregor was an honest likeable fellow, but this Iago just seems like a nasty piece of work all the time”. I quite enjoyed all the “choreography” of the people on the steps and the set. And the flaming torches were lovely. But was not moved by the ending so no cigar from me! I didn’t think it was a particularly different reading of the play…in my view Othello is always so quick to believe that D has betrayed him as he is an outsider, both in terms of his heritage and his cultural knowledge. I’m always struck by how modern the play is when it comes to the treatment of women….and essentially the “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander” bit…..and women like sex as much as men do….just women’s lib all on display!
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Post by theatregeek2012 on Dec 27, 2022 18:45:45 GMT
It's a solid production. I had fun. It wasn't really emotional. But Paul Hilton is great as IAgo… he enjoys the role, it shows and it's contagious. Last saw him in INHERITANCE and thought he was awesome there. Desdemona was also brilliantly embodied. A beautiful mixture of confident woman and mistress of Othello. A bit long-winded in between, but all in all a good production.
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Post by joem on Dec 28, 2022 18:37:58 GMT
This was rather good without being awesomely great. Paul Hilton takes the acting honours for a nasty Iago (will we ever see a nice one?) but I'm very fond of Giles Terera and he had a fragility which, whilst undermining belief in him as a great warrior, becomes increasingly effective as his emotional weaknesses are exploited/explored.
I quite liked the setting and the projections, I didn't find them intrusive. The (mostly) silent Greek chorus does seem to be a bit too much. You do kind of get the point in the first few minutes after which they become a rather pointless stage decoration. Some of the intimate scenes - and this is a common moan from me in recent times - seem to be played at a great distance (eg the first half of Desdemona's death scene) when they should be direct physical confrontations.
My last stage Othello, believe it or not, was Paul Scofield. I would have loved to see Adrian Lester but somehow missed it. I do think that we avid theatregoers can sometimes exhibit jaded palates and I would say, as gently as possible, it isn't always about us. 9 years is practically half a generation. Hopefully hundreds of thousands of new theatregoers have come on stream since then. They deserve to see an important play like Othello the way we have too.
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Post by stevemar on Jan 16, 2023 10:27:42 GMT
I enjoyed this production a great deal.
I’ve only seen the Donmar production and previous NT (Adrian Lester/Rory Kinnear) ones before. Whilst the thriller like way (sudden lighting cues, noise and projections) and the System were slightly overdone, there was a confidence to the direction which ramped up the anxiety of what was about to happen.
I felt Paul Hilton was directed to perform in a slightly pantomime way, but that was consistent with performing to the audience and the System following this lead, and he owned his character. Giles Terrara speaks beautifully, but there was a lack of connection (to emphasise his isolation) but also I felt throughout from Desdemona, which undermined the final tragedy.
I’ve never seen Rodrigo played by Jack Bardoe in an almost pantomime/fool way - for some reason I thought of him as an early stage Frankenstein’s monster (like Frankenstein at the NT). Cassio very well played.
Rosy McEwen from a quietish start and particularly Tanya Franks as Emelia really brought the play to a crescendo focussing on the misogyny of society. In fact the only relationship I really believed in was Iago/Emelia mainly due to the shivering and cowering way Emilia acted, both pulling towards and away from Iago.
4 stars.
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Post by stevemar on Jan 18, 2023 10:11:17 GMT
I meant to post this also with my comments: at the end of the play there are various noise effects, but I couldn’t make them out. Does anyone know what they are?
Sounded like recordings of protests (maybe Black Lives Matter or others), with a sort of beat (thought it might go into rap).
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