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Post by Jan on Jan 14, 2018 12:59:10 GMT
So, having seen some less than glowing comments about this production, I'm curious to know what a good production of this play does look like, and what else should have been changed in this to make it better? The Deborah Warner version was very stark and uncompromising, it treated the play entirely seriously with no laughs at all except in the black comedy of the pie scene. No set to speak of. Much less gore than in this version but as it was in a small space (Swan/The Pit) just the threat of violence made it very claustrophobic. Plus of course Brian Cox in terrifying form. www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/jan/01/brian-cox-first-rsc-performanceHer productions of this, Coriolanus and Julius Caesar have been the best work of hers I've seen. Contrast with this production where the tone was all over the place. That scene with a regiment of Titus' sons and one of them barking out incomprehensible orders like something out of Dad's Army - that was just a cheap laugh bolted on to the production, not something that served the text at that point. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2018 13:15:09 GMT
It's a gruesome play, but it's also a very funny play. However the jokes are already in the text, there's no need to invent cheap bits of business to try and get more laughs. I liked this production well enough, but nowhere near as much as I loved Michael Fentiman's 2013 production.
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Post by martin1965 on Jan 14, 2018 15:35:24 GMT
It's a gruesome play, but it's also a very funny play. However the jokes are already in the text, there's no need to invent cheap bits of business to try and get more laughs. I liked this production well enough, but nowhere near as much as I loved Michael Fentiman's 2013 production. Yes i liked that production, Stephen Boxer is a v underrated actor. |
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Post by Jan on Jan 14, 2018 18:04:01 GMT
It's a gruesome play, but it's also a very funny play. However the jokes are already in the text, there's no need to invent cheap bits of business to try and get more laughs. I liked this production well enough, but nowhere near as much as I loved Michael Fentiman's 2013 production. Yes i liked that production, Stephen Boxer is a v underrated actor. Yes that production was better, but it gained from being in the Swan rather than a bigger space. The Douglas Hodge one at the Globe was also good. |
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Post by skullion on Jan 14, 2018 19:35:55 GMT
Thanks for the responses, do you think putting it on in a bigger space like the Barbican led them to thinking they had to add more humour to it, or was that just a mis-step that might have happened with this director wherever it was performed?
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Xanderl
Member
Not always very high value in terms of ticket yield or donations
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Post by Xanderl on Jan 14, 2018 19:49:54 GMT
For someone unfamiliar with the play, is this production worth seeing? I would say so - it's flawed but a good opportunity to see a full scale production of it. Particularly if you can get a ticket for £10 (eg TodayTix rush tickets, or Jan Brock mentioned getting top price stalls for £10 as day seats) |
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Post by crabtree on Jan 14, 2018 20:30:00 GMT
Yep I loved the 2013 RSC production - I think they got it absolutely right. And I'm old enough to remember the monumental RSC Roman season at the aldwych in the 70s....Janet Suzman initially playing Lavinia and then Judy Geeson. I remember John Wood in it as well. a great white box set with a tilting upper level.
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Post by skullion on Jan 14, 2018 21:04:51 GMT
There were several empty seats in the front row of the stalls yesterday which slightly surprised me given those are usually pretty cheap. I'm not sure if they deliberately left them empty for the bits when the cast were sat in them or interacting with the audience.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2018 21:32:44 GMT
Thanks for the responses, do you think putting it on in a bigger space like the Barbican led them to thinking they had to add more humour to it, or was that just a mis-step that might have happened with this director wherever it was performed? It's Blanche McIntyre, she's into broad humour. Sometimes it works beautifully, but maybe not quite so much here. |
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Post by lynette on Jan 14, 2018 23:16:36 GMT
Yep I loved the 2013 RSC production - I think they got it absolutely right. And I'm old enough to remember the monumental RSC Roman season at the aldwych in the 70s....Janet Suzman initially playing Lavinia and then Judy Geeson. I remember John Wood in it as well. a great white box set with a tilting upper level. We certainly put the senior into senior member, eh? I remember that Gleeson one. We took my new sister in law and brother in law to it thinking we were seeing Ant and Cleo. I got the shows muddled. Needless to say they have refused to go to the Theatre with us ever since. |
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Post by Jan on Jan 15, 2018 6:53:36 GMT
There were several empty seats in the front row of the stalls yesterday which slightly surprised me given those are usually pretty cheap. I'm not sure if they deliberately left them empty for the bits when the cast were sat in them or interacting with the audience. I think some front row stalls are held back as £10 day seats but for productions with lots of seats available on the performance day the box office designate "best available seats" as day seats and sell them first so if the performance doesn't sell out those front row seats will be left unsold. I did not see the 1970s Romans season - that was the season Trevor Nunn directed all four Roman plays in a single season and understandably had some sort of nervous breakdown at the end. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2018 17:29:03 GMT
Yep I loved the 2013 RSC production - I think they got it absolutely right. And I'm old enough to remember the monumental RSC Roman season at the aldwych in the 70s.... Janet Suzman initially playing Lavinia and then Judy Geeson. I remember John Wood in it as well. a great white box set with a tilting upper level. She's some actress that Janet Suzman. I can't see her as Judy Geeson at all. |
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Post by crabtree on Jan 15, 2018 18:30:56 GMT
I stand corrected for clumsy grammar.
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Post by skullion on Jan 15, 2018 20:56:20 GMT
I stand corrected for clumsy grammar. I liked him in Frasier but not sure I'd see him as Titus |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2018 9:05:01 GMT
I stand corrected for clumsy grammar. Just kidding . .  |
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