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Post by dani on Sept 20, 2018 15:26:36 GMT
Maybe this is a leap of the imagination, but couldn't Donnelly be doing a new version of Tartuffe?
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Post by dani on Sept 20, 2018 9:14:51 GMT
I think they have already made themselves heard.
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Post by dani on Sept 20, 2018 9:11:18 GMT
Has anyone here seen this? It appears it is officially opening tonight, but then there are apparently only five more performances. I am thinking about bagging a ticket for the yard.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Sept 18, 2018 11:52:39 GMT
What is dramaturgy? Why do theatres sell food that it is noisy to eat? What does a big name actor get, weekly, for doing a West End show? Why do reviews in Variety have these weird terms that nobody else seems to use, like tuner, helmer and auds?
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Post by dani on Sept 18, 2018 11:47:13 GMT
Just to point out that it is neigh-on impossible to churn out 100+ reviews a year without repetition of language. I read a lot of reviews and completely agree with this. A word like thought-provoking or spectacular does useful work. It's interesting to note that the people who have written this Exeunt article are all guilty of exactly the sins they condemn. Do they know?
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Post by dani on Sept 18, 2018 11:39:37 GMT
it's not really a secret that reviewers will often visit a show a little earlier than press night I get that, but it seems perverse in this case, where my understanding is that the press night got pushed back because the show wouldn't be ready till a certain date. So they pushed the press night back but then allowed some critics in before the date when the show would be ready? That's sending out very mixed messages.
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Post by dani on Sept 18, 2018 10:53:27 GMT
What I don't really understand, given that the press night last night was only a concert performance, as cast illness prevented a full staging, is how there are reviews of the full version in today's Times, Telegraph and Guardian, as well as Time Out.
They went to see it over the weekend? I thought the whole point was that the first time it would be ready for critical scrutiny was yesterday.
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Post by dani on Sept 17, 2018 9:21:58 GMT
McTeer is an amazing actress, her performance in Dolls House was one of tje best ever. Sadly she seems lost to the States now. O I didn’t know this. Has she moved there? I believe she has for a few years now lived in Maine.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Sept 13, 2018 10:33:57 GMT
Worth mentioning that Berberian Sound Studio is directed by Tom Scutt, hitherto a designer, in a not particularly common career move (in theatre at least, I know of a number in film). True. Hasn't Chloe Lamford been getting involved in some directing at the Royal Court?
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Sept 11, 2018 10:01:03 GMT
The review in the ES (3*) comments that "given this venue’s history of staging fiery political theatre, it’s a surprisingly unadventurous choice to open the new era".
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Sept 8, 2018 11:15:24 GMT
I thought this was dross. I've seen only one review from here that wasn't enthusiastic, plus one from when it was in America. The scathing American review, www.newcriterion.com/blogs/dispatch/a-prison-of-ideas, quotes this from the programme notes, about the original game that inspired the play, part of a history lesson one of the authors sat through. If I'd seen this before booking I'd have made a mental note to avoid the play: The game was a pedagogical effort to concretize the Underground Railroad. It is also a glaring example of our predilection to contextualize and teach the American system of slavery in liberally dramatized terms that amplify noble and uplifting narratives. If we interrogate the mythos of the Underground Railroad we uncover an apparent need to make systematic exploitation, degradation and objectification palatable. Why is it that we love to narrativize ourselves in ways that propagate the very violence we proclaim to upend?
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Post by dani on Sept 6, 2018 16:39:08 GMT
One of the most laughable comments I've seen about this is "The dancing itself was poor". Completely misses the point.
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Post by dani on Sept 6, 2018 16:35:34 GMT
The Arts Desk review does something that really grates on me, concluding "you leave the theatre feeling tantalised yet empty". The reviewer means "I left the theatre feeling tantalised but empty". Contrary to what I for one was taught in school English Lit lessons, that's a perfectly acceptable thing to say. By putting it in the second person she makes it sound as though her response is universal. It isn't.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Sept 4, 2018 21:32:23 GMT
a middle class entitlement piece Must have been rejected by Hampstead. Tee hee.
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Post by dani on Aug 31, 2018 15:08:24 GMT
"Improbably entertaining" is about as seductive a pull quote as one I recently saw in a London review, "surprisingly terrible".
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Post by dani on Aug 20, 2018 18:39:01 GMT
I don't really understand the obsession with being photographed next to a celebrity. Is it to say "Look, I met so and so (for ten seconds)" or is it "See what a dutiful fan I am"? It feels like one of the most superficial forms of showing off.
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Post by dani on Aug 20, 2018 18:30:24 GMT
I just replied to him and was pretty abusive. We can be abusive to liars, can't we? He thrives on aggro, so don't give him the pleasure.
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Post by dani on Aug 19, 2018 17:41:54 GMT
Is the idea of the title that it's the things that happen in our lives' apparently barren moments that turn out to be most significant?
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Post by dani on Aug 8, 2018 18:58:03 GMT
I am planning to see this play by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and was wondering if anyone has seen it yet. Then I noticed that it doesn't start previews until Friday.
I'll be interested to hear what people think. I'm intrigued by the sonnets' dark lady and like Charity Wakefield, who is playing Shakespeare. Vinette Robinson, who's one of three Emilias, was very good, I remember, in Tender Napalm, not that I am expecting this to be much like that!
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Post by dani on Aug 8, 2018 18:52:44 GMT
I read about this today. www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-45115581The anonymous author of the BBC article writes, 'An outstanding popular film category may also go some way to allay criticism that many of the films acknowledged by the Oscars are "increasingly irrelevant" and do not reflect what the viewing public want to watch.' I wouldn't consider myself a very avid or highbrow film buff, but I have seen every Best Picture winner since 1992 (when Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven won) and every one prior to that going back to Patton (1970). I'd argue that the problem with the Oscars, if you're serious about film, is that they are too lowbrow and Anglocentric, rather than too disconnected from popular taste.
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Post by dani on Aug 8, 2018 18:42:55 GMT
Unlike theatremad I haven't seen every Shakespeare once, let alone twice, but I've always thought that Merry Wives is a strong contender for the title of worst Shakespeare play.
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Post by dani on Aug 8, 2018 18:40:48 GMT
For what its worth- and for this of you going who haven't met me- my aviator pic is me Aviator pics? I don't think they'll take off.
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Post by dani on Aug 6, 2018 21:06:19 GMT
Future AD. Don't think it's an attractive post anymore.....Goold would have been wonderful but alas too late. It pays £170K, plus benefits. And to clarify why I think this is pretty tempting, I'd like to remind people that even a good freelance directing job can pay £5K.
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Post by dani on Aug 6, 2018 20:48:57 GMT
Future AD. Don't think it's an attractive post anymore.....Goold would have been wonderful but alas too late. It pays £170K, plus benefits.
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Post by dani on Aug 5, 2018 10:55:21 GMT
Do people at the NT go to really weird parties or have they never been to a party but have very odd ideas about them?. My assumption has always been that in rehearsal they are asked to improvise a party and they base it on the sort of parties that actors and directors go to - they think it’s normal - one feature at the NT is that open use of cocaine is usually included as a standard party feature. I've never seen an onstage party scene that wasn't totally embarrassing. They're usually pretty bad in films, too, though I like the party scene in The Great Beauty. Not that it bears any resemblance to parties I've been to.
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Post by dani on Aug 3, 2018 16:40:41 GMT
Fascinating to read Billington's two-star review alongside Sarah Crompton's five-star one. The five-star one, for Whatsonstage, is by Alun Hood.
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Post by dani on Aug 1, 2018 14:07:21 GMT
There has been no activity on this thread in several weeks, but I am fairly sure The Important of Being Earnest must have opened. Am wondering what people think, as I am going next month.
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Post by dani on Jul 30, 2018 10:39:42 GMT
It is. He has been there for eight years.
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Post by dani on Jul 30, 2018 10:01:50 GMT
The Phlebotomist, also downstairs and also by a young woman, was good too. I agree they need a better dramaturg. I also think the US plays they've chosen to do upstairs have been a real mixed bag, ranging from the excellent (Good People) to the atrocious (Sex with Strangers).
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Post by dani on Jul 27, 2018 8:49:49 GMT
His adaptation Three Days in the Country in the Lyttelton was dismal and badly-directed and was rescued only by one brilliant performance. I agree completely. That said, I concede that Marber's production of Travesties was good.
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