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Post by dani on Jul 26, 2018 21:28:35 GMT
I've always enjoyed the Whingers, but they never really get anything experimental or avant-garde. This is a museum piece rather than a radical new theatrical proposition, but it's a manifestation of a tradition that's probably a long way from the Whingers' tastes. I thought it was a respectable attempt to do one of Ionesco's less admired plays, and Ifans is really something. I'm not convinced, like others here, by the idea of Patrick Marber as a director. This is the sort of play that calls out for Robert Icke.
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Post by dani on Jul 20, 2018 10:00:34 GMT
I think this writer is talented and interesting but his work has been exposed on the main stages too early in his career. St George might have been a hit in the Dorfman. The reviews for Pity could have been a bit more generous for the actors and designer. I wonder how much dramaturgical support Mullarkey has had. I also feel that he has written quite a lot in a short space of time which is why the quality of the thinking in the work is so poor. I blame the producers for this - they should be looking after young talent not damaging it. One consolation for Mullarkey may be that the young audience seemed to genuinely enjoy this so it may yet do well commercially. I hope so. He spent three years on Saint George and the Dragon, by his own account. That seems plenty of time to do some quality thinking. I haven't seen Pity, but I am curious about how heavily he has been promoted. You're right to say he has been exposed on the main stages, but so many writers, of all ages, would give their right arm for that exposure.
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Post by dani on Jul 14, 2018 18:20:13 GMT
I think you mean the interval! The "half" is thirty minutes before curtain up. Also, the half is considered usually to be 35 minutes before curtain up... but that’s a DSM’s pedantic nature coming out... I am pleased to learn this!
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Post by dani on Jul 14, 2018 17:37:44 GMT
England weren't very good at the World Cup. Harry Kane may win the Golden Boot, but he hasn't played outstandingly. The midfield was poor, especially the one really significant talent Alli, who never looked fully fit. The success was due mainly to a favourable draw and other teams under-performing disastrously, e.g. Germany. The defeat by Belgium today, admittedly with some players who are not first choice (such as Rose, who can't defend for toffee), exposed many limitations, and it's fantasy to claim that this is the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the England football team, even if Gareth Southgate has been quietly impressive.
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Post by dani on Jul 14, 2018 17:30:24 GMT
This is superior in every possible way to BEGINNING - and the less said about the execrable MOOD MUSIC the better ---- the walkouts at the half said it all. I think you mean the interval! The "half" is thirty minutes before curtain up.
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Post by dani on Jul 14, 2018 17:26:59 GMT
The idea that a play called Consent has to be about consent seems a little reductive to me.
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Post by dani on Jul 5, 2018 11:02:29 GMT
There is nothing about the novel that makes me think "This has to be adapted for the theatre". That said, it was done as a musical a few years ago, which surprised me.
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Post by dani on Jul 5, 2018 10:59:54 GMT
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Post by dani on Jul 5, 2018 10:58:46 GMT
It's so good to have the Ambassadors freed up after years of Stomp. I had been hoping beyond hope that The York Realist might still transfer there in September (I could see it working so well there) but Foxfinder sounds great. Slightly off topic but I would love to know why The York Realist, unlike say The Inheritance, Summer and Smoke & Nine Night, hasn't announced a transfer after critical raves and why so little in general has transferred from the Donmar. The Almeida and Young Vic transfer with some frequency but if it's at the Donmar, chances are it won't, and as far as I'm aware Sonia Friedman has yet to transfer a Donmar show. It just interests me why thus is the case. I wondered about The York Realist. Maybe it's an availability issue with the leads? I would imagine Miss Brodie might transfer. The only transfers I can think of during the Josie Rourke regime have been The Weir and My Night With Reg, Privacy (to New York), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (New York) and the first two all-female Shakespeares to King Cross. As for the Ambassadors, it's not a very nice venue.
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Post by dani on Jul 5, 2018 8:16:15 GMT
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Post by dani on Jul 4, 2018 11:25:39 GMT
I don't think there is a connection so much as there is a desire to sell tickets. Precisely, and that makes the whole "to celebrate England's success" thing rather tawdry.
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Post by dani on Jul 4, 2018 10:46:01 GMT
Did everyone else know that Laurie Samson was a man before all this? Yes? So it was only me who didn't? No, I had to check. I have the same problem with Lyndsay Turner and Lindsay Posner. I am curious. Turner is a woman and Posner is a man, is that right?
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Post by dani on Jul 4, 2018 10:42:13 GMT
Am I being thick? I don't immediately see the connection between England making the last eight at the World Cup and a play about fertility.
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Post by dani on Jun 29, 2018 16:28:54 GMT
That would be EDMOND in 2003 I seem to remember
Alas, about 5 years too soon for me! Wonder if they've got a recording in the NT archive.... It really wasn't exciting, I can assure you.
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Post by dani on Jun 29, 2018 15:46:57 GMT
A friend has asked me if I'd like to go to this with her. It is playing at Hampstead Theatre, and looking around today I have seen pretty terrible reviews for it, thought WOS has awarded 4*. The general reaction has been 2*. The presence in the cast of Harry Enfield put me off, but the subject matter - IVF treatment - is of interest. Has anyone seen it? I'm wondering if it might be worth my time.
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Post by dani on Jun 28, 2018 9:06:42 GMT
5 stars so far from The Stage, Whatsonstage.com, and The Arts Desk .... let's hope more to follow. Quentin Letts there tonight with a pretty young male which was surprising -- not his son, one assumes, but who knows? Now also 5* from Time Out and The Upcoming.
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Post by dani on Jun 27, 2018 8:17:43 GMT
I'd have included Posh, Constellations, Cock, Tribes, Iphigenia in Splott and The Effect.
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Post by dani on Jun 14, 2018 11:57:22 GMT
1* from Fiona Mountford in today's ES. "Did anyone involved even read the wild mash-up of a script before they started? Did playwright Torben Betts?"
I imagine the answer to the second question is "Yes"
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Post by dani on Jun 12, 2018 11:47:03 GMT
Reviews are coming out for this. 3* Whatsonstage, ES, Arts Desk. 4* Independent, Time Out, Stage.
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Post by dani on Jun 5, 2018 10:08:47 GMT
A really mixed bag of reviews for this, ranging from 1* in The Stage and 2* in the ES to 4* from Michael Billington in the Guardian and 4* in The Times and Whatsonstage. Time Out is in the middle, as is the Telegraph.
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Post by dani on Jun 1, 2018 8:56:42 GMT
Every inch a king.
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Post by dani on May 30, 2018 11:59:17 GMT
Isn't her vlog to a large degree advertising for products made by companies she has relationships with? I watched this one and it was moronic:
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Post by dani on May 30, 2018 11:55:31 GMT
The reviews for this are terrible. 2* in the Guardian, Time Out, ES, The Stage, and 1* in the Times. The ES review concludes 'In a programme note Garutti says "we hope our production has retained this masterpiece’s original deflagrating power". After a brief reunion with my dictionary, I can say that there’s not much deflagrating here. Instead of bursting into flame and burning away rapidly, this is a Tartuffe that flickers with promise", and the much more damning Times one concludes 'This is such spectacularly bad theatre that it had me praying — please, please, just make it stop.'
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Post by dani on May 22, 2018 8:45:34 GMT
At the National Theatre, I always get a programme. Otherwise I will tend to buy a play text. West End programmes always seem particularly bad value and are full of advertisements for drama courses and private schools, which is indicative - or am I being cynical? - about who producers think goes to the shows.
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Post by dani on May 22, 2018 8:37:42 GMT
think the play has ambitions to say something profound about art, and it doesn't achieve that That's true, beyond using him to blast the pretentions of other artists. He was specific rather than general, except regarding cubism. Maybe the start of thought rather than true meditation, I can see that. I guess because I was expecting a focus on Rothko, it didn't bother me, but I do really see that argument for sure dani . My friend said "Oh well, it's a bioplay, what did you expect?" But it's not a bioplay, really, because the only other character besides Rothko is one that John Logan has made up. That suggests, to me, an intention to create a kind of Socratic dialogue. It works, up to a point, but I still think the play has exaggerated delusions of intellectual seriousness.
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Post by dani on May 21, 2018 20:06:42 GMT
the writing was overweeningly pretentious, full of allusions to philosophy and classical myth without really managing to say anything about the nature of creativity I took that to be his character, and a deliberate choice rather than the author showing off. Interesting. You may be right, but I think the play has ambitions to say something profound about art, and it doesn't achieve that. If it's only a portrait of Rothko rather than a meditation on something bigger, it's a bit niche for me.
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Post by dani on May 21, 2018 10:03:04 GMT
I didn't think much of the play. It's well done, though. Alfred Molina is a master of his craft, and I found the relationship with Alfred Enoch's Ken believable. I loved the design and thought this was overall worth my time, even though the writing was overweeningly pretentious, full of allusions to philosophy and classical myth without really managing to say anything about the nature of creativity.
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Post by dani on May 18, 2018 11:54:42 GMT
3* Guardian, 2* ES, 3* Time Out, 3* Stage.
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Post by dani on May 17, 2018 10:14:14 GMT
This was on Twitter back in 2014.
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Post by dani on May 17, 2018 7:51:04 GMT
I doubt that Mark Thomas is rich. He's not that kind of comedian. You hope he isn't rich. I think he is. It is a very lucrative profession for those who (like him) have had TV series which lead to tours and DVD sales. I didn't say anything about hoping he isn't rich. I said I doubted he's rich. I hope (!) you're capable of seeing the difference. Some comedians such as Jimmy Carr and Michael McIntyre make millions, but Thomas's tours are small-scale and his TV series have been far from the mainstream.
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