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Post by dani on Apr 12, 2018 15:31:20 GMT
Depressing that they are using the American spelling of "theatre" too. Are they?
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Apr 12, 2018 11:01:17 GMT
My biggest English language gripe is . . . Americans. Everything else I can just about take but what they've done to the language is, quite frankly, criminal. There are 325 million of them, compared with 65 million in the UK, and there are possibly 1 billion people worldwide who have English as their second language. It's not Britain's possession any more.
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Post by dani on Apr 11, 2018 17:46:52 GMT
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Post by dani on Apr 9, 2018 10:56:23 GMT
I suppose this is a natural progression for Russell, who's previously played Madame Arcati and, in a filmed cameo, Leigh Bowery.
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Post by dani on Apr 8, 2018 18:43:11 GMT
She's also swearing despite the fact that she's going out live on radio. Can she not read the autocue?
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Post by dani on Apr 8, 2018 18:32:22 GMT
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Post by dani on Apr 8, 2018 13:28:05 GMT
I've seen some very unexciting performers in RSC productions. Is that even a crime? If everyone in a production is extremely exciting, the production is at risk of being hyperactive, and some roles call for being stolid or unobtrusive. I wouldn't want a really exciting Rosencrantz, for instance. (None of that bears on Letts' remark in his review, which is appalling.) Exciting (how they can affect others) not excitable (how they are themselves). That is an interesting semantic point, but actors who are genuinely exciting aren't the norm.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Apr 8, 2018 13:18:42 GMT
No one ever posted about this. Did anyone from the forum see it? It got some fairly good reviews, but seems a mixed bag overall. Lyn Gardner said, "Despite some very fine performances including some adroit ape-like vocalisations, the show always seems keener on showcasing its larky cleverness than on creating real feeling." That sounds like a very successful attempt to capture the spirit of Will Self!
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Apr 8, 2018 13:11:49 GMT
”Our approach to casting is to select the most exciting individual for each role”. What does that actually mean ? In reality they cast each role separately but they also are working to meet an overall quota - at least the NT are explicit about that. I've seen some very unexciting performers in RSC productions. Is that even a crime? If everyone in a production is extremely exciting, the production is at risk of being hyperactive, and some roles call for being stolid or unobtrusive. I wouldn't want a really exciting Rosencrantz, for instance. (None of that bears on Letts' remark in his review, which is appalling.)
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Apr 8, 2018 12:10:09 GMT
I also really regret not seeing the Ernest Hemingway musical - Ernie Get Your Gun or whatever it was called - but there is no chance of that ever coming back.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Apr 8, 2018 12:03:04 GMT
Best Actress (Supporting) - Denise Cough - Angels In America Is this a nickname I haven't heard, or just a typo? It made me laugh, either way.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Apr 8, 2018 11:59:46 GMT
Pal Joey, because I have never seen it.
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Post by dani on Apr 8, 2018 11:58:05 GMT
The ES review says "it seems hard to justify what’s essentially a frothy entertainment lasting well over three hours" and mentions that some performances "are rather guarded, and that’s a feature of a production that often feels careful and discreet, allowing the actors to lose sight of the fact that they’re in a comedy".
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Apr 4, 2018 11:23:22 GMT
90 minutes, four actors, no band, so tickets ought to be cheaper than this.
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Post by dani on Mar 23, 2018 9:58:16 GMT
I hope Iwan Rheon is better than he was in Riviera.
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Post by dani on Mar 21, 2018 16:16:27 GMT
If you're awaiting a Time Out review, you may not want to hold your breath. They don't review Stratford, or at least not the one that's upon Avon.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Mar 20, 2018 14:14:15 GMT
There seems to be a lot of critical love for this. The only mildly dissenting voices appear to be Time Out (Lukowski) and ES (Hitchings).
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Mar 19, 2018 15:42:33 GMT
This adaptation of a Will Self novel opens this week. I'm going next week and would be interested to hear any comments from people who see it between now and then. The company includes a "chimp consultant", who has evidently been released from his regular job as a Brexit negotiator. www.arcolatheatre.com/event/great-apes/
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Post by dani on Mar 12, 2018 12:02:39 GMT
I would be worried about a transfer destroying the production's amazing detail and intimacy. It might work in one of the smaller West End theatres, but I'd hate its affectingness to be lost in a space that is too large for it. All the praise for Bailey and Batt is deserved but I was also impressed with Katie West, Lesley Nicol and debutant Brian Fletcher who carries himself in a very unusual way.
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Post by dani on Feb 23, 2018 14:46:17 GMT
I hope this is better than People.
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Post by dani on Feb 22, 2018 11:38:29 GMT
In addition there does seem to be an opinion that long plays are intrinsically a chore, looking forward to a similar thread on Lehman Trilogy in the near future. I find long shows are often amazing, because they can be so richly layered and because the demands they make involve a special level of intellectual and emotional investment. I'm thinking of things like The Roman Tragedies and Angels in America. I won't deny that I have seen shows that vastly outstayed their welcome, but some of those haven't really been that long, they've just felt that way.
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Post by dani on Feb 16, 2018 11:05:23 GMT
Aleks Sierz of in-yer-face theatre fame seems to think it is one of the best plays in years. On the other hand, the Times gives it two stars.
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Post by dani on Feb 8, 2018 16:33:15 GMT
I haven't seen anything here yet about the new Dennis Kelly play, starring Carey Mulligan. I see it's the first preview tonight, so will be very interested to hear reports. It's a monologue, I gather, and eighty minutes long. The information on the Royal Court website makes it sound extraordinarily unoriginal: "An unexpected meeting at an airport leads to an intense, passionate, head-over-heels relationship. Before long they begin to settle down, buy a house, juggle careers, have kids – theirs is an ordinary family. But then their world starts to unravel and things take a disturbing turn." Probably a sign that it's a masterpiece. There's already a thread, although the mods refused to correct the title. Thanks. That would explain why I couldn't find it.
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Post by dani on Feb 8, 2018 15:16:24 GMT
Is Mark Hamill’s voiceover role permanent or was it one night only? I believe it’s every night. Presumably it's recorded rather than live? In which case it can't be very hard to reproduce after it's been done once.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Feb 8, 2018 15:13:21 GMT
I haven't seen anything here yet about the new Dennis Kelly play, starring Carey Mulligan. I see it's the first preview tonight, so will be very interested to hear reports. It's a monologue, I gather, and eighty minutes long.
The information on the Royal Court website makes it sound extraordinarily unoriginal: "An unexpected meeting at an airport leads to an intense, passionate, head-over-heels relationship. Before long they begin to settle down, buy a house, juggle careers, have kids – theirs is an ordinary family. But then their world starts to unravel and things take a disturbing turn." Probably a sign that it's a masterpiece.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Feb 2, 2018 15:22:14 GMT
They all seem to be 3 stars, apart from 2 stars in the ES and Time Out and 4 from the Daily Mail.
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Post by dani on Feb 1, 2018 14:14:58 GMT
I wonder what Tom Brooke is up to these days? Great stage presence, but he seems to have been mainly doing TV recently. Next for him is Jed Mercurio's Bodyguard on BBC1.
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Post by dani on Jan 29, 2018 16:57:19 GMT
I'm not impressed with their proof reading. The following is verbatim from the site:
Making its London debut, The Grift premièred in 2105 to rave reviews and sold-out performances in San Deigo, California.
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Post by dani on Jan 29, 2018 16:56:35 GMT
Has anyone seen this? It sounds like the sort of thing that can be either very good fun or really poor. I quote the description on the website (thegrift.co.uk):
Part theatre and part game, The Grift is an immersive, site-specific experience taking place throughout the rooms and spaces of the historic Bethnal Green Town Hall Hotel. Dropping its audience of 50 per show into the middle of an adventure in which they are trained in the art of the con, participants meet characters, solve clues and get a masterclass in the ways of the grifter, all in the interest pulling off one final swindle to take down a seamy criminal mastermind.
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Post by dani on Jan 29, 2018 15:36:19 GMT
The 2015 New York production was done without an interval. I can't comment on the original 1970 Broadway version or the 1990 revival.
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