2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 10, 2019 23:05:14 GMT
I though the pace was off until the last few minutes - the Gyptians' raid and search didn't feel very dynamic, nor did the Magisterium's, and the stolen children didn't come across as particularly distressed (are they meant to be doped?). People slag off the film, but it did feel more like an adventure: this, in its peculiar 8pm timeslot, seems to be going at 'Downton/Call the Midwife' speed when maybe it would be better shown an hour earlier and with the directing/editing pace of Doctor Who or Harry Potter.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 8, 2019 19:07:29 GMT
Conleth Hill will be on Sunday Brunch on Sunday (obvs!). It's worth checking their line-up because they often have actors on talking about their current stage show - actors from The Son and Appropriate have been featured recently.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 7, 2019 19:23:16 GMT
I won't be able to make it but it's an interesting subject - Manchester's RX is my favourite theatre space. Btw, in the light of the ceiling collapse at Death of a Salesman in London, they're having a feature on R4's Front Row on whether Victorian theatres are still fit for purpose.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 7, 2019 19:04:51 GMT
The second series of this is now available on All 4 and I'm glad to say it's excellent. I was a bit sceptical about a follow-up (the comic it's based on is a self-contained story) but they pull it off superbly.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 7, 2019 17:51:15 GMT
it'd be heartbreaking to see it re-imagined or done badly.. I know, and the TV/Film is never the book in your head (though LOTR was close), but if an adaptation brings the comic to a wider audience then I'm for it. It's arguably Moore's finest work but feels rather neglected.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 7, 2019 16:25:31 GMT
Hi - does the Lieutenant of Inishmore count? Very dark but the gory violence and use of props feels quite slapsticky.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 7, 2019 9:22:08 GMT
This probably isn't the same kind of situation but I lived in a Victorian-era mansion block flat when the living room ceiling fell down one night without warning. The plaster wasn't particularly heavy. Whole floor was covered in horse hair! Same in our mid-Victorian student house - the ceiling fell down in the room next to mine - luckily the girl was out, but she was a music student and it wrecked her stuff. A few days later the whole ceiling in my room fell down, destroying most of my stuff too. Had either of been in we would have been seriously injured or worse. Victorian theatres are beautiful but they scare me. Today, there's 100mm of rain predicted in Manchester. 2 weeks ago all the West Coast mainline trains were cancelled due to flooding - unprecedented in our train driver's 25 year career. Without massive investment - which is unlikely - I don't think these already creaky Victorian buildings are going to stand up to our changing climate.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 6, 2019 23:19:33 GMT
Yellow wet floor signs were in the bar and auditorium before the start If there was a leak problem they shouldn't have opened.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 6, 2019 22:16:48 GMT
According to the Instagram account of the estimable stills photographer Robert Viglasky, John Heffernan will be playing Jonathan Harker in the upcoming BBC Dracula.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 5, 2019 23:37:35 GMT
I wish they'd do Halo Jones.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 5, 2019 16:32:37 GMT
they didn't have confidence in the first episode holding a crowd? It looked like it - it's the longest and most spoilery 'coming next' I can remember! Then again, this must be one of the BBC's most expensive co-productions and with the next series already being filmed there's a lot riding on this.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 5, 2019 13:12:56 GMT
Wow. For a talk? I couple of years ago I saw new pieces by David Rudkin performed by Toby Jones, Juliet Stevenson and some musicians, plus a short Q&A with David Rudkin for a FIVER. And that was after a stunning performance of Deathwatch. The whole evening cost about £30, including the playtext. And that was at tiny venue the Coronet, which I suspect is run on a shoestring. I hope this is going to charity!
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 5, 2019 11:37:13 GMT
the original actor dropped out. Who was it?
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 5, 2019 11:06:49 GMT
The "coming up" bit seemed to reveal a bit too much, but looked fantastic. Yes - why reveal so much? If you've read the books you'll probably watch anyway, but if you haven't it signals pretty clearly how things will turn out, who is bad etc. . Even within the episode we didn't get many mysteries - for example, we're told, before we meet her, that Mrs Coulter is a baddie. Given the very generous series length, why not let that unfold naturally? Too many things here are signalled in advance.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 4, 2019 23:16:51 GMT
crossover between board members and Watchmen fans I love the comic and I enjoyed the first episode - which I think managed to have something of the original's flavour - though haven't got round to the rest yet. Another comic book adaptation The End of the F***ing World is back this week so my evenings will be devoted to savouring that for the next few days - the first series is one on my favourite shows ever.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 4, 2019 21:25:15 GMT
Lewin Lloyd, son of Jamie. Ah. I think he was in Taboo too, along with Gollum's kid!
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 4, 2019 19:06:46 GMT
I've watched the second half just now (yesterday's was interrupted) and thought it was a odd mix of styles. Some of the script and delivery was rather stilted, I thought - more like teatime children's TV, though when Ruth Wilson came on it really went up a few notches. I thought the boy playing Roger was good too. The scene where she's given the alethiometer was odd - wouldn't she be more wary of the master, since she's just seen him try to poison her beloved 'uncle', and what child would go, nah, I'm not sure I want this amazing-looking gadget? And, I get cgi is costly, but why not just sprinkle a few animals around in the dinner in hall scene? Oh, and, since the BBC Oxford is more diverse than Pullman's, maybe some WOMEN too? Generally I think Thorne has made Lyra and Asriel more likeable than Pullman, which for me is a plus.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 4, 2019 17:21:24 GMT
So where would you recommend as the best place to sit? I don't know where I'd recommend, but there are some audience photos on Twitter that will give you an idea of how it looks from higher up.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 3, 2019 23:04:55 GMT
Ooh - Jessie Buckley and Ben Whishaw are in the upcoming series of Fargo!
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 3, 2019 22:57:01 GMT
it is so clear that he was writing, in part, about his own parents there. Yes, I think he's working through some family issues in the books - and the peculiar religion he was then brought up in.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 3, 2019 22:32:19 GMT
misgivings about the casting of McAvoy and Wilson I prefer them - the novels' versions are so cold it was rather like watching chess pieces being shifted round a board and I really didn't care what happened to them.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 3, 2019 22:25:29 GMT
I found it quite bitty - maybe it would have worked better just keeping it with Lyra's POV, or at least until things were established. As it is I'm not sure this will hang on to viewers who aren't already fans of the books, though the cast may keep people with it (I'm not a fan of the books but James McAvoy and Ruth Wilson should be worth watching).
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 2, 2019 11:59:27 GMT
Sandy, aka Moses, saying he learned EVERYTHING from Max His previous hit show was called 'Heathens'. I do think there's a better play in here but for me it's not the one I experienced on stage. I think the bit with the whiteboard was where I flipped from "is this good, or is this just a shedload of essay notes?".
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 2, 2019 10:29:22 GMT
That rather begs the question - me or her ..which is where I am with this atm The American reviews for this from 2017 are worth looking up (they're collected on show-score.com). They're more mixed than the mainstream UK ones. Several view it as a (possibly blocked) writer working through her own "difficult second album"-type process, rather than as something relating to the outside, which is rather how I felt. The Vulture and Entertainment Weekly ones chime with my feelings about it (especially the feeling that we've been given her working notes) - Variety is rather more blunt!
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 1, 2019 19:18:35 GMT
which caused me to really listen to the words, perhaps, making me think? Maybe that was the intention of the way they staged it, come to that. Stories are an oral tradition and most of the audience relied on that for much of the play. My first review comment on this thread was to say it might as well have been a radio play for most of its length. It would have saved me a lot of money and an 8 hour train journey if they'd just stuck it on Radio 3 instead. If events like Sandy's texting or the intern's note-taking (or not note-taking) are important to the theme or plot it would be helpful if all of us could see them. The RX staged a recent Beckett using a very slow revolve, and I'd have appreciated that here.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 1, 2019 16:05:42 GMT
Do you think that is who they are and what they are doing? I thought there were clear biblical and other nods in the text and staging but she threw so much into it nothing really seemed to stick for me - it was more like watching someone's copious essay notes: I didn't think it had that theatrical alchemy that, say, Caryl Churchill brings to similar material. Maybe if you were sitting somewhere else this would play differently (Vinay Patel was asking this question with this in mind on Twitter yesterday): for example, Conleth Hill with his George Lucas, JRR Martin, Charlton Heston Moses look was hidden from me by the staging.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 1, 2019 12:31:06 GMT
who the intern doesn't take notes from. Good comments, though from where I was sitting (stalls) I couldn't see the intern at all, so his taking notes and Sandy's texting went unseen. From my glimpse of Conleth Hill, I thought maybe he was hair/beard styled to look like GRR Martin, and the carpet and set up an obvious nod to the Overlook Hotel (writer with writer's block goes muderously insane, though in that film other stories and backstories emerge in the rooms around him while his brain folds in on itself). Perhaps this play doesn't culturally translate from New York, or maybe it already feels dated with its overwhelmingly male roundtable (the women bringing in takeways or knitting felt a bit 70s sitcom to me) : women screenwriters and showrunners are a thing here and in the USA and I think the names of Sally Wainwright, Sarah Phelps, Jane Goldman are well known and lauded, and Emmy-garlanded Phoebe Waller-Bridge has just landed a whopping Amazon contract. I'm following the Amazon LOTR on Twitter and there has been a lot of excitement about the diverse writing team assembled for that. I think an aspect of the play I'd have liked to see explored but wasn't was the woman - disappeared - who had issues with everything. That, I think, is a big factor in storytelling at the moment - it's why I think dystopias, Marvel, fantasy and zombies/supernatural dominate the scene right now: no nationality/country/culture has to be the baddie, controversial issues around religion can be sidestepped, historical misogyny and racist structures can be ignored if you use a steampunk rather than 19thc setting etc., enabling the mega-dramas to sell globally without upsetting any potential audience market. Look at the furore over Joker - the Guardian published several negative pieces on it before it was even released, but then there was a backlash to the backlash. I thought it was an amazing, very timely piece of storytelling, absolutely on the nose of where we are right now, but some were dismissing it without seeing it because of the director and writers' previous output. It also addressed the role of stories in society in De Niro's casting and the stylistic and storyline nods to some of his films- Taxi Driver was said to have inspired the attempted assassination of Reagan, while his character in Brazil was a favourite of the Oklahoma Bomber, who used Tuttle as a pseudonym, though the writers and director are naturally horrified that their film has become a favourite with the US Right. I'm going on a bit here, but I think the way stories are created and consumed is fascinating - it's why I booked for the play months ago but it's also why I found her outlook didn't chime with me.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 1, 2019 11:00:47 GMT
That rather begs the question - me or her ..which is where I am with this atm For me it's defo "her". I think structurally it isn't a great play, and to say oh, it's playing with structure isn't a good enough response: you can play with structure without boring your audience (even the actors looked flat at the curtain call). Similarly, when I read about the set up - a table with actors' backs to you - I thought, '"provocative?" but it's not: some plum seats - the expensive ones they put the professional reviewers in - do get a decent view. As it's co-directed by Baker and the other director is also a designer, I don't think there's an excuse for this. On the subject itself, it didn't chime with either my experience in meetings/groups where stories are pitched and developed or the sheer wealth and joy people take in stories and world-building. As I've commented elsewhere, this year AO3, the fanfic website, won a collective Hugo Award, everyone from broadsheet press to Twitter is obsessed with dissecting season finales and drama trailers, Netflix's spend on 'content' is $15 BILLION this year and you can get Pop figurines of screenwriters. Writers - story creators - are lauded now in a way they haven't been for years (the nasty old Hollywood joke about the actress so dumb she screwed the writer), with podcasts etc. listened to by thousands. I find the set-up idea of a group of people struggling to come up with stories alien to my experience and to what is going on out there, and even when they tell personal stories, those stories just feel flat and in no way develop or build, have no impact on the way the other characters round that table subsequently view or interact with that character, apart from a brief poignancy for the chicken story. The doll fairy tale was amusing, but Caryl Churchill did the domestic fairy tale so much more powerfully and meaningfully in Imp. I did think, watching, maybe it's a middle-class, lauded American writer struggling with her own personal ennui or writer's block?
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Nov 1, 2019 10:01:38 GMT
It's driving me nuts this one. The play or the reactions? Some people clearly love this - fair enough, horses for courses, Marmite and all that, but it annoys me when they loftily dismiss those who thought it half-baked as conservative. And I think some reviews have given an extra star for her reputation - the Indie's doesn't read like a 4 star review.
|
|
2,963 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Oct 30, 2019 22:20:18 GMT
There are many sightline issues with this show ;( Really bad. Maybe it should have been an arthouse film instead, or staged with the stage much lower and with the table on a revolve.
|
|