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Post by andrew on Nov 17, 2022 10:08:45 GMT
Can I ask those who follow such things, was there a particular reason that the Old Vic backtracked on putting this to bed? I was sure we were reading last year that it was the last year they planned on running A Christmas Carol, then it happened all the same. I understand its a real moneymaker, but why was that rumour going around and why did it come back all the same?
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Post by andrew on Nov 16, 2022 19:04:09 GMT
I see live theatre all the time- I mean ALL OF THE TIME- it's actual one of the many (many) reasons that I moved to the London. Whilst I have a personal preference for musicals, I do occasionally enjoy a great play. I saw this show at the Young Vic a couple of years back and (genuinely) not knowing anything about this show cannot remember the last time I was so moved by a piece live theatre. Every person on stage, young and old, were just sensational. I never forgot it. And I'm not even a lesbian! Lol! When it came to Sydney, I told everyone I know to go and see it! Let's see if the West End run carries "I loved it - and I'm not even a lesbian!" on the posters
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Post by andrew on Nov 16, 2022 14:02:42 GMT
I haven't got anything to say that hasn't been said, but I've voted for 4 stars above. I wanted to love it more than I actually did, Katie Brayben was exceptional, there just wasn't enough quality on the music/lyrics end for me to come out feeling like I'd seen something really special. The slightly oddly structured plot and treatment of the subject matter are secondary considerations for me, I can get on board with that, but despite being funny and well-produced with a terrific cast I just feel a lack of standout quality songs stops this from being a great show. We (and I was helping to create it) did clap when individuals were dancing during the last song, but it was muted and stupid. Don't wait for a West End transfer, sort that out now.
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Post by andrew on Nov 15, 2022 15:05:47 GMT
Irish premiere at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, in Summer 2023. Don't tease us like that Rory! Was hoping a WE run might have been announced! I still think about this show and get a bit teary, one of my best ever nights in a theatre. Very pleased that Ireland gets a version even if it wasn't the news I was exactly hoping for.
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Post by andrew on Nov 15, 2022 15:01:10 GMT
I don't think it's that there's a new generation of theatre lovers who don't care that much for the man, I think that's always been the case. Most of his shows' original productions flopped and subsequent revivals have sometimes been successful but usually because they're scaled down and they still don't run that long. Was going to say the same thing, Sondheim revivals generate huge amounts of chat and excitement within the theatre community and almost no interest at all outside of it. The recent Company revival did well by essentially being a very new take done in a very good way, it generated raves and hype and had a very nice run. Could it have sold out the Dominion for 6 months? Probably not. Younger generations of theatre fans like him the same in my view, on TikTok for example all these teenage MT fans do talk about his shows, but he's no more and no less commercially appealing than he ever was.
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Post by andrew on Nov 8, 2022 15:57:22 GMT
First preview cancelled. Absolutely raging as I’d constructed a whole weekend around it, I did think to myself as we all should about booking an early preview, but reassured myself that it’s a play, not a new play, and helmed by experienced people on home turf. Nope.
Praying they can find me some house seats or something at some other point in the run but my optimism is low.
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Post by andrew on Nov 5, 2022 14:41:48 GMT
Very rarely bought programmes, only for extremely special shows and really only in the days I might go to the stage door, I would never in a million years pay for a PDF programme. Get stuffed.
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Post by andrew on Oct 30, 2022 11:06:51 GMT
I saw a new one for me, the lady next to me in stalls row E at Blues For An Alabama Sky chatting away for 20 minutes to her friend, then at 1435 the lights go down. Suddenly she goes for her handbag, gets her iPhone, and spends 2 minutes trying to do something with it. Then, the reason I'm posting this, because I was so appalled, she turned the TORCH ON, held her phone right up to her face so she could find the silence switch, flips it, then casually spends a few more seconds closing some apps before turning the torch off and putting the phone in her bag. She was literally lighting up the heads of the people in front, it was insane. THE TORCH!!!
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Post by andrew on Oct 21, 2022 13:16:15 GMT
What time are people coming out of this?
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Post by andrew on Oct 17, 2022 14:10:01 GMT
Sorry but I think you have misinterpreted the message of the show. In 'Light', it clearly advocates seeking professional help as evidenced by the fact that the doctor suggests he is still in contact with her, makes clear she is considering the risks of her decisions AND because he recommends that Dan see a professional - to which he says yes. Yes, there is complexity and criticism about what exactly works for her at the right time and whether medical or psychological intervention is ALWAYS correct in all decisions and at all stages, as well as considering what the unintended consequences and side effects of some of these treatments are - but this criticism is not completely unfounded and many of the criticisms of medical or psychological intervention (ESPECIALLY medical treatments) could have been lifted from a textbook from that era (I know because I was studying it at the time both at an undergrad and then postgrad level). This criticism and exploration is needed to actually give the show something interesting to say. "Light" more generally serves the purpose of trying to help people (the audience) empathise and cope with mental difficulties. It is nothing about suggesting by rejecting medical or psychological treatments or 'walking out' people will find 'Light'. It's just not the purpose (and as mentioned above, the show makes it clear it's the exact opposite). Spoilers remain here. I think you're drawing a lot of conclusions I wouldn't draw from the material, but I understand what you're saying and I appreciate your point of view. I don't see the evidence to be honest that the show advocates seeking professional help, there is a half-hearted question in the dialogue at the end (I'm re-reading it now to be sure) that she may or may not be in contact with her doctor, but even if she was you've still got a scenario where she tried the drugs and they didn't work, she tried ECT and got an unbelievably rare side effect, then it didn't work, and at the end let me quote DOCTOR MADDEN: Diana you have a chronic illness [...] if you leave it untreated, it could be catastrophic DIANA: I understand. But there has to be another way. And then she walks out. There's a relatively feel good song at the end and no consequences are known to befall her, and I interpret (and obviously it's just my interpretation) that this is a hopeful situation for her. Psychiatry definitely treads in the most murky water of all medical specialties, but neither in 2008 nor 2022 is it fair to suggest that someone with psychosis would be better off without pharmacological therapy, nor that a textbook would advocate that. She doesn't have mild anxiety or a personality disorder, she is seriously mentally unwell and for my money the show does not clearly lay out the issues in the way you describe. And if the situation was different in 2008 (and fair enough that was several years before I worked as a doctor on an inpatient psychiatry unit if that brings context to my opinion) I don't imagine it's being produced as a period piece, it will sell itself as being generally in our current era. I'm not comfortable with the way that care is presented, I don't think the average audience member comes away thinking anything good about therapies for mental illness. If my take is niche and alternative that's fine, but I definitely don't see Next To Normal as having the pro-healthcare message at it's conclusion that you see.
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Post by andrew on Oct 17, 2022 13:25:51 GMT
Ignore the haters, the theatrical industry has acclimatised to content warnings and they're not going away. My only beef with them is that I personally don't want to know what they are, I don't want to know about the gunshot, the homophobic slur, or whatever else because I want to specifically be affected by them and not be waiting for them, I love it when the big signs say there are some warnings and here's all the ways you can find out about them, but doesn't have in big bold capitals "WARNING GUNSHOTS FEATURE" etc.
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Post by andrew on Oct 17, 2022 13:16:00 GMT
I loved the soundtrack to this when it came out, randomly a few months ago on my commute I listened through the cast album again.
I thought the score still stood out as powerful, the lyrics at times work and at times clunk but I think they always get away with it, the story feels like it hammers along quickly and doesn't let you go. Another poster talked about not seeing the wood for the trees in terms of the shows problems, but my overall conclusion was the opposite, I think the core message is rotten.
Don't read further if you haven't seen the show. I'm not sure how comfortable we can be with a show that ultimately concludes that psychiatry, medications, and evidence based treatment were getting in the way of Diana getting better. It says that actually throwing all of that away and leaving her husband were the cure all along. That's really quite bad. She has persistent psychotic features of bipolar affective disorder, saying that she just needed to find inner strength to cure herself (which was certainly my interpretation watching the bootleg years ago) is a stupid and frankly toxic message that I don't think should be glamourised in a musical. I know it's not a piece of advocacy or advice, I'm not arguing that plays should always have good or accurate messages, but if we're going to keep celebrating it as the musical that deals head on with mental health I sort of feel it shouldn't veer off into touchy feely nonsense. People in Diana's condition who walk away from medical treatment would have an extremely high risk of dying by suicide, there shouldn't be a feel good song about how There Will Be Light now that she's walking out.
I still bought tickets, obviously.
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Post by andrew on Oct 3, 2022 19:22:09 GMT
I was really disappointed by this. It was just boring. I felt like I could have written it. I don't know what I was supposed to take from it. I didn't really rate Clare Higgins, SRB did his best, Lia Williams is one of my favourite actresses alive and even she didn't really manage to elevate anything that happened. I dunno maybe just 2 stars? Bewildered that this has been put on, it's going to struggle through the next 2 months.
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Post by andrew on Oct 3, 2022 19:16:56 GMT
I love The Crucible, it's so dark and intense, and this production lived up to that.
I thought the acting in this was almost perfect, Erin Doherty for starters was wonderful as everyone has described, she has got to be one of these talents destined to have a long long career starring in whatever she wants. Brendan Cowell remains one of my favourite actors, I still think back sometimes on how good he was in Yerma, and he brings a different type of intensity to this. At first I was reeling as what sounded like a fairly passable George W Bush impression was happening instead of what should be one of the great characters of American theatre, but he builds it so slowly into his final scene so as to be both as impressive as, and completely different to Richard Armitage's take from a few years ago. Eileen Walsh playing Elizabeth Proctor was heartbreaking, and my favourite ever take on Judge Danforth was put forward by Matthew Marsh, I relished every second he was on stage. My one beef was with Reverend Parris, who I just found a bit unconvincing, although I suspect this was a directorial choice.
The rain curtain is completely pointless, I think we're all agreed on it. It looks incredibly impressive, I don't begrudge it being there to be honest, but actually the rain has really nothing to do with this play and is just there to be dramatic. A foggy dark stage would probably have been equally effective, although less instagrammable. The rest of the design I quite liked, but I agree that from row B I struggled to see the little flashes of activity that happen from the rear of the stage. The idea is a good one, but there was usually a table in the way of it so I missed a lot that. I think with only a little bit of effort the action there could have been raised slightly higher and the platform removed for actors entrances and exits through the back of the Olivier stage when necessary, then it would have worked brilliantly. Lighting, sound, and the choral work all came together to create the intense, terrifying Crucible atmosphere I want (and without the weird ticking clock the Old Vic sound design used).
I didn't feel any of the length, this is exactly what I want to see from the National Theatre when they put on existing plays, I loved it.
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Post by andrew on Oct 3, 2022 8:52:37 GMT
I hugely support the idea of shows that have closed being recorded for release in any form, be that for purchase or for streaming. NTLive and the like are amazing but if you become interested in seeing something at a later date, or are a younger person who wasn't around 10 years ago to see something that does not help you one bit. We should always prioritise the live experience of theatre, but once it's gone anyway I think it's hugely beneficial to be able to leave some version of that experience for future reference, and not just tucked away in an archive. If that ends up being through Netflix or through a specific theatre streaming service, that's fine by me.
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Post by andrew on Sept 7, 2022 8:47:03 GMT
I wonder how many in the queue had more than one device joining? That was the old trick - set 2 or 3 devices to join in the hope that one will get a lucky low queue place, and then close the others out. I would guess that many people savvy enough to be getting in the queue for public on-sale are experienced queuers who know the tricks. Old Vic on sale I tried two devices and got in much quicker using the second device which joined the queue later. The Almeida did at least seem to assign places in chronological order. Queue-it, the system most of these theatres use, randomises visitors that are on the page when the sale starts (they call them 'Pre-Queue' users). Anyone joining after the sale start (after every pre-queue user has been allocated a queue number) is added to the queue in chronological order. So it's just a coincidence if you end up getting in first with your first device. I tend to find it's the device I least want to get through that gets the best spot, I believe that's referred to as 'Sod's law'.
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Post by andrew on Sept 1, 2022 10:29:46 GMT
Has anyone said anything officially or is this all just rumour?
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Post by andrew on Aug 27, 2022 16:20:33 GMT
I think this is such an odd choice for a transfer. I liked it in some ways but where it worked for me was definitely entangled within the intimate setting of the Young Vic wooden barn they created. The notion of this version of Oklahoma succeeding with a proscenium arch to a fairly big house is silly. It's good financially and for the wider industry when successful shows transfer out of small venues to the West End, this is not the show to do it with.
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Post by andrew on Aug 17, 2022 8:25:18 GMT
I enjoyed it far more this time, the play felt more rounded out and there were less random flashing lights and screams, which meant you could really immerse yourself in it. Wait wait wait have they gotten rid of the screams at the end of the scenes? They were one of the more offensively lazy parts of this play from back when I saw it.
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Post by andrew on Aug 6, 2022 22:52:36 GMT
I thought this was great. I didn’t have any issues with the vicars stance on the funeral, I think he explained his perspective very well and chose to draw the line of what’s acceptable in a church and what’s not, resolutely resisting disagreement from a community of people that aren’t even really part of his small congregation. All the actors were great, I thought the writing was good, and in act two when that “moment” happens it was genuinely an incredibly dramatic and well directed sequence. The final scene was excellent, not least because I love it when the size of the cast doubles just to pull off the last few minutes of something (The Inheritance Part 1, I’m looking at you…)
It’s criminal that it was so poorly attended. Young people do turn up to this theatre (eg for the Shakespeare stuff they gathered a younger crowd) but not for the very National Theatreish fare this is clearly a part of. I’m not sure if you can fix it, other than by casting young film stars unnecessarily. It’s a great shame.
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Post by andrew on Aug 6, 2022 8:02:13 GMT
I was at the matinee yesterday on one of their special key workers discount days. ThinknI messed up the quoting thing... I am a NHS worker and have previously got discount tickets for JL's productions. How does it work for The seagull? Just through the Jamie Lloyd Company website. You click book tickets and there's an option for key worker discounts.
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Post by andrew on Jul 28, 2022 12:13:08 GMT
If he was clambering over the stage, the Harold Pinter needs to urgently review the security measures. What security measures do you suggest ? An electric fence at the edge of the stage. Nothing obtrusive, just construct the front of the stage out of conductive material and electrocute people who touch it. Trying to climb up to get a hug from the dragon queen? Zap! Sitting on the stage at the interval (we've all seen it done at some point)? Zap! Putting your interval drink on the stage? Zap! Staging actors to be clambering up and down from the stage because you forgot to construct wings in your set? Zap zap zap! I was at the matinee yesterday on one of their special key workers discount days, which it turns out had a bunch of cameras for NTLive (or NTnot-so-live in this case) blocking many many peoples views, although they did their best to move the affected rows down. I was in stalls E so had a nice cosy view which felt very necessary for this. I would not recommend anything remotely far away, this is really a small black box play unfortunately presented in a large West End house. From my position though, it was great. The whispering actors aesthetic really appeals to me for some reason, it reminded me of Brendan Cowell in Verma, there can be a lot of power in dialogue spoken intimately. The combination of that and being close enough to see the fairly understated performances on offer from (most) of the cast and presumably the fact I've never seen The Seagull made for an intoxicating experience. It's about acting and writing and performance and is being played out in the most stripped down, least performative way. I found myself incredibly drawn in to some of the scenes, especially between Varma and Monks, and between Rhys Harries and Clarke. I am becoming a bit of a Jamie Lloyd apologist, and yes this could easily have been an Edinburgh fringe show above a pub instead of a West End premium priced event, but I enjoyed it a lot more than most people here seemed to! It probably helped that it was about 25 degrees and not 40 on this particular Wednesday afternoon.
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Post by andrew on Jul 24, 2022 15:46:35 GMT
I went last night and really enjoyed it. I hadn't seen a Punchdrunk before so perhaps the concept being new to me made me enjoy the novelty of it more, but I really loved it. I split up from my group of 4 from the museum onwards, and we spent the rest of the evening until 1am dissecting what we'd seen and piecing it together. I'd had a brief read of the wikipedia pages for the plays of Hecuba and the Oresteia beforehand to remind myself of the main characters, and I think that was absolutely essential. I agree generally with the point that you shouldn't have to do homework before seeing a piece of theatre, and perhaps the creators are overestimating the general publics understanding of Greek mythology, but having put in the research I was richly rewarded.
It was absolutely sweltering in there though, wear as few square inches of clothing as you possibly can. And was still on 2 loops, which ultimately probably made it a less tiring experience but also I feel made me miss an awful lot of the main Troy moments, due to bad luck.
I'd gladly go back, and had an excellent evening.
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Post by andrew on Jul 14, 2022 20:23:17 GMT
This is selling exceptionally poorly, looks like generally the top level is either not being sold or is being closed closer to the day, less than 50% of seats sold for this coming Saturday night, despite what seemed like very positive reviews.
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Post by andrew on Jul 14, 2022 17:06:49 GMT
Fairly disappointing I thought. It's just a comedy, it has nothing more to say. There are opportunities for things to be explored, but as others point out there just ends up being a lot of shouting. The sister character was awful, and really symbolised how lacking in nuance or interestingness this play is. It's sort of funny at points, but not funny enough, it's well-acted, but not well-acted enough. I would skip this.
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Post by andrew on Jul 14, 2022 16:58:58 GMT
It's an odd argument that an organisation that has charitable status can be held accountable to a different set of standards, even assuming you support what the charity is doing. I see where you're coming from but I do think there is a different standard for what I'll tolerate from a commercial enterprise and what I'll tolerate from a charitable organisation. I don't think they should be secretly taking your money, but if they try heavily to influence you into donating to them at every opportunity I think they get that right by being a charity as opposed to a money grabbing fatcat.
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Post by andrew on Jul 14, 2022 15:29:34 GMT
I think calling it unethical behaviour is pushing it..... Seriously? If you were doing your supermarket shop, and the staff snuck something extra into your trolley half-way round, hoping you wouldn't notice at the till, that would be ethical would it? If so, we have different concepts of right/wrong. The NT is literally a charity, Tesco is not. They do things to encourage donations, and yeah I understand there is trickery of sorts involved, but I pretended to buy a ticket to see how "unethical" it is and I don't really buy it. See below: There's a big donation box at the top, it lists the donation at the bottom, and the total price at the bottom reflects the donation. The reason I think you/other people may not notice the donation is because we're used to getting to ticket confirmation pages and seeing the total price being higher than the face value we selected, with booking fees. The NT have stuck a £3 (in this case) donation there instead of what Ticketmaster would have done and stuck a £20 booking fee, and I have minimal issue with that.
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Post by andrew on Jul 7, 2022 9:57:24 GMT
Did they run free in the last production? The chickens were present a few weeks ago, except I noticed they were not present when Act 3 began. Obviously Rylance releases them towards the end of the play to preserve them so I wondered if they are disappeared deliberately so they're not present after they've supposedly been released.
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Post by andrew on Jun 14, 2022 20:26:34 GMT
It is good, but again? It is a good vehicle for three blokes…. Yes, and I'd rather see all of them in something new. I get the feeling they're not in it this time... The marketing page makes no mention of actors.
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Post by andrew on Jun 14, 2022 20:25:08 GMT
Am I correct in saying nobody's walked out of this raving about the play? All the discussion is about the writer, commentary on the work itself seems fairly middling. Just trying to work out whether I'm going or not.
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