1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Aug 3, 2017 21:54:15 GMT
If working there is such a problem why not resite the RSC to Stratford in London and pretend Shakespeare was born there? The actors can then complain about the high cost of living in London if they still need something to grouse about. No one says working there is a hassle. To be honest they all seem to have a great time. The problem is simply the logistics of those with dependents and commitment in London being reluctant to sign up for six months and be away from family. I think anyone can understand that. I can understand it but for those of us who love the theatre it's like "aren't you unlucky?". Imagine people who have to commute every day at great cost to do boring jobs or end up exhausted from menial, manual jobs. If I was an actor in the RSC I think I'd count my blessings.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Aug 3, 2017 21:38:09 GMT
If working there is such a problem why not resite the RSC to Stratford in London and pretend Shakespeare was born there? The actors can then complain about the high cost of living in London if they still need something to grouse about.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Aug 2, 2017 21:48:24 GMT
Well good luck to them. Shame in a way. but if it's for the best....
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jul 31, 2017 22:56:57 GMT
There are plenty of theatres and theatre companies struggling to make ends meet. It makes no sense to award such a huge sum of money to a company set up nine days before the application deadline without any apparent commitment to a minimum number of productions or anything.
"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." Not that Ms. Rice would recognise the quote anyway.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jul 31, 2017 19:37:08 GMT
Sad news. I was never quite sure where to place him in the pantheon of American, let alone world, playwrights but he certainly wrote some intriguing, if at times barely comprehensible, stuff. RIP.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jul 29, 2017 22:25:32 GMT
Well Mr Nimax Theatres... err....no! If I cannot choose my seat, I don't go and you have two more empty seats for The Mentor. I am a man, not a number.
Frustrating evening of trying to book tickets. Royal Court claims all my cards (wrongly) are being refused. Old Red Lion first of all claims I haven't got an account with them (hahaha) then the website does not allow me to click through for payment.
Nobody wants my money. Stuff them.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jul 29, 2017 22:21:31 GMT
In answer to the question I don't fly BA as often as I used to - which was a couple of times a month, mostly short-haul - because I don't like the changes they have implemented. They now behave as an expensive budget airline if you are in Economy and skimp on everything even if you fly Club. I know their long-haul service is much better but then it has to be hasn't it? There's some very serious competition out there.
I agree with Kathryn's comment about Cruz, but that is in fact very much related to the merger with Iberia and to the sordid tale of how Iberia acquired Vueling.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jul 26, 2017 20:14:33 GMT
BA went to the dogs when they "merged" with Iberia. From "the world's favourite airline" it has morphed into the world's most expensive budget airline.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jul 16, 2017 14:06:52 GMT
I'm supporting the ENO by buying tickets to see productions I want to see (eg A Midsummer Night's Dream) at top prices without looking for any discounts etc; this is I think the way to support arts organisations. Many people who sign petitions have never even been to the place they want to preserve.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jul 13, 2017 20:14:06 GMT
I think some premium prices are too high but, paradoxically, some small subsidised theatres are not charging enough. I also think many f the schemes to get new/younger audiences etc are pointless because they're not targeted enough and end up providing tickets for bargain-hunters (whch I suppose is not too bad) and scalpers (which is).
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jul 13, 2017 17:37:13 GMT
I want to be addressed as Your Excellency. Until I am I refuse to travel with them.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jul 12, 2017 22:56:52 GMT
I have a problem with the idea of five star rating systems. It doesn't allow for a 0 and if you consider 5 has to be perfection (I don't because perfection in theatre is subjective although perfection is an objective concept) and 3 seems lukewarm when you enjoy something a fair bit. But if you give it 4 what do you reserve for superlative productions?
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jul 12, 2017 22:26:59 GMT
I had tickets for the 1st preview last Friday that was cancelled (found out just after I had packed my picnic and about to set off for the train!)...reading these comments, looks like it was a blessing in disguise - just phoned and got me a refund, I won't be rebooking. Shame cos 'On the Town' was great, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing Jesus Christ Superstar again. Didn't see On The Town but JCS was very good indeed.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jul 11, 2017 22:45:26 GMT
Adam James and a couple of other actos of his generation whose names escape me were at The Ferryman toay involved in some complicated game of musical chairs.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jul 11, 2017 22:41:35 GMT
I have studiously avoided looking at this thread and reading any reviews so as to try and see it without preconceptions or any kind of information, I didn't even know it was about "the Troubles". Now I've seen it and can indulge.
Ok so this isn't Jerusalem (it may not even be as good as Mojo) - but then I've yet to see a play written in the last forty years or so which compares to Jerusalem - but it's a damn decent play which was what I needed tonight.
It is overlong; I know Butterworth is a fan of Pinter's, he might have been a bit more economical with language on some of the exposition - especially in the latter half. It takes time to get going, a lot of characters to work out relationships and so forth. The ending might be seen as slightly melodramatic. But it is entertaining, engaging and tackles serious emotional and political subjects with confidence and style.
I thought at first this was going to be a pastiche of an Irish play by Sean O'Synge, but it's cleverer than that. He gets away with having Irish dancing on stage without making it feel twee. It's believable the characters will break into song and dance because the characters and the situation are believable. In fact, especially in the way it builds towards the denouement, there is more than a touch of Ibsen in this work.
The balance between "family saga" and political play, and the theme of loss - there are at least three types of loss in the play - end up working. Butterworth wears his learning lightly, there is evidence of plenty of research here beyond the basic historical and social aspects of the play, and he never preaches or shows off. Just tells it as he sees it.
A final point about the relationship between this play and its predecessor: the next surviving play we have by Shakespeare after the masterpiece that is The Tempest was.... Henry VIII. Even the greatest of writers can struggle in delivering masterpiece after masterpiece. This is no dud, Butterworth confirms, if it needed confirmation, with The Ferryman that he is an important writer.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jul 11, 2017 14:35:10 GMT
Since the whole novel hinges on the uncanny similarity between Darnay and Carton the director cleverly got that out of the way by making one of them white, tall, curly-hared and bearded (with a Scottish accent) and the other black, significantly shorter, shaven skulled, with a moustache and an African accent. Genius. It will be interesting to see how the press handle the reporting of that one, joem . I think you did it very well. Personally, I couldn't find an angle to comment on it at all, so will be leaving it out. Well colour-blind casting is one thing for the audience, but for the characters? Note I am not suggesting both should be white or black, but there should be consistency where this is so essential to the plot. I think it is sheer laziness or arrogance. You don't have to be "literal" in every aspect of the production but unless you're performing Dadaist theatre you do have to have things an audience can grasp on to. I don't know about Corbynite, the "adapter" does have a rant in the programme about how people were muredered at Grenfell Tower were murdered because they were poor, but it is a very odd novel to pick on if you have a left-wing agenda given how much kowtowing there is to the right sort of aristocrat and to how much time is expended pointing out the ignorance abd cut-throat tendencies of the people. It is a typically confused and exemplary aspect of this unsavoury mishmash.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jul 10, 2017 23:11:11 GMT
I have never left a produtcion before, but I was very, very tempted here.
Calling this Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" should be banned by the Trade Descriptions Act. This thing uses the name of the novel and (loosely) elements of the plot to build an amorphous harangue against whatever moving target is in the eyeline of the adapter and director. Ill-conceived, and ill-executed, the plot is so badly delivered that the first half passed me by in a sequence of mob scenes, pointless modern music and the odd bit of lavatory humour.
The design was unprepossessing, three revolving containers on stage - they stopped working in the second half and the production was stopped but, sadly, they got them to work again - to evoke the horrors of Calais. The costuming was all over the place, mostly modern but the old doctor is inexplicably dressed in 18th century gear which makes a nice contrast with the 21st century border guard uniforms.
Since the whole novel hinges on the uncanny similarity between Darnay and Carton the director cleverly got that out of the way by making one of them white, tall, curly-hared and bearded (with a Scottish accent) and the other black, significantly shorter, shaven skulled, with a moustache and an African accent. Genius.
The second half is better largely because it sticks closer to the novel but even chunks of Dickens read out virgo intacto cannot save this bcause the plot has been well lost by then.
It was most certainly not the best of plays, but has a strong claim for one of the worst of plays I've ever seen. If you have a ticket give it away or get a refund. Buy yourself a nice big pot of point and splash it on the walls then wath it dry. It will be far more interesting and rewarding.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jul 10, 2017 0:25:40 GMT
Maybe the two guys who are meant to look like each other will actually look enough like each other this time that the audience won't descend into snickering every time someone mentions the likeness, no matter how serious the scene. The eternal casting problem when "The Comedy of Errors" is produced. Has anyone been to this yet? I'll be there tomorrow (well tonight now).
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jul 10, 2017 0:14:29 GMT
2nd hand plays or programmes or other interesting items like that. There's a small theatre / arts new and second hand bookshop opposite the Young Vic on the road called The Cut near Waterloo station (by Byron Burger), so not far from the National Theatre. I think it had old theatre programmes too, and some sort of performance room in the back (?). A lot of drama students in there last time I went - a nice, old-fashioned place to kill some time before a show. I didn't know Byron Burger had designed Waterloo Station.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jul 10, 2017 0:04:17 GMT
I would love to own a theatre. Count me in for £10,000.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jun 19, 2017 21:16:35 GMT
Edward Bond. Brecht
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jun 18, 2017 22:31:24 GMT
Well, I was pleasantly surprised by this. This might have been written by Alan Bennett, light but amusing fare.
It must have tightened up a fair bit from the early reviews and the previews which inspired them - it came in at just about 2hrs 30 min. No discernible prompts needed, one stumble on the carpet and some spilled drink. I get the feeling some of the criticism of Felicity Kendal was simply because she isn't Maggie Smith - but then, who is?
Pretty amusing, some laughs, and a full audience loved it.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jun 18, 2017 17:36:53 GMT
I saw Hopkins in King Lear. I sat in the front row at the National and his spittle fell all over me during his rants. Apart from that, he was quite good. My programme notes tell me Michael Bryant was in that production and also Bill Nighy who I wouldn't have known from Adam then. I saw that production. Edgar and Edmund were played by young Bill Nighy and Douglas Hodge. App it was this production which more or less put paid to his stage career. Really? I didn't know that. It didn't strike me as being awful.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jun 17, 2017 21:58:39 GMT
I saw Hopkins in King Lear. I sat in the front row at the National and his spittle fell all over me during his rants. Apart from that, he was quite good. My programme notes tell me Michael Bryant was in that production and also Bill Nighy who I wouldn't have known from Adam then.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jun 17, 2017 21:46:19 GMT
Dire.
Informative programme notes are to be welcomed and can be educational but the playwright has to provide the information necessary in the text.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jun 17, 2017 21:40:19 GMT
I was there today too. Enjoyable nonsense (the singing, jokes and so forth) which did get quite touching in the death scene but why did they have to take so many liberties with the story? The changes, pretty arbitrary ones, do not make the performance any better but will lead anyone who doesn't know the original versions of the story come away with misconceptions eg Tristram is never French and he is the nephew of King Mark. Marhaus is not the King of Ireland either and so on and so forth.
Fascinating how, whatever their ideas on stage direction and their political standpoints, the English love affair with men in drag continues undisturbed.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jun 17, 2017 11:58:21 GMT
First time I have had the chance to see this staged, although I'd studied it in the past. Written by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, this is not an easy play, set on Robben Island during the apartheid era and performed without staging and the most cursory of props. Two prisoners (John and Winston) are rehearsing a version of Sophocles' "Antigone" to be performed in front of the prison authorities and their fellow prisoners. In the process we learn about their situation, hopes and fears, and about the unbreakable nature of the human spirit. The choice of "Antigone" is no coincidence, by presenting her as an individual oppressed by but rebelling against the power of the state, the prisoners are cleverly criticising the apartheid regime by analogy.
The initial mime, involving the prisoners breaking rocks, carrying and placing them on an invisble wall, was certainly effective in working up a lather for the actors but seemed to last about fifteen minutes - far too long to be dramatically effective. This slow start handicaps the production, which gradually picks up pace and is at its strongest in the "play within a play" where both actors rise to their parts with great dignity and force.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jun 17, 2017 0:15:11 GMT
First of all, a proper investigation to get all the facts. Then direct the anger at whoever, if anyone, is responsible. I noted by the way that 2 bedroom flats were being rented out at £1,600 a month, I'm not sure how that - or the description of the lives and achievements some of the unfortunate people who have died - tallies with the narrative of poverty which some sections of the media are portraying. I fear that whilst we wait for answers a frenzy is being whipped up which will result in riots and looting. More fires and more deaths which will be blamed on the Grenfell Tower fire and deaths in a vicious and unjustifiable cycle. The internet generation needs to learn that before opening its mouth it should have an informed idea of what it's going to say. Well that depends on how many people were living in those two bedroom flats doesn't it. Indications are that a range of people lived there but the media aren't inventing poor people in there. It's somewhat ironic to blame the 'internet generation' when you are on an internet forum and are no more informed than anyone else. Which is precisely why I'm avoiding being judgmental until there is something to judge and not claiming to have any answers as to what has happened. At the moment all we know is there has been a catastrophic fire which spread with inordinate speed and that merits investigation. I don't know what the mix of haves and have-nots was in the block but there appears to be a mix.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jun 16, 2017 22:11:32 GMT
First of all, a proper investigation to get all the facts. Then direct the anger at whoever, if anyone, is responsible. I noted by the way that 2 bedroom flats were being rented out at £1,600 a month, I'm not sure how that - or the description of the lives and achievements some of the unfortunate people who have died - tallies with the narrative of poverty which some sections of the media are portraying.
I fear that whilst we wait for answers a frenzy is being whipped up which will result in riots and looting. More fires and more deaths which will be blamed on the Grenfell Tower fire and deaths in a vicious and unjustifiable cycle.
The internet generation needs to learn that before opening its mouth it should have an informed idea of what it's going to say.
|
|
1,184 posts
|
Post by joem on Jun 16, 2017 21:59:14 GMT
I can't say what is the best play I've never seen because I won't know how good it is until I see it. Once I see it it will not be a play I've never seen. So......
|
|