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Post by parsley1 on Oct 21, 2023 20:20:07 GMT
I saw this interesting play last Monday
Very atmospheric and in many ways ahead of its time
Excellent acting and insight into a culture I didn’t know much about
Always love Martina Laird
In many ways it was funny seeing this and Clyde’s one after another as both are about food as an allegory for beliefs and wider issues
Unfortunately it was sparsely attended and I hope this improves after the good reviews out last week
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Post by alicechallice on Oct 21, 2023 21:29:56 GMT
I saw this interesting play last Monday Very atmospheric and in many ways ahead of its time Excellent acting and insight into a culture I didn’t know much about Always love Martina Laird In many ways it was funny seeing this and Clyde’s one after another as both are about food as an allegory for beliefs and wider issues Unfortunately it was sparsely attended and I hope this improves after the good reviews out last week At least it was parsley attended though! |
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Post by parsley1 on Oct 21, 2023 21:55:19 GMT
I saw this interesting play last Monday Very atmospheric and in many ways ahead of its time Excellent acting and insight into a culture I didn’t know much about Always love Martina Laird In many ways it was funny seeing this and Clyde’s one after another as both are about food as an allegory for beliefs and wider issues Unfortunately it was sparsely attended and I hope this improves after the good reviews out last week At least it was parsley attended though! 😂 |
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Post by Dave B on Oct 24, 2023 7:54:47 GMT
We went last night, the emptiest I've seen OT in a long long time. It had been noticeable over the past year how much audiences had returned, with my last visit there just a couple of weeks ago having downstairs and upstairs completely full.
I know it is plot related but the smoking...ugh. A lot of unhappy audience members with a couple of 'em talking to FoH at the interval. I know they are herbal but the smell and smoke still affects people and OT is quite a small space. Surely these days you just trade in a suitable looking vape and pretend it is the real thing.
Other than that, I enjoyed this. Three really good performances and the writing is really smart, I really like food as the gateway to connect/reconnect with heritage and in this case (as with so many) to think more on colonialism and the things that might have been lost along the way. It doesn't feel at all dated for a play pushing 40.
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Post by Steve on Oct 26, 2023 17:55:21 GMT
Saw the matinee and enjoyed it. Some spoilers follow. . . It feels like a Trinidadian version of "Jerusalem," in miniature, with Kevin N Golding's character seduced by good cuisine to explore an older, vital, more superstitious culture (especially Shango, a Yoruba religion that seemed to me like an African version of the music, drums, dancing, danger and deities that Jonny Rooster Byron said lurked in a Wiltshire forest lol), than his other half, Martina Laird's Jean, who prefers chicken, chips, American cigarettes, go-getting and cold hard cash, is ready for. Watching Laird choke on poisonous experimental cigarettes and wolf down junk food would be both painful, and painfully obvious thematically, if Laird were not such an extraordinary actor, powerfully and congenially making the case for "progress" even as she coughs and chokes on her newfangled Luna cigarettes. As the catalyst for change, the family's new cook, Bethan Mary-James couldn't be more likeable, wild and free, and as the man searching for a soul and a snack, noone has ever made food seem more glorious and worth celebrating than Hugh L Golding. I'll probably put on weight now, the sights and smells of mouthwatering food made irresistible by Golding's infectiously childlike salivating. 4 stars from me for being simultaneously mysterious, celebratory and wonderful, while stacking the deck too much and too obviously against Laird's character.  |
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Post by showgirl on Oct 27, 2023 4:33:11 GMT
Gosh, Steve, I sincerely hope I don't notice any similarities to Jerusalem, which I loathed and couldn't sit through (& for which the almost universal accclaim still baffles me), as I was looking forward to my visit until I read your review. However, like yours, all the reviews Ive read have been very positive, so I'll go prepared but hoping for the best. I alos hope that your matinee was better attended and that mine will be than Dave B found, as I don't recall ever seeing the OT less than full or almost, including on my most recent visit to see That Face. |
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Post by Steve on Oct 27, 2023 6:17:34 GMT
Gosh, Steve, I sincerely hope I don't notice any similarities to Jerusalem Don't mind me, showgirl, listen to Dave and Parsley. The words "in miniature" carry a lot of water: there's no effing and blinding, no young people taking drugs, no constant stream of noisy music. Some spoilers follow. . . Theres just a wife who loves taking business meetings, smoking poison and eating chicken and chips on repeat, and a husband who yearns for something tastier to eat. The similarity I'm noting is thematic, in that both plays yearn for supernatural stories from the past that seem to open up a more authentic and connected way of living. You'll know what I mean when you see it. Hope you enjoy it more than Jerusalem. |
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Post by joem on Nov 10, 2023 20:32:29 GMT
No expectations as I didn't know the work of Mustapha Matura and it was the positive comments here which made me see it - together with an unexpected free night in London.
I am glad I went. This is a very good play, well written and shaped with important themes and three very interesting characters, all interesting in their own ways. I didn't see the Jerusalem link - I think Johnny Rooster Byron is a character rooted in conviction (and convictions) whereas Hugh is actually trying to find his real self. Perhaps there is a thematic link though, both of them understand (Hugh, eventually) that there are elemental forces which have an effect on us humans.
What I do see is a very Ibsenian quality to the crafting of the narrative and in the way the inter-personal relationships between the characters are presented and developed. If Halvard Solness (the Master Builder) had married Hedda Gabler or Nora Danvers this is the marriage we might have got. And beyond the relationship and Hugh's angst there is also the societal theme in Jean's promoting a dangerously unhealthy product and how our actions can come back to haunt us - a la Ghosts?
In making the Ibsen comparison I can't help wondering if Matura's stage writing might have been influenced by the theatres he was getting produced in? Good as the actors were my one quibble is that the play would have benefited from some attendant lords - the doctors, or mayors, or lawyers, or servants who turn up in Ibsen's plays providing valuable information and helping us to see the main characters in a slightly different light, away from the struggles between themselves. Maybe I'm seeing too much in this and Matura was happy to cut them out and just keep the important characters in the play. But I'd have loved for the maid's grandma to have appeared on stage and maybe the businessman dealing with Jean.
Excellent performances from the three-strong cast. I am glad to report that the Orange Tree was pretty much full and that the audience was wildly enthusiastic about the evening. Great stuff. Once again thanks to those of you who recommended it, I'd have missed it otherwise.
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Post by showgirl on Nov 11, 2023 4:33:43 GMT
Reassuring to hear that your performance was well-attended, joem, as I went to a matinee as usual and was surprised and shocked (& sorry for all involved) to find an unusually small, albeit appreciative audience. I thought the acting was superb and the production, including the physicality and sound, made the most of the material but that the play itself was slightly less good. I'm sure I have seen this play before but decades ago, so I recall nothing of it, but I doubt it could have been done in so clear and committed a way. I did find the constant smoking - even if the extremely strong cigarettes were apparently herbal - in the first act hugely unpleasant and think there should have been (clearer) warnings about this, or far better ventilation, but maybe it was worse where I was sitting. Another feature I enjoyed was the return of the much-missed post-show discussion, a regular event in Sam Walters' day but which disappeared under the last AD; that was well worth the visit, too. |
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