Player Kings - Wimbledon / MCR / Noel Coward / Tour

You should see it. It ran 3:50 yesterday which is not really all that excessive - King Lear, Hamlet and Othello can frequently run that long (or longer) so it's not really unusual. In Wimbledon at least the seats are not cramped (not like those awful Fiennes Macbeth ones) and the view is good and they are sympathetically miked so you can hear.

You should see it because McKellen is better than he has been for some time and there are echoes of his great performances - he has thought about every line and gives each one its full value, he gets genuine laughs where there should be laughs, and he has taken a consistent view of the character which is supported by the text. I was pleasantly surprised to be honest, I thought he might be dialling it in like Branagh was in Lear. 

His interpretation is to make Falstaff slightly cold emotionally and he doesn't actively play to the audience at all to engage our sympathy - this is a valid interpretation but it makes it a little difficult to see why he's quite such the life and soul of the party and it undercuts his eventual rejection. So for me Robert Stephens is still the best I've seen, but this performance is way better than Antony Sher's turn and Simon R-B on TV and several more which were total failures like David Warner (I have seen 7 others) 

It's pretty much a one man show as regards the acting though. Hal is OK. Henry IV anonymous and underpowered. Shallow OK. Hotspur weak. The tavern people weak but Bardolph a nice vignette amongst them. 

So, you should see it so you can see McKellen at least once. Right at the end of his career I saw Ralph Richardson on stage. He was struggling with the lines but just now and again you got moments that showed how great he had been so I was glad I had been able to see him. You get a lot more than that with McKellen here.  

Very true Dawnstar! ( I also saw it last Saturday)

Oh also, another play with a good deal of smoking throughout just FYI.

In "Inner Voices" by Eduardo de Filippo.  NT Lyttelton 1983.

Is there a pause in between the 2nd/3rd act?

Saw this last night. Running time 3.50 but does not feel long, let alone overlong. It's a very busy production, in the right sense of the word, there's always something to see or something going on which demands your attention.

You go to see this because of Mckellen though, and he does not disappoint. It is the performance of a much younger man. In fact if one can criticise "God" I'd say he's a bit too nimble and spry for the weight he is carrying but his concentration and timing are excellent and, more than ever, this play is really misnamed. It's "Falstaff", the Henrys are both makeweights for him.

The acting elsewhere is good without ever threatening to move towards Mckellen's level. The usual daft casting and costuming decision or two, the court is people by drab courtiers and the the drabs' court is not very lively. A fair amount of line stumbles which will hopefully be ironed out.

Odd audience. Very few people left but they were still streaming in half an hour into the play and fifteen minutes after the interval. Reasonably well behaved, I didn't hear the crunching of crisps or pop corn much although there was plenty in evidence. Only the odd can of beer or pop being opened.

Hopefully not but this could be Mckellen's swansong in a major production so do go if you haven't seen him before. I missed out on all the greats despite most of them still having been working when I started theatre-going and regret it bitterly.

Yes that would be a good time to go though as has been mentioned audience members seem to come and go freely throughout. Obviously there is a big influx of people at 7:15 who thought the starting time was 7:30. Also they start absolutely on time at 6:30 even though loads of people are still standing up and moving to their seats, same after the interval. McKellen does a nice solo piece to the audience immediately after the interval which is worth catching - it is a speech extracted from Part 2 

Went to the matinee of this yesterday. There was no pause in the second half. It was about 1 hour 50 mins first part and about 1 hour 30 mins second half. Both straight through either side of a 20 min interval. Came down at about 6.17pm after an 2:30pm start. Imagine that will be the same in Manchester and London. They may even keep shedding some minutes off.

Sounds like they have eliminated it. You can’t have missed it - in Robert Icke style PAUSE was projected on the set and after five minutes PART 3 (even though Parts 1 & 2 hadn’t been projected.)

Given that Player Kings is performed no more than once on any given day and is actually two plays back-to-back, I would have appreciated toilet pauses or actual intervals in each half. It's such a faff, not to mention unhealthy and headache-inducing, to have to avoid fluids for a good few hours before the show. The theatre industry seems to be run by those blessed with strong bladders who have zero empathy for those not.

That off my chest, I found Icke's adapation, truncation and updating very accessible and hugely enjoyable. McKellen is still on fine form and there isn't a weak link in the rest of the cast. Worth singling out is Clare Perkins' brilliantly funny Mistress Quickly. Also worthy of note is Samuel Edward-Cook's second-half wig that manages to authentically transform the shaven-headed hunk that is Hotspur into the unrecognisable, toe-curling spiv that is Pistol.

Definitely worth a watch - Four stars.

Act 1: 14:31-16:25
Act 2: 16:48-18:16
(Seen last Saturday)

Why do you think that? Was fine timing for me .