A View From The Bridge-Ustinov, Bath/Theatre Royal Haymarket

Wonder what kind of stage will they employ in this production…thrust stage? Could @sohoplace be the West End venue should it transfer? I think it could be configured as a thrust, but the in the round staging is so cool and I think it should stay that way.

It’s been years I believe since the last time Dom performed on stage (the last one was the Donmar production of Les liaisons?), but him playing the now King Charles in The Crown would give more visibility to this production. Although The Crown’s final season is so divisive (as a longtime fan of the show, I felt disappointed with season 5; part 1 of season 6 was ok but they really milked on the Diana saga), but his name sells seats.

There are about 100 seats in the Ustinov. In April Posner is directing David Morrissey and Matthew Horne in a Pinter double-bill, The Lover and The Collection, in the same place.

Lindsay Posner zzzzzzzz

Pass.

London transfer confirmed Haymarket 23 May to 3 August

Same when I saw him in Life is a Dream at the Donmar.

The Haymarket is a laughably bad venue for this transfer, how can a tiny studio theatre production fill that terrible old cavern without being hopelessly compromised ?

He hosts hunts in Ireland where foxes are ripped apart by hounds and die in agony. West and his works can do one

Only half-expect ? I fully expect papering and lots of offers.

Has anyone seen this? Any reviews out?

In tonight at first preview at the Haymarket. My first time seeing this show and I enjoyed it a lot. I thought the cast generally were very good, but especially Kate Fleetwood as Beatrice and Nia Towle as Catherine. I wasn't the biggest fan of some of the direction though. Thought the scene changes felt kind of clunky and awkward. Will be off to find a video of the Mark Strong version for comparison

We saw the matinee today. I'd been keen to see Dominic West for ages, another big fan of The Wire here.

This was .. alright. West was okay, not as good as I expected and I found Callum Scott Howells' hugely let down by his attempt at an accent, as was Michael Cusick on as Marco.

Really simple staging, just a table and some chairs and not really much else - the payphone hanging in the background. It felt tame and safe. Having seen it in Rose Theatre with Jonathan Slinger last year left a very recent comparison, this lacked the tension, lacked a visceral edge. Eddie never really felt dangerous, there wasn't an edge to him. Almost sanitised but also a lot of gasps and reactions in the audience. I'll echo the fight work between West and Howells being great, I really thought they'd made contact and it's way superior to the later fight.

There are printed slips with some cast changes, the ensemble/covers move around a bit as Michael Cusick is playing Marco in place of Pierro Niel-Mee. I was surprised to find when reading the programme that Niel-Mee is *currently* in Machinal at Old Vic. Seems odd to me that they'd start a run for over 10 days with such a change around.

On the plus side, this was our proper first time back in the gods/cheap seats since the Olivier panel ended. and the front row of the Upper Circle was nothing like as bad as I expected and I'm very happy with the £25 paid for 'em. In fact I slightly regret splurging for stalls for Waiting for Godot later in the year as I'd be happy to sit in the same seat again.

3 stars.