3,557 posts
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Post by showgirl on May 16, 2024 10:34:42 GMT
Oh FFS. I'm going Friday and have just seen that this is two hours WITHOUT any interval. Well that was good money wasted paying for access to the hotel lounge beforehand then. No fluids for me after mid-morning then and almost certainly a dehydration headache to look forward to too. Why are directors so lacking in consideration for others who don't have their cast-iron bladders? I too was really hacked off when I saw this, as that sort of critical info is never available at the booking stage and whilst I realise it may be an artistic decision, I think it shows a complete lack of consideration and respect for the audience, some of whom may have health issues meaning they are unable to sit in one position for an extended period or need a comfort break before the 2 hours end. Having booked months earlier, I visited the Box Office early on the day of my visit to say this and that I would not have booked had I known. All the staff could suggest was that if I had to leave during the performance, I would be allowed back in but not to re-take my original seat; instead they would allocate me a seat in the balcony. In the event I managed but it was very stressful and inconvenient and I think if theatre do this without warning, they should offer a refund or credit if people don't want to attend in the circumstances. |
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1,470 posts
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Post by mkb on May 19, 2024 21:54:05 GMT
The Comeuppance is an odd work. I'm not entirely sure what it's about.
Ostensibly it's a reunion of five Americans, some of whom have not seen each other for fifteen years. There's some emotional baggage to be unpacked, but it's largely inconsequential with little that spoke to me. Regrettably, I didn't find these characters, despite excellent acting, sufficiently interesting to enjoy their company for two hours.
What makes the play odd is the overlay of the Grim Reaper character, who talks to us in voice-processed monologues through every character in turn. I wrongly thought for a while that this was the devil, as the first monologue has "You might know me as..." before reeling off a long list of foreign equivalents of a Death character, none of which I recognised.
So what is the significance of the omnipresence of Death? Presumably someone is going to die and this will be their "comeuppance"? (Dictionary definition: "deserved rebuke or punishment"). Well, yes and no. The playwright is being clever to no purpose I could discern. And if any characters warrant their demise, it is not supported by the narrative. Maybe, death, being all around us in life's risks, is not the instrument of the comeuppance. Maybe it's for Emilio who suffers through learning new facts about the others?
Whatever the "comeuppance" is here, or what it is possibly a metaphor for, I'm floundering in understanding.
A weak concept and unengaging characters aside, I thought the set design and lighting impressive.
Three stars.
One act: 19:37-21:34 (Friday 17 May)
(The narrative structure really did have no place for an interval, no matter how much I would have liked one. Perhaps the play needed a mid-point crescendo and pause to give it more of a dramatic ride?)
Friday evening was also memorable because, twenty minutes into the show, I was accused of bad behaviour by the man in front. Apparently I had been kicking his seat. This was news to me as I'd made absolutely no contact with the back of his chair. I noticed later that his and his partner's seatbacks were joined, and every time she rocked back, his seat jerked back too, so his complaint was wrongly directed. They were clearly not enjoying the show, judging from their mutterings to one another, and left midway through.
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53 posts
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Post by amybenson on May 21, 2024 22:42:31 GMT
The more time passes, the odder I find it how it ends with the deployment of a certain frowned-upon trope. So, Ursula comes out to Emilio, and then we're immediately informed that she will die a horrible death sooner rather than later. Oh, and her girlfriend will leave her.
Very much a "bury your gays" plot development.
Just... a weird note to end on, at best. |
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