The Years - Almeida / Harold Pinter

My daughter has just returned from the free under 25s performance and tells me that there was no show stop tonight - although some people did leave during that scene.

The earliest they could do a transfer with the cast intact is 2025 as Romola Garai is unavailable as she's doing Giant at the Royal Court straight after The Years finishes at the Almeida and then the other cast members might have other commitments as well. 

Okay

2025 is that far away now. After Xmas it is good to have a strong selling play as it is a hard time to shift tickets, so this could slot into a small commercial setting.

Time will now tell, but I would be surprised if this started at the Almeida and died at the Almeida.

It is transferring thanks to SFP. To where, not sure, and who will be able to stay on with it, but Sonia Friedman will try and keep them all together one would hope.

I had a notion Sonia might transfer this one.

Now it is certain to transfer with Sonia Friedman at the Helm that it is heading West, ten her relationship with ATG would make sense for the York/Pinter, maybe the Ambassador if cast availability until February, cannot rule out the Trafalgar where it would be perfect, such a lovely theatre now.

Tobias Menzies might be wearing the NT lanyard because he is rehearsing "The other place" there (opening in one month).

At yesterday's matinee, there was a stoppage. During the intense scene, I could hear some movement upstairs in the circle and a little in the stalls. Thought we had got through it, but when the scene had finished, an usher rushed over to someone and the stage manager stopped the show for about five minutes. Which is shame as they had to work to pick up momentum again. Liked the staging of the ending and it got a standing ovation.

I don't know what more the theatre could have done to warn patrons - 2 emails with trigger warnings were sent out and there were several signs in the foyer areas. As someone who used to be agnostic about trigger warnngs, then thought they were a good idea, I now wonder if they work at all as, in this case, they certainly didn't deter or strengthen people senstive to the subject matter. The scene is intense, but, say, compared to A Little Life or Blasted, not as shocking or grueling.

All the actors are good - think it's the best thing I've seen Romola Garai do and I always love Gina McKee.

No stop tonight but 5 people did walk out of the stalls, and someone near me clearly very distressed.

I loved this, a lot to think about and absolutely loved spending 2 hours in that world.

Do we reckon this will transfer? Slightly regretting not booking to see this and now am very intrigued

I have the luxury of not having to pay any attention to trigger warnings, but was asked to read them before I was sold the returns ticket at the box office. To me the scene was a lot more powerful than I expected. Maybe it was partly the anticipation and knowing others' reactions, maybe it was that I've never actually seen a scene like that in the theatre, or even on TV I don't think. I have a couple of friends who tend to be more squeamish and were thinking about joining the returns but I have suggested they think carefully. The show stop at the performance I was at happened before anything really got going though so I really don't think anything could have prevented that.

I don't know what more the theatre could do because they do say that there will be lots of blood and abortion but as I say it was more than I imagined. 

Agree re Romola Garai and Gina McKee and if this does transfer I particularly hope they are able to go with it. If it were to move to a bigger theatre I assume a larger number of people would be affected which would be difficult to manage. 

To feel emotional seeing a play isn't a bad thing per se (after all Catharsis was once thought to be the goal of drama) and to feel ill when seeig a play is sometimes unavoidable. I loved Death of a Salesman at the Young Vic which touched me in a very personal way and I was in floods of tears at the end. Fine. Once I had to leave a show because a combination of something I had eaten and the heat in the auditorium meant I thought I might be ill. Life happens. But in both cases, it was quiet and didn't impact the show. A couple of times, I have been in the theatre when someone became very ill, fainted or had a heart attack - again this obviously can't be helped and is far more distressing for those who have fallen ill, than the rest of the audience.

But to have a spate of people who feel so emotional seeing a play about which they have been warned that they need medical help and the show has to be stopped is quite unusual. Is it that it's a woman describing a particular experience tied to her womanhood which causes upset?

I am sure it is right that the theatre has their trigger warnings (in fact, when I saw them, I discussed with my companion if they still wanted to see The Years and they didn't, so I returned that ticket - it was resold within 3 minutes), but I also wonder if somehow this has built up a tension around that one scene that might not exist to that extent otherwise. Funnily enough, when I was watching the play, I thought the masturbation scenes might have caused my missing companion as much anxiety as the controversial scene.