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Post by Latecomer on Oct 3, 2024 18:30:29 GMT
Saw the matinee today and excellent production of a fascinating play. Off to Lyric Hammersmith and Nottingham after this week in Oxford. Great acting, a fabulous play and still had messages that resonated today…I love a family play with comment on society too. And nice to see a fairly straightforward production as the script is so strong it doesn’t need bells and whistles! Those who have seen Clydebourne Park and Bethesda’s Palace may well want to catch this!
Strong recommend
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Post by david on Oct 3, 2024 18:42:40 GMT
Having had my recent trip to the Leeds Playhouse cancelled whilst travelling there, I've thankfully managed to schedule this in on my upcoming London trip at the Lyric Hammersmith (at a much cheaper price - £15 for the front row stalls). I am glad to read that it was worth rebooking,
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41 posts
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Post by jake on Oct 3, 2024 20:45:09 GMT
Saw the matinee today and excellent production of a fascinating play. Off to Lyric Hammersmith and Nottingham after this week in Oxford. Great acting, a fabulous play and still had messages that resonated today…I love a family play with comment on society too. And nice to see a fairly straightforward production as the script is so strong it doesn’t need bells and whistles! Those who have seen Clydebourne Park and Bethesda’s Palace may well want to catch this! Strong recommend Thanks for this. I am hoping to catch this on one of my trips and it's so encouraging to read that it hasn't been overly embellished or 'reimagined'. I saw a decent production in Liverpool a little less than 10 years ago and was moved to buy the text. I obviously don't just want to see a copy of that production but neither do I want to hear the powerful dialogue and narrative distorted by a self-indulgent director. |
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Post by aspieandy on Oct 3, 2024 21:21:46 GMT
Those who have seen Clydebourne Park and Bethesda’s Palace may well want to catch this! Fwiw, Kwame Kwei-Armah seems keen to imagine a 'trilogy' that includes his play, but I do struggle to include his work alongside those of such important - and great - writers as Lorraine Hansberry and Bruce Norris. A Raisin in the Sun and Clybourne Park won great accolades and awards, the third not yet a Wiki entry, though when in charge Kwame did put it on at the Young Vic: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Raisin_in_the_Sun#The_Raisin_Cycle
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747 posts
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Post by Latecomer on Oct 3, 2024 21:24:24 GMT
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Post by Phantom of London on Oct 3, 2024 21:46:47 GMT
Saw the matinee today and excellent production of a fascinating play. Off to Lyric Hammersmith and Nottingham after this week in Oxford. Great acting, a fabulous play and still had messages that resonated today…I love a family play with comment on society too. And nice to see a fairly straightforward production as the script is so strong it doesn’t need bells and whistles! Those who have seen Clydebourne Park and Bethesda’s Palace may well want to catch this! Strong recommend Booked |
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Post by aloysius on Oct 9, 2024 22:18:25 GMT
Strong recommend from me as well now that it's ensconced in Hammersmith. Saw it this evening - excellent production, great cast, nice set design - and above all, an absolute classic play that still has loads to say. It feels so much more relevant than those featuring in the Almeida's Angry and Young season - they missed a trick by not staging this. I saw Clyborne Park at the Park Theatre a few years ago and thought that one of my plays of the year - it's great to now get a chance to see the play that inspired it in such a strong production.
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1,826 posts
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Post by Dave B on Oct 15, 2024 22:30:16 GMT
Heads up, this is either running long in the Lyric or is 165minutes plus interval, a shade under three hours this evening.
It is however excellent. Cast and script shine. Simple but elegant direction and set and costumes etc - clearly thought out to be enough to simply let a classic play out.
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Post by jr on Oct 17, 2024 12:36:00 GMT
Cheap ticket for tomorrow evening available on noticeboard.
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Post by jr on Oct 19, 2024 6:39:23 GMT
Something was missing for me in this production. I still remember a production in 2004 at the very same Lyric that was fantastic: moving and funny, with top-notch acting. I didn't like the set, I thought it was ugly and boring. The acting was fine but I found the actor playing Ruth overly dramatic and the one playing Walter too brash. I think Walter is frustrated but also loving and couldn't see that here. Beneatha was fun and lively but then it is my favourite character. I left at the interval, not because it was bad but because it didn't match my expectations. The play is fantastic but I think it deserves a better production. I'm curious to see the TV adaptation with Audra McDonald. m.imdb.com/title/tt0808435/?ref_=tt_sims_tt_i_2Not sure if it will match the film with the original Broadway cast. www.imdb.com/title/tt0055353/ |
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Post by schuttep on Oct 21, 2024 10:44:45 GMT
This is a brilliant production, beautifully acted. It's one of Michael Billington's 101 Greatest Plays and it's clear why.
Just a bit annoyed with the frame around the set cutting off feet sometimes. Isn't the proscenium arch enough?
Nice bookend to Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park which I also loved - to the extent that I visited Clybourne Park when I went to Chicago in 2019!
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Post by thistimetomorrow on Oct 21, 2024 10:55:09 GMT
I thought this was great. Really enjoyed all the performances. I had only seen Clybourne Park prior to this so it was nice to get further context from this piece.
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Post by SilverFox on Oct 21, 2024 15:36:04 GMT
This is a brilliant production, beautifully acted. It's one of Michael Billington's 101 Greatest Plays and it's clear why. Just a bit annoyed with the frame around the set cutting off feet sometimes. Isn't the proscenium arch enough? Nice bookend to Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park which I also loved - to the extent that I visited Clybourne Park when I went to Chicago in 2019! The frame around the set seems to be causes massive problems at Nottingham. Odd because they are a co-producer of the production, but it seems to have taken them by surprise, and they are having to rejig the seating plan, recategorising an extraordinary number of seats as restricted view - the front 3 rows have been taken off sale completely, up to 6 seats on the left side and 3 seats on the right marked as Restricted View and sold at below Band D (cheapest) price. As all RV seats are currently empty I assume that people there have been moved - but our Band C seats are now repriced downwards - now classed as Band D, right next to the RV seats, and I only noticed because I checked to see how busy the theatre was going to be. Dynamic pricing in action - but it feels fraudulent when you are encouraged to book early (in our case last June) for the best choice of seats!
Surely the designer should have taken into account the venues involved? Why has it taken Nottingham until the past two weeks to realise, when the production moved on-stage early September in Leeds?
I moaned (politely) and we have been upgraded to more central seats, but the Playhouse seems to care little about the people who regularly buy tickets - it is far from the first time that detrimental changes have been made by the box office / admin with little or no warning given.
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Post by merrilywereadalong on Oct 22, 2024 3:12:26 GMT
Saw this tonight from the front row and indeed be warned the stage is EXTREMELY high (completely baffling to me as there didn't seem to be any reason for the playing space to be raised to THAT high a level) It MOSTLY didn't bug me but it was a very much from the waist up viewing experience. And annoyingly there are several stretches where a character sits at the table only to be completely blocked from sight from the downstage chair.
That being said inspite the mentioned above, this is still very much worth seeing even if I found some of the acting occasionally to be lacking (the performances range from good to solid but I sort of kept hoping for them to drop in a bit more), this is still one of those plays that always wins. It's a scorcher of a play and was a thrill to sit amidst a shockingly well behaved schoolgroup who were on the edge of their seats and deeply engaged with the emotional highs and lows of this masterpiece. If you've never seen Raisin before it's worth making the treck to Hammersmith
...just NOT from the front few rows
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3,301 posts
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Post by david on Oct 23, 2024 22:34:37 GMT
As the saying goes, good things come to those who wait and after the disappointment of having my viewing in Leeds cancelled a few weeks ago, rebooking for the London leg of the tour was so worth it and at £15 front stalls was an absolute bargain to watch this stunning piece of theatre. To get the negative stuff out if the way, yes sitting stalls front row (A8) does offer a viewing restriction (no mention of this on the ticket or from the box office when I phoned them up earlier in the week) of the back of the set and you do miss people’s feet due to the large blue frame (which offers nothing to the overall set design and completely pointless to have in my opinion) surrounding the set but I found that a minor inconvenience tonight and when the play is of such high quality I forgot it was there. It is just something to think about for folk who have got tickets for rows A-C. Also, the running time is closer to the 3hr mark as despite a 7.30pm start, I only left the theatre around 10.30pm.
In terms of the overall product, director Tinuke Craig and the entire creative team and cast have created a 5⭐️ product here and what first appears a daunting runtime flew with bringing Lorraine Hansberry’s classic play to the stage. Full of heart, humour, hope and despair the play might be nearly 60 hrs old but has easily stood the test of time and the issues that if examines when it was first written are still sadly very relevant to a 2024 world. The whole cast work their socks off in delivering the text and I can’t fault anyone here. Like a few other board members have noted seeing this along with Clybourne Park works well as a pairing. The set design from Cecile Tresmollieres and costumes from Maybelle Laye are simple but highly effective in allowing both the text and performances to take centre stage and shine brightly on the Lyric stage.
Please do go and see this one. It will be worth it.
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747 posts
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Post by Latecomer on Oct 24, 2024 8:14:54 GMT
It’s a story as old as time….money, insiders and outsiders, prejudice, trying to better yourself, how we are sometimes stuck in the lives we have….and mix in some human emotions and sibling rivalries and BINGO….I found the performances here excellent and as you say, the director has trusted the play.
Glad you managed to see it david
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Post by hamletothello on Oct 24, 2024 8:20:43 GMT
I saw this on Tue evening. It is beautifully staged and still a compelling story. The accents were a little inconsistent but I enjoyed most of the performances. I loved the use of the scrim at the sides and the sense of claustrophobia created by the boxed-in set. It was lovely to be sitting with such a responsive audience, including a group of school children. They gasped, laughed and groaned. It felt like a communal experience. I highly recommend. Some of the lines still feel (sadly) so relevant.
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