A Pacifists Guide To The War On Cancer - Home MCR and NT

Cannot see this taking the London Palladium after its run at the Home, Manchester and National. The subject is about as popular as pedophilia.

However I look forward to seeing this.

Didn't realise Complicite had a hand in this. Definitely has my curiosity:

I'll definitely be giving this a go too, it would be wrong to deny the opportunity to see something a bit daring in London in the midst of all the Broadway transfers

Very much agree. Saw this on Wednesday and what starts out as pretty facile ends up hitting you in the gut, the second half really does go to some dark places.

Great work from the cast too, invidious to single anyone out really but it was nice to see Golde Rosheuvel again, having seen her a few times in musicals at the Bridewell back in the nineties.

Saw this on Saturday. Not my cup of tea at all, I really wish I had left at the interval. Note there is some audience participation for those who are wary of such things.

There's no interval at the National - 1hr40 straight through

Still processing my thoughts about this one, but bottom line - it made me sob, as did many others. I've also never felt an atmosphere quite like it as the audience left the theatre - no one really talking to each other.

Also, the programmes are pretty cool - made to look like case notes, complete with folder, well worth £4 if you're a sucker like me for that sort of thing. 

I saw this tonight. This is the third musical I've seen this week that I'd never seen before. Floyd Collins was interesting but somehow left me cold, and Murder Ballad was fun but just not really my sort of show. I walked into the Dorfman and saw the hospital set up and felt a twinge of having already seen this show. There's a lot of plays (although I suppose less so musicals) about illness of varying sorts. And doing a musical about cancer was going to take that sort of trope and put an ironic, aren't-we-so-edgy spin on it. I could see it all coming.

Which to a certain degree, it did. The voice of the writer booms out at the start pointing out almost how clever it was to make the subject palatable by doing it with music. And a lot of the songs felt cliched, there was the "aren't hospitals bad" song, the "I hate everyone and everything" song, etc. There's a lot of dramatic license, like there usually is, in the journey the character takes through the healthcare system, and there was at least one line stated as a fact designed to shock the audience, which as someone with a small amount of professional insight rung to me as blatantly untrue.

But some of the songs surprised me in their angle, all were beautifully performed and directed, and there were some great moments of musical theatre in this. The set (with some teething troubles) was nicely done, I wouldn't want to spoil it but there's some good metaphorical prop action to enjoy. I thought the central character actually not being a cancer patient was an interesting alternative to the obvious route. The 'cancer blobs' seen on promotional material were brilliant, and it's a shame they sort of get thrown away halfway through. There were moments in this which were absolutely spot on, and moments that made me see things I thought I understood quite well in a new light. Which I suppose was probably the principle aim of the writer.

And then, again not wishing to spoil anything for anyone, the plays third part was the bit that I think plays on people's minds as they leave the theatre. If I'd seen it written down I would have been extremely wary. Lots of theatre cliches all rolled into one, with the audience participation that was mentioned above thrown in for good measure. But I thought it worked. It felt a bit awkward but I was genuinely moved, and for a moment moved to tears. I don't think it's hard when you have an emotive subject like terminal illnesses to play with to make it emotional for the audience, but it's hard to do it in a way that I wasn't expecting. I have mixed feelings about this play, but it was the best thing I saw all week, and certainly the most interesting thing for the last several weeks, so the mixed feelings are melding into a fairly positive outcome.

Oh, what a shame. I quite expected Bryony Kimmings to find a cure.

The personal connection bit intrigues me. I read an interview with Kimmings recently where she said she started work on the musical without any personal connection to the material, but her son became ill later on during the process. I do wonder why someone without experience of cancer would decide to do a musical about it, and what it would have been like if her son hasn't later become ill.

This article may shed a little light on why Bryony Kimmings decided to do a musical about cancer. Spoilers: as with everything in theatre, it did not boil down to just one person alone.

www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/sep/11/musical-about-cancer-bryony-kimmings-judith-dimant-national-theatre

I am seeing this and Amadeus in one day next month - but relay looking forward to this one. I love anything new that pushes musical theatre form on - a bit tired with all the Sondheim revivals to be honest! I thought London Road was the best night in the theatre I've had in years when I saw it at the National - and that was hardly Hello Dolly! Congrats to the National for supporting new work - long may it continue.

Evening POL!