The Suicide, NT

I think theatres try every method they can to let audience members know of anything urgent like a cancellation, e.g Twitter, SMS, email. As I usually see several things in one day, I dread missing such a notification because my mobile has to be off most of the time as I'm actually already in a cinema or theatre and there may not be much time to check between events. I've certainly seen theatres tweeting about performances cancelled at short notice but have been lucky to escape so far.

On the subject of understudies, at least the NT has the funds for these so a performance is likely to go ahead (think my record at the NT is seeing a play where 4 understudies were appearing) whereas at many venues cast illness would mean cancellation.

I think you mean this - www.theguardian.com/stage/2001/may/26/theatre.artsfeatures

You know the expression: "I'm too old for this s***"? That.

On the plus side - the young folk in the audience are loving it.

Me? I'm wondering if I can gatecrash Les Blancs...

Did you think Everyman was boring? Did you think Wonderland was downmarket? Then good news: get yourself along to this and you'll realise pretty quickly that the other two productions were masterpieces!

The Suicide is such a mess it's hard to know where to begin. Every character, even the ones for whom it's not remotely appropriate, is forced to strike a gangsta pose on their first entrance. I have no idea why. Moments of high drama are helpfully marked as such by a relentless and irritating drum solo. Starting to miss strong language after a couple of minutes? Don't worry, there'll be another four letter expletive along in a minute!

Seriously, it's not even saying anything new about social media, 'old' media, or the force of public opinion.

I imagine all of this must be hilarious to an audience raised on rubbish music videos and The Only Way Is Essex. (In fact, I don't need to imagine, they were hooting and clapping throughout.) For anyone with any taste, however, this must surely rank as cheap, overblown and embarrassing. A high-school drama group could throw together something more impressive!

And with that, this old dear is off to fetch her pipe and slippers. ;-)

It really is dreadful

I have never seen such an incongruity between the staging and the material

Ever

Not to this extent

The set and automation is pretty impressive but only serves to expose the sh*tty nature of the writing

The fact that this is in such a large auditorium is political correctness gone wrong

I feel for you

The reviews are starting to trickle in

2 stars

The acting and diction of the entire cast are dreadful

They are all miked too

And yet still many of the lines are garbled

The acting talent on stage is really quite poor

Totally agree with Jean Hunt that there are multiple audiences for the NT and, from what people are saying, it does sound like the target audience is enjoying this. Having said that, it doesn't seem that I am the target audience, and based on reviews/word of mouth I may well return my ticket for credit for the first time ever!

I thought Everyman was ok, by the way - didn't quite hit the mark but lots to like about it. Does that mean I should give this a go?

I just can't face coming out of the NT yet again feeling disgruntled about the waste of money. But perhaps I should be open-minded and give it a go.

The publicity shots make it look like an American sitcom.

Indecision...

Oh, you mean the popular ones, Jean.

LOL. What is comedic taste anyway? Just a stream of formative experiences that determines what you find surprising, typically escalated by a sense that what you're watching affirms your worldview, or bolsters your sense of worth?

This creates a massive problem for the "ambitious comedy."

The "unambitious" comedy, in the sense I'm using the word, aims to say nothing. Nothing except that you, the audience, are superior to the numbnuts populating the stage. This is reassuring, and bolsters the sense of worth of just about anybody in the audience.

Take the "Goes Wrong" series, or "The Man with Two Guvnors" or "The Painkiller," all terrific comedies in my view. These are unambitious, in the sense I'm using the word, where ambition is defined in terms of WHAT is being said, rather than the structure of how it is being said. The comedic surprises, that are contained within, are magnified in endearing delightfulness because the worldview presented is populated by inept and benign fools that we psychologically patronise and feel superior to.

Whether it is the excitable and plump Henry Lewis playing Nana the dog, wedged in a dog flap, or an 80 year old waiter staggering clumsily up and down stairs, or Kenneth Branagh's assassin stumbling over his own feet from being high on ketamine, the comedic rush the audience gets is laced with a smug sense of being better off than the person on stage. Me too, I find this all very funny!

But this stuff is emphemeral, laughter for it's own sake, a worthy cause in itself, but saying NOTHING of value. Critics tend to lap this stuff up, even when it's lazy and tired, as in "Jeeves and Wooster."

But when comedy tries to say something, when it gets a little ambitious, like in "Hand to God" or "The Suicide," the brickbats are coming. A house full of laughter is no longer enough. Now it becomes all about what is being said, the audacity of addending some point of view to your silly comedy is perhaps uppity, plus it may well be impolite to point out that Christianity is most likely hogwash that reflects it's writers' very human hopes and needs, or that we are living in an uncontrollably selfish world in which our lives might not matter very much to anybody.

Blasphemy and Thatcher's me-society are easy targets, after all, these subjects have been done, and it's crass to upset people with this stuff.

Of course, the brilliant "Les Blancs" and "Ma Rainey," also in rep at the National, are also going after easy targets, colonialism and racism respectively. Who in the world would support colonialism or racism? But in drama, we accept that it's worth going after easy targets. The dramatist can look so deep into a subject that we are indelibly changed by the experience of watching the show, the easy target finds itself untangled and explained in such a way that the show and the explanation become part of us.

In comedy, people are rarely up for being challenged.  It's a rare comedy that can tell anybody anything about anything, and get praised for doing so.

While I find the setup in "The Suicide" rings false (no politician or newspaper or social worker could realistically gain anything by encouraging and televising a suicide, which in fact would be prevented by the sectioning the patient), the easy but spot-on depiction of people's self-involvement rang true to me, and coupled with the very real laughter filling the theatre, I felt this made for a superior rather than an inferior comedy.

NB: That said, I am worried that Javone Prince was subjected to the critics too soon. I thought understudy Adrian Richards was sublimely funny in the role on Wednesday, and gelled and played off the cast wonderfully, so the idea that larangytic Javone Prince could have crawled out of bed to hoarsely play his under-rehearsed role the very next day to the best of his ability, fills me with suspicion. I wish press night had been put off another week, or that the press had been allowed to review Adrian Richards on Wednesday, the original press night.

It's definitely going to be a polarising sort of a show. Hooray for different opinions!

I've cancelled my ticket for this show

That's the clincher, my ticket is going back next week - if he can't be arsed, then neither can I.