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Post by crowblack on Jul 2, 2018 17:46:05 GMT
more names on the website Hi, where are these? All I can see are those previously mentioned. |
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jul 2, 2018 18:16:52 GMT
more names on the website Hi, where are these? All I can see are those previously mentioned. Full cast list here: www.classicspring.co.uk/show/the-importance-of-being-earnest/castseems I guessed corrected for Jacob being Jack Amazed that they feel the need for an ensemble for this piece. And an actor to play the gardener Moulton?? Who has no lines and no listed stage appearances! Anyway, no Solicitor - so not getting the extended remix version |
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Post by princeton on Jul 2, 2018 18:20:57 GMT
FEHINTI BALOGUN is playing Algie JACOB FORTUNE-LLOYD - Jack GEOFFREY FRESHWATER - Lane MATT CROSBY - Merriman TIM GIBSON is playing a character called Moulton - a gardener referred to in the play but not usually seen. www.classicspring.co.uk/show/the-importance-of-being-earnest/castUPDATE: Oops Simon - I guess you were posting as I was typing. Sorry everyone for repeating the information. |
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Post by lynette on Jul 2, 2018 18:22:37 GMT
Gardener? Must be about the 'spade'.
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Post by crowblack on Jul 2, 2018 19:14:04 GMT
Thanks! I couldn't find it. |
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Post by crowblack on Jul 9, 2018 12:14:09 GMT
I don't know how to go about this (I haven't done it before - should I do it on the noticeboard?) but I have a ticket for this I can't use on Saturday Matinee 28th, centre front stalls.
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Post by lynette on Jul 9, 2018 17:35:23 GMT
I don't know how to go about this (I haven't done it before - should I do it on the noticeboard?) but I have a ticket for this I can't use on Saturday Matinee 28th, centre front stalls. Put it on the noticeboard as well to catch most people. |
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Post by profquatermass on Jul 9, 2018 18:10:05 GMT
Frankly, whatever the casting I just cannot sit though ANOTHER production of The Importance of Being Earnest! My life's too short!! I must have missed them. There was the one that they messed about with, was that the older actors' effort? But I don’t recall any other notable production. I was thinking it was at the Open Air a couple of years ago but I see it was actually 2009. Susan Wooldridge was Lady B |
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Post by peggs on Jul 9, 2018 21:00:05 GMT
Got a bit carried away on sat what with there only be a week left of ideal husband and everything and sprung out of bed (okay no, rolled perhaps) and was in the queue by 7.25. Was the queue for an hour, just watching the traffic and people and the occasional odd man who felt the need to yell at me, yes sir I was indeed up at that early hour waiting for you! I don't know if it was something about the play or perhaps that I should have had a partner to queue for me but when I was joined by others I was about half the average age and the lone woman but hey it's always nice to unexpectedly feel young. It was worth the early rise for a great front row seat and since the first row only has ends and no middle due to the curve of the stage I had oodles of legs in front of me. The play took a while to warm up as did the audience, perhaps our minds on sat mat were else where, but once it did it was all rather delightful. Frances Barber vamping it up like no one else could quite do, Susan Hampshire making each of her lines gloriously funny, Nathaniel Parker being rather dishy and distinguished and oh my the two Mr Foxes just bouncing off each other and making a wonderful double act.
All rather clever and satisfyingly enjoyable. Plus most educational eaves dropping of the two elderly ladies to my left:
You can't tell the young anything, so there's little point in trying
Disgust at the RSC and all their modernising of Shakespeare (I think it was the modernising they objected to, they were incensed by an Antony in a shirt and Cleopatra in heels, it was not authentic they said though wasn't sure if this was not authentically Shakespearean or Egyptian)
More ire directed at season of female directors (I believe because they were poor in the view and they thought they were picked merely for being women, one lady said she had walked from the Cumberbatch Hamlet when the music started on the opening scene, lack of authenticity again)
baffled silence for the relative offered a theatre ticket and who'd turned it down for a hair appointment, could she not they wondered re book her hair appointment (I silently shared their derision)
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Post by dani on Aug 1, 2018 14:07:21 GMT
There has been no activity on this thread in several weeks, but I am fairly sure The Important of Being Earnest must have opened. Am wondering what people think, as I am going next month.
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Post by theatrefan77 on Aug 1, 2018 15:22:15 GMT
It was great fun! Not the best production I've seen but a very enjoyable one. Very basic set but it's well acted. I know some people on this board are not to keen on Sophie Thompson but she a very funny Lady Bracknell and sounded a bit like Patricia Routledge.
Hope you enjoy it!
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Post by Latecomer on Aug 1, 2018 19:41:32 GMT
Great fun....thought it was excellent production. Actually quite touching the last scene, found myself surprisingly emotional! Word perfect at Saturday matinee and in fine shape.  |
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Post by bordeaux on Aug 3, 2018 12:00:04 GMT
Fascinating to read Billington's two-star review alongside Sarah Crompton's five-star one.
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Post by lynette on Aug 3, 2018 12:49:18 GMT
Just read the Billington and makes me glad I didn’t book but then I look at this thread and wonder..
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Post by NeilVHughes on Aug 3, 2018 12:52:40 GMT
Intriguing reviews.
Saw it last week in preview, found it great fun, did not really pick up on the issues highlighed in the poor reviews.
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Post by dani on Aug 3, 2018 16:40:41 GMT
Fascinating to read Billington's two-star review alongside Sarah Crompton's five-star one. The five-star one, for Whatsonstage, is by Alun Hood. |
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Post by bordeaux on Aug 3, 2018 18:17:14 GMT
Fascinating to read Billington's two-star review alongside Sarah Crompton's five-star one. The five-star one, for Whatsonstage, is by Alun Hood. Apologies. Thanks for pointing that out. |
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Post by Distant Dreamer... on Aug 10, 2018 10:08:27 GMT
Wow...this production was beyond bad. Credit must go to the director who must have gone well out of their way to remove all comedy from the play. I left feeling very bored and confused.
Apart from the misdirection there are clear casting errors (and I'm not referencing racial casting) but some of the acting in the production is pleasant.
The production is ever so marginally saved by the wonderful comic turns of Fiona Button and Pippa Nixon.
As for the "added" homosexual kisses, bum pinching and erotic artwork...whilst mildly amusing, was it realty needed? If the intention is that Algernon is homosexual then why would he suddenly become so enthusiastically enrapt with Cecily?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2018 11:59:39 GMT
If the intention is that Algernon is homosexual then why would he suddenly become so enthusiastically enrapt with Cecily? I thought I read somewhere that Algy was supposed to be bisexual in this production? That would explain a bit of man kissing and then going gaga for Cecily. I'm all for it personally. I think it should be a rule that every production in London's glitzy West End has a touch of the gay about it. I also thought that Freddie Fox played Lord Goring in 'An Ideal Husband' as a bit bisexual as well so maybe they're going for a bit of a them in the late stages of this season. |
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Post by lynette on Aug 10, 2018 17:04:42 GMT
I don’t object to Any kind of sexuality in the theatre ( the more the merrier) but do you think they are making more of these characters because Oscar Wilde was gay himself? It would be a shame if we thought gay people can only create gay characters and non gay people can only create non gay characters...etc etc.. are we moving that way? We make a lot of appropriate racial representation on the stage to the point that Maria in West Side Story now has to be played by a Latino actress. Do we see this becoming part of the actual writing too? So you can only write what you are. This plays into the problem with Shakespeare whom some say must have been abroad because he writes about places in Europe and must have worked with lawyers etc etc..No, he was imaginative and then did research, in the pub, no doubt.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2018 10:33:27 GMT
Well. I just adored this and I think, as a whole, it might have been my favourite of the Wilde season. It's all a bit more earthier and sexy than previous versions, less 'perfect' if you will and that's no bad thing.
The cast are fabulous with a capital FABULOUS and the main four leads are really rather wonderful. Both Pippa Nixon and Fiona Button are delightfully modern and genuinely funny comediennes and Sophie Thompson gives a gloriously funny 'Sophie Thompson' performance (which her detracters will hate), all disgusted looks and odd words dropped as deeply as her voice allows. I adore her personally so it all worked for me but she then flips the cartoon performance to be heartstoppingly touching when the big reveal is announced, showing that she's not quite a dragon. But it's all about Jacob Fortune-Lloyd for me. He pitches his performance right on the edge of a mix of constant indignation, irritation, exasperation and annoyance and it's really rather hilarious.
Also on the plus side, for those who lusted after Mr Bingham instead of Colin Firth in 'Pride & Prejudice' you also get a hunky gardener to keep you happy, Matt Crosby raising a titter just by carrying some luggage, a lot of gay goings on which would benefit every production in London's glitzy West End, some fabulous costumes and some marvellous hair from Stella Gonet (also fab). How she manages to get it to go in all those directions at once is a great skill.
Rather like Arnold Swishynecker, I'll be back.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2018 8:00:31 GMT
TodayTix has a 24 hour offer of £15 tickets (including top price stalls) for Importance of Being Earnest for the rest of the run.
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Post by crabtree on Aug 13, 2018 17:35:57 GMT
To me this has always been a gay play, with the Bunbury theme - a fake identity/persona to get up to mischief with. Not hard to see what is going on there. and I always assumed that Algy and Jack were rehearsing with each other, before the grown up business of the girls comes along.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2018 22:14:59 GMT
If the intention is that Algernon is homosexual then why would he suddenly become so enthusiastically enrapt with Cecily? I thought I read somewhere that Algy was supposed to be bisexual in this production? That would explain a bit of man kissing and then going gaga for Cecily. I'm all for it personally. I think it should be a rule that every production in London's glitzy West End has a touch of the gay about it. I also thought that Freddie Fox played Lord Goring in 'An Ideal Husband' as a bit bisexual as well so maybe they're going for a bit of a them in the late stages of this season. I don’t know how anyone can watch this play and not think that Wilde is having fun with the idea of the double lives lived by gay men of his era. The idea of bunburying seems like an in-joke as did the idea that you go to London to indulge lascivious desires and retire to the country to purge oneself of them. Though the women are funny and feisty (Wilde of course puts witty words in their mouths) they are essentially stupid and single minded in their determination to snare husbands while the men are dependent on their money. The men will no doubt continue with double lives even after marriage. Algernon being black is a telling sign of his father the major’s own double life. I actually loved this production. The play is of course exquisitely written: it almost feels like a coded message to the future. The colour blind casting was inspired and daring. I kept imagining Wilde’s ghost in the audience,amused that the play has stood the test of time., although if he was alive and writing today I believe the same fate would have befallen him in the #metoo era as it did in Victorian times. By the way does anyone else remember a production with an all black cast a million years ago? I think it was at theShaw Theatre |
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Post by Dr Tom on Aug 28, 2018 17:01:21 GMT
Saw this this afternoon thanks to the £15 offer. Rear stalls, good view. Quite a few unclaimed seats and more after the interval. Lots of muttering nearby early on and two different phones going off. Don’t think it really worked for most people.
The lines are always witty. Some of the funnier moments were rather downplayed. The many same sex references did fit in (even when the servants were going at it), although the incestious relationship is more controversial if you think it through.
Probably the weakest production of The Importance I’ve seen, but at least they tried to make it memorable considering how often it’s been staged recently.
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