Woolf Works - Royal Ballet

Yup, enjoy. If you're in the Amphi, you'll get the full glory of the laser show as well.

The middle piece (based on Orlando) was my favourite. It had a whiff of German Disco, but in a good way - it was also the piece less beloved by ballet purist but I'm apparently a sucker for gold lamé costumes and glitterball effects, Osipova and Watson were fab in it.

Woolf Works is one of the very very few things by McGregor I actually like.

Hm. I'm not sure what I think. Great staging, interesting choreography and beautifully danced. I was in the Ampitheatre while my wife was in the stalls (free tickets so can't complain) and I thought I'd got the better deal because I could see the staging (and lasers) but my wife joined me for the last act and she reckoned that being close gave you a better connection to the dancers while further away made it all seem quite clinical and unengaging.

Hmmm, saw this tonight. I'll stick to this being the best McGregor I've seen, but my initial love of 'Becoming' might have been down to just having read Orlando and loving the novel. It really does have longeurs, though some of the dancing is pretty spectacular.

The other two pieces 'I now, I then' (Mrs Dalloway) and 'Tuesday' (The Waves and Woolf's suicide note) do work, and are at times even poignant - not something McGregor has achieved before or after Woolf Work, in my opinion anyway.

Think I must have been in the row behind and quite a bit to the right of you. I was with my daughter chatting with the grandmother about her... ummm.... appreciation of Eric Underwood. Yes, sounds like your wife was in the right place. Alessandra Ferri is remarkable.

I've never been to a live relay of dance. One of the things that really annoys me about dance on film/TV is the director trying to find what they think of as interesting shots that are often of the dancer's upper bodies while I want to see either the individual (or paired) dancers full bodies, especially their feet, or to see the patterns unfolding as the corps de ballet strut their stuff. It aint rocket science - we're watching a ballet not a drama production. mini rant over.

I saw it in May 2015 and again at last week's live cinema broadcast. Yes it's amazing. But...

Who are Septimus and Evans? The programme and the relay presentation identify no characters or dancers. Any recognition of characters or dancers relies on prior knowledge or some insider knowledge. And that to me is an issue because it smacks of elitism. I noticed that the majority of the tweets displayed in the intervals of the broadcast referred to individual dancers, but anyone not already familiar with them by sight could possibly have known who they were referring to. The dreadful implication of all this utter obscurity is that Woolf Works was created and performed for an exclusive in-club.

I have to say that it is so strong in so many ways that it does reach out to uninformed audiences. A relative of mine attended a screening in another cinema with two friends and they were raving their appreciation. They had no knowledge of Virginia Woolf or of any of her writings, or of the identities of any of the dancers. But they were completely bowled over by the choreography and the dancers, and the music and design. It didn't bother them in the slightest that they had zero knowledge of any of the references or inspirations for Woolf Works. But it does bother me that these references have been deliberately kept so obscure from audiences.

It was my first time at the ROH and I noticed that at first too. However, while main programme doesn't identify the dancers, each booklet came with a separate sheet of paper which lists the production for that day, including the dancers for each part. It appears to have been printed out on the day since the replacements/understudies were included in the printout (someone was ill so is listed as being replaced). Presumably this wasn't included at the cinema screenings(?) I assumed that this was done (instead of making it explicit in the programme as is normal for the theatre) because it's more normal to have replacements in the ballet compared, but I don't know.

For part 1, the two leads are listed as Alessandra Ferri and Federico Bonelli on the Wednesday, but I have no idea if that's the same for other days. The printout doesn't explicitly list which character each dancer is playing but simply lists the groups of dancers in terms of their role importance. For me, that's not an issue, because I wouldn't have been able to link a dancer on stage with a specific character name anyway, outside of a couple of the key people.

I'd never been to see a dance/ballet before a few weeks ago when I went to see Les Enfants Terribles at the Barbican. To be honest, I really love Philip Glass' music and that was the reason I got tickets in the first place, but the dancing and staging really blew me away. I know the reviews haven't been that great for it but I really loved the mix of music, dance, and visuals and picked up tickets to a whole bunch of other things including Woolf Works.

I enjoyed parts 1 and 2 of Woolf Works, although I'm not sure quite how I feel about the futuristic-ness of part 2. One thing I found was that some of the geometry and layering of dancers, and the lines of lights in part 2 might have been lost a little on me as I was up in the cheap seats. Part 3 though was absolutely mesmerising, and would have made the whole thing worthwhile even if I had hated parts 1 & 2. All in all, I really loved it and picked up some tickets to see it again before it ends. I can't believe the lead was 53 years old.

Saw yesterday's matinee and also saw it two years ago with virtually the same cast. I thought the same thing then as now: love acts 1 and 3, just wish they'd ditch the light show in the middle. I'm not a massive McGregor fan and that's probably why I hate act 2. The first and last bits have the intensity of a Macmillan ballet so were much more satisfying. Having the peerless Ferri and the gorgeous Bonelli dancing both times was a great plus.

I’m seeing it on 11th matinee. This will be my third time seeing it. Saw it when it premiered, at the revival a few years ago and now in a week’s time. I’m not a massive fan of McGregor’s work but this is definitely the best thing he’s done. In fact Acts 1 and 3 reach almost MacMillan - like levels of intensity.
But… Act 2 I hate.  He’s back there to his more usual shtick and the relentless light show is tedious and seems to go on forever. Think I’ll stay in the bar for that bit.

Fwiw, this production is a bit different to the version 6 years ago, not least in the casts (and also the 3rd section) ..