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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2017 23:50:01 GMT
starring Robert Lindsay as cinematographer Jack Cardiff in a play by Terry Johnson, this autumn.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2017 9:52:35 GMT
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902 posts
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Post by bordeaux on Feb 17, 2017 10:51:27 GMT
Very good news. Those plays of the 90s were wonderful, and some have had excellent revivals (Hysteria, Dead Funny). It's been ages since he wrote a new play, it seems. I also enjoyed Insignificance and the Carry On one, though found Hitchcock Blonde disappointing.
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2017 11:07:06 GMT
Barnaby Kay and Claire Skinner in it too by the looks.
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2017 11:28:30 GMT
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Post by lynette on May 19, 2017 16:03:08 GMT
Yep I thought this looked promising. And also Cell Mates later in the Autumn. Hampstead bringing it home...well, finding some gems we hope.
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Post by pledge on Sept 7, 2017 22:30:47 GMT
I'm wary of coming down too hard on Prism, as it was a very early preview, and though word-perfect it all felt rather tentative and undercooked...It may be that once the cast have played it in a bit more it may come to life - I hope so - but I'm afraid tonight it felt distinctly inert.It's well researched and filled with an obvious knowledge of and love for Jack Cardiff's work, but the research simply never seems to fire into any actual drama. The whole first act feels rather like a long scene-setting prelude...leading, one trusts, to something more substantial in the second half? But alas, part 2 is broken-backed and simply never gets off the ground. I suppose it's reasonable that a play dealing with memory and memory loss may make extensive use of flashback, but flashback can be deadly to any sense of dramatic structure or momentum, and there is a "deja vue" scene in part 2 which might possibly be a brilliant psychological insight, but more probably is a bit of a tired old trick? All too often the rest of the cast are left simply standing inert, arms by their sides, while Robert Lyndsay, centre-stage, eloquently expounds or remembers... It doesn't help that once again a Terry Johnson play features some Holywood Stars, and while Hitchcock Blonde benefited from a superb and genuinely convincing central performance as Hitchcock, this time round the impersonations are really shaky: would anyone, for instance,think of the otherwise excellent Claire Skinner as obvious casting for Katherine Hepburn? (Especially in, frankly, a fright wig.)I'm afraid I literally struggled to keep my eyes open - as did a neighbour - and the reception from the subdued audience at the end could best be described as polite. As I say, later in the run it may catch fire, but I suspect the problems are intrinsic to the text, and that this is not going to be one of the author's classics...
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Post by jason71 on Sept 8, 2017 7:20:11 GMT
What was the running time?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2017 9:27:00 GMT
How high's the stage?
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Post by pledge on Sept 8, 2017 10:01:23 GMT
Two and a quarter hours; fairly low! (But from the circle the "roof" of the set blocks much of the back panorama...)
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Post by lynette on Sept 8, 2017 22:45:19 GMT
Unless they seriously reconfigure the space ( you know this I think HG) that the stage is lower than the seating at Hampstead and the searing is curved, amphitheatre style. |
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Post by cat6 on Sept 10, 2017 3:07:51 GMT
Pardon me for jumping in, lynette, I think you're thinking of the Hampstead Downstairs where you sit above the stage. Hampstead upstairs is regular stage height -- four feet or so?
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Post by cat6 on Sept 10, 2017 3:16:33 GMT
I have a quick trip over to London and it coincides with Prism's run. I have first row balcony, or whatever it's called. And now that i think on it, the theatre IS a bit of an amphitheater, as lynette noted (sorry, lynette, I was always up front in this theatre seated lower than the stage), as you go farther back.
Anyway, I hope the "roof" doesn't block my view. I thought i did well getting front row "balcony"! since the downstairs was virtually sold out.
I expect RL to be excellent.
Best wishes.
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Post by martin1965 on Sept 10, 2017 9:32:12 GMT
Unless they seriously reconfigure the space ( you know this I think HG) that the stage is lower than the seating at Hampstead and the searing is curved, amphitheatre style. Please dont encourage HG Lynette! |
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Post by lynette on Sept 10, 2017 10:40:52 GMT
Well must be my size! I sit half way back usually. I do remember in the play about Stalin his cake fell off the stand and gently and slowly rolled off the stage which was at knee level for front row. Beyond funny.
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Post by mallardo on Sept 13, 2017 9:47:22 GMT
So, a biographical play by Terry Johnson about the great cinematographer and ladies' man, Jack Cardiff (Robert Lindsay), now nearing the end of his life, burdened with dementia and drifting in time. His son (Barnaby Kay) wants to get a memoir from him while it's still possible, with Cardiff's wife (Claire Skinner) and carer/collaborator (Rebecca Night) either helping or hindering the process. This is the play. A play about the past with lavish flashbacks and famous actresses emerging from Cardiff's unstable mind. There is little dramatic momentum - nor can there be, given the premise.
It's as interesting as Cardiff himself manages to be and he's played to the hilt by Lindsay. But the sad fact of dementia means that it's all rather one note. Johnson himself must have realized this and gives us an abrupt change in the second act where we go on location in spectacular style and get a very nice (I thought) interpretation of Katherine Hepburn from Skinner, a decent Lauren Bacall from Night and an awful Humphrey Bogart from Kay. This, at least, would have been fun if the scenes were better conceived or, indeed, had a point.
Johnson is a good writer as he has proved often enough but this time he's floundering. If there is a key to Cardiff's life he has not found it. My regretful conclusion is that there was never a play here in the first place.
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Post by sf on Oct 11, 2017 23:51:37 GMT
A lot of ideas and two very good performances (out of a cast of four, and we'll draw a polite veil over the other two) don't quite add up to a coherent whole. I'm glad I saw it, and Robert Lindsay is worth the cost of the ticket, but it doesn't work.
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Post by theplayer on Oct 12, 2017 21:44:09 GMT
Saw the final weekday matinee today, loved it! Robert Lindsay was great. Script was funny and poignant.
Glad I got the chance to see it.
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Post by orchidman on Oct 13, 2017 2:36:39 GMT
My regretful conclusion is that there was never a play here in the first place. Yes, I think I would agree, and with your other points. There was possibly a glimpse in Act Two of it having some potential as a sort of glamorous version of 'The Father' but the execution came nowhere near, and even then coming so soon off that play being a hit, it would have been difficult to eclipse it. Lindsay gives a great effort but is nowhere aged enough (in reality or theatrically) to play 81. |
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Post by dlevi on Oct 13, 2017 8:55:04 GMT
I disagree completely with Pledge's evaluation of the play and the production. I caught up with it this past Tuesday and while I don't think it's a great piece of dramatic literature, I found it to be a deeply satisfying night in the theatre. The performances were all pretty terrific and Mr Lindsay's wasn't the expected "look-at-me" performance which he has given in the past few years. Mr Johnson's staging was perceptive and elegant; perceptive in that anyone who has ever shared space with a victim of Alzheimer's knows, they rule the room, every moment something can change for them and consequently for everyone else in the room. And elegant because of a couple of scenic coup d'theatres that are surprising and organic to the proceedings as well. A completely worthwhile evening and one that, even if you don't know who Jack Cardiff was, is involving and intelligent. |
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Post by showgirl on Oct 14, 2017 17:14:10 GMT
Thought this well done but too slight, whimsical & unsatisfying for me, though today's matinee was sold out & quite a few people gave a standing ovation. Had I waited for the reviews, I'd probably have given this a miss.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2017 17:55:03 GMT
I quite enjoyed it but Lindsay looked about 20 years younger than Jack Cardiff did when I saw him 15 years earlier than this was set. Liked the scene and character changes in act 2, could have done with some of this in act 1
I think dressing Lindsay in a costume identical to Count Arthur Strong was a mistake
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Post by tmesis on Oct 14, 2017 21:16:47 GMT
I enjoyed this a great deal. Excellent performances and an elegant production.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2019 17:23:29 GMT
Tour starts October in Birmingham, starring Lindsay
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Post by joem on Oct 10, 2019 16:53:07 GMT
Caught up with this today in Birmingham. Can't comment on the Hampstead production as the cast has changed except for Robert Lindsay. This cast, now featuring Tara Fitzgerald in the lead female role, certainly worked very well together and was very effective.
An undemanding but pleasurable watch, Johnson and Lindsay certainly catch the frustration, pathos and unintentional humour of dementa very well. Lindsay is always very watchable and if he is saying "look at me" it's because he's an actor and actors like to be looked at, even the ones who say they don't. Shades of his Archie Rice here but it's a subtler performance than some might give him credit for.
Well staged and must say I'd forgotten what a splendid theatre the Birmingham Rep is, fantastic sightlines and brilliant seats for less than half of what you pay in London.
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