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Post by showgirl on Jun 2, 2017 8:36:35 GMT
Apparently members may return tickets online; what a useful facility & saves a personal visit.
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Post by theatrelover123 on Jun 2, 2017 8:40:48 GMT
Yes you can return them for a credit note/ voucher but you still need to send the ticket/s back to the NT box exchanges in the post and they have to receive it 24 (or 72) hours before the date.
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Post by jadnoop on Jun 2, 2017 9:01:17 GMT
Given what a long and complex play this seems to be, it seems odd that they would only cancel a Friday performance. I mean, how much can they hope to alter in a single day, while ensuring the actors, stagehands, etc are all up to speed by Saturdays performance? I would have assumed that cancelling Saturday, in order to have an entire weekend, would make the task more manageable.
I really hope they manage to salvage this. Despite the apparent general consensus that this is poor, I can't help but be excited: in the back of my mind, the mix of an old world setting on the cusp of modernity, and a language that attempts to combine copious amounts of swearing with a Shakespearean poetry, brings to mind David Milch's magnificent DEADWOOD. While that show certainly isn't for everyone (not least for the ridiculous amounts of swearing), in my opinion it's up there with THE WIRE in terms of modern television quality.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2017 9:04:14 GMT
I can't wait to see it so that I can say in my best Kenneth Williams voice, "ooooh innit common, absolutely common".
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2017 9:15:14 GMT
And if Ms Duff is fascinating, as noted, she is also inscrutable. We can't, in truth, believe anything she says - her actions, at times, belie what she says - so we can't empathize, can't make a connection to her She is Parsley. |
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Post by showgirl on Jun 2, 2017 10:16:36 GMT
Yes you can return them for a credit note/ voucher but you still need to send the ticket/s back to the NT box exchanges in the post and they have to receive it 24 (or 72) hours before the date. TY for this. Amazingly it's a rare case of an IT glitch working in my favour as every time I've tried to collect tix from the NT machine, it has mysteriously omitted this one - such that in the end I began to doubt myself. So I have no physical ticket - did the machines know something?! |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2017 11:33:49 GMT
Thanks for the review mallardo, it's much more useful when people give background and a considered view (nothing against individuals but short confused/angry/ecstatic posts don't have any effect, especially when hardly anyone has seen what is commented on).
In fact, you explaiin how factors such as language, complexity and lack of empathetic characters might have engendered some of those earlier posts. None of these are insurmountable obstacles (and to be honest probably put me in the more likely to appreciate it camp, as with the 'supernatural' element). That they are using previews to make changes shows that they appreciate it isnt yet what they want and they feel they have the time to fix that, which is good.
I always find it confusing when people talk about needing to 'sympathise' though (per zahidf). It's something I don't really understand as to being important, I see it a lot on American sites when (more often than not) thay are moaning about British productions. Is it, here, that she is the protagonist and set up to be sympathetic but isn't or that she is set up to be unsympathetic? I don't know if anyone watched Harlots on TV, which I though was outstanding, but that was a perfect example of a show without any sympathetic focus working perfectly. Is that what they are aiming for instead?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2017 11:42:19 GMT
I love an unsympathetic character. Stick a great actor behind an unredeemable character and I'm happy as Larry. You can maybe take a little time to explain why they are the way they are, but don't ruin it by trying to excuse it, some of us just really want to enjoy a good horrible character.
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Post by peggs on Jun 2, 2017 11:50:40 GMT
So it shouldn't make me faint due to copious core but I may be confused and/or asleep? For me that is the lesser of two evils probably.
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Post by zahidf on Jun 2, 2017 12:03:50 GMT
I think the writing needs to be a lot stronger for their to be NO sympthathetic focus/hero/heroine. I appreciate something like House of Cards or Game of thrones for example with it's shades of grey, but it's harder to do when the plot/characters motivation are fuzzy.
Given the type of play this is as well, it helps to the 'whats the point' when none of the characters are likeable, so you don't care what happens to them
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Post by mallardo on Jun 2, 2017 13:01:32 GMT
The problem for me is that Anne-Marie Duff's character, Mary, is unclear. There is a radical change in her between acts one and two, a change motivated by traumatic events. Her response is to take the play in a new direction which, IMO, does not work. For me it makes it almost impossible to stay with her and this is where the "sympathy" angle comes in.
Still, it occurs to me that I may be looking at it from a perspective that, in terms of the storytelling, is too traditional and that what I'm objecting to is exactly what the playwright was going for. I'll be very interested to see how the play is received, both here and with the critics. There may be quite a divide.
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Post by zak97 on Jun 2, 2017 14:27:48 GMT
The one thing I enjoyed to begin with was the meta theatre, that said that even started to get old 1 hour 40 in.
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Post by lynette on Jun 2, 2017 16:43:08 GMT
I think this one might be filed under ' Life's too short'
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Post by profquatermass on Jun 3, 2017 9:44:26 GMT
Yes you can return them for a credit note/ voucher but you still need to send the ticket/s back to the NT box exchanges in the post and they have to receive it 24 (or 72) hours before the date. This is exactly why I never get tickets sent to me. Makes it so much easier to exchange or return them |
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Post by showgirl on Jun 3, 2017 10:22:12 GMT
It's the extra cost which makes me avoid NT tix by post.
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Jun 3, 2017 23:41:30 GMT
Saw this Saturday night. This is grim. the good news is we were leaving the theatre at 9.45. First half now one hour twenty minutes then twenty minute interval.
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Post by theatre-turtle on Jun 4, 2017 1:00:01 GMT
Saw this Saturday night. This is grim. the good news is we were leaving the theatre at 9.45. First half now one hour twenty minutes then twenty minute interval. It reminds me of the best thing about Salome... that it was only 90 minutes |
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Jun 4, 2017 7:05:04 GMT
Saw this Saturday night. This is grim. the good news is we were leaving the theatre at 9.45. First half now one hour twenty minutes then twenty minute interval. It reminds me of the best thing about Salome... that it was only 90 minutes I counted 12 empty seats at the start. Saw eight leavers during first half. Mass exodus at half time which I estimated to be about 20%. Play was so dire I decided to test my 20% assumption.
I had quite a good view of one half of theatre and I counted 136 empty seats. Looked a pretty even spread of leavers across both halves so I doubled this which comes to 22.4% of people I calculated to have left by the interval.
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Post by foxa on Jun 4, 2017 8:58:12 GMT
I had tickets for the cancelled performance and don't suppose now I will rebook. What a shame - I thought it sounded interesting, but it doesn't seem like something as straightforward as a technical fix which is what their email suggested. They must have spent Friday cutting twenty minutes or so off the first half....
I do still have tickets for Salome. Should I go? (Doubt I will be able to convince anyone to come with me, so I will have to return one ticket anyway....)
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2017 12:13:38 GMT
I was one of the interval leavers last night. I didn't think the play or production were terrible, I just found myself at a significant distance from everything going on. Maybe in one of my various moments of daydream I missed some relevant information that would have anchored me in a more specific time and place, but it all felt a bit indistinct to me. There were mentions of London, Kensington, and Boston (Lincoln and USA) - but there was a deliberate mystical, mythical quality to proceedings that ultimately straddled the real world and a paranormal world, and I think I got lost in the cracks. I was very disappointed with Anne-Marie Duff; demanding part that carries the whole piece, and I found her wanting. Cush Jumbo and John Dagleish offered much more of a sense of drama, period and overall authenticity. {Spoiler - click to view} My major problem was that this did not feel like a play/production for the Olivier. I do not know what happens in the second half - perhaps it becomes wildly expansive - but the first half is predominantly made up of direct address monologues to the audience, or duologues. There is a pub scene. There are a couple of farming scenes in which some people silently and expressionistically wield scythes in the background. And there are a couple of pagan festival "scenes". There are moments when the Olivier traps and revolve are well-used, but ultimately this feels like a play that should be in a studio somewhere. |
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Jun 4, 2017 13:31:36 GMT
I don't understand at all (and this not-understanding feels shared by many, inc some people at the National) why they programmed this in the Olivier and Angels in the Lyttleton.
I am perversely looking forward to it.
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Post by theatremadness on Jun 4, 2017 13:37:26 GMT
I don't understand at all (and this not-understanding feels shared by many, inc some people at the National) why they programmed this in the Olivier and Angels in the Lyttleton. I am perversely looking forward to it. I *think* this was mentioned on the AiA thread, and I'd like to employ the knowledge of @emicardiff here if I may, that Marianne Elliott requested the Lyttelton over the Olivier due to it being a deceptively awesome, massive and versatile space? And that it's also Proscenium Arch? Or did I totally just make that all up? Someone will have answers!! As for why Common was programmed in the Olivier (or even at all, so it seems) is unbeknownst to me. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2017 13:56:45 GMT
I don't understand at all (and this not-understanding feels shared by many, inc some people at the National) why they programmed this in the Olivier and Angels in the Lyttleton. I am perversely looking forward to it. I *think* this was mentioned on the AiA thread, and I'd like to employ the knowledge of @emicardiff here if I may, that Marianne Elliott requested the Lyttelton over the Olivier due to it being a deceptively awesome, massive and versatile space? And that it's also Proscenium Arch? Or did I totally just make that all up? Someone will have answers!! As for why Common was programmed in the Olivier (or even at all, so it seems) is unbeknownst to me. Hello! And yes, I have it from the horse's mouth (as it were!) she specifically asked for it, mainly for the ability to have things flying in and out and the way you can move set. Also as an aside it was a Hytner programming due to how long ago it was all agreed so also one the Rufus Norris has had to 'work around' I guess with regard to the other things on. |
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Post by showgirl on Jun 4, 2017 14:30:38 GMT
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Post by foxa on Jun 4, 2017 15:21:54 GMT
Wow. They really don't like it.
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