Barber Shop Chronicles (NT)

Booking opened at noon! It's now a straight run from 20 Nov to 9 Jan. I've booked! They exist!

I thought this was great. I loved the scene where the character is deciding between the black woman and the white woman with characters ribbing him and not believing him. It can feel too long and repetitive and it was clear that a lot of the white audience just did not get it (and why they thought they would is another discussion but I am glad they were so open minded). As a BME female I am glad to see theatres-big and small- taking on black male narratives and showcasing some new and underused acting talent.

It has what a lot of NT productions haven't had in the last few years-energy. I think Follies and BSC have given their respective theatres a bit of life that was lacking before. You can do serious and worthy topics/stories without boring the audience to death.

Not sure if this has been put on here yet or not (don't remember seeing it before), but Barber Shop Chronicles is coming back to London: Roundhouse in Camden. Can't wait!

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/barber-shop-chronicles-at-roundhouse

Thanks for the info. Just booked a seat for the 16th evening performance.

Watched this tonight at the Manc REX. A really good night at the theatre tonight. A very slick production with what has to be one the best bits of preshow entertainment for a show to get the audience warmed up. Also a big thumbs up for the lighting design used and the musical interludes inbetween the scenes.

Overall a really well written and acted play with plenty of humour and some great one liners mixed in with a more serious and challenging examination about both cultural and individual identity which definitely provided food for thought.

Having a read through previous posts in this thread about people’s thoughts about the production, I would agree with those who found the diction at times an issue. I must admit, I did have an issue here, but this didn’t really hamper my enjoyment of the play. Also, I would have liked to have gotten to know the characters a little better, so maybe fewer of them maybe would have helped in allowing a bit more time to allow this to happen.

Worth watching if you can get a ticket. Running time 2hrs 15mins with no interval. 4*

Btw, they had several cameras capturing the 'in the round' staging so maybe there'll be a public release of the recording, as they've done previously with Maxine Peake's RX Hamlet and Don Warrington's RX Lear.

Didn't get round to seeing the original National run of this, caught it yesterday at the Roundhouse. Enjoyed it a lot although it felt a bit lost in that huge barn of a venue, which wasn't particularly full (although this was a mid-week matinee). A lot of young people there who were really engaging with it.

Got my tickets through the National Friday rush - £20 for row D in the stalls.

Having missed this on every previous possible occasion when I could have got to it, I finally saw this at The Roundhouse yesterday at the matinee performance.

I paid £15 for a 'Restricted View' ticket, in Row G of the stalls. It was not restricted at all, IMO, but I think if I had been in either of the two seats immediately to my right that it might have been a different story. I was also expecting to be a lot further away from the stage than I actually was, from when I'd looked at the seating plan.

I thought it was superb - and that level of energy is something I'd like to be able to bottle! The pre-show with the dancing really helped everyone get in the mood, and there was lots of selfies being taken whilst people sat in the barbers chairs. Someone in the audience had a birthday, so we all sang to her before the show started properly. In terms of the show, it took me a bit to figure out the connections between the various characters in different shops, and to realise that the whole thing happens in the course of one day. I was fine with the patois (I'm a white, middle-class woman, from The North), sure, there were some bits I didn't catch, but I'd say the same on the way out of any Shakespeare. You could understand the sentiment from the physicality portrayed in the acting. Given the connections across shops, I thought the whole thing was exceptionally carefully plotted, in terms of when we were able to realise the connections. I ordinarily wouldn't have much interest in a show with an all male cast, but the themes they're discussing here, and the setting, meant that I was willing to tamp down my internal militant feminist tendencies(!). I think it's really unusual for a production to show men talking to each other in the way these men do, and that was really refreshing.

I too am tempted to go again, although an impending holiday may mean I can't fit a return visit in before this run closes. Reading the rest of the thread, there's a suggestion it's been recorded for NT Live - have I missed it on there as yet, or is it still to come?

A possible trip over the hills in my future then. Thanks @xanderl 

Saw this last night.

The London scenes are interesting and intriguing until the reveal near the end when the A plot descends into sub-EastEnders nonsense. But for me the big problem is that the African scenes just aren't as interesting, it starts well enough with the comical knockabout of having a fast looking haircut but by the time we've got to a drunk I don't know diddly about telling us about his schooldays I've stopped caring.

With the links between the shops it reminded me of Cloud Atlas but without the emotional heft of that work as we outside of London we really don't get much of an insight into the characters.

1hr 45 with no interval for the main play but there is around 20 minutes of pre-show "work" happening on stage with members of the audience being taken up for a fake haircut.

….and in what world would Chelsea v Barcelona be played at 12:30 UK time?

An entertainingly flawed 6/10

Halfway through it and it's one of the best plays I’ve seen in a long time. This is one of the only pieces of theatre I’ve seen during lockdown that has translated really, really well to the screen. The energy was bursting through the screen and the acting is absolutely incredible and you can sense the energy from the audience too. Maybe that has something to do with it translating well on screen. And the fact that this was an archive recording makes that all the more impressive. So grateful to the NT and all involved for this!!