All About Eve - Noel Coward Theatre

Count me in the interested but unmoved, but interested in my unmovedness.

All to say I don't think this is Van Hove's strongest work, and I'm one that counts him as a genius when he gets it right. But it's no Jude Law and Motor Oil either, for which we can all be thankful.

The camerawork for me, while I can see and yes be interested in as a conceit did little for me at best, and frustrated me at worst. I also ultimalty think that in putting a film back on stage it's the stage element and the intimacy, and interest that offers you should be playing with and while my little Ivo devil's advocate in my head goes 'ah but that's why then putting cameras back in makes it interesting' the rest of me goes 'ah but shut up Ivo I don't care'. Because for me ultimalty they frustrated the story, and i don't think that was the point of them. I did enjoy the use of the one on the mirror and the mix of the pre-record and the live images there, that was an interesting use of it. But the lengthy scenes locked away in shipping containers filmed and projected were not I don't think, adding anything.

Ivo's strength also is when he strips a piece back and lets it speak for itself. That's why Kushner considers his Angels the best, that's why his View from a Bridge was so powerful, that's what made Lazurus asi incomprehensible as that was, evocative and engaging. And there are frustrating moments where that happens here, but there are also parts where it's too troubled with camera work and over direction. And ultimalty it made me think not feel, and somehow I feel like I should feel more with this.

Because there's so much in it- there's so much about women and the way they treat each other and the way they see each other and themselves, there's so much about ageing, and women and beauty and yes how men add to that. And I felt I should have been raging and burning at it, and yet...aside from wanting to yell 'AMEN GIRL' when Gillian declares 'I hate men' mostly I was more thinking 'hmm interesting' than 'YES THAT TOO' which is a missed opportunity I felt.

Gillian I felt too didn't get a chance to rise to the occasion. She does some stellar work, and a Margo that is as cold as ice is again, an interesting approach. But it felt like she was at times doing 'Gillian Anderson' and at times stuck in third gear a bit- knowing what she can do, this didn't quite click (and I say that as a full on Gillian worshipper here). Lily James was admirable and I loved what she did, lurking in the background until she pounced. Of them all Monica Dolan was the Queen however, waltzing in and stealing every scene she was in.

Julian, well Julian is looking rather lovely and becoming something of a silver fox. But that aside he does quiet but great work.

I agree about the slow doom laden pace, and that works, there's a quiet fear and sadness in that, and that's the good Ivo coming out. I think Bad Ivo currently is half stuck in Network and not quite working out how the same idea translates here- because the film feed might well have worked but it doesn't feel like it quite does.

Anyway a sneaky early review here:

thenerdytheatre.blogspot.com/2019/02/all-about-eve-noel-coward-theatre.html

Love this line, one of my favourite reactions when I leave the Theatre, sums up how I felt when leaving Cougar at the Orange Tree Theatre last week and still musing on it over a week later.

I am that other person! Seeing A Star is Born tonight, unspoiled and hoping to get to the live transmission of AAE. Cautiously skimming this thread, def not reading reviews.

Ben Brantley, NYT, not a fan of what Ivo has done here.

Review: ‘All About Eve’ Gets the Vampire Treatment from Ivo van Hove
nyti.ms/2UWWY0m

"Yet as adapted and directed by the international auteur Ivo van Hove, what was originally a crackling, high-gloss satire now feels like a horror movie without a pulse. The shades of lurid red that saturate the sets and costumes for this production, which opened on Tuesday night with Gillian Anderson as its enervated star, suggest nothing so much as the fast-drying lifeblood of an exsanguinated masterpiece."

londontheatrefan you're welcome! honestly I fear for my life next weekend when a HOARD of Gillian fans are in town.

Oh yeah heads up kids, anyone going next Saturday there are a large amount of Gillian/X Files fans going because they're in town for David Duchovny's concert the night before. (I'm going to the latter cos I'm a sucker for that man's midlife crisis through song, ducked out of the former thankfully)

Oh indeedy ....I will be far away at Vaults being far more civilised...actually probably drinking but you know, far away across the river. (the friends I'm down with are going and I basically said 'Good luck with that see you at home!' 

I have watched youtube clips of him onstage, including a duet with Gillian - it's a difficult experience to describe!

Is the audience just Xphiles or are they music fans too? 

If the Union Chapel gig had been closer to home I would have been tempted to go, I'm not sure he should be encouraged though!
I once paid good money to see Steven Seagal's blues band which was a unique experience in its own way, fun but not right.

I don't think I'd mess with Gillian to be honest. Probably why she's perfect casting as Thatcher in 'The Crown'.

Has the run time for this settled down now?

What time is an evening show coming down, roughly?