62 posts
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Post by demonbarber on Dec 1, 2018 0:16:07 GMT
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117 posts
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Post by bramble on Dec 6, 2018 12:12:55 GMT
Well what a surprise. I haven't laughed as much at play for ages. I really really really enjoyed this very very very dark play Brilliant
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904 posts
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Post by lonlad on Dec 8, 2018 1:29:09 GMT
I'm surprised this insulting piece of PC drivel is still running ..... a tuff race for worst play of the year between this and the David Hare
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Post by karim on Dec 8, 2018 20:21:46 GMT
I'm surprised this insulting piece of PC drivel is still running ..... a tuff race for worst play of the year between this and the David Hare I thought Hare was bad till I had the misfortune to see this. No interval so not possible to walk out. The worst of the year by a long way. "The worst of all time", said a friend.
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2,481 posts
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Post by zahidf on Dec 17, 2018 13:47:46 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2018 20:28:56 GMT
Wish they NTLive'd this. Would have definitely gone to see what all the fuss is about.
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1,862 posts
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Post by NeilVHughes on Dec 17, 2018 20:54:55 GMT
Having seen this at the weekend found it a brave production.
The play itself doesn’t worrk, it taks the serious subject of the wealth of the West being built on the exploitation of the Colonies, and extrapolates it to the absurdity of two Authors work being written by an imprisoned slave.
The allegory has value which is too heavily diluted by the overly comic character of the Authors and at times it felt extremely uncomfortable.
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Post by katurian on Dec 18, 2018 11:32:25 GMT
I agree with Billington, it was one of my most entertaining theatre experiences of 2018 - not perfect (I can see reasons for critique), but I also thought it was interesting in how it dealt with its issues in a non straight forward way. I thought it used comic absurdity - and some chilling moments - to make points about its themes without having to have the characters explicitly stand there and explain things to the audience in an obvious or soap box manner.
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394 posts
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Post by lichtie on Dec 18, 2018 12:17:30 GMT
Saw this at the weekend, but really felt that it was delivered more in the style of an overdone Monty Python sketch than anything serious. As for time travelling dead Belgians etc, hard to know exactly what McDonagh was thinking of. So don't think it works for the topic. There were a few actual amusing bits (with Daniels and Broadbent mostly, though both seemed to be trying to compensate for the script by hamming it up to a point beyond the written text). Overall just as well it was only 80 minutes (and I can see why some people both seriously hated and were offended by it).
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Post by MrsCondomine on Dec 19, 2018 11:56:15 GMT
I saw this and it's flimsy as wet cardboard, but I actually laughed like a drain at most of it. Johnetta Eula'Mae Ackles is flippin excellent, especially when she gets to tote a machine gun and swear like a sailor.
When it becomes a time-travelling massacre history lesson, it's a bit weird. The comedy bad guys doing thick Yorkshire accents is straight out of a Fringe play. I don't actually know what McDonagh was on when he wrote this - some of it feels like a new writer trying to emulate a McDonagh play instead of it being the real thing.
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999 posts
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Post by Backdrifter on Dec 19, 2018 14:01:21 GMT
Thanks to the starkly divided views here and elsewhere I got a dayseat this morning (the only person there) and am shortly to see the matinee. I can rarely resist seeing stuff that generates such dementedly differing opinions, especially when some of those who thought it was rubbish still say they found it hilarious.
EDIT: later - I find myself echoing some of the above posts. It's a stupid but entertaining play. I was frowning yet laughing. I think he's at that jammy stage of his career when he can hand over rough sketches from one of his notebooks and it'll be produced pretty much as is, as that's what this felt like. I saw one or two walkouts but it got an appreciative curtain call.
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2,744 posts
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Post by n1david on Dec 19, 2018 23:06:17 GMT
I was there this afternoon too, £15 in the Stalls (having returned my £65 tickets for opening night. Boy, am I glad I didn't pay £65 for this!
I was uncomfortable for most of this. I felt that the allegory was hopelessly lost in the staging and text. Most of the laughs were from swearwords or casual stereotyping - it felt that whenever things were going slow, insult some Belgians or Germans or English children and get an easy laugh. Or just call someone a c***.
The cast do the best they can with the material but the overacting (obviously a directorial decision) just became tiresome. The Darwin/Dickens joke didn't improve with repetition and and the 'dinner party' scene tiresome (just why did Elizabeth Berrington sign up for this?)
Mixed reaction around me - some people were laughing like drains (a joke about not trusting someone with a beard was uproariously funny to a woman in front of me) - others didn't laugh at all and there certainly wasn't universal applause at the end, although those that liked it seemed to really enjoy it.
I'd love to have seen Hytner's reaction when he received the script.
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1,970 posts
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Post by sf on Dec 19, 2018 23:11:17 GMT
Not only that, but he is unpleasantly - and uncharacteristically - condescending towards people who liked it less than he did.
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Post by QueerTheatre on Dec 21, 2018 14:53:22 GMT
Not only that, but he is unpleasantly - and uncharacteristically - condescending towards people who liked it less than he did.
i would say it is very much within his character to be condescending.
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Post by orchidman on Dec 21, 2018 16:56:35 GMT
What a piece of nonsense.
Not even worth discussing.
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Post by orchidman on Oct 2, 2022 20:19:34 GMT
McDonagh interviewed in the Observer today:
The writer-director is 52 now, and recently made the decision that he’s going to spend what creative time he has left – he reckons “around 25 years” – making films rather than plays. His reasoning? Films are quicker.
“I always used to think they took longer than plays, but with this one we were filming it a year ago, and now it’s out,” he says. “But if you’re lucky enough to have successful plays, which I have been, then they start off-West End, like at the Royal Court, then you go to the West End, then to off-Broadway, and then to on Broadway. And to get that right with each move, to cast it and take care of it, go to rehearsals, that’s five years of your life.”
He's talking absolute rubbish but good decision based on his last play.
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2,744 posts
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Post by n1david on Oct 3, 2022 7:10:09 GMT
Well he didn't have to worry about the latter stages of the journey with his last play.
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7,061 posts
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Post by Jon on Oct 3, 2022 10:21:10 GMT
I'm not sure how McDonagh can claim that theatres take longer than film when it's been five years since his last film.
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Post by Jan on Oct 4, 2022 12:48:01 GMT
I'm not sure how McDonagh can claim that theatres take longer than film when it's been five years since his last film. Well he speaks as one who has had a couple of hit films made - let’s wait and see what happens when he’s had a flop and the financing dries up. On the other hand there’ll always be a subsidised theatre in London willing to stage whatever he comes up with.
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