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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2018 15:06:34 GMT
I am seeing it tonight (couldn't persuade friend to cancel as she's a big Rory fan, even though she has a slipped disc!) and dreading it. But I must say colleague's partner took their son to it and she said they both really enjoyed it - and they're not into Shakespeare at all - so maybe Rufus is on to something and the audience it works for is the one that doesn't normally watch Shakespeare. Which wouldn't include any theatre critics or most regular NT-going theatreboard members.... I also think that if you're young and/or don't get to the theatre often just the act of being there is thrilling and something quite mediocre can be elevated to the extraordinary just by the fact that live people are there right in front of you - that was my experience as a teenager anyway. Add in people that I recognised off the telly and I could well have wet myself, let alone cheered. Yes...I wondered if the students were so engrossed because they’d been studying the play and know it well but were thrilled to see it suddenly brought to life and in such a way. However there were two older girls a few rows behind us who tried hard to contain their scornful guffaws but gave up when the witches came on and started imitating their voices and the witchy sound effects. I would complain about them on the bad behaviour thread if they hadn’t provided me more entertainment than the action on stage. |
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Post by foxa on Mar 21, 2018 16:29:05 GMT
We're in tonight. Front row of the circle. I'll be the one next to a man looking furious at being dragged to another dubious show...
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Post by Snciole on Mar 21, 2018 16:32:18 GMT
We're in tonight. Front row of the circle. I'll be the one next to a man looking furious at being dragged to another dubious show... Praying hard for Mr Foxa tonight. Knees and everything. |
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Post by kathryn on Mar 21, 2018 23:12:23 GMT
Eurgh.
What an ugly, dull production - only rising to the height of ‘creepy’ a couple of times. Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff are better than this.
The school group sat behind us were not impressed either.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2018 8:00:03 GMT
I wonder what kind of Macbeth Robert Icke would deliver....
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Post by foxa on Mar 22, 2018 9:11:53 GMT
Mr Foxa didn't demand to leave at the interval - so that's something.
The positives: I liked the huge rampy thing as it was first positioned, suggesting that the story would spill out towards the audience. When it was used, it encouraged the best staging in the show. (However they lost faith in it and were constantly shunting it to one side and bringing in measly, mean little sets instead. Plus they missed a trick - it was crying out for someone to skateboard down it.) Kinnear delivered the lines about 'a tale told by an idiot' well. The second half held my interest more than the first half.
The negatives: The world of the play. It seems odd to have a play about ambition, reordering the hierarchy and the importance of the king set where there is no clear hierarchy and the only perk of being king is getting to wear a red suit. Otherwise, Duncan was sitting on plastic chairs (sometimes covered with a plastic sheet - why?) and sleeping on the tiniest and thinnest of camp beds.The food, still packaged in little boxes for the feast, could have been lifted from a particularly poor motorway service station. Mr Foxa wondered if the Macbeth 'castle' was an abandoned Butlins resort. Also the weird sisters didn't seem weirder than a lot of the other characters - say the sparkly dress bobble hat person who danced on a table or Fleance who was running around covered by a large cardboard box looking like SpongeBob SquarePants. The relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth just didn't happen - Mr Foxa wished it had the intensity of the publicity shot. You had to question Macbeth's judgement if he thought he'd chosen good murderers, one of whom seemed to struggle with and then give up on opening his little tinny of beer. Is he really the person for job? The music and lighting did nothing to add to the atmosphere or storytelling. At one point a witch was crouched over a smoke machine so it looked like she was farting smoke - was that the desired effect? (If so, I think it could have been a good running gag.) In another scene, Macduff found himself suddenly and confusingly out of the light and looked pissed off. Or maybe he was acting - who knows.
I asked Mr Foxa what he liked best about the production and he said he thought Kinnear was at least trying things. He had a longer list of what he didn't like including (and he was bizarrely adamant about this) the doctor wearing wellies - 'So is the queen of the realm being treated by a vet - just so wrong! - and Macbeth having his armour taped on ('Surely the king of the realm wouldn't need, etc. etc. ') A big palaver was made of the taping and then just moments later he takes if off. What was the point? As I think has been mentioned before, black bin bags and guys arriving in camouflage are always bad signs.
The auditorium was pretty full at the opening, but a number of people left at the interval - including the people to either side of us. (What did we do?) The audience was attentive (lots of school groups in the circle) and the applause was reasonably warm at the end.
So for us - two stars, maybe a shade less - somewhere in that region.
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Post by kathryn on Mar 22, 2018 10:54:49 GMT
Yes, agree with a lot of that. Why does Macbeth want to be King? I know that’s one of those questions that was nonsensical to ask when the play was written, and so the text didn’t need to answer, but if you’re doing a modern setting and it looks like being King gets you nothing but hassle and the odd person bowing, it’s necessary to answer it in some way in your design.
Armour being taped on when he’s just Glamis is fine if when he’s king he gets proper good armour and a bunch of attendants to deal with it. If not it just seems like a pointless design quirk.
I was not keen on the way Rory was speaking a lot of his lines - he seemed to swallow a third of his words. I’m sure it’s something to do with using the wrong rhythm and emphasis - and I’m sure it was a deliberate choice - but it doesn’t half make him a chore to listen to.
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Post by peggs on Mar 22, 2018 11:46:20 GMT
Again foxa I'm sure your review is much more entertaining than actually watching the production, nt should def use some of these quotes, who wouldn't be intrigued by the promise of a bobble hatted dancing person or a child in a cardboard box?! 🤗 |
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Post by foxa on Mar 22, 2018 12:08:39 GMT
To anyone who knows him, 'Mr Foxa didn't demand to leave at the interval' should appear on posters.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2018 16:46:56 GMT
Again foxa I'm sure your review is much more entertaining than actually watching the production, nt should def use some of these quotes, who wouldn't be intrigued by the promise of a bobble hatted dancing person or a child in a cardboard box?! 🤗 Not to mention the weird sisters "farting smoke". Lol! |
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Post by fiyero on Mar 22, 2018 17:03:03 GMT
I'm not sure if it's good or bad that I booked before reading (some of) this thread. I just wanted to add a matinee to the day I'm seeing Fun Home and never seen anything at the National. Surely it will be an experience anyway?!?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2018 17:22:47 GMT
I'm not sure if it's good or bad that I booked before reading (some of) this thread. I just wanted to add a matinee to the day I'm seeing Fun Home and never seen anything at the National. Surely it will be an experience anyway?!? Oh absolutely! The show is pretty rotten but some of it is funny (unintentionally I'm sure but anyway we take what we can) and I love The Nash. It may look like a multi storey car park from the outside but inside it's a gem. If you like concrete. The Olivier is one of my favourite theatres, I always like going there and I don't think I've ever had a rubbish view, no matter where I've sat in the past. The bar staff are usually delightful and the cloakroom people are very nice when you have to put your bag in, AND they're very efficient I have always found. The bookshop is really interesting and if you can eject someone nursing one of the tables to use the free wifi with a bottle of water that they've brought in themselves then the food isn't half bad either. You'll love it. Not the show necessarily but The Nash definitely. Enjoy! |
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Post by lynette on Mar 22, 2018 17:36:46 GMT
Ryan so right. Nice place to park your coat, browse a book, use yr laptop, have a drink, eat something. Pity not much good for plays.
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Post by peggs on Mar 22, 2018 17:48:53 GMT
Ryan so right. Nice place to park your coat, browse a book, use yr laptop, have a drink, eat something. Pity not much good for plays. I probably go there as much as a stop gap place as to see plays but that said don't seem able to stop booking the plays. |
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Post by lichtie on Mar 25, 2018 9:17:17 GMT
Saw this on Friday. Oh dear.... Best thing I can say was that they must have shortened it considerably as the running time came in at just under 2.5 hours including interval. Even the ticket desk were saying it would be 10 minutes longer, so another one truncated from previews it seems in order to stop the audience fleeing. (Seemed to work, not may left). The staging here really was a case of WTF. And then there was Banquo's ghost peering through the windows of a cheap diner... The actors barely seemed to actually interact with each other meaningfully either. One of those 15 quid shows I'm glad I didn't pay more for.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Mar 25, 2018 11:45:16 GMT
I don’t envy the tour cast, whoever that turns out to be, taking this turkey out on the road. The Lowry website says “following its sold out London run...” which is stretching it somewhat isn’t it?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2018 12:24:22 GMT
Ryan so right. Nice place to park your coat, browse a book, use yr laptop, have a drink, eat something. Pity not much good for plays. I probably go there as much as a stop gap place as to see plays but that said don't seem able to stop booking the plays. I've figured it out...Rufus is slipping something in the food/drink/aircon that makes us all keep coming back against our better judgement... |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Mar 25, 2018 17:18:44 GMT
Ryan so right. Nice place to park your coat, browse a book, use yr laptop, have a drink, eat something. Pity not much good for plays. The foyer space for the Olivier has natural light, unlike the other two spaces #godihatethenash |
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Post by nash16 on Mar 25, 2018 17:51:46 GMT
I don’t envy the tour cast, whoever that turns out to be, taking this turkey out on the road. The Lowry website says “following its sold out London run...” which is stretching it somewhat isn’t it? They'll offer to the understudies probably, to "upgrade". I doubt they're going to get any new names climbing onboard. |
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Post by bordeaux on Mar 25, 2018 19:29:40 GMT
I don’t envy the tour cast, whoever that turns out to be, taking this turkey out on the road. The Lowry website says “following its sold out London run...” which is stretching it somewhat isn’t it? Well, presumably it was sold out when they wrote the publicity material... |
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Post by crowblack on Mar 25, 2018 20:07:52 GMT
It was - it sold out instantly. |
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Post by couldileaveyou on Mar 25, 2018 22:40:18 GMT
Is it me or the witches look like they're coming from three different productions?
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Post by Someone in a tree on Mar 26, 2018 16:01:58 GMT
The foyer space for the Olivier has natural light, unlike the other two spaces So what are the big windows on one side of the Lyttelton foyer, and the opening glass doors of the Dorfman looking out on, please? They may be big but they don’t appear to let much light in. The foyer is always so dark |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Mar 26, 2018 17:18:34 GMT
I've always put that down to the dark stone and carpets, rather than architecture. Very true. But a dark room is still a dark room, so to speak !! |
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Post by lynette on Mar 26, 2018 18:22:02 GMT
And here we are along the Thames, location loaded with history and lovely strand to walk along and enjoy and we can’t see it. This has to be the most stupid deliberate negation of London built in the twentieth century. Yes you can go out on the balconies but do you? Is there any incentive to do so? Can you get a drink, sit in comfort, enjoy some entertainment? I’m ranting now and I have done many times. Apologies.off topic.
back to Macbeth...
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