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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2018 18:32:04 GMT
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Post by NeilVHughes on Sept 4, 2018 18:55:40 GMT
Really looking forward to this, travelling up for the matinee on the 27th.
Joley Richardson was excellent as Margaret in the War of the Roses at Kingston a few years ago, definitely enough material to make a stand alone play.
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Post by Fleance on Sept 6, 2018 0:57:59 GMT
Wish I could see this. Queen Margaret is one of the great and fascinating Shakespearean characters. I remember well Penny Downie's brilliant performance for the RSC in The Plantagenets trilogy in 1989, directed by Adrian Noble.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2018 20:23:18 GMT
I've been really fancying this, as it sounds so interesting. I'd put off buying tickets though because they're a bit pricier than the last ones I got at the Royal Exchange and I do need to start spending a bit less. But today the RX wrote to me with a special offer for someone who bought tickets once last year and then hasn't been since - "we'd love to entice you back, have £15 tickets for Queen Margaret!" so now I've got front row seats for less than half price, woo!
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Post by david on Sept 10, 2018 20:46:31 GMT
I've been really fancying this, as it sounds so interesting. I'd put off buying tickets though because they're a bit pricier than the last ones I got at the Royal Exchange and I do need to start spending a bit less. But today the RX wrote to me with a special offer for someone who bought tickets once last year and then hasn't been since - "we'd love to entice you back, have £15 tickets for Queen Margaret!" so now I've got front row seats for less than half price, woo! Great news and everyone wins in cases like this. You get to see the play at a bargain price and the theatre wins by having a seat sold. It’s a great bit of marketing by the RX in trying to bring back those occasional visitors to the theatre. I’ve booked myself for the Sat 29th matinee. Hopefully it will be a good afternoons entertainment. |
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Post by david on Sept 20, 2018 19:51:47 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2018 23:59:42 GMT
Just got home from seeing this - I enjoyed it. It was pacy and exciting and the cast was good. I loved Richard of York and her sons being a bunch of devious thugs (although I'm usually York rather than Lancaster) and overall I thought this was a good production.
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Post by NeilVHughes on Sept 27, 2018 18:42:21 GMT
Sometimes the hassle we put up with getting the tickets, the transport to and from the Theatre and sometimes ‘the great unwashed’ we have to share the Theatres with, we all know it only takes one play to make it all evaporate and the drive to experience the thrill of great Theatre is re-energised. (bring it on the Old Vic tomorrow)
Queen Margaret today was intoxicating, absorbing and above all brilliant.
The 2½ hours flew by as the politics of the initial scenes evolved into the bloody battles that defined the War of the Roses and as a plus you get to witness the birth of a truly vicious Richard.
The only caveat, if you do not know your Henry VI’s the beginning can get extremely confusing as you determine the allegiances and drives of the Dukes especially as we come in after the fall of France and though Joan is integral to the play she is only there in spirit.
The shift of focus to Margaret works well, Jade traverses the realisation that the Henry she married is the antithesis of his father and she has to wear the Crown and do her best to reign in her unruly subjects.
Definitely deserves a transfer even if only a limited run at the Globe next year, cannot recall many transfers from the Royal Exchange recently though.
Hopefully we are not too far from a full fat trio of VI’s as trying to do it justice in a few hours only makes you realise what has been left out. I know some/most here would rather gnaw their lower limbs off than sit through 9 hours of Histories but hopefully there are enough of us to entice someone to take on the challenge.
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Post by Fleance on Sept 27, 2018 23:47:10 GMT
Queen Margaret today was intoxicating, absorbing and above all brilliant. Do they use Queen Margaret's speech from Richard III? Olivier cut that electrifying speech from the script of his 1955 film, unfortunately. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2018 14:42:05 GMT
The only caveat, if you do not know your Henry VI’s the beginning can get extremely confusing as you determine the allegiances and drives of the Dukes especially as we come in after the fall of France and though Joan is integral to the play she is only there in spirit.
I think they did this really well. I have seen the Henry VIs but can't remember much detail, especially of all the different dukes. But here the dukes all stayed put in one place, and the king & co were really clear about pointing and looking at people as they named them, and then after they'd gone off they carried on gesturing to the spot they sat/stood in, so I felt really confident about who was who and whose side they were on.
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Post by david on Sept 29, 2018 22:11:51 GMT
Watched this at today’s matinee. Overall I thought it was a very good production with an excellent performance from Jade Anouka as Queen Margaret and the personal journey she takes during the play. I must admit it took me a while to get into it with all the different characters and their relationships to each other, but after that I was engrossed in the play. Helena Lymbery did bring a bit of necessary comic relief with various outbursts during the play which certainly landed with the audience I was sat with.
For me it’s one of those plays that you really can’t switch off on as there is so much going on and you can easily lose track of where things are upto if your mind starts to wander.
When I initially booked, I went for a cheap Gallery 2 ticket. Bad move. I’m not the tallest of guys, but there is absolutely no leg space once your sat down on those high seats, particularly if like me you bring a backpack. Thankfully, because there wasn’t a full house (possibly because of yet another Northern Fail train strike), I was able to move to the far more friendly stalls seating without any issue during the interval.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2018 23:37:55 GMT
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