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Post by zahidf on Oct 18, 2018 22:13:55 GMT
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Post by Rory on Oct 18, 2018 22:27:06 GMT
This is brilliant news. Very pleased. I thought it might not be possible because of the Downton Abbey movie.
And hats off to the programmers at the Ambassadors - they are working hard to bring stuff in quickly to minimise any dark periods.
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Post by mistressjojo on Oct 20, 2018 6:15:32 GMT
I saw this play about 2 years ago in Sydney - incredibly on a freebie to fill seats on a wet Wednesday night!.
Knew nothing of the subject going in but enjoyed it immensely. It's a slow burner but draws you in.
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Post by NeilVHughes on Oct 20, 2018 6:46:34 GMT
An interesting choice for a transfer, enjoyed it in the intimate Ustinov, not sure how it will work in the larger and more expensive Ambassadors.
The performances were top notch, Phyllis Logan transforms herself to the cantankerous, chainsmoking, opinionated Highsmith of whom I knew nothing before seeing the play, and on reading up afterwards the integration of her most famous character was skillfully done.
What’s with this Downtown rubbish, she will always be Lady Jane Felsham.
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Post by Snciole on Oct 24, 2018 11:43:40 GMT
I was put off by the pricing for this and Theatre Monkey's recommendation that the £19.50 seats were the worst in the building. I get people need to get paid but the premium tickets are £75. It sounds a good play but I just find the pricing disgusting in the WE now, I think there should be at least £10-15 options if the views aren't very good.
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Post by zahidf on Oct 24, 2018 13:06:55 GMT
I'd be amazed if this wasn't on offer or Today tix after it opens
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Post by Snciole on Oct 24, 2018 14:29:43 GMT
It doesn't appear to be selling out so I will wait for discounted/heavily *nudge nudge wink wink* tickets
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Post by finalperformance on Oct 24, 2018 17:38:30 GMT
Decided to see this play in December during my theatre junkie visit. Eugenius was a decent show at the Other Palace and glad it didn't transfer because once was enough.
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Post by peelee on Oct 25, 2018 18:14:00 GMT
Switzerland has been slotted in at the Ambassadors because early closure for Foxfinder has created space for something like this from November for what'll be a couple of months at least. Small cast and straightforward set design, in what I believe is quite an intimate theatre with overhanging circle, should recreate what helped it to work at the fair-size Ustinov Studio, Bath. It deserves a tour, I think I mentioned on another thread a while ago, but if that does not happen then at least a London opening will get it the kind of bigger aggregate audience it deserves.
It got a great response from the audience when we saw it. But the novelist-subject of this play was no delicate flower, was 'difficult' with some people, and this play presents that more irascible side of her. It'll upset some, because she was prejudiced, plain-spoken and could use words with effect. Misanthropic, said some, but an influential writer and much admired. Long years ago, she wrote one of those books on how to write and she being such a good thriller writer there were plenty interested to know more of her technique and her writerly experience.
Re a comment upthread, she wrote several novels that featured the not-quite-right protagonist Tom Ripley. That character has featured in at least two films: the well-structured unfolding of the story in The Talented Mr Ripley released twenty years ago—blimey! how time passes—and the very different and distinct Purple Noon from the early 1960s when you see why young Alain Delon had such screen presence and was 'box-office' to the kind of cinema-goers uncertain whether the next French film along would be worth going to see. It was her novel that was adapted for Hitchcock's wonderful Strangers on a Train, about oddball Bruno who proposes he and another traveller in a railway carriage each commit a murder as a favour to the other. The more recent film, Carol, arose from her original work.
IIRC this play lasts ninety minutes, without an interval, so, not to annoy fellow playgoers, you might have to walk out before you even walk in.
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Post by david on Oct 26, 2018 17:55:59 GMT
And the discounts are in: £52.50 tickets reduced to £29.50* & £19.50 tickets reduced to £15.00* for performances from Saturday 10th November to Saturday 15th December. Call the box office or book online quoting OLTSWITZERLAND. *£2.50 per booking, handling fee applies. Just booked a row D centre stalls seat for the 29th November matinee with that discount code. Thanks for the info. A nice 90min play before watching the NT’s I’m not running in the evening. |
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Post by Snciole on Oct 27, 2018 19:35:36 GMT
And the discounts are in: £52.50 tickets reduced to £29.50* & £19.50 tickets reduced to £15.00* for performances from Saturday 10th November to Saturday 15th December. Call the box office or book online quoting OLTSWITZERLAND. *£2.50 per booking, handling fee applies. TheatreMonkey, you are an actual God. Thank you |
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Post by sfsusan on Nov 13, 2018 22:26:36 GMT
and on reading up afterwards the integration of her most famous character was skillfully done. I saw the play tonight (Nov. 13) and this captures one of the things I like about a play like this.... you leave the theater and want to learn more about the ideas and people it's based on. I think to some extent the playwright does for Hightower what Hightower did for Ripley... makes a fundamentally unpleasant and flawed character into one we can identify with and to some degree sympathize with. |
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Post by barelyathletic on Nov 14, 2018 11:13:28 GMT
And the discounts are in: £52.50 tickets reduced to £29.50* & £19.50 tickets reduced to £15.00* for performances from Saturday 10th November to Saturday 15th December. Call the box office or book online quoting OLTSWITZERLAND. *£2.50 per booking, handling fee applies. Just booked a row D centre stalls seat for the 29th November matinee with that discount code. Thanks for the info. A nice 90min play before watching the NT’s I’m not running in the evening. Thank you so much Theatremonkey. Just got two fourth row stalls for Friday 30th with this offer. I loved the Anthony Minghella film of The Talented Mr Ripley (was it really twenty years ago!!!), though I wasn't at all keen on the poor touring production of Strangers on a Train earlier this year but, there is a fascinating novel, The Crime Writer, that has Patricia Highsmith as the central character and this sounds like similar territory. She was certainly, shall we say, an 'original'. Should be very interesting. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2018 13:02:28 GMT
Well I snagged a reduced ticket for this next weekend as it sounds like it has high potential.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Nov 14, 2018 13:40:43 GMT
anthony40 has two £5 tix for the preview tonight (14th). Have a look in the Noticeboard section if interested.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2018 11:50:24 GMT
Well. I rather enjoyed this. Not only for the fact that it's amusing to hear lovely Mrs Hughes from 'Downton Abbey' swearing like a navvy but also it's dark heart and black comedy. I gasped, yes gasped at . .
{Logans Run}
. . the twist when Edward Rideway's real identity was revealed. I did not see that coming . .
Phyllis Logan was terrific (wasn't Highsmith monstrous?) and no scenery was left unchewed but I thought the best performance was from Calum Finlay. Disarmingly funny and a fabulous character arc as well as having the style to carry off a cravat. Plus, it's also nice that if he's ever unwell, Calum can call on Dom from TV's Dick & Dom to step in at short notice. No-one would know the difference.
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Post by dani on Nov 20, 2018 10:14:30 GMT
When was the last time Phyllis Logan was in a play? I can't think of anything she has done since she was in Kenneth Branagh's Richard III.
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Post by alicechallice on Nov 20, 2018 10:26:27 GMT
When was the last time Phyllis Logan was in a play? I can't think of anything she has done since she was in Kenneth Branagh's Richard III. She was in Present Laughter (also TR Bath) with Samuel West which had a little tour but no London run. |
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Post by dani on Nov 20, 2018 10:27:59 GMT
Thanks. That wasn't that long ago, I think, which goes against my impression she'd not done theatre in ages.
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Post by partytentdown on Nov 27, 2018 14:50:32 GMT
I just realised that the Ambassador Theatre is not part of the Ambassador Theatre Group.
Huh!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2018 16:45:11 GMT
I just realised that the Ambassador Theatre is not part of the Ambassador Theatre Group. Huh! Thats so weird, I was having the same chat with a friend literally five minutes ago! I never realised either. |
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Post by showgirl on Nov 27, 2018 17:20:29 GMT
They used to be, though, I believe; @theatremonkey knows more than I about this.
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Post by partytentdown on Nov 27, 2018 21:37:27 GMT
Well, sorry to say I was bored to tears throughout this.
Maybe just not my thing but having been riveted for 7+ hours by The Inheritance at the weekend, I was bored after 10 minutes here and would have done an interval dash had there been one.
Possibly the ugliest and cheapest-looking set ever to grace the West End. Can anyone explain it to me?
Oh well, an hour and a half I won't get back.
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Post by Dr Tom on Nov 27, 2018 22:08:04 GMT
Really enjoyed this tonight. A gripping play, with just enough twists to keep it interesting (and not the really obvious predictable ones).
I’m not usually a fan of two-handers, but both actors barely left the stage and kept everything ticking over throughout. Everything is performed on one set, three long scenes, with an obvious place for an interval after the first scene.
I’m pleased this was performed without a break, running about 1 hour 35 minutes. The only reason I’d have liked a break is that Dress Circle Row B was rather cramped. Perfect view though and everything was audible.
The last 10 minutes or so are rather odd, but it does get the whole play make sense. There’s also some great music included.
Not sure how the audience found it. There was a fair amount of laughing at moments I can’t imagine were intended as comedy, but maybe that just says something about the British public.
It looked like Calum Finlay had a few words on the palm of his right hand, don’t know if there were some notes.
For those who aren’t into guns, there is a gun waved at the audience, but I can confirm there are no gun shots or loud bangs in the production.
During the bows, the theatre put the stage lights down and brought the house lights up. Someone was obviously desperate to get home.
If you do want to see this (and like a show that’s all over by 9:20pm, I’d recommend booking sooner rather than later. This was a long way from being full. Somehow this theatre just can’t catch a hit.
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Post by lonlad on Nov 28, 2018 5:07:14 GMT
Is this piece of junk still running? Hard to believe Laura Linney was in it Stateside -- but she was. (Not in NY, mind you!)
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