The Tell-Tale Heart (Dorfman, NT)

Oof. This is sounding more and more interesting. Slightly nervous that some of the comments make it sound like Very Very Dark Matter, but might give it a go anyway.

For those who have been, how high is the stage? Is the view from the from row likely to be okay?

Sat in front row (a 4)
Stage not to high. Miss a bit when a prop is at the front. But not bad considering sold as restricted view.

Well that was all a bit trippy. I like trippy.

Think they must have ironed out a lot of the issues as it felt pretty much complete, a few rough edges but nothing spectacularly bad.

The first half is where a bit of tidying up is needed and I did initially think about the PC nature of facial disfigurement but once you hit the absurdity and the story line of the second half its acceptable.

The second half is a good balance of story, absurdity, gore (if you survived lieutenant of inishmore you'll survive this easily) and a sense of menace. Think there are some comparisons to a very dark matter but this does it much better and found this more enjoyable.

Think this will divide opinions but surely the 3rd stage at the national is a good place to have it.

Enjoyed this, glad I didn't book for a preview though!

The National has started giving helpfully detailed announcements - before the show "Today's show will finish at 4:50. There will be one 15 minute interval at 3:40", then at the start of the interval announcing again how long the interval would last.

Sat in the front row and there was not a restricted view - a few points where if you are sitting on the left hand side (high numbered seats) you don't have a great view of stuff happening in the bathroom on the right of the set, but I'm not sure how much of that was supposed to be visible anyway. And actually if you're squeamish you may be better of on the left hand side.

Went for a Fiorentina in Pizza Express afterwards

I saw the matinee today and absolutely loved it. I had no idea what to expect from the story, but came out very satisfied. It keeps you guessing right up the the end and while some of the ‘horror’ elements are (I hope deliberately) a little tongue-in-cheek, it has some great stage effects and a couple of genuinely edge-of-your-seat moments.

I enjoyed this! its was a little bitty and felt like a collection of weird scenes, but I thought the ending was great, the set was good and the dialogue/acting well done.

Alas, for whatever reason, they're not fans of my plays - but at least they carry one of them in the bookshop.

Like. Your. Style.

I never got why "if you don't like the play then you should write a better one!" is something that people honestly think is a sensible thing to say. We're the audience, the plays have been written in an attempt to entertain us, that makes it completely valid for us to therefore have opinions on the plays that we see. Also, why is the person who says it never a playwright themselves? Where are *your* plays being staged, pars? We can have a board outing, maybe you can sign a few posters for us.

I left at the interval - I didn’t find the first half particularly tense, horrific or even interesting, just boring and I thought the bug eye was silly rather than disturbing. A waste of an evening to be honest, I now remember why I don’t bother much with the NT these days.

It was funny, the cast was great. Based on the mixed reviews I didn't know what to expect but I really enjoyed it