The Seagull - Playhouse / Harold Pinter

Just as well given the complaints here about how hot the auditorium was even before this heatwave ! 

There are lines about mobile phones and movies? It's THAT updated?!

Yep, I'd second all of that.

Tina Harris played Arkadina and didn't put a foot wrong all night, she was great.

The modern updates weren't bothersome (all the mobile phone stuff wouldn't be missed in any way at all if removed), the most noticeable update is the first anecdote about the low C which definitely puts it in a certain timeframe.

I thought they gave up with the choreography a bit in the second half, it felt quite static compared to the first and that was hardly ripping along like Cyrano.

Pitch of the dialogue was perfect for the production despite the noisy fans and air-con. In stalls B everything was perfectly audible without the mics.

It was Indira - and the full principal cast. 

I thought this was truly dreadful. Not seen any Chekhov before and am not familiar with any of his plays, so going in I wasn’t bothered about how faithful to the original text this was or wasn’t going to be. I’d seen pictures of the staging beforehand too and, whilst it didn’t look like my cup of tea, figured there’s no point going in without an open mind.

But my god did I struggle. The minimalist staging felt pretentious and like something a bunch of GCSE drama students would have come up with - absolutely no sense of time or place. And whilst I get that the point of the mics was to allow the actors to deliver their lines in a soft, intimate manner, the constant whispering just made me feel like I was stuck in some weird whispering ASMR video. If anything I found the languid delivery of the lines totally took me out of it, and frankly the glazed over looks on the actors’ faces matched mine all throughout.

Pacing wise this felt very uneven - the first ‘half’ dragged and the second ‘half’ felt far too short. And what was perhaps most surprising of all for me was how unimpressive the cast were. Again, it might just have been because I wasn’t sold on the staging or delivery of lines (in which case it’s a directorial issue), but I thought the acting was really sub par. Indira Varma was the one stand out and the chap playing Trigorin was decent. But on the other hand the lady playing Masha looked totally out of her depth and even Emilia Clarke came across as rather one-note, save for her big scene at the end. That said, I’ve found her quite one note in most of her post-Game of Thrones roles - though I feel terrible saying that because she seems like the most lovely person in real life! (Incidentally, at the curtain call a chap at the front was reaching up onto the stage to try and shake her hand, and even when she swiftly departed without obliging he carried on calling after her, practically crawling on the stage, shouting how much he loved her. The second hand embarrassment for him was one thing but how awful if that’s what she has to put up with on a regular basis.)

Anyway, just wasn’t for me. Definitely seems like a marmite production and I’m glad that some people have loved it. But frankly I’m struggling to think of a night at the theatre I’ve enjoyed less.

With Prima Facie, I think I'd sort of understand the hand shaking if the person doing it was the one she chucks the crisps at. When I went I was front row and the poor girl next to me got pelted! I don't think a good-natured handshake at the end would have felt as weird in that context, even if poor Jodie would presumably still have been wiping her tears away at the same time! 

Obviously The Seagull has a slightly less intense ending, and Emilia was of course her usual, lovely, smiley self during the bows. But I don't know, it felt like crossing a bit of a boundary - and that was before he started clambering over the front of the stage! I get that big name actors will always have their superfans, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I think that sort of thing would be slightly more appropriate at the stage door.

What security measures do you suggest ? 

It wouldn't take much to have security guards at each end of the stage for the curtain call. If they're at the end of the aisles they wouldn't be blocking any audience members. Or else have them in the wings able to rush on quickly. That isn't difficult.

That's what they have.

An electric fence at the edge of the stage. Nothing obtrusive, just construct the front of the stage out of conductive material and electrocute people who touch it. Trying to climb up to get a hug from the dragon queen? Zap! Sitting on the stage at the interval (we've all seen it done at some point)? Zap! Putting your interval drink on the stage? Zap! Staging actors to be clambering up and down from the stage because you forgot to construct wings in your set? Zap zap zap!

I was at the matinee yesterday on one of their special key workers discount days, which it turns out had a bunch of cameras for NTLive (or NTnot-so-live in this case) blocking many many peoples views, although they did their best to move the affected rows down. I was in stalls E so had a nice cosy view which felt very necessary for this. I would not recommend anything remotely far away, this is really a small black box play unfortunately presented in a large West End house. From my position though, it was great. The whispering actors aesthetic really appeals to me for some reason, it reminded me of Brendan Cowell in Verma, there can be a lot of power in dialogue spoken intimately. The combination of that and being close enough to see the fairly understated performances on offer from (most) of the cast and presumably the fact I've never seen The Seagull made for an intoxicating experience. It's about acting and writing and performance and is being played out in the most stripped down, least performative way. I found myself incredibly drawn in to some of the scenes, especially between Varma and Monks, and between Rhys Harries and Clarke. I am becoming a bit of a Jamie Lloyd apologist, and yes this could easily have been an Edinburgh fringe show above a pub instead of a West End premium priced event, but I enjoyed it a lot more than most people here seemed to! It probably helped that it was about 25 degrees and not 40 on this particular Wednesday afternoon.

I was at the matinee yesterday on one of their special key workers discount days.


ThinknI messed up the quoting thing...

I am a NHS worker and have previously got discount tickets for JL's productions. How does it work for The seagull?