Death of England Rafe Spall at NT

There's only 4 or so days that aren't sold out already unfortunately so it seems the Friday rush will be your (and my) only option. From the clips on Twitter it looks really good so I'd love to see this on a Saturday evening but I'm not hopeful of my chances especially since I'm trying to rush for Albion for the last couple Saturdays of February so I'll only have one chance for this depending on which date I book for that.

I saw it in previews and thought Rafe Spall was wonderful: the amount of emotion and energy he put into it was incredible. There was not a moment in the hour and forty minutes when he was standing still, and he went through so many emotional highs and lows on that night, that I felt exhausted simply from watching him. It also struck me what a beautifully daunting position he was in: since the audience is all around him, and there are all these subtle interactions, he immediately sees how they respond and is forced to adapt quickly each night. In a one man show, there is literally nothing to hide behind. But he also did struck me as such a clever and sharp actor, that I would actually love to see the performance again just to witness him do that.
(It reminded me of Tom Mothersdale's Richard III during one of the performances in Manchester, when I saw what I still believe to be the best example of communicating with an audience ever, when he went to unbelievable lengths playing with his character to respond to the fact that most of the audience were children. It was pure stage magic.)  

The text itself, I thought, is a little... too long. And it struck me as maybe trying to catalogue too many issues: it felt like it wishes to be all-encompassing, but occasionally it felt slightly repetitive. kathryn is right that some people might find it a bit on the nose. I didn't, possibly because I am not English, so I felt more like an observer (actually, being Croatian I found humour in a few moments many others probably didn't), although the story they tell isn't really foreign to me either, it's just that some specific circumstances are different. It did seem really clever how they used a personal story clashed with a story of a nation to explore how lost and potentially misguided its character is at both levels, personal and political, and how these condition each other, even if we are often not fully aware of it. It is a smart piece of writing.
 
Do catch it if you can, though. Spall truly dazzles in it. 

I thought this was pretty remarkable - Rafe Spall's performance is truly exceptional, driven from the first word. Very effective audience interaction (not participation) which must be difficult to blend with the very dense script.

As a play, it drifts off to the end for me, there's a plot inflexion which didn't really work for me, but the sheer energy, anger and language for the majority of the play was masterly.

Saw it last night. 5 star performance. 3 star play.

Off yesterday.

Off today.

NT refusing to give info as to who will play it this morning.

Also saying no to both exchanges (I’ve never heard of this before) or refunds.

Cary Crankson stepping in and added to the website.

Oh I thought he meant the performances themselves had been cancelled.

O dear. Is this a flu thing, a broken bone, or what? Supposed to be seeing on 7th March and I did book it for him. I won’t bother if someone else. Sorry.

Imagine the no to exchanges was due to the run being sold out so they don't have anything to exchange people to. And if you start giving refunds for one person, you have to do it for everyone. And it likely would be everyone. 

Rafe was back on this evening and judging from how scratchy and hoarse he was, it's clear whatever he got ill with affected his voice and he could do one show but not two. For being still under the weather, he didn't dial down his performance one iota. An absolute frenetic masterclass in a play which is not a masterpiece. A confused midsection lets it down. 

I saw this performance in previews and very much agree with much of what is being said.

The performance was amazing. The commitment, energy and sheer power of the performance is worth seeing alone.

I feel less enthused about the script than even some of the more critical comments. I thought the 'twist' poor and unnecessary and I felt it wasn't saying anything new that we don't hear parroted on Politics Live or Question Time.

I want a play that's exploring a political or social issue to take me somewhere new - and it just didn't.

Nevertheless, still worth seeing for the memorableness of the performance alone!

Maybe we'll have 'ordinary' tickets, premium tickets and 'star' premium tickets that come with a money back guarantee?

Yes, very hippy-Hobbit-wizardy with rainbow cloaks and everything, which was rather cheering given the slate-grey deluge London was enjoying that day.