2,347 posts
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Post by zahidf on Sept 27, 2022 11:47:10 GMT
Keyworker link working now
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4,559 posts
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Post by Mark on Sept 27, 2022 12:05:26 GMT
Very thankful my sister is a secondary school teacher! Row B stalls secured.
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343 posts
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Post by Jonnyboy on Sept 27, 2022 18:06:37 GMT
Well this seems unfair. I can now get two key worker seats due to working in the NHS but I’ve already paid full whack. I wonder if they’d refund me??
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1,191 posts
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Post by Steve on Oct 12, 2022 16:58:39 GMT
This is a dark, pared down production of CP Taylor's play, which attempts to answer the question of how good men allow bad things to happen, by focusing laser-like on the mind of David Tennant's John Halder. The play is exposed as one that asks but does not answer questions, which frustrated me a bit, but I love that the questions are asked. On the plus side, Tennant is unforgettably haunting and convincing as a man who goes along with things, and Elliot Levey and Sharon Small provide him with outstanding support. Some spoilers follow. . . If you look at the cast list, you can guess Dominic Cooke's re-imagining of this play. By and large, he casts Elliot Levey as all the male characters and Sharon Small as all the female characters, and he places the characters into a claustrophic set that resembles a prison cell, the mood of which is altered by lighting. The effect, so different from prior productions with a fuller cast, is to accentuate a study of this one "good" man's mind, and his potential seduction by evil, as effectively he is the only constant for the audience, and the set gives him nowhere to hide. It is a brilliantly effective directorial approach, magnifying everything about Tennant's Halder, by denying us focus elsewhere, thus forcing us to contemplate his motivations, as his life is slowly drawn towards the machinations of the Nazis. It is not an open exploration of his mind-state, as one implication of all the other characters being somewhat interchangeable might be that Halder himself sees people as interchangeable, as if this interchangeability erupts from Tennant's Halder's own narcissistic psyche. It is to Elliot Levey's credit that his principal character, Maurice (Halder's best friend), comes across so distinctly and engagingly, as am intelligent, decent but self-hating everyman, given the other characters he plays. Although I don't feel the play actually answers any questions about why good people do bad things (for that, a study of the hold that propaganda and fear, distraction and tribal nationalism have, over the mind of many Russians living under Putin, might prove more fruitful), I do feel this production is a powerful portrait of a seemingly inevitable descent of one narcissistic dreamer into degeneracy. Unsatisfying philosphically, the direction and acting (and Tennant sings too!) are fascinating, and have me constantly thinking about the production, so this gets 3 and a half stars from me.
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885 posts
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Post by lonlad on Oct 12, 2022 22:57:38 GMT
Simply tremendous: I've seen all three major London productions of this play (alan howard, charles dance, now david tennant) and this one is by some measure the best, not least because Tennant uniquely amongst the three men plays goodness sliding into its opposite: a terrifying trajectory made more so by the hallucinatory approach taken by the production and a singularly brilliant design team in which the set, lighting and especially sound conjoin to overwhelming effect. Howard was great to watch (that voice!) but played the ending from the beginning, and Dance was more or less a nonentity in the role, alas.
Applause tonight seemed almost irrelevant at the end given the play's resonance with so much happening in the world at large just now. One wonders what it would be like to see this and CABARET on the same day. Not sure my nerves could take it, and I noticed Eliot Levey during the show tonight wiping away tears at one point. He wasn't the only one.
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Post by alessia on Oct 13, 2022 9:32:15 GMT
The prices for this are appalling...I wouldn't mind seeing it but not at for that much
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851 posts
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Post by bordeaux on Oct 13, 2022 9:35:22 GMT
Lovely to read these reviews. I must admit I wasn't going to go, having been slightly disappointed by the Michael Grandage/Charles Dance version at the Donmar in 1999 but will think again. Dominic Cooke really is on a roll - becoming the Howard Davies de nos jours in my view, coming up again and again with brilliant fresh productions of classic plays.
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748 posts
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Post by rumbledoll on Oct 13, 2022 9:50:02 GMT
The prices for this are appalling...I wouldn't mind seeing it but not at for that much Also the fact that they don’t even bother about day seats/rush/lottery or at least ANY discounts avail for general public really puts me off… Would live to see that too, but not for 100 quid in a restricted seat view..
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851 posts
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Post by bordeaux on Oct 13, 2022 13:06:22 GMT
It's fascinating: who's got £310 to spend, as a couple, on seeing a relatively little-known play from the early 1980s? And it's not as if David Tennant is a big Hollywood star who will only come over here once or twice in your theatre-going lifetime, an Al Pacino, say, or Dustin Hoffman. I'm not saying only rich people can go - I'll get £35 seats - but I am amazed at how many people are happy or at least willing to pay that price for this production.
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6,306 posts
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Post by Jon on Oct 13, 2022 13:09:31 GMT
People are forgetting it's show business, not show charity.
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367 posts
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Post by MrBunbury on Oct 13, 2022 13:15:53 GMT
I am quite happy that I got my ticket early for £20 and I saw the play on Tuesday :-)
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Post by orchidman on Oct 13, 2022 13:23:59 GMT
It's not a good enough play to pay top prices, especially because doing the play with 3 actors and a tedious amount of doubling (and then compounding that irritation by unveiling 7 more actors in the last scene) means I can't imagine it playing to cheap(er) seats at the back of the theatre.
Typical example of a minor writer trying to write a major play about momentous events and falling short because they are a minor writer. There's no more real depth to this than in Cabaret and at least there you get a proper West End show for your money.
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1,191 posts
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Post by Steve on Oct 13, 2022 20:00:19 GMT
I suppose this was the one show in a hundred that it paid to book in advance. I paid £25 for N7, the restricted view Stalls seat that gives you neckache from leaning forwards to avoid a pole, but allows you a mid stalls view for a reasonable price.
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Post by starlight92 on Oct 17, 2022 11:24:45 GMT
@mods, please can we have a poll set up? Seeing this soon and I spent quite a lot on my ticket, so hopefully it's worth the money!
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4,960 posts
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Post by TallPaul on Oct 18, 2022 14:32:10 GMT
Due to overwhelming public demand, poll now added.
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Post by starlight92 on Oct 18, 2022 16:52:43 GMT
Due to overwhelming public demand, poll now added. Hahaha thank you
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1,016 posts
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Post by andrew on Oct 21, 2022 13:16:15 GMT
What time are people coming out of this?
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642 posts
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Post by theatremiss on Oct 23, 2022 22:47:46 GMT
What time are people coming out of this? I was outside about 2140hrs.
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5,585 posts
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Post by lynette on Oct 29, 2022 13:00:51 GMT
It's not a good enough play to pay top prices, especially because doing the play with 3 actors and a tedious amount of doubling (and then compounding that irritation by unveiling 7 more actors in the last scene) means I can't imagine it playing to cheap(er) seats at the back of the theatre. Typical example of a minor writer trying to write a major play about momentous events and falling short because they are a minor writer. There's no more real depth to this than in Cabaret and at least there you get a proper West End show for your money. Disagree. A different kind of thing to Cabaret which is brilliant of course. This is a straight old fashioned play packed with difficult material, perhaps too much, the euthanasia programme and the Jewish genocide being both so huge. It is well written though to be honest I would have crossed out a few lines, especially at the very end and perhaps omitted the major and wife thing completely. But then that might have made the play too short for the West End . To be honest this should have been at The National. What on earth is the National for? Then the prices would have been more reasonable and more younger people, teenagers ( for whom the language is not too extreme) would see it and debate it. ) The doubling/tripling of the parts was slightly confusing though well done because they could have made the Levey do the major and it might have had more clout but I do not know what it says in the script. Little things like this I noticed but on the whole it packs a punch and should be seen. David Tennant must have found this hard to do. The costuming alone would have made most people vomit so well done to him. Just to add, I hate having to queue outside the theatre to get in and they wanted to put a sticker on phones to prevent the taking of photographs. I refused of course. What an insult to think I would stand up and take a photo of David Tennant. I did see why they do this at the end, see above comment on costuming but even then it was silly. The audience was silent all thu, not a cough, not a rustle from beginning to end.
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Post by NorthernAlien on Oct 29, 2022 23:08:52 GMT
I saw this on Saturday evening (29th). Quite unusually for me, as part of a group of six. We agreed to share the ticket cost equally, meaning I paid £115 for this. This is, by far, the most I have ever paid for a theatre ticket. We were in rows E and F of the stalls (I was in E5). Tremendously good view - but for that price I'd dashed well hope so!
I thought it was very cleverly done, and showed in minute detail how a 'good' man can be led down the path that Tennant's character follows. There was a low murmur of horror (audible but appropriate), when Tennant changed costume towards the end of the second act, whilst continuing his everyday conversation with Sharon Small's Anne.
I thought there were some very interesting and effective small details - such as Elliott Levey's Maurice not speaking in reality after a certain point. The Night of Broken Glass was a moment I also thought was incredibly effectively 'staged', in a manner which made it very chilling. There are lots of little moments and details that you only pick up on later.
And I thought the coup de theatre and the last line were incredible in their effectiveness. I'll be thinking about this one for a bit. This is also the quietest I have observed an audience leaving an auditorium since I saw a production of The Permanent Way in the vaults underneath Waterloo before the pandemic.
"Enjoyed" is very much the wrong word, but as a piece of theatre this was superb, even as it was very challenging and confronting.
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893 posts
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Post by vdcni on Oct 31, 2022 23:35:15 GMT
What a terrible, terrible play. Actors I like seem to have made a habit of choosing duff material this year. This isn't as bad as Cock but really it is an empty play which bungles any real exploration of its subject.
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1,846 posts
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Post by NeilVHughes on Nov 1, 2022 7:46:57 GMT
Difficult more than terrible.
Went in with a false expectation, the story of a good man descending into the baleful. Halder is not a good man, from the moment he wrote his book which caught the eye of the inner circle we can see the foundation of who he really is, a man out for himself.
All the other roles being played by just two actors was sometimes jarring but flawlessly showed his indifference, all these people are just different colours of what he sees as basically the people there to support him, for him there are only two types of people, men & women.
Not helping his ‘friend’ was a moment of true sociopathy and his road to the denouement was cast.
An interesting choice for Tennant, came out thinking how today in Parliament, an insignificant person justified atrocities for their own good. The front page of the Metro this morning should shame us all.
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Post by dip on Nov 7, 2022 10:23:33 GMT
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455 posts
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Post by mistressjojo on Nov 12, 2022 10:41:46 GMT
David Tennant must have found this hard to do. The costuming alone would have made most people vomit so well done to him. Just to add, I hate having to queue outside the theatre to get in and they wanted to put a sticker on phones to prevent the taking of photographs. I refused of course. What an insult to think I would stand up and take a photo of David Tennant. I did see why they do this at the end, see above comment on costuming but even then it was silly. The audience was silent all thu, not a cough, not a rustle from beginning to end. He's played a Nazi before, albeit a spy pretending to be a Nazi ( Spies of Warsaw). And played one in a Big Finish audio. I saw this play twice last week and both nights someone was caught taking photos at the curtain call. Quite openly too, not even being sneaky about it.
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75 posts
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Post by adolphus on Nov 12, 2022 15:07:48 GMT
Rumoured to be screened in cinemas early next year under the NT Live umbrella. Probably a recorded rather than a live broadcast as is increasingly the case. Will undoubtedly sell well
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455 posts
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Post by mistressjojo on Nov 16, 2022 10:24:00 GMT
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Post by talkingheads on Nov 16, 2022 12:48:22 GMT
Very thankful for this, ticket prices were ludicrous for even a remotely decent seat, NT Live is genuinely the best thing to happen to theatre this century.
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Post by margoc on Nov 16, 2022 14:36:51 GMT
Rumoured to be screened in cinemas early next year under the NT Live umbrella. Probably a recorded rather than a live broadcast as is increasingly the case. Will undoubtedly sell well Its being recorded during the matinee on the 23rd nov
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Post by oedipus on Nov 18, 2022 9:34:44 GMT
Well, I could no longer wait for a discount to appear, so I bought an expensive ticket and went. I didn't know much about the play, but I enjoy serious, thoughtful theater, and figured this would be up my alley.
And it was. GOOD is more than just good. There were times I wished I could see the original, un-doubled version (however skillful the actors, there was a bit of whiplash in some moments); but both supporting actors were excellent (indeed, Levey was extraordinary, particularly as the Jewish best friend). And Tennant didn't disappoint.
In general, I found it a powerful evening, the more so because there were certain lines and scenes that (unfortunately) speak to the ugly and burgeoning cult of Trump. (When the ‘good’ professor started making excuses for the Nazis because it was a party in its childhood and you have to expect childishness and tantrums from a child, I winced. That’s absolutely the sort of rhetoric that dismisses the danger of Trump-ism.)
So: worth seeing, even at premium. Quite, er, good.
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155 posts
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Post by bee on Nov 20, 2022 13:38:56 GMT
I saw this last night. To be honest I found it a bit dull. It's well done, I can't fault the acting. I think possibly it was because I knew from early on where it was going to end up. There were no surprises, and the stories of his relationships with his Jewish friend and the women in his life weren't interesting enough to hold my interest either.
In general I think stories involving the Nazis are hard to do without lapsing into cliche and stereotyping. I remember having similar thoughts about Leopoldstadt when I saw that. It's a subject matter that has been covered so many times before in so many mediums that, in my case at least, my brain sort of switches off.
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