6,284 posts
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Post by Jon on Jul 29, 2020 19:41:29 GMT
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2,345 posts
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Post by zahidf on Jul 31, 2020 5:33:04 GMT
Ralph fienes!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2020 6:51:00 GMT
OMG OMG OMG BRIDGE THEATRE OPENING!
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4,950 posts
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Post by TallPaul on Jul 31, 2020 8:03:08 GMT
Come on, Jon, admit it. You are really Baz Bamigboye. I claim my £5. 🙂 |
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Post by talkingheads on Jul 31, 2020 9:13:16 GMT
Now this is the kind of news I'd like more of! I have no idea how much tickets will be but I'll be going!
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5,582 posts
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Post by lynette on Jul 31, 2020 14:38:05 GMT
O great I thought Hare was doing it himself. Phew. Strangely the Bridge lends itself to monologues. The Maggie Smith was amazing, just her, a good imaginative set and you could have heard a pin drop. I like monologues. Tempting. Now, how to get there....
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Post by frappuccino on Aug 26, 2020 12:26:30 GMT
It sounds dull but I guess with Ralph Fiennes it will be a commercial success.
(E.g. Alan Rickman Helen Mirren Antony and Cleopatra)
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277 posts
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Post by fossil on Aug 26, 2020 13:09:08 GMT
Good and bad news from TodayTix for those wanting a cheap ticket. Pairs of tickets only.....
"Unlock £15 mobile Rush tix now for Beat The Devil
The Bridge Theatre reopens its doors to audiences with their new repertoire of one-person plays. Kicking off with their first production Beat the Devil, this new play by David Hare stars award-winning actor Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter, Antony & Cleopatra), with performances beginning on 27 August.
Unlock mobile Rush tix for £15 each* for Beat the Devil, available to purchase from 10am on each performance date. Only on TodayTix.
*To allow for all seats to be used while maintaining social distancing, tickets must be purchased in pairs. "
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Post by vickyg on Aug 27, 2020 8:28:09 GMT
It's sad that todaytix only are selling pairs. Apart from anything it's encouraging people to flout the rules as there is no way everyone with a pair of tickets is going with someone in their 'bubble'. Personally, I wouldn't sit in the park 6ft from a friend and then going into the theatre and share an armrest with them but we are really being incentivised not to care!
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1,865 posts
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Post by Marwood on Aug 27, 2020 16:58:16 GMT
Got a £15 stalls ticket for the early show in 9 days time: surprised to get it to be honest, I had been looking yesterday and all that seemed to be left on the days I could make it were a few clumps of seats in the upper levels, but as I am going by myself it wouldn’t let me book any of them as it would have left spare seats. I’m not expecting the world, Fiennes can be great but he can also seem a bit luvvy at times but at the end of the day, I will finally get to see a show in a theatre after what seems like an eternity but it has to be better than the last thing I saw in a theatre (Shoe Lady), right?
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Post by Jan on Aug 28, 2020 7:16:18 GMT
It sounds dull but I guess with Ralph Fiennes it will be a commercial success. (E.g. Alan Rickman Helen Mirren Antony and Cleopatra) Personally I couldn't care less how Sir David Hare managed to cope with Covid. It's incredible how he can get anything he writes fast-tracked onto our major stages, usually the NT - it's the exact opposite of promoting diversity. |
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Post by Forrest on Aug 28, 2020 13:13:04 GMT
It sounds dull but I guess with Ralph Fiennes it will be a commercial success. (E.g. Alan Rickman Helen Mirren Antony and Cleopatra) Personally I couldn't care less how Sir David Hare managed to cope with Covid. It's incredible how he can get anything he writes fast-tracked onto our major stages, usually the NT - it's the exact opposite of promoting diversity. I could not agree more with this: after all the recent talks on the need to reconsider the sub-optimal practices in theatre, including what gets programmed, it is a bit disappointing to see that it's Hare (and Fiennes) who get(s) the first real stage. But, I have to acknowledge that they are trying, and overall I think they've put an interesting programme in place, if not ideally balanced. |
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4,588 posts
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Post by Someone in a tree on Aug 28, 2020 13:16:55 GMT
I suspect it won't be long before we have the Hare Theatre
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4,950 posts
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Post by TallPaul on Aug 28, 2020 14:30:13 GMT
I suspect it won't be long before we have the Hare Theatre That's what they should have called Troubadour White City. Well it was hare today, gone tomorrow! 🤣 I'll get me coat... |
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Post by Jan on Aug 28, 2020 14:51:43 GMT
I suspect it won't be long before we have the Hare Theatre That's what they should have called Troubadour White City. Well it was hare today, gone tomorrow! 🤣 "Hare today gone tomorrow" doesn't really sum up the career of Sir David Hare, better would be "Hare today, yesterday, and tomorrow". I remember when Trevor Nunn took over at the NT Hare threw an enormous strop and denounced him as entirely unsuitable for the job with one of his arguments being "I don't even know him". Nunn then ushered in a golden period by becoming the only South Bank supremo not to stage a Hare play, a proud record he still holds. |
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Post by tal on Sept 3, 2020 14:47:46 GMT
In case anybody is interested, they seem to be doing 10-pound standing tickets for this. I got one yesterday and had a very good view of the play. They seem to release them on the day, but it is a bit tricky to find them as the performance appears to be sold out at first glance. I had to click on another performance which was not sold out and then change the dates to access the tickets.
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Xanderl
Member
Not always very high value in terms of ticket yield or donations
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Post by Xanderl on Sept 5, 2020 9:12:16 GMT
Saw this yesterday. Not a Hare fan but it was just great to be seeing a live performance for the first time since March! And I thought the play was pretty good, and Fiennes was excellent. Please to report he went Full Rigsby within 30 seconds of the show starting. Had a £10 seat in the front row which was an amazing bargain and just about socially distant enough from Ralph.
Very impressed with how the Bridge have set things up for this. You're given an entry timeslot (mine was between 4:25 and 4:40 for the 5PM show), you queue to enter the building, get tickets checked then have to look up to a temperature scanner mounted on the ceiling, then you're into the foyer where the bars, toilets etc are open as usual. At 4:40 we were then asked to go down and take our seats while they started letting in the next bunch of people. You don't HAVE to take your seat at this point though, and if you are later than your timeslot you can still get in, this is just about managing flow of people and numbers.
In the auditorium the FOH staff were very alert to people not wearing masks before the show - one of the ushers was just in front of me and was on her radio telling someone to go and remind someone in the gallery who had slipped their mask off. Unfortunately the guy next to me (well, 2 metres away) took his mask off to have a drink and then kept it off for about half the show. I guess not a lot they can do about that.
After the show you are directed out a different way, from the stalls we ended up going out of a side entrance and out through a fire exit to the side of the building. So no access to the loos afterwards although maybe you can ask if you need them. But I guess this is to give them time to clean everything before the next performance.
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1,321 posts
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Post by Dave B on Sept 5, 2020 17:38:11 GMT
First theatre since an Endgame matinee on March 14th. Really enjoyed it, was great to be back in a theatre. There was a little moment as the lights dimmed and the play began.
Felt very safe and comfortable in the Bridge Theatre. I have to give them huge credit for their work around all this. Seats are very spaced out and FoH are good at helping people and ensuring mask usage (tho no photos seemed their main shout).
We walked out and booked a bunch more of the monologue series with a plan to keep an eye on Rush tickets and see if we can pick any of them up.
As to the play itself, it's funnier than expected. It doesn't feel short at all. Fiennes is very good but it's also quite ... light maybe? There's not much to tap into, it's despair over Hare's own covid experience and then despair/rage/bewilderment at the government response. Not the widest range needed but still, live theatre in a venue that I now like a lot and we had £10 (non rush) tickets. A solid 3 stars from us.
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1,865 posts
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Post by Marwood on Sept 5, 2020 18:51:53 GMT
Saw this earlier today and also enjoyed it (more than I thought I would, to be honest): some of the laughter from the audience seemed a bit misplaced (I don’t know in what universe saying you looked like a Bosnian concentration camp attendee signifies that loud laughter should ensue) and to tell the truth, looking round I got the impression the bulk of the audience voted for this government but Fiennes was really good (although having read the Rigsby comment before going in, I was anticipating a ‘Miss Jones!’ moment to drop at any second) so good in fact, I stood up to give him a standing ovation when he came out for the second applause at the end (I think it was probably only me doing that but looking round before it started, there only seemed to be half a dozen people under the age of 60 so maybe they weren’t up for such decadent behaviour)
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5,582 posts
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Post by lynette on Sept 6, 2020 12:33:44 GMT
Saw this earlier today and also enjoyed it (more than I thought I would, to be honest): some of the laughter from the audience seemed a bit misplaced (I don’t know in what universe saying you looked like a Bosnian concentration camp attendee signifies that loud laughter should ensue) and to tell the truth, looking round I got the impression the bulk of the audience voted for this government but Fiennes was really good (although having read the Rigsby comment before going in, I was anticipating a ‘Miss Jones!’ moment to drop at any second) so good in fact, I stood up to give him a standing ovation when he came out for the second applause at the end (I think it was probably only me doing that but looking round before it started, there only seemed to be half a dozen people under the age of 60 so maybe they weren’t up for such decadent behaviour) What is your problem with over 60s? And why do make these assumptions about the voting intentions of the audience, these over 60s? If you were there, then what is the problem? You were allowed to go, there is no age restriction. I understand that Hare is very critical of this government in this piece so you can’t have it both ways: criticise the government but don’t let their supporters come to hear it. I look forward to a more mature and frankly theatrically minded appraisal of future productions. |
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Post by kathryn on Sept 7, 2020 14:39:01 GMT
Honestly, when I saw this saturday afternoon I did not feel like the audience were Conservative voters at all, given how they reacted to the piece's criticisms of the government, no matter their age.
Though I would not agree that there were only a half dozen under age of 60, either. Most looked to be middle-aged to me.
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Post by Jan on Sept 8, 2020 16:29:32 GMT
Hare has been around for decades, people know what they're likely to get with his political plays (he's a lapsed Blairite), so I'd find it very surprising if there weren't a preponderance of Guardian readers in his audience - the description of them would fit that equally well. As such I'd imagine it is a bit of an echo chamber event, telling people things they already agree with.
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Post by bordeaux on Sept 9, 2020 5:52:31 GMT
Hare has been around for decades, people know what they're likely to get with his political plays (he's a lapsed Blairite), so I'd find it very surprising if there weren't a preponderance of Guardian readers in his audience - the description of them would fit that equally well. As such I'd imagine it is a bit of an echo chamber event, telling people things they already agree with. Was he ever a Blairite? I seem to remember him being critical of New Labour's lack of radicalism from the start. But I've never heard him say anything about Corbyn, whom I can't imagine him supporting either, even if he agrees with more of the latter's positions. |
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Post by Jan on Sept 9, 2020 6:25:09 GMT
Hare has been around for decades, people know what they're likely to get with his political plays (he's a lapsed Blairite), so I'd find it very surprising if there weren't a preponderance of Guardian readers in his audience - the description of them would fit that equally well. As such I'd imagine it is a bit of an echo chamber event, telling people things they already agree with. Was he ever a Blairite? I seem to remember him being critical of New Labour's lack of radicalism from the start. But I've never heard him say anything about Corbyn, whom I can't imagine him supporting either, even if he agrees with more of the latter's positions. For a while he was a big fan of Blair personally - he even accepted a knighthood from him, which he explained was an artistic honour for the whole of theatre, not for him personally, so that's alright. But later he became disillusioned with him. He should write a play about himself - there'd be plenty of laughs in it. |
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Post by frappuccino on Sept 9, 2020 11:20:44 GMT
Phoney Tony is what Hugh Grant called Tony Blair.
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Post by Jan on Sept 9, 2020 12:42:00 GMT
Phoney Tony is what Hugh Grant called Tony Blair. However one forgets just how popular Blair was in the period pre-Iraq, he got huge majorities and had wide support from across the spectrum - The Sun supported Labour and Blair in all three of the elections he won. |
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Post by TallPaul on Sept 9, 2020 13:30:21 GMT
And even after the invasion of Iraq, Labour still won, under Tony Blair's leadership, the 2005 General Election with a healthy 66 seat majority.
Any Labour leader after him would probably have been happy with a 16 seat majority!
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5,582 posts
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Post by lynette on Sept 9, 2020 23:35:29 GMT
Was he ever a Blairite? I seem to remember him being critical of New Labour's lack of radicalism from the start. But I've never heard him say anything about Corbyn, whom I can't imagine him supporting either, even if he agrees with more of the latter's positions. For a while he was a big fan of Blair personally - he even accepted a knighthood from him, which he explained was an artistic honour for the whole of theatre, not for him personally, so that's alright. But later he became disillusioned with him. He should write a play about himself - there'd be plenty of laughs in it. He could explain why he stopped writing plays and started writing newspaper articles to be recited on stage by various actors in a ‘serious’ way. |
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Post by Jan on Sept 10, 2020 7:35:07 GMT
For a while he was a big fan of Blair personally - he even accepted a knighthood from him, which he explained was an artistic honour for the whole of theatre, not for him personally, so that's alright. But later he became disillusioned with him. He should write a play about himself - there'd be plenty of laughs in it. He could explain why he stopped writing plays and started writing newspaper articles to be recited on stage by various actors in a ‘serious’ way. Because he could. |
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Post by kathryn on Sept 10, 2020 20:48:18 GMT
I do wonder if this is a piece that gets revisited in time and folded/revised into a longer work. It’s a snapshot of a moment in time - we already know more about certain goings on among government figures than Hare did when he stopped writing it.
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