943 posts
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Post by vdcni on Sept 5, 2022 22:09:08 GMT
It's odd partly this production seemed to be the work of a director who thought the Tennant/Tate version was too subtle but at the same time I've never seen a production where Benedick and Beatrice seemed almost incidental.
This production lit up everytime Hero, Leonato, Antonia and Dogberry and the watch were on stage but fell flat whenever they weren't.
Heffernan was excellent but Parkinson was almost invisible. She is a fine screen actress but I've never felt her performances on stage match up and here she was not particularly funny and added nothing to the more dramatic moments. Their lack of chemistry compared to the last few big name pairings to take this play on was painful at times.
That said, like Jack Absolute, it made for a fun evening as they wrung every last laugh they could out of it.
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Post by Jan on Sept 7, 2022 6:22:49 GMT
I thought this was OK. 3*. It reminded me of the quite broad productions the RSC used to do, just an entertainment with no added message.
I had never seen Katherine Parkinson before either on stage or TV. I found her unengaging, quite unsympathetic, a bit shouty, and not very funny with surprisingly little rapport with the audience. I have no idea what she was trying to do with the character, if anything. This seems to have been her first Shakespeare play. That was a problem because she was opposite John Heffernan, who I have seen before, who had none of those problems. As a result there was no chemistry between them at all. I'd say she was out of her depth.
I liked Phoebe Horn as Margaret. Didn't much care for Eben Figueiredo as Claudio channelling Stath Lets Flats, no idea what Hero would have seen in him. I thought David Judge as Don John actually toned down the villainy - I've seen productions where the character was literally booed as if it really was a pantomime.
There was a David Farr RSC production that set Twelfth Night also entirely in a hotel. Not sure if there are any of the other comedies they could do in the same way.
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Post by cartoonman on Sept 7, 2022 8:25:02 GMT
I saw this a couple of days ago and thought it was great. I have seen Much ado three times before and this was the best. I even understood and followed the story. The onstage swing band was good, the music at NT productions is always good, the 1930's costumes were great and the art deco set design was clever, the girls chatting in a powder room and the men in the showers, excellent. Being set in the 30's I thought that the watchmen might be Mussolini's thugs but they were not.
All cast were good. I saw the excellent Jack Absolute a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed that. The NT looks to be on top form. I give it 5*.
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Post by floorshow on Sept 7, 2022 17:35:08 GMT
Caught the matinee today.
First off, yep - cameras were no issue at all as everyone above says. They were all back in rows G and H, I imagine they're quite distracting further back but no-one was seated behind them. There's a boom that may even obscure circle views a little.
The production itself is a bit of a mixed pudding, looks lovely and starts very well but as it goes into the second half it becomes very, very broad (the constable for a start, although I may have been in the minority with that).
Not enough villainy, bit too much farce and no motivation for Hero's post-jilting behaviour at all.
Fun ending but a little pat.
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195 posts
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Post by tal on Sept 8, 2022 12:12:42 GMT
I was enjoying this until the interval. Some interesting set choices and effective physical comedy. The second act was very boring, I thought - virtually nothing new added to the set (they used all they had in the first act) and the only thing that truly sparked my interest was Katherine Parkinson's dramatic bits.
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Post by anxiousoctopus on Sept 8, 2022 21:59:37 GMT
What a day for this to be the live broadcast for National Theatre Live!
The broadcast started with a man informing the audience of the Queen’s passing, followed by a minutes silence (much to the surprise of the entire audience!)
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5,150 posts
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Post by Being Alive on Sept 9, 2022 15:54:25 GMT
What a day for this to be the live broadcast for National Theatre Live! The broadcast started with a man informing the audience of the Queen’s passing, followed by a minutes silence (much to the surprise of the entire audience!) The man was Rufus Norris - they were about 8 minutes delayed as they were frantically getting him into a suit and mic-ed up |
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