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Post by nottobe on Apr 23, 2023 18:08:24 GMT
Went to see this last night as I was drawn by the very interesting production images. I have only seen two other Brecht pieces which are The Threepenny Opera at NT (it was ok but not that great) and Mother Courage at Southwark ( which I sound surprisingly brilliant). I was interested in seeing some more Brecht and found this to be an fun adaption with a uniformly great cast but too long. The problem with this story is it gets a little repetitive and would have worked better 90 mins straight through with some edits, maybe even done shorter than 90 mins. The set deign was very fun and theatrically magic and the karaoke worked well too.
Unfortunately for this show I was still thinking about Dancing at Lughnasa which I saw in the afternoon so take if that what you will. Anyone else seen?
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Post by thistimetomorrow on Apr 24, 2023 9:16:27 GMT
Agree with you about the set/karaoke etc working well, but it being too long and repetitive. The first few karaoke songs I thought were great, but by the 5th one I was like not again? Would definitely have preferred it if this was maybe like 60 minutes straight through
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Post by showgirl on Apr 27, 2023 3:31:49 GMT
I saw this at yesterday's matinee, persuaded by the good reviews. The performance had looked very busy, certainly in the stalls, but it turned out that only half of those had been on sale (judging by the fact that rows A - M were full or almost, but practically no-one behind); plus of course, lots of school groups but no bad behaviour that I noticed.
It was OK but nothing like as good as I'd expected or hoped and my own feelings were more in line with the recent comments above than the enthusiastic critics' reviews. The production was too long and repetitive and seemed lacklustre and lacking in focus and a sense of direction, though maybe a weekday matinee isn't the best time to have seen it. Unlike some others, I actually liked the songs and thought they were the best part but much of the play itself was too broad and panto-like.
Having been taken on a school trip to see Mother Courage as a fairly young child (dire and SO unsuitable!), it's a wonder I wasn't deterred from theatregoing for life, but it definitely put me off Brecht and only the lure of a fresh interpretation such as this would persuade me to give his work another chance. Not worth it on this occasion but at least I saw it for myself rather than thinking I'd missed something outstanding.
Quite a few people in my row didn't return after the interval and indeed, the man next to me said, as the lights went up "Well, that was awful!". I did consider leaving but had nowhere else to go until later and it wasn't that bad, just mediocre.
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Post by alessia on May 13, 2023 17:03:21 GMT
Just back from this. Never seen a Brecht play before and I’m not sure it’s my thing, it was entertaining but I did not like the way it was staged (what’s with the slides?) and I agree with above comments that it would have benefited from being a bit shorter (so much repetition of the same concept, yes I get it, it’s all about money) and fewer songs. On the other hand, my friend loved it- but he knows Brecht work and knew what to expect. He felt it was a very good production.
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