218 posts
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Post by galinda on Apr 3, 2016 11:24:07 GMT
Saw this yesterday matinee and it started a few minutes late and finished just before half 5. The time flew by, great play and the cast are outstanding. Third time I've seen the caretaker - saw the version with david Bradley and also Jonathan Pryce. Can anyone remember who else was in the Jonathan Pryce version?
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270 posts
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Post by littlesally on Apr 3, 2016 11:32:40 GMT
Saw this yesterday matinee and it started a few minutes late and finished just before half 5. The time flew by, great play and the cast are outstanding. Third time I've seen the caretaker - saw the version with david Bradley and also Jonathan Pryce. Can anyone remember who else was in the Jonathan Pryce version? Peter McDonald?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2016 11:33:40 GMT
And Tom Brooke.
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371 posts
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Post by popcultureboy on Apr 4, 2016 22:11:13 GMT
Or they could get rid of the - according to several people I trust who have already seen this - entirely superfluous second interval, there's 20 minutes saved *and* the running time will come in at under 3 hours! It's not superfluous. It's always staged this way. And the intervals are only 15 minutes.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2016 7:45:13 GMT
Really? "Always"? 'Cos last time I saw it the running time was 2 hours and 30 minutes, and there was only one interval. (Also Tom Brooke appears to have only done it in Liverpool, it was Sam Spruell in London.) www.curtainup.com/caretakerlon10.html I'll concede being wrong on the length of the intervals though, I was going by what my friend who did see it told me rather than personal experience or checking the website.
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2,206 posts
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Apr 6, 2016 21:45:38 GMT
Saw this yesterday matinee and it started a few minutes late and finished just before half 5. The time flew by, great play and the cast are outstanding. Third time I've seen the caretaker - saw the version with david Bradley and also Jonathan Pryce. Can anyone remember who else was in the Jonathan Pryce version? Peter McDonald? Yes Peter McDonald and Sam Spruell
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Post by raiseitup on Apr 7, 2016 9:57:35 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2016 10:53:13 GMT
Largely positive for the actors, so far as I could tell from the few reviews I read this morning - not so much for the play/directing.
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521 posts
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Post by danielwhit on Apr 9, 2016 18:02:18 GMT
Call me in the minority but I was bored.
Very strong acting from all three. Daniel Mays stands out the most, this role being so different from his stereotypical geezer that he is normally cast for. Can't fault the other two either - Spall flits between personalities well in Act Three.
Biggest problem I think was the production the play had been wrapped up in. The Caretaker was clearly written to examine the individuals rather than to render an multifaceted plot, but the direction (as good as it was in its way) of the production seemed to strive for "play it straight, hope for the best". It's as if the original text and current production were sparring against one another - to no-one's benefit.
Act One I described in a text as "Plot so far: man arrives in flat, man moves in, other man leaves, random bloke walks in and the curtain comes down. Something about Sidcup". The second act didn't really improve (however gave the highlight in May's electro-therapy speech). I very nearly left in the second interval. The characters definitely showed signs of development in the final act, but even with this I was sure I could describe all the intricacies of the production in 5 minutes flat.
The Old Vic is having a curious season. It strikes me more and more that Warchus is trying to find his style for the place this year, perhaps the 2016/17 season will feel more cohesive.
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433 posts
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Post by DuchessConstance on Apr 11, 2016 23:22:29 GMT
I found it refreshing to see something so completely character-based rather than plot-driven. Not spectacular but very good.
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Post by Oleanna on Apr 16, 2016 16:06:15 GMT
Absolutely hated this. The theatre is too big for such an intimate play. The production was good if a bit overblown (set moving etc.) music completely inappropriate.
Spall is giving one hell of an over-the-top;, hammy, performance. Not genuine at all.
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1,878 posts
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Post by Marwood on Apr 17, 2016 10:25:36 GMT
I liked this a lot, can see why some people might dislike Spall's performance but I thought moments of this were sublime (the smoking jacket, Mays speech about the hospital, and Spall eating the cheese sandwich (he seemed to be trying extra hard not to burst into laughter/choke while eating it) all sticking in my memory. Yes it was long and not a lot really happens, but it didn't drag at all. I was sat row E in the stalls and had a great view of proceedings, not sure if I'd enjoyed it as much sat back row of the stalls or up top (especially in the bit in the dark) though.
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Post by cazzle on Apr 17, 2016 20:29:20 GMT
I liked this a lot, can see why some people might dislike Spall's performance but I thought moments of this were sublime (the smoking jacket, Mays speech about the hospital, and Spall eating the cheese sandwich (he seemed to be trying extra hard not to burst into laughter/choke while eating it) all sticking in my memory. Yes it was long and not a lot really happens, but it didn't drag at all. I was sat row E in the stalls and had a great view of proceedings, not sure if I'd enjoyed it as much sat back row of the stalls or up top (especially in the bit in the dark) though. I saw this yesterday and loved it..... actually loved Spall's performance. As for seating l was in in a box to the right of the stage looking head on.... ticket was £30 and have to say fantastic view and very close up..... would definitely have this seat again for any performance, plenty of leg room, bag room etc .
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2016 18:40:55 GMT
Thoroughly enjoyed all three performances in this today. Loved the set too. They managed to shave fifteen minutes off the 3h10 published time, although we could have managed without the two intervals as others have stated.
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98 posts
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Post by stanne on Apr 28, 2016 18:44:42 GMT
Completely agree with other posters that all three performances are excellent. The running time for the matinee last Saturday was about 2h hours 50 minutes, much to my surprise, and the time absolutely flew past. Didn't even object to the 2 intervals!
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2,206 posts
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Post by theglenbucklaird on May 1, 2016 9:08:41 GMT
The hardest play I have ever had to score. The Caretaker is my favourite play, ever, but I was not a fan of this version. So am I scoring this as a version of the Caretaker or as a trip to the theatre. Still confused so I sat on the fence and gave it three stars. Which is about right isn't it?
I am a big fan of Daniel Mays and thought he was excellent as usual. I loved the slow delivery of his speech, and the limp. And his take on the lobotomy speech was good. Loved the lighting getting lower during this part leaving just the spotlight on Aston. I think it was Mays performance that earnt the show it's three stars.
I wasn't a fan of Spall and Mackay. And why were they asked to use those squeaky voices? Saw the Jonathan Pryce version and he was a vastly superior Davies. I didn't think Mackay was menacing enough to play Mick. He didn't exude menace to me, maybe due to squeaky voice.
I liked the bag swap scene, thought this was done very well as an attempt to show the power struggle happening but I didn't like much of the direction like playing the show for laughs. Audience laughed at lots of moments I had never considered funny before but this was maybe due to the actors speaking in stupid voices. Even a laugh during Aston's monologue after '...but I didn't die. Anyway I feel much better now'??!!?
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1,240 posts
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Post by Steve on May 14, 2016 23:20:22 GMT
Finally got around to seeing this at today's matinee, and was lucky the actors were present (still galled I missed the Kathryn Hunter Cyrano at Southwark due to her indisposition on that play's final day), and I thought this was terrific! The play itself is a masterpiece, and this was a powerful rendering of it. The use of words as weapons, and blanking someone as a defense to that weaponry, was done here exquisitely, accounting for the long running time. The faster the delivery of words, the more power they contained, with George MacKay's Mick spraying words like a machine gun, Timothy Spalls' Davies firing them off like a repeating rifle, and Daniel May's Aston slowly slogging his way through every syllable of every sentence, a mere musket of a man. Daniel Mays' electroshocked hair reminded me of the "Bride of Frankenstein," but in May's Aston's limping lurching hunchbacked gait, I saw Frankenstein's Creature himself, creation of the medical experiment which crippled him, his sensitivity remininiscent of the lumbering Creature at it's most gentle. For me, Timothy Spall's Davies seemed like a more nascent version of Frankenstein's Creature, primitive unruly selfish action, perpetrated purely to fulfil bodily needs. No other Davies I have seen has been quite as brutish and as physical as Spall, with David Bradley being typically cunning, and Jonathan Pryce's slyly grinning fiend of a Davies being the most intelligent and sadistic. Spall, by contrast, never enjoys the pain he inflicts on Aston, the primitive impetus for elevating his status only ever located in the comfort of his feet, his body, his stomach. Spall's performance is bigger than those of Bradley and Pryce, which were in the smaller spaces of the Tricycle and the Trafalgar, partly because he must fill the cavernous Old Vic, but also because he is less a sly scheming thinker, and more of an instinctive flailing beast. There was a beauty in the tragedy of these two wrecked men, Davies and Aston, trying to make themselves more wholly human, at the unnecessary expense of each other. Although the smashing of a Buddhist peace doll was a bit on the nose as a metaphor for the intractability of man's inhumaity to man, these two wonderful actors did so much to make me believe, that my heart broke along with the doll. I'm very glad I caught this. It was wonderful. 4 and a half stars.
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