2,706 posts
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Oct 14, 2018 11:20:48 GMT
Seats only in the upper circle. The only time I sat up there it felt like I was watching the show from over the border in an adjoining country.*
* Wind on the Willows - Bennett adaptation.
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2,346 posts
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Post by zahidf on Oct 14, 2018 11:41:32 GMT
The tours normally go ok don't they? The knee high touring model works out
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36 posts
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Post by johnnyutah on Oct 14, 2018 12:17:17 GMT
I saw this on Friday and found it to be a glorious oddity. Vaudeville meets magical realism with some piercing social commentary. Some very dark themes were elegantly addressed with real poignancy. With no knowledge of the source material, I wasn't burdened with any preconceptions. As a theatrical spectacle it more than held its own. All the familiar Emma Rice devices are correct and present. However, from my perspective, they added to the overall experience. She has a real flair for engaging musical storytelling. Both Gareth Snook and Omari Douglas were outstanding.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Oct 14, 2018 12:22:05 GMT
The tours normally go ok don't they? The knee high touring model works out Only for certain projects. Those with a popular source material do ok (at least that is what I have been told of the Oxford box office performance) But those more on the fringe of public awareness can struggle. I personally don't think that Carter is mainstream enough for this to be a dead cert.
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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 Oct 14, 2018 13:18:44 GMT
The Oxford Playhouse run looks to be selling reasonably well as far as I can see. I know they hold the rear rows of sale initially but they look to have released most and while it's not a sellout I think it's doing as well as most things there.
Agree the Old Vic run is selling really badly. Of course the fact that top price at the Playhouse is £30 rather than £90 might have something to do with this.
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2,346 posts
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Post by zahidf on Oct 14, 2018 13:31:23 GMT
I think most stuff recently at the old Vic has sold pretty badly.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Oct 14, 2018 13:33:07 GMT
The Oxford Playhouse run looks to be selling reasonably well as far as I can see. I know they hold the rear rows of sale initially but they look to have released most and while it's not a sellout I think it's doing as well as most things there. Agree the Old Vic run is selling really badly. Of course the fact that top price at the Playhouse is £30 rather than £90 might have something to do with this. I haven't looked at playhouse sales for this yet. But it is not just the back seats they don't release. It is more structured than that do it is always hard to gauge just from looking. I rely on my usher friends to keep me updated.
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1,016 posts
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Post by andrew on Oct 14, 2018 14:35:32 GMT
I was moderately tired and moderately grumpy when I saw this and presumably as a result, I really didn't get on well with the play at all. I found the childish tone clashing with the adult topics that emerge quite annoying, the humour was poor and fundamentally I just wasn't engaged or interested in what was going on. I'm sure a happy Andrew would have come away with a more positive view, but I ended up leaving at the interval. Hilariously a member of staff approached me on my way out to ask if I would like to give my opinions for a video they were filming, and I advised that I was probably not the best person to ask...
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227 posts
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Post by barelyathletic on Oct 15, 2018 16:08:01 GMT
I was moderately tired and moderately grumpy when I saw this and presumably as a result, I really didn't get on well with the play at all. I found the childish tone clashing with the adult topics that emerge quite annoying, the humour was poor and fundamentally I just wasn't engaged or interested in what was going on. I'm sure a happy Andrew would have come away with a more positive view, but I ended up leaving at the interval. Hilariously a member of staff approached me on my way out to ask if I would like to give my opinions for a video they were filming, and I advised that I was probably not the best person to ask... You were very wise to leave at the interval. I was more than moderately grumpy by the end of this. While I thought the first half had a certain theatrical charm and caught something of the raucous, joyful spirit of the book; the second half is one of the worst pieces of theatre that I've seen in a while. Lazy and embarrassingly inept. The trip down 'Electric Avenue' to find dresses for the evening was excruciating, and the final party - which in the book is a truly glorious, over-the-top extravaganza of comic coincidences and heartfelt emotional reconciliations and reunions, that still manages to tie everything up - was reduced here to a painful, weirdly depressing finale to an evening which simply powered down and flattened out for the last, long hour. The actors seemed acutely aware of the fact that it just wasn't working and looked embarrassed to be there. So they more or less gave up. I wish I had and, like you, left while the going was sort of good. Wise Children. Foolish old me.
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1,187 posts
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Post by Steve on Oct 16, 2018 18:16:01 GMT
I enjoyed this, more for Emma Rice than Angela Carter. The point of union for Rice and Carter is a love of song and dance, and Emma Rice's populism makes those elements glorious, particularly the showgirl dancing duo of Melissa James and Omari Douglas, but a lack of depth to the characters reduces most of them to whimsy and Carter's teenage provocations are wearing. Loads of fun to be had if you switch your brain off. Spoilers follow. . . There is a line in this about wanting something to happen, anything. That is Carter's sensibility, that anything good or bad is a rollercoaster of worthwhile experience to be celebrated. I have only read her "The Bloody Chamber" short fairy stories, not "Wise Children" nor anything else, so I speak from ignorance, but while Carter's prose is phenomenal: mischievous, taboo-breaking, gory, surprising, enveloping, her characters make zero sense. I mean, in her short story, "Company of Wolves," (Spoiler alert), after the Wolf eats her granny, Carter's Red Riding Hood isn't bothered and shags the wolf, and cuddles him. It's a fun story, but not about a character you believe. This not-bothered experiential indulgent teenage type of thinking translates into this work too, where jumping into bed with your uncle is somehow just a frolic, and CS Lewis' "child porn" is gleeful story punctuation. Carter reverently embraces Shakespeare's comedy plotting, with multiple twins and mistaken identities, but not his psychologically realistic characters, so without her brilliant prose to disguise it, the flimsiness of her plot is here exposed. For me, Emma Rice's love of singing and dancing and theatre is associated with a celebration of community, whereas Angela Carter's is associated with self-masturbation, and while you can merge those two sensibilities in a love of show, song and dance, in this instance, this is a weird mismatch that leaves a strange taste, like the lingering fatty lipids that make a punter later regret a Dominos pizza feast. There are elements to this feast I loved, other than the singing, dancing, and the dazzling duo of Douglas and James. I also loved Katy Owen's comedic caricaturing, her Grandma Chance reminding me of Catherine Tate's brazen Nan, but with more heart and a penchant for nudity (here depicted by a hilarious floppy body stocking). Still, the lewdness is pure Tate, with Owen's Grandma declaring "As you Lick it" to be her favourite Shakespeare, or "As you flick it, when you're taming your shrew." I loved not only Owens, though she's the best at it, but all the vaudeville style comedy performances, including Gareth Snook's Dora, and Paul Hunter's lecherous Melchior. If I'd ever read it, I suspect I'd conclude that "Wise Children" cannot be successfully adapted, as the plot is more unwieldy and less attractive than the prose. I assume that's what the National concluded when their decade-old commissioned version from Bryony Lavery disappeared without a trace. If anybody can make it fun, it's Emma Rice, and to a great degree, she's succeeded, in spite of it. 3 and a half stars.
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Post by partytentdown on Oct 18, 2018 23:07:17 GMT
3 stars from What*sO*St*ge
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Post by oxfordsimon on Oct 18, 2018 23:27:29 GMT
This article is very telling: www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-45744643She only wants to listen to certain voices... The lack of overwhelmingly positive reactions to this launch project does not bode well for the future of Wise Children as a company. It needed to land with a bang to justify the massive injection of public money. Mixed reviews will not deliver that.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Oct 18, 2018 23:40:21 GMT
Um, it's got 4* from the Guardian, Times, Time Out and The Stage. Plenty of positivity, I would suggest.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Oct 19, 2018 8:17:35 GMT
Um, it's got 4* from the Guardian, Times, Time Out and The Stage. Plenty of positivity, I would suggest. There has yet to be a rave review that I have seen. Ticket sales are sluggish. That is not overwhelming positivity which is what I was talking about. Positive isn't enough to make the ACE decision easier to defend.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Oct 19, 2018 8:40:37 GMT
True, there are no raves, but it even gets a very warm 4* from Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail. I imagine ticket sales will pick up now. That's not to say that the ACE decision you mention is vindicated, but this doesn't seem to be the flop some were saying.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Oct 19, 2018 8:50:47 GMT
I have yet to understand why this work needed a new company. It seems firmly within the Kneehigh remit and indeed has the current Kneehigh boss in the cast.
On top of the ACE direct money, there are a number of ACE funded co-producers on board.
I maintain that Angela Carter is not known as widely as is necessary to establish this as a surefire winner. Rice's popular success was due to her adaptation of Noel Coward - a far more marketable source.
Yes, there are Rice fans. And there are Carter fans. There is no doubt an overlap between those groups. But that doesn't appear to be enough to fill theatres.
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2,706 posts
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Oct 19, 2018 9:08:43 GMT
Kneehigh is not Emma Rice, it existed well before her and now exists after her. If anyone, it's Mike Shepherd who is Kneehigh's 'centre', having been with them for nearly forty years.
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2,346 posts
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Post by zahidf on Oct 19, 2018 13:57:11 GMT
Most the reviews seem to be raves ( 4 stars) so I imagine it will help pick up sales in London and across the country
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Post by partytentdown on Oct 20, 2018 7:49:55 GMT
Cancelled show last night, anyone know why?
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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 Oct 20, 2018 8:11:58 GMT
Cast illness apparently but nothing tweeted by the old vic or wise children oddly. Why no understudy (and before anyone says the old vic doesn’t have them, we established during Sylvia that they do)
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2019 18:12:47 GMT
Any thoughts on the current tour doing the rounds? Contemplating seeing it soon.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2019 20:44:41 GMT
In that case, what about sightlines? I recognise that it's theatre dependant, but would slip seats affect view of blocking etc?
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734 posts
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Post by dippy on Apr 7, 2019 20:48:44 GMT
Was this filmed? Just been having a flick through future event cinema release dates (was hoping to find the UK 42nd Street date, but no luck) and saw that there's "Event Cinema: Wise Children" on the 3rd of October being released by More2Screen. Anyone know anything, just curious really, not something I would go and watch as I saw it in the theatre.
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277 posts
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Post by fossil on Mar 18, 2020 17:59:33 GMT
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