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Post by dani on Nov 21, 2018 11:07:14 GMT
Tom Hooper should have been the reason everyone got "out" as soon as it was announced he was directing it. He's vile. As a film-maker or personally? I thought The Damned United was good, although I've been indifferent to his films since then. It's hard to believe he once directed some episodes of Byker Grove.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Nov 20, 2018 10:27:59 GMT
Thanks. That wasn't that long ago, I think, which goes against my impression she'd not done theatre in ages.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Nov 20, 2018 10:14:30 GMT
When was the last time Phyllis Logan was in a play? I can't think of anything she has done since she was in Kenneth Branagh's Richard III.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Nov 20, 2018 10:05:32 GMT
Finally, an unanswerable reason why the UK should not follow the USA in decriminalising marijuana for recreational use. They're an Australian act, and the song is from nearly 20 years ago!
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Nov 20, 2018 9:57:20 GMT
Anyone there last night? Must have been very up, after its two wins at the ES Awards the night before (where Jonny sang his big number)! Wasn't there a risk of their being hungover?!
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Post by dani on Nov 20, 2018 9:51:58 GMT
I am just catching up with these.
I'm not sure it was predictable that Sophie Okonedo and Ralph Fiennes would win for Antony and Cleopatra. If they'd gone for the predictable, as in most starry, surely it would have been Carey Mulligan and Ian McKellen. I wouldn't have chosen either of the winners, or McKellen or Mulligan, but that is hardly the point.
I can't see how anyone can object to Hamilton winning, or Jamael Westman. Nine Night likewise. An award for the design of The Jungle doesn't seem misplaced. Best play for the Inheritance might not be everyone's choice, but it is far from controversial.
Company deserved recognition, and the best director award seems as good a way as any to do it. Marianne Elliott is an under appreciated talent. I wouldn't have chosen Rosalie Craig for best musical performance, but it's not an outrage by any stretch of the imagination.
That leaves the Lebedev lifetime award, or whatever it's called, to Cameron Mackintosh, which may not be exciting, but is probably deserved.
In other words, there's nothing edgy here, and the glitz of the occasion is OTT and in some ways only loosely connected to theatre, but I can't see that the results were either very predictable or very hilarious.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Oct 31, 2018 22:57:13 GMT
Hoping to get to see this as I have a teenage daughter who I think would enjoy it and I live in Stratford. I think there's a good chance your teenage daughter might well enjoy it, but it's worth mentioning that it is pretty sweary and there's some stuff I'd have been a bit embarrassed about seeing or hearing when with my mother when I was a teenager (e.g. about tampons). I appreciate that different people feel differently about these things, and maybe I was terribly prudish back in the day, or more likely worried about my mum realising that I knew more than she thought I knew! But it seems worth saying. I enjoyed it a lot. The ES review mentions that it takes time tune into the overlapping dialogue, and I found that the case. It didn't begin that promisingly, for me, but I really engaged with it after an uncertain start.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Oct 31, 2018 13:00:55 GMT
Lots of favourable reviews of this have come out today. 4* in Time Out, ES, The Stage, Whatsonstage.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Oct 28, 2018 22:58:58 GMT
I have owned Thomas Middleton's Complete Works in a single volume since last Xmas (present) and am seriously wondering how I am ever going to read it. I like reading in bed or in the bath but this weighs in at over seven pounds. You would need the wrists of the world heavyweight boxing champion to be able to hold that for any length of time. Myself, I have small wrists. I saw this on sale recently. 2,000 pages in one volume = eek. You can buy a complete works of Shakespeare with fewer pages than that! Although the one I have is about 3,500 and weighs six pounds. I can only look at it when I am sitting at a table.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Oct 28, 2018 17:22:31 GMT
I think this must have started previewing last week. I have heard good things about the play, by Sarah DeLappe, and am intending to go. Has anyone seen this production yet?
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Oct 26, 2018 8:16:24 GMT
I saw this last night. A lot has already been said on the subject, but I think this is a pretty terrible play. The idea that it travels deep into the abyss of the imagination is very strange to me. It seemed completely without nuance and I found perhaps three lines funny; the one about the German theatre director was the only time I actually laughed. It didn't offend me, though I can see it has the potential to cause great offence. I just found it tedious.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Oct 20, 2018 11:54:54 GMT
More wild duck, less tame cock, please.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Oct 19, 2018 11:48:38 GMT
That’s odd... have they added more since the original press night or were some just not ready? It’s not one of these shows where they pick a random six to perform each evening. I'm not really sure what the story is. I noticed in the Time Out review when it opened that there was reference to it only accommodating half the writers each night. Pretty rough if you weren't one of the writers selected for the first instalment.
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Post by dani on Oct 19, 2018 9:23:28 GMT
"From Award Winning Composer Scott Alan, comes a song cycle of his most acclaimed works, told through some of the greatest generational voices of the West End."
I had to read this twice to understand what a generational voice is.
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Post by dani on Oct 19, 2018 8:48:24 GMT
Apparently there is a second press night for this on Monday, with the idea being that critics can see the sketches they didn't see on the original press night. I wonder how much take-up there will be. Not much, I expect.
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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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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 dani on Oct 15, 2018 9:14:25 GMT
I'm a fan of Timberlake Wertenbaker's play After Darwin (well, at least I'm a fan of the "Darwin" part of the play), which was produced at Hampstead about 20 years ago. But I think a female playwright who deserves a London season is the American Paula Vogel, who has done some fine work, most recently with Indecent. The only plays of Vogel's I can recall being done in London are How I Learned to Drive and Desdemona.
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Post by dani on Oct 14, 2018 10:25:33 GMT
Caryl Churchill would be worthy of a season like this, or just a series of major revivals. I don't think Serious Money has been seen in London since the original production. She's 80 this year so some sort of festival would seem appropriate. But she might not approve of a West End venue for her work. Apparently there were plans for a celebration of her work to coincide with the birthday, I think at the Royal Court, but she didn't like the idea of all the fuss.
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Post by dani on Oct 14, 2018 9:08:03 GMT
Hannah Khalil isn't exactly an obscure playwright. She's certainly well-known and well-regarded as part of the new generation of up and coming playwrights within the industry. I'd say she's one of perhaps 5 of 6 emerging playwrights who are causing the most excitement within the theatre world right now. I redact my "you" comment which was a response to the tone of the discussion in general. Thank you. I have to admit I'd not heard of her, so will keep an eye out for her work.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Oct 13, 2018 22:36:52 GMT
It’s a wonderful idea? Why on earth not have more seasons celebrating accomplished female writers? I’m not sure where the resistence to women of colour having opinions comes from. But then you evidently don’t follow new writing. If you want to stick only with the classics no ones going to force you otherwise, but it’s a big theatrical world out there. Jan what a horrible racist comment. I'm all for female writers being celebrated. However, I'm not sure a standalone season of, for the sake of argument, Timberlake Wertenbaker plays would be something that would prosper in the commercial theatre. I'm also puzzled by the idea that it's wrong or boring to have a season looking back on the work of Harold Pinter. It's a great opportunity to reevaluate him, ten years on from his death. Where do you come by the idea that I don't follow new writing? Or the idea that I object to women of colour having opinions?! I didn't notice anything about the person posting on Twitter, to the extent of not even noticing whether the poster was female or male, but saw the post because someone else was drawing attention to it.
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Post by dani on Oct 13, 2018 22:09:48 GMT
Hannah Khalil. Writes for Hollyoaks. Surprised she didn’t add “Jewish” to get the bigotry full house. Thank you for this. I had a look and she has written one episode of Hollyoaks. That's one more than me, but it's a little less than Pinter wrote for TV.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Oct 13, 2018 17:48:59 GMT
I saw someone on Twitter saying she was really over these celebrations of male playwrights and we ought to have a season of Timberlake Wertenbaker, Zinnie Harris or Debbie Tucker Green instead. Can you imagine? I checked the person's profile and she is a playwright, evidently not with her finger on the commercial pulse. Also, she wrote "all this genuflecting to old white guys is getting boring". I'm not sure I would describe Pinter as an old white guy; all the people she thought should be celebrated were different from Pinter in the small matter of being alive.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Oct 11, 2018 9:08:35 GMT
I cannot see this doing good business in the West End. It seems an odd choice to transfer.
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294 posts
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Post by dani on Oct 10, 2018 22:18:54 GMT
I think the history of Wilton's lends it some magic, the fact that it only just escaped demolition, bombing and neglect. The acoustic is good and with the right production is can work very well. I've only been a couple of times and found it uncomfortable, as well as a very limiting performance space. But I agree that its precarious recent history gives it a certain aura.
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