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Would have been a wonderful and emotional evening with a rousing National Anthem, no? They didn't trust the audience to be respectful. Big mistake. Imagine having tickets to this concert. 

Watching that Capture thriller. Is it about to turn silly? So far quite good but the end of ep 4 looked like it was going to take a wrong turn. Anyone know?

Thanks for posting these clips guys, nice reminder of old times!

Stratford a good option if they run three different shows in all three of the theatres, say over a weekend,  Friday, and two on Saturday. The straight runs might be better for actors and attract , dare I say it, bigger names. They can commit for the time and then toddle off. 

I really do not understand why people think this is a wonderful play , unless I have read things wrongly. It was fine, some witty writing sub Ayckbourn, sub James Graham but overall it was a mush mush of every idea you could stuff in - gay marriage, ethnic adoption, alcoholism, loneliness, wrecking of local economies….etc etc… I would love to see this writer’s sixth play. It will be terse and to the point. Jennings carried it and I can’t see it entering the repertoire with less charismatic actors. The ending was contrived - we can’t get the coffin thru the traffic as if the police would not have cleared the way hours before for this huge event - to get the dead girl on the stage. Recently there has been a case of the vicar forbidding ‘Dad ‘ on a gravestone to be overruled by his bishop/archdeacon/whoever. This is how it works. Here the superior person hadn’t ruled. He wanted the vicar out. Tribunal case pending eh? This lack of actual realism became an obstacle for me.

Of course you can give the tix to someone else.

Funny how Shakespeare  gives his villains the connection with the audience, the ‘laughs’ as with Iago for example. Leontes is laughable. But that aside….SRB is a fine actor and I am expecting a fine performance. 

A lot of stuff mentioned here that I have seen ( including the Brook Dream ) and would be interested in some revivals but on the whole I am for moving on. Although not fan of the ‘relevant’ production as this is so often a director’s bee in a bonnet and they don’t let the play or actors do their job, I have enjoyed the sensibilities of new productions recently. Looking back I think that having the likes of a young Judi Dench in a cast will heighten a show and make it memorable.
Please nothing directed by Maria Aberg. No sticks, no balloons. Thank you.

I think we shouldn’t dismiss the educational work that the RSC does. The exam system has managed to diminish Shakespeare who is hanging on with his fingernails. I am not familiar with any outreach work that the NT has been doing give or take a pandemic of course. But I never see kids at the NT whereas you can always see them at the RSC ( sometimes they are American …) But I do agree with oxfordsimon that if it is good, they will come. Word of mouth is powerful, we all know that. The RSC has been slow out of the gates post covid and may have problems getting the creatives out of London but this may improve next year. Whoever is appointed I hope with give him/her/them a decent chance before we start sniping.

George Orwell was a prophet.

The ballon was one ordinary balloon that R picks up and squeezes and pops. Frankly a bit naff. I’ll post here because there isn’t a separate RIII thread as far as I can see.
A good, thorough production, nothing weird. I felt it was rushed at times, particularly the scene where R fakes it in front of the citizens. I’ve seem this done much better. The queens stole the show, Anne, Margaret and Elizabeth, all very much the engines I thought. The lords nicely differentiated. RIII himself very competent, young, obviously pathological. Missed the deep rooted evil perhaps, the hiss boo villain which comes with an electric contact with the audience. The ghosts at the end very well done. A huge cenotaph was the scene set, music with individual choirboys, lighting giving us all the atmosphere…very long first half, two hours, and an hour for the second half.

( all costumed in its time but irritating use of video at the end for the king and Richmond’s speeches to the soldiers, a waste of time. )