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Post by lynette on Feb 9, 2024 18:25:31 GMT
Please feel free to hide a spoiler but what was the extent of the audience participation? Do you have to join in? Spoiler for the town hall scene {Spoiler - click to view} After Dr Stockman's speech, the audiece are asked for a show of hands if you had agreed with him. Then you asked if you did put up your hand would you like to explain why you agree with him. There are FOH on every level with microphones waiting. I think about 6 people spoke on the night I was there. I could see more with hands up who never got a chance to speak, so looks like no shortage of participants I’m shuddering; it sounds like BBC Question Time.
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Post by lynette on Feb 9, 2024 18:15:31 GMT
Thanks for the warning
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Post by lynette on Feb 5, 2024 13:19:07 GMT
Tennant batting for the NHS now. Lots of little tweety messages etc.
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Post by lynette on Feb 5, 2024 13:15:48 GMT
Audience participation in an Ibsen play?
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Post by lynette on Feb 3, 2024 17:55:57 GMT
Wouldn't go anywhere near any project Cleese is involved im with a bargepole. Does he have anything to do with the play? I thought part of his financial prob was that he lost the rights to FT years a go. I know he is developing an updated series with his daughter but this would be new material?
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Post by lynette on Feb 2, 2024 17:17:55 GMT
Two things going on Historical accuracy: we all know this never happens. From Shakespeare’s history plays to tv dramas, events are rescheduled, added to, omitted, converged etc etc. We accept this and though many people will always think drama is the truth, you can usually look up the actual events somewhere. Richard III is interesting cos Shakespeare did such a good job on him that nobody would question his villainy for centuries. So how far we believe theatre as history is true is one point which merges with t’other point as to how far the dramatist presents the ‘truth’ pertaining to character and emotion. I would say that the dramatist usually gets it right. We have no idea how Lenin, James Joyce and Tristan Zara would have behaved if they had met in Geneva ( think it was ) but Stoppard gets it absolutely right and makes a good, funny, revealing play about of it. The writer’s imagination is what counts. Another example is the meeting of Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I in the Schiller play. Brilliant psychology which I think is perfect but of course they never met. So two examples of plays where it didn’t happen but the writer gets it right about the people. When there are people who ‘were there’ it becomes even more interesting because we get raw history which is all about our late Queen’s ‘recollections may differ’. We are suffering all the time from this in our time because we now have so much ability to record events but no historical perspective on them as yet. It is like we have concertinered ourselves and it is painful. I welcome a dramatist’s take on contemporary events. Look how sharp James Graham is on current politics. The most striking example of how a dramatist can do better than a documentary or media piece is the Post Office scandal, the Mr Bates play on tv. Seeing how much this has driven public debate makes you wonder again about how plays worked in the past when they were sometimes the only way of expressing dissent.
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Post by lynette on Feb 2, 2024 16:58:37 GMT
Different start times are a pain. Should be a law; evening 7.30, afternoon 2.30. That would mean evening performances of several Wagner operas wouldn't end until after midnight! Serves ‘em right. Anything that goes on after 10.30 is self indulgent ( Tom Stoppard from The Real Inspector Hound, a theatre Bible )
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Post by lynette on Feb 2, 2024 16:55:24 GMT
I’ve been to her house, a very moving experience. I love her work. I would be interested in seeing a play about her or a one woman thing. Interesting.
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Post by lynette on Feb 1, 2024 22:16:38 GMT
Different start times are a pain. Should be a law; evening 7.30, afternoon 2.30.
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Post by lynette on Jan 28, 2024 14:40:48 GMT
Thanks for posting. Interesting interview and i liked the comment about how education works in the notes from other directors below. I too feel that altered or in some way reduced shows for kids never work. The real thing does.
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Post by lynette on Jan 27, 2024 23:34:42 GMT
Like buses…
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Post by lynette on Jan 26, 2024 20:41:39 GMT
I saw the original production and thought then it was a rare dud from Stoppard. The joy of his work is that it hits amazing heights but you do get lows. I wish someone would bring back the Invention of Love, only to judge it now, if nothing else. But I remember being very moved by this play.
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Post by lynette on Jan 26, 2024 0:02:58 GMT
Wasn’t David Tennant in this a while back? Way before fame and glory. Yes, at the Donmar in 2002. He played Jeff. Saw it. Brilliant. Had our boy Tennant down for great things after seeing this and the RSC stuff before it.
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Post by lynette on Jan 26, 2024 0:01:24 GMT
Ps so you can’t perform a part of which you have no actual experience in real life? Gonna be v difficult to find an actor who is a murdering bastard and possibly disabled who isn’t either in prison or on the run?
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Post by lynette on Jan 25, 2024 23:58:51 GMT
Can someone enlighten me as to the bilingual prod of A&C? Would that be Egyptian and Latin? What with the Ukrainian Lear in Stratford we might find languages becoming more popular in schools.
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Post by lynette on Jan 25, 2024 23:53:17 GMT
Obvs I can’t prove anything but I wondered in the past about the Donmar membership. I used to get terrible seats despite membership above the basic level. Once at the box office I was somewhat embarrassed asking for tix which were hard to get. The guy there put me on a waiting list. I went away wondering why I was loughing out so much to be talked down to ( I can be very sensitive 🤪) but then someone in the development had seen my name and called me - confusing. Perhaps it was the record keeping or just this one box office clerk. It isn’t important in the great scheme of things. We are all of course privileged to be able to go to the theatre here in London, I do really feel that. The NT is good about finding you tix and priority booking. The RSC is very good. The little places like Jeremy St and the Park always nice. So I would choose a theatre you really like and give it some dosh, let them know you support them and hope for the best.
Just on a poorly selfish note, I’ve never given extra to the Old Vic because it is so big a theatre it is usually not a problem getting the tix you want.
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Post by lynette on Jan 25, 2024 11:25:25 GMT
Wasn’t David Tennant in this a while back? Way before fame and glory.
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Post by lynette on Jan 24, 2024 15:19:28 GMT
Just to say that £89 is just £1 off £90. Stating the obvious but it’s like when prices were 49/11 say for a pair of shoes ( don’t laugh ) yes 1penny of 50 shillings which was £2 and nearly half a pound so It is very cynical to say £89 like they have priced it down to the last pound. Let them say £90 cos that is what it is. Moreover this is the price for the even the sides of the Lyttleton where you can’t hear because they have still not addressed the wretched acoustic, not just the middle of the stalls as is usual and in the West End. I like a bit of leg room and those seats at the side with space in front are £89.
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Post by lynette on Jan 23, 2024 18:53:07 GMT
Can I just have a moan about the price of the tix? Moan, moan. Thank you
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Post by lynette on Jan 23, 2024 15:49:06 GMT
Not the end of the world but not the beginning of a new one either. I’ve never understood this new director thing. If you are appointed to such a prestigious job and I’m not just saying this about the new one to come but the one about to leave, why haven’t you got a list of what you want to do, what would be your dream shows and all the phone numbers in the business you have treasured for years. The old regime shouldn’t be running out of ideas and bringing in shows from America or getting just regional hits for only two weeks. They should be shoving out those massive shows they always wanted to put on, getting the business rockin and rollin and queuing at the door to get on the NT stages.
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Post by lynette on Jan 22, 2024 17:23:16 GMT
I think that the short AYLI is really for tourists and day trippers and/or toes in the water/ let’s get the kids interested people. They are going to do two a day so plenty of flexibility for fish and chips before or after. When i was a kid the bus to Brum used to wait for us to come walking down from the theatre whatever the finish time. The driver would be looking our way watching us stroll, laughing down the road and left when we got aboard. The best thing the RSC could do would be to get a train service from Stratford to London on a regular basis. Game changer.
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Post by lynette on Jan 16, 2024 21:23:59 GMT
Some worries expressed about casting - I’m not fully up with the latest talent but I think they have chosen some excellent talent, actors and director, new ish maybe but with good stuff under their belts. And some experienced people to keep the boat steady. 😁
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Post by lynette on Jan 13, 2024 23:13:30 GMT
I was there on the front row for the final matinee today. A few empty seats around me, but not sure if this was because people had asked to move or if they’d taken the seats off sale. I still think this is an excellent view. The cast were having a lot of fun. I think there were a few muckup changes but I can’t remember this well enough to say for sure. Even some interaction with me. A polite audience too. I hope the current cast all get to go to Broadway. It may be a difficult sell over there and I suspect jokes about Dudley will go over the heads of many, but football does have a worldwide following. Let’s not forget this replaced a big money Broadway jukebox musical transfer, has sold very well, and is in one of London’s largest theatres. I’m sure there will be another London run in the future. Was there too! We were a quiet audience, weren’t we?
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Post by lynette on Jan 13, 2024 23:12:13 GMT
Saw the last performance tonight in row M, after seeing it front row in July. Very good. Did they cut a scene towards the end, a heart to heart between Gareth and Pippa? I thought so and a woman on the way out was asking an usher if they’d changed the ending. Was that the conversation a little earlier in the play? I was at the matinee today. My question is, did they give the women winning a few more seconds? Seemed she was onstage longer than I recall from NT.
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Post by lynette on Jan 13, 2024 23:10:02 GMT
I’m reporting myself. I refused to let a couple of latecomers into my row ( I was at the end ) about twenty mins into Dear England. The FOH asked me twice and I told her to wait for a break. Then I saw them go into the row from the other side and their seats were well onto the other end so they would have disturbed nearly the whole row. As it was they disturbed quite a few. When did standing in the side aisle til a ‘break’ in the action go out of fashion?
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