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Post by crowblack on Jun 3, 2020 9:20:47 GMT
I recorded and finally got round to watching the film, and I'm now really angry and frustrated by how much of it was lost through the Donmar's decision to have large chunks in untranslated Italian. The film is really powerful btw., addressing the issue of violence against women on film and, particularly, Italian Giallo movies, which was surprisingly ignored in a recent BBC4 history of horror films (presented by a man).
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Post by crowblack on May 31, 2020 12:39:45 GMT
and transferred to screen better than a lot of the NT Lives do. Possibly because the stage was a series of small sets, effectively. I think because, as with the archive recording of Barbershop Chronicles, they stand back and generally show the whole stage so you can see the interaction of the actors. With A&C and Frankenstein, there was a lot of zooming in on the lead actors' faces (because stars?) but I felt that missed out on what else was happening on stage - it felt like an odd hybrid of TV and theatre, but not as good as either. Two Guvnors worked very well on TV because it was so deliberately like a 1970s TV sitcom/show.
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Post by crowblack on May 30, 2020 10:34:21 GMT
All filmed with the actors at home, either individually or co-starring with their family or partners so there's an element of "Oh, I didn't know THEY were an item!" to it I've seen Tuesday's and Thursday's episodes so far and though they were really good, some very moving, especially the NHS workers one. And yes, as with Webinars and online Q&As, there is an element of 'Through the Keyhole' with the backgrounds - if someone has busy walls or bookshelves I think 'yay!".
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Post by crowblack on May 27, 2020 11:50:10 GMT
Aren’t they doing it live every night? Hence the reason they are limiting it to 1000 per night. Seems a bit pointless to do it over and over with no audience - unless they think the act itself is like a form of installation art.
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Post by crowblack on May 27, 2020 10:16:17 GMT
I guess it's a fundraiser, pay what you think appropriate. Scrap my last comment - I see there are going to be £10 tickets. I don't see why they should limit them to 1000 per performance though, given the Frankenstein NT Live attracted millions of viewers and these two actors also have global recognition and in Smith's case a cult fanbase.
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Post by crowblack on May 27, 2020 10:04:13 GMT
£65 is a bit cheeky for a "socially distanced" version Yes, especially given Matt Smith's more fannish fanbase is probably younger and less upper-middle-class/London than the typical OV theatregoer.
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Post by crowblack on May 24, 2020 16:14:37 GMT
and Benedict Cumberbatch. He's on Radio 4 at the same time - they're repeating Cabin Fever.
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Post by crowblack on May 24, 2020 8:46:36 GMT
Any thoughts on Streetcar? I found it rather mediocre performance-wise apart from Gillian of course. The rotating set was very distracting, and that combined with the speed and the way tonally it was dialled up to 11 most of the time meant the events of the play didn't really hit, apart from that closing scene which had me in tears. I saw the production with Maxine Peake in Manchester 4 years ago, and that was also staged in the round but with minimal set so you were able to concentrate on the performance, and the highs and lows had far more impact (Kowalski's violence, for example, which I didn't really feel here). Also, I don't like the trend for pop songs being introduced into plays - they carry their own universes with them and your own personal memories bound up with that song, and importing them into the work of another artist damages the main work, I think.
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Post by crowblack on May 23, 2020 15:41:43 GMT
I didnt think it was very good at all, couldn’t understand the raves. Horses for courses, I guess - we loved it.
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Post by crowblack on May 23, 2020 12:55:07 GMT
"Wordsworth 250: A Night in with the Wordsworths" - Toby Jones, Helen McCrory, Jonathan Pryce, Cumberbatch et al reading Wordsworth, now on the Hay Festival's Youtube.
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Post by crowblack on May 23, 2020 7:47:14 GMT
If the local authority has its fingers in pies elsewhere it will block anything that goes against those interests. Huge building in an area where house prices are soaring... I've seen so many historic - and often listed - buildings in my home town bite the dust or end up as doll-house facades for private flats. Oh dear, it was listed but now the roof has fallen in / it's been set on fire we'll just have to knock it down and that shiny new block can go up...
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Post by crowblack on May 22, 2020 17:19:18 GMT
Wordsworth readings with an excellent line up of actors is just about to start on the Hay Festival's online site.
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Post by crowblack on May 22, 2020 15:56:46 GMT
The UK's average BMI and T2DM burden won't change in a year though Well I've lost a stone since lockdown began, mainly because it's harder to get bread, dairy and snacks.
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Post by crowblack on May 22, 2020 14:55:55 GMT
Playing devil's advocate here. Another thought. What are people really expecting to be different in the Autumn or in Spring 2021? More knowledge of the disease, a pooling of experience about the best ways to treat it, a health drive to improve public health (poor BMI, diabetes and vitamin D levels all seem to be factors and these can be mitigated to some degree), greater herd immunity to reduce transmission, not creating a new spike going into the regular winter flu period which already increases pressure on the NHS.
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Post by crowblack on May 22, 2020 12:04:58 GMT
to then pay two of the highest earning actors to do a job where they play furloughed actors does seem a tad cruel. Given the huge Good Omens fandom for these two together, it'll bring in a big audience.
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Post by crowblack on May 22, 2020 9:47:17 GMT
If you said whites had a lower death rate becasue they were better shielded by remote working (inc. no public transport) and non-key worker employment it might be more relevant. The middle class stayed home, because they could.
Unclear how this is a factor in this discussion
It's a factor that has been discussed regarding sports (google it!) with some BAME footballers unhappy with an early return, multigenerational households also being a factor here. Prolonged exposure to the virus appears to be a factor with severity of your illness, so 2 or 3 hours sitting next to someone with it is worse than a brief encounter in other work conditions, and sport and theatre are both leisure activities and not worth risking lives for.
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Post by crowblack on May 22, 2020 8:23:42 GMT
One difference there is that the theatre industry is actively lobbying the government strongly to re-open - I don't see that here at all, I haven't seen a single theatre pushing to re-open, just requests for money. With a virus that is disproportionately killing poorer and BAME people, maybe British theatre doesn't want to be a sector that contributes to the endangerment of those lives, especially as places like the Royal Court, NT and smaller theatres like to think of themselves as places that encourage diverse theatremakers and audiences rather than the typical white middle class broadsheet crowd? And is theatre something people can afford to go to right now? Most of the people I know who work in the arts/media and go to the theatre are freelancers and currently workless, or working from home and homeschooling. It's not like they could ask their grandparents or neighbours to come over to mind the kids while they go out for the evening, assuming they still had the energy. Meanwhile, if the West End relies heavily on tourism both within and beyond the UK, there's not much point in it reopening either.
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Post by crowblack on May 21, 2020 21:06:29 GMT
Juliet Stevenson and others were on Front Row on BBC2 at 7pm discussing the future of theatre. She didn't think it would restart till next Spring.
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Post by crowblack on May 21, 2020 13:55:17 GMT
That wasn’t a comedy was it ? Dark comedy, and played more so with some tweaks when we saw it again later in the run.
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Post by crowblack on May 21, 2020 13:15:21 GMT
This government won't value it anywhere nearly as highly as getting people back to work in finance and manufacturing. I think it will because of the social cachet. Politicians like swanning around at first nights and rich men like having their names on arts buildings, and without theatre, galleries, opera etc. London life isn't much fun.
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Post by crowblack on May 21, 2020 13:06:00 GMT
Rufus Norris doesn’t really approve of comedy, that’s why he’s never directed one. Mosquitoes.
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Post by crowblack on May 21, 2020 10:26:54 GMT
That, it would seem, provides an incentive for people under 50 to go, find the damn virus, isolate for 14-days and spend that time making theatre bookings. At the end of that - unless you're one of unfortunate 1/10k - all is well, and you can even hug a grandparent. It would lead to people going out, measles party style, to get infected deliberately to get their passport to entertainment - an incentive to put your life at risk, and the lives of others. Given that theatre is generally centre/left-leaning and socially conscious, and that BAME and lower-income people have far worse outcomes from this illness than the white middle classes, I doubt that's something many theatres would want to push for.
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Post by crowblack on May 21, 2020 10:21:34 GMT
In Brighton we have had an empty theatre (hippodrome) for several decades. Why hasn’t a theatre company just taken it on? Historic venues like that don't suit the needs of modern audiences and cost an arm and a leg to refurbish, an army of craftspeople to conserve and restore plasterwork, asbestos all over the place, architecture that is very difficult for access needs, health and safety etc..
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Post by crowblack on May 21, 2020 10:15:44 GMT
I grew up in the North-West of England and theatres, arts venues, bookshops, arts cinemas and all the rest were variously mothballed, closed, dark, bombed out and shut down. This was at a time when the population of my home city halved - many moving to London - and if you left your car outside a theatre or cinema chances are kids would have bricked in the windows by the time you got out. Slowly, they have come back. And the situation in London is very different - it's a white-collar, upper-middle-class city awash with money, and theatre, shows, music, cafes are what make London liveable-in. I can't see a few months or possibly a year or two of mothballing spelling the end of something the capital city has enjoyed - especially its most powerful, monied demographic - for hundreds of years.
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Post by crowblack on May 18, 2020 14:04:52 GMT
Not a show, but nice interview with Russell Tovey on Radio 5 this afternoon (Nihal from 2pm).
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