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Post by samuelwhiskers on Nov 3, 2017 11:21:25 GMT
Oh poor Simon.
I have noticed a lot of freebies floating around for this one. A case of good play wrong venue I think.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Nov 2, 2017 11:28:33 GMT
Theatreboard should sell "I Survived the Wooster Group/RSC Troilus and Cressida" t-shirts.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Nov 1, 2017 11:25:08 GMT
Admittedly I'm hugely biased (we have, as the kids say, "beef") but I really don't think Lyndsey Turner is a great director. She has good ideas but the execution is often flawed.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 30, 2017 13:27:56 GMT
Dave, a question re: choosing whether or not to feel intimidated. What actions do you take in your daily life to avoid being raped? Have often do you personally find yourself in a situation where you are genuinely afraid you might be sexually assaulted? How confident are you in your physical ability to fight off a rapist? How often has your job depended on being sexually attractive, or being nice to people who sexually harass you? How frequently do your colleagues and bosses make sexual comments about your body? How frequently are you catcalled by strangers? How frequently do strangers yell sexually explicit things at you?
That ad is sexist (towards women) and objectifies women. There's no way it wasn't created by men, for the male gaze. A woman cruelly rejects her poor oppressed husband by denying him his right to sex, but one quick shampoo later and women are throwing themselves at him and flashing their boobs while he grins broadly and is visibly overjoyed? It's not a coincidence they chose to cast a "regular Joe" looking guy, and busty model-looking women.
If you feel oppressed by an ad portraying men as being desperate for sex, blame toxic masculinity (which hurts men as well as women). It's not a double standard, it's the exact same old patriarchal objectifying BS.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 29, 2017 19:46:36 GMT
You genuinely believe "not getting your own way" is more intimidating that being raped Dave??
And you think men don't make sexually explicit comments about women online... words fail me.
Honestly on the basis of the comments here you sound like a sexual predator and it's concerning. At the very least you evidently have no interest in consent or women's comfort levels.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 29, 2017 19:06:59 GMT
In the real world women are not rapacious sexual beasts who accost men demanding sex. In the real world using a particular brand of shampoo will not bring hordes of hot, sex-crazed women flocking to you. There is a reason so many products aimed at men use this concept in their adverts (and have done since advertising started), and it's because that is a male fantasy. If ads like that were not effective they would not exist. The reason ads for women's shampoo don't feature sex-crazed men following strange women home is because it is not a female fantasy. For most women unsolicited sexual advances are an unwanted fact of life, and a very frightening thing. We can pretend men and women are equal but the fact is, men are overall physically stronger and bigger than women, and something like 98% of sexual violence is committed by men. Acknowledging facts is not some sexist "double standard."
You obviously have serious issues with women, or you wouldn't be trying to derail a conversation about rape with a load of MRA victim-blaming rantings about how women are hysterical whores who are asking for it.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 29, 2017 13:09:11 GMT
It starts in drama school. Drama school is all about psychologically tearing someone apart and demolishing all their boundaries and defences in order to build them backup, which makes students incredibly vulnerable. The level of trust between drama student and tutor is unlike an academic student-tutor relationship (though of course abuses do happen all the time within academia too).
What also does damage is the attitude instilled in drama students that they must never say no, that directors are Gods, and that boundaries are defence obstacles that get in the way of the emotional honesty necessary for creating Art. And a culture that explicitly considers nudity and sex (and any form of emotional nakedness or vulnerability) as "brave" or "challenging" or "being willing to take risks" eg all the qualities necessary to be an artist.
Dave, I found your post misogynistic, and I don't think a male-created male-fantasy TV commercial featuring an overtly sexual, objectified women is a good example. No woman wants to have to have sex with someone she doesn't find attractive to get a job. The only reason a woman would do that is if she considers she has no other choice. There are plenty of women who have "voluntarily" gone alone with unwanted sexual contact just to get or keep a minimum wage job flipping burgers, because without it they'd be homeless or unable to feed their kids. Is that an example of a woman making an empowered choice? The fact women have to choose between prostitution or unemployment, and men for the most part don't, is purely down to patriarchy and a culture of objectification. Plus a culture where women shag for roles is toxic for all women, since it makes it that much harder for women to decline, and even if they do they'd still be subject to objectification and harassment by men who consider female bodies their birthright.
Many industries have policies regarding relations between people in a position of power and underlings as a matter of course, to avoid harassment allegations or conflict of interest scenarios. Ditto rules regarding uni professors and students. There is no reason such policies cannot be implemented within the theatre industry, and indeed this is one of the things currently being discussed by ADs across the industry. There is zero reason for a director to have sex with an actor they are considering casting, or for a tutor to have sex with a drama student. Totally inappropriate. Even if two people have genuine feelings for each other, it's not going to kill them to wait till they're no longer in a position with such a dodgy power dynamic.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 29, 2017 12:24:25 GMT
What's embarrassing is when a theatre that doesn't normally tweet excessively suddenly going into overdrive for a particular production, and you know it's a turkey they're trying desperately to flog tickets for.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 28, 2017 22:40:50 GMT
Agents and CDs have been knowingly sending women to meet predators for years. If I had a pound for every time an agent has said to a female client, "But he WILL try to grab you so be careful" or comforting a crying actress afterwards with, "God I didn't think he'd try to assault ANOTHER one, we gave him a strict talking to last time!" (or all the times actresses have been ditched or threatened with being ditched by their agents for refusing to do nudity or other things, or for p*ssing off or complaining about someone important) I could buy my own theatre.
Equity do try and the recent scandal has led to Equity having certain conversations which have led to starting to develop new avenues for handling complaints (ways to safely and confidentially report, and varying ways of handling or investigating complaints after they've been made). The Women's Committee in particular are spearheading a major policy change and have already implemented some smaller specific changes. Having said that, Equity have not historically been good at handling this stuff, not out of complicity but plain incompetence and lack of manpower and lack of proper procedure. I've heard some absolute horror stories.
I spent today at the Court's day of response, in session and conversation with Vicky and other ADs and concerned parties. What happened today is confidential but I feel real change is in the air. At the very least, some practical changes will definitely come out of the work and conversations being held right now.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 25, 2017 11:38:04 GMT
Not bad behaviour but last night I was sitting behind a chap with the most enormous head I have ever seen. He was tall too, which didn't help (curse non-raked seating) but his head was simply gigantic.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 25, 2017 11:34:09 GMT
I love the Lyric but the only things exciting me are Fatherland, maybe 4:48, and I'll give a punt on the weird Macthello mashup.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 21, 2017 14:05:12 GMT
When I have my own theatre the interval snacks will include cosmic brownies, and pink custard.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 15, 2017 17:32:17 GMT
I’m not aware that theatre has anything like the same problem. One of the examples in Prebble’s article is obvious (and well known) but I am certainly not aware of persistent rumours of sexual assault or of anybody in a significant position of power threatening to destroy careers if they don’t keep quiet about those assaults. It may be the "rumours" have not reached the general public (or even ardent and well-informed theatre-goers), but within the industry all this stuff is absolutely an open secret. Lucy's one of the best people I know, and her article has done a lot of good in supporting and encouraging people to speak up. Jez has thrown his 2c in www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41594764?SThisFB
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 15, 2017 9:41:13 GMT
Tweeting during a play: okay if you're IN the play?
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 15, 2017 0:05:05 GMT
The UK theatre world is already erupting behind the scenes. I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a Weinstein-style takedown of one notorious former AD soon, and I'd lay money on which newspaper will be doing it, too. I don't think the scale will be comparable since theatre is less monolithic, but I hope individuals will no longer be protected by the culture of silence.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 12, 2017 10:35:41 GMT
Cumberbatch at the NT last night, coping with the delay by hanging in the bar till the last possible minute.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 12, 2017 10:33:55 GMT
It's a clever idea, but clever ideas do not good 2.45hr plays make. Apart from the initial dragon slaying scene the direction is turgid and painfully literal. Without Hef and Bleach's camp off it would be a real slog.
The NT do need to do something about the queue situation. It wasn't just the late start, it was the unprofessional manner it was handled. You'd think at some point they'd stop acting so unprepared every single press night.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 10, 2017 13:43:49 GMT
It's almost embarrassing how hard all involved are working to shill tickets. I'm surprised we haven't see Simon Stephens show up on Saturday Kitchen yet, or playing second fiddle to animals who do tricks on the One Show.
It's just the wrong venue. If this was on at the Court it would have sold out.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 10, 2017 10:43:15 GMT
Pretty awful reviews for this one.
It's confusing to watch. Reading the play is much clearer. Once you accept the plot has no connection to the setting and action onstage, and the two characters are speaingk separate and unrelated monologues, it's much easier to understand.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 8, 2017 19:07:59 GMT
Ha ha. This reminded me of when I dropped in to see a sneaky matinee of Let the Right One In during its London run. I was sitting near the end of a row in a sparsely filled dress circle. Just as the performance was about to start all the lights were briefly turned off, whilst simultaneously the usher spotted a person further down my row, who was fiddling with her phone. The usher rushed right up beside me and loudly hissed to this woman to turn off her phone. I hadn't spotted the approach of the usher, so I jumped about a foot in the air. Mind you, the usher and I had a laugh about it during the interval, and she even suggested a better seat for me to move to for the second half, so all's well etc. I'd rather strict ushers also The strict usher was far more disruptive than a watch making a single beep.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 8, 2017 10:35:52 GMT
Royal Court.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 8, 2017 10:27:46 GMT
I liked it. I didn't fully understand it but I liked it. It's good to see something properly challenging and intellectual and not straightforward and naturalistic on a main stage in London. I'm going to be thinking about this one and working it out in pieces for a while.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Oct 7, 2017 20:00:28 GMT
Rather strict ushers at the Belgrade. I was on the end of the aisle, some phone or watched beeped once from middle of the aisle. Usher instantly leapt to her feet and came and stood so close she was almost touching me, legs akimbo and arms crossed, death glaring down the aisle as though she could prevent future aberrant noises via willpower alone. Fairly intimidating trying to watch a play with an usher evidently prepared to leap over seats and rip someone's head off at any moment right next to you.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Sept 29, 2017 22:47:29 GMT
Bertie Carvel workshopped for this last year, but presumably was too busy with Ink. I nose they both have fine noses. (Sorry I'm terrible at puns.)
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Sept 29, 2017 8:28:40 GMT
Ha, I was convinced it was Jonjo!
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