Karagula

[Deleted]

Is anyone else seeing this please?

[infofreako]

Yes on 27th June

[Deleted]

I am seeing Monday

I hope it's good

Ridley at his best

Is unsurpassable

[infofreako]

Really looking forward to it

[Deleted]

I'm seeing it! I'm pretty excited about it.

[terrylondon79]

Tonight was the first preview as they cancelled Fridays show..
Was interesting, not Ridley's best.

Nice set. Unfortunately enjoyment was hampered by one scene where there was a mic issue meaning you couldn't hear most the dialogue.

[terrylondon79]

Oh and they need to do something about the running time
.. Started ten mins late. But didn't finish till 11:15. Was seriously worried I'd be getting nightbus home!

[Deleted]

Jun 12, 2016 0:42:07 GMT terrylondon79 said:

Tonight was the first preview as they cancelled Fridays show..
Was interesting, not Ridley's best.

Nice set. Unfortunately enjoyment was hampered by one scene where there was a mic issue meaning you couldn't hear most the dialogue.

Please can you give more details of plot set staging etc

Is it really that ambitious as they have made a big deal of the scale of the show

Am seeing tomorrow but want to be sure it's worthy to attend

Thanks for your time

[Deleted]

Jun 10, 2016 8:25:21 GMT @baemax said:

I'm seeing it! I'm pretty excited about it.

I am sorry to say

Utter mess
In the worse possible way in every sense

The ONLY worthwhile part was bumping into a fellow forum member (1st time ever!!!)
Sorry I ran off

I had to get out of there
The seating was awful and I have a crick in my back

The "play" is not even a work in progress

Where do I start?

Firstly, why the annoying venue?
It's not convenient for anyone

It's not a proper theatre and the area is hardly renowned for the arts

The "auditorium" is a concrete area in a shed

Like a more crappy version and smaller than the old Southwark Playhouse (which I was very fond of)

The seating is hard plastic chairs the sort you might torture people strapped to

And this is sheer torture

The "staging" means you are constantly straining your neck to look to either end of the "traverse"

Where there is some scaffolding

I can't be bothered to outline the plot as it is so terrible but we get a combination of non linear scenes with a wildly fluctuating timescale showing some sort of parallel worlds

It would be a lie to to say any of it is high concept

It really isn't

The acting is okay (God knows what some of the performers are doing in this, I would rather sign on)

The staging is abysmal

Clunky and cheap and awful special effects

The jugular is referred to as a vein and a character dies within 1 second of stabbing herself in this

The aforementioned microphones still didn't work in one scene rendering the idea of that particular time as being futuristic as laughable

Quite how this is the most ambitious staging ever in the fringe f*** knows
It's worse than most primary school nativity plays

I am well used to Philip Ridley and this is the first play of his I haven't liked

It was a nasty shock

There is a lack of any sort of focus, any prudent editing and a lack of budget and vision to try and bring his fantastical ideas to look half convincing
I had no sense of scope or amazement

After almost 1H and 45M I felt no connection to any character

There was way too much doubling and tripling up of actors

And I just could not take any of it seriously- I wanted to run into the "stage" area and tell everyone to go home

To be quite frank I think it's a pisstake and borders on criminal that they think this show justifies a £28.50 ticket price

[Steve]

I love Philip Ridley very much, but this attempt to depict the power plays and myth-making that come together to form a corrupt religion, does not feel ready for an audience yet. At least not for this audience member anyway.

On the plus side, I met Parsley. I'm sure he left at the interval (now), and with good reason!

[Deleted]

I have to add

About 1/3 of the dialogue is inaudible

And this is just due to a combination of atricious diction and execrable space

However

This is supposed to be a professional show

The sh*tty sound and microphone issues just aren't on

There is no excuse

Although they look like 1980s walkie talkie headsets

[Deleted]

Jun 13, 2016 20:28:34 GMT Steve said:

I love Philip Ridley very much, but this attempt to depict the power plays and myth-making that come together to form a corrupt religion, does not feel ready for an audience yet. At least not for this audience member anyway.

On the plus side, I met Parsley. I'm sure he left at the interval (now), and with good reason!

Yes lovely to meet you

I am sure (had we been in a better area) I would have rather gone for a drink and a chat than see this!!!

[Deleted]

Jun 13, 2016 20:28:34 GMT Steve said:

I love Philip Ridley very much, but this attempt to depict the power plays and myth-making that come together to form a corrupt religion, does not feel ready for an audience yet. At least not for this audience member anyway.

On the plus side, I met Parsley. I'm sure he left at the interval (now), and with good reason!

I found it uncomfortable that the vast majority of the fundamentalists of Mareka (who are portrayed negatively) were all played by black actors and were made to behave like hysterical gospel evangelists

It was the worst sort of stereotyping and I found it clumsy and offensive in fact

This sort of thing TOTALLY justifies leaving as soon as one can

I thought about dashing across the stage several times to make a getaway mid action

But was in fear of being taunted

Honestly if I had spoken for 20 minutes and done my Beyoncé dance in my night dress

It would have been way more entertaining

I can't imagine any of the critics are going to like this

Likely the big names aren't going to be going anyway and they will send their subordinates to numb their bums on those awful torture chairs

[bellboard27]

Right! Parsley in a nightdress doing his Beyoncé dance! Well I suggest we organise a venue & get the tickets on sale. Parsley, I assume Equity minimum is OK?

[Deleted]

Jun 13, 2016 22:10:52 GMT bellboard27 said:

Right! Parsley in a nightdress doing his Beyoncé dance! Well I suggest we organise a venue & get the tickets on sale. Parsley, I assume Equity minimum is OK?

Will do it for FREE

To save you all the mercy of this show instead!!!

On this note

Anyone seeing Queen Bee at Wembley in July??

[Deleted]

Jun 13, 2016 20:28:34 GMT Steve said:

I love Philip Ridley very much, but this attempt to depict the power plays and myth-making that come together to form a corrupt religion, does not feel ready for an audience yet. At least not for this audience member anyway.

On the plus side, I met Parsley. I'm sure he left at the interval (now), and with good reason!

Did you last until the end?

[infofreako]

Jun 13, 2016 22:12:21 GMT @parsley said:

Jun 13, 2016 22:10:52 GMT bellboard27 said:

Right! Parsley in a nightdress doing his Beyoncé dance! Well I suggest we organise a venue & get the tickets on sale. Parsley, I assume Equity minimum is OK?

Will do it for FREE

To save you all the mercy of this show instead!!!

On this note

Anyone seeing Queen Bee at Wembley in July??

Im going to Beyonce. Which night parsley?

[Deleted]

Jun 13, 2016 22:17:57 GMT infofreako said:

Jun 13, 2016 22:12:21 GMT @parsley said:

Will do it for FREE

To save you all the mercy of this show instead!!!

On this note

Anyone seeing Queen Bee at Wembley in July??

Im going to Beyonce. Which night parsley?

Sunday

The 3rd I think?

She should do a musical

Would be amazing

Has the singing skills

Can act okay

Dances a treat

Has stamina

[infofreako]

Jun 13, 2016 22:18:46 GMT @parsley said:

Jun 13, 2016 22:17:57 GMT infofreako said:

Im going to Beyonce. Which night parsley?

Sunday

The 3rd I think?

She should do a musical

Would be amazing

Has the singing skills

Can act okay

Dances a treat

Has stamina

Same date for me.

[Deleted]

Jun 13, 2016 22:20:49 GMT infofreako said:

Jun 13, 2016 22:18:46 GMT @parsley said:

Sunday

The 3rd I think?

She should do a musical

Would be amazing

Has the singing skills

Can act okay

Dances a treat

Has stamina

Same date for me.

Lovely time we will have

[Steve]

Jun 13, 2016 22:12:54 GMT @parsley said:

Did you last until the end?

Parsley, yes, just got home now. Nice to meet you. At least I had those other chaps to chat with in the interval lol.

It ended at 11pm. Baemax will be over the moon.

For those who want to know what this is like, think "Planet of the Apes 2," the one where mutated humans with telepathy worship missiles. What is this play about, you may ask?

Well, Mareka (ie America, and if you don't guess it right away, they do American accents to make sure you do) is a land of milkshakes and mind control, where an infantilised fattened populace parrot platitudes and religious dogma, unaware that their masters really rule over them with fear and the gun.

Ridley's intention is to create an epic story of resistance to Mareka, which reveals not only the phony origins of religion and the hypocrisy of the nation state, but also the cyclical nature of violence and history.

However, his vehicle resembles the science fiction of Dr Who, without the Doctor and his companions for rooting interest. Worse, the doubling of actors, in this production at The Styx, makes it difficult to follow the very few distinctive characters that you might care about.

Truthfully, you could watch some old Dr Who Tom Baker episodes, for example, "The Face of Evil," and learn the much the same things as here, but with charismatic entertaining leads to guide you through the story.

Ridley can and will write an effective takedown of America, religion, history and humanity one day, I'm sure. This isn't it.

2 stars

[Deleted]

The Curious Incident of the Lion in the Nightie

[perfectspy]

It's got a terrible review by the Telegraph in which they ask, is this the worst play of 2016. The location is okay, I have no problem with it. Though the three hours would mean bopping on the tube after 11pm. The price seems a joke for this sort of venue.

I think I'll give this a miss and trade Ridley for Ripley instead.

[Deleted]

Jun 17, 2016 17:15:14 GMT perfectspy said:

It's got a terrible review by the Telegraph in which they ask, is this the worst play of 2016.

And Aleks Sierz ends his theartsdesk review by saying it may well be his theatre event of the year.

A Marmite show!

[Steve]

Jun 18, 2016 14:24:47 GMT @honouredguest said:

Jun 17, 2016 17:15:14 GMT perfectspy said:

It's got a terrible review by the Telegraph in which they ask, is this the worst play of 2016.

And Aleks Sierz ends his theartsdesk review by saying it may well be his theatre event of the year.

A Marmite show!

It's less a marmite show, more of a homework show.

No doubt Sierz received a press pack with a playtext, programme, pr notes and whatnot, then diligently did his homework to discover what the heck was going on.

Parsley, Joel, Steve2 and myself hadn't a blind clue.

Some critic or other said that there were 50 characters played by 9 people. Only way the critic could know that is doing her homework. If that's the case, each actor played 5 or 6 characters. We poor viewers who hadn't been set homework couldn't tell what was going on. Poor Joel and Steve2 begged me to explain what I could, and I tried my best, but my best wasn't good enough.

Ridley is a genius, but this work is not audience friendly. To fully understand the show, you need to do homework, a LOT of it.

It's a homework show.

I respect Cavendish for refusing to do the homework, and approaching the show like us hoi polloi.

The reviewers who did their homework are like experts, and their reviews are unlikely to reflect the experience of most people.