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Post by theoracle on Mar 17, 2023 12:34:56 GMT
For a show that no one really asked for and hasn’t even got it’s own thread yet, I’m surprised by how well this has sold. Mainly standing and £10 tickets left from the dates I’ve checked. This has definitely now piqued my interest as well and will be keeping an eye out for returns but wow, Donmar has gotten expensive lately…
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Post by emmy on Mar 17, 2023 13:12:25 GMT
Well, I’ve booked and am excited about it  - it’s one of my favourite plays and I rather disliked the recent UK tour, so would love to see a good production |
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Post by londonpostie on Mar 17, 2023 13:28:19 GMT
Longhurst lurching between his personal agenda - the sophistication of a gap year student virtue signalling on Insta - and strong cast revivals like this. Members broadly look to be staying the course? Casts like this obv. help. Reset early next year.
I've booked. Could be a real winner.
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Post by edelweiss on Mar 17, 2023 18:41:59 GMT
Well, I’ve booked and am excited about it - it’s one of my favourite plays and I rather disliked the recent UK tour, so would love to see a good production Do you mean the Nigel Havers/Patricia Hodge tour? If so, what was it that you particularly disliked? (If you don't mind my asking) Were you not convinced by the age shift? I'm genuinely curious because I saw the tour and loved it, but then it was my first production of PL so I have nothing to compare to... |
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Post by showgirl on Mar 18, 2023 4:19:01 GMT
Well, I’ve booked and am excited about it - it’s one of my favourite plays and I rather disliked the recent UK tour, so would love to see a good production I too would have booked (or tried to!) but for having also seen and disliked the recent tour. This is imo far better and more appealing casting; however, but for having been intrigued by the same aspect of the Havers/Hodge production, I'd have had no interest in seeing this particular play again then so alas even less now. Re the play itself, my aversion stems from the fact that it seems to come round *so* often that I feel it's done to death - and of course the small cast makes it more economical to stage. And though I have no objection in principle to experiments such as trying significantly older casting - it could even make more sense - in the specific case of Nigel Havers and Patricia Hodge, I felt they were totally ill-matched: he too lightweight and she too heavy. This skewed the balance of the central couple and completely cost their relationship any crediblity. |
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Post by emmy on Mar 18, 2023 10:25:05 GMT
Well, I’ve booked and am excited about it - it’s one of my favourite plays and I rather disliked the recent UK tour, so would love to see a good production Do you mean the Nigel Havers/Patricia Hodge tour? If so, what was it that you particularly disliked? (If you don't mind my asking) Were you not convinced by the age shift? I'm genuinely curious because I saw the tour and loved it, but then it was my first production of PL so I have nothing to compare to... I do and yes, of course. I wasn’t massively convinced by the age change, but it wasn’t the main reason - instead it was Nigel Havers and the direction. As Showgirl mentioned, there was a significant imbalance in the main relationship - Havers was a far more affable (but lapsing into a petulant child when frustrated) Elyot than usual and Patricia Hodge (who’s a class act btw, I met her once and she was a delight) ran rings around him. I think the play is a lot more interesting when you have a fair fight between the two of them. Ultimately it stems from the director - he stated explicitly he considered it very important that the characters were “likeable” to a modern audience. The result is he leaned into the comedy aspects and away from the tragic. Objectively these characters have done quite horrible things and a good production imo wouldn’t shy away from this, instead finding humour in the darker elements. It does still work as a comedy, but I think it’s a shame when there’s so much more in the text you can use. There’s a lot of other productions available online (I’m rather fond of Alan Rickman in a production from the 2000s and Penelope Keith in the 1976 version) if you’re interested that I think find a better balance. Sorry for waffling on, that was probably more detail than you wanted oops- I’m pleased you liked the play and I hope you like this production too! |
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Post by rumbledoll on Mar 19, 2023 16:37:02 GMT
Does anyone heard|know if more tickets to be released? All gone before I knew for sure my trip dates to London.. grateful for any info x
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Post by londonpostie on Mar 19, 2023 17:07:28 GMT
Does anyone heard|know if more tickets to be released? All gone before I knew for sure my trip dates to London.. grateful for any info x I saw a tweet around lunchtime saying they had released £10 standing for the whole run. |
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Post by edelweiss on Mar 19, 2023 19:29:09 GMT
Do you mean the Nigel Havers/Patricia Hodge tour? If so, what was it that you particularly disliked? (If you don't mind my asking) Were you not convinced by the age shift? I'm genuinely curious because I saw the tour and loved it, but then it was my first production of PL so I have nothing to compare to... I do and yes, of course. I wasn’t massively convinced by the age change, but it wasn’t the main reason - instead it was Nigel Havers and the direction. As Showgirl mentioned, there was a significant imbalance in the main relationship - Havers was a far more affable (but lapsing into a petulant child when frustrated) Elyot than usual and Patricia Hodge (who’s a class act btw, I met her once and she was a delight) ran rings around him. I think the play is a lot more interesting when you have a fair fight between the two of them. Ultimately it stems from the director - he stated explicitly he considered it very important that the characters were “likeable” to a modern audience. The result is he leaned into the comedy aspects and away from the tragic. Objectively these characters have done quite horrible things and a good production imo wouldn’t shy away from this, instead finding humour in the darker elements. It does still work as a comedy, but I think it’s a shame when there’s so much more in the text you can use. There’s a lot of other productions available online (I’m rather fond of Alan Rickman in a production from the 2000s and Penelope Keith in the 1976 version) if you’re interested that I think find a better balance. Sorry for waffling on, that was probably more detail than you wanted oops- I’m pleased you liked the play and I hope you like this production too! Not at all, this exactly the kind of detail I want!  I get what you and showgirl mean about Hodge being more serious/going for more depth than Havers - I got more of a sense of the real emotions of her character while Havers was a bit more OTT/playing for the laughs, although I didn't mind that much. (Also I agree that Hodge is a class act, I met her after Watch on the Rhine and she was just fabulous!) About the darker side of the plot - I found that the age change emphasised the play's darker undercurrent of the fear of being left alone, although as you pointed out they didn't really focus on the bad things the characters themselves have done. From the Donmar's description it looks like this production might bring that out a bit more, which I'm looking forward to seeing. Thanks for the recommendations! I love Alan Rickman and Penelope Keith so will definitely be checking those out! |
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Post by lolli on Apr 7, 2023 11:25:15 GMT
Anyone seeing the first preview tonight?
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Post by Being Alive on Apr 7, 2023 21:34:27 GMT
I'm there on Monday
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Post by Steve on Apr 8, 2023 22:38:56 GMT
Saw this tonight, and it's the bitterest least funny version I've seen: the least like a sitcom, the most like genuine toxicity. The cast are terrific but don't expect a laughfest! Some spoilers follow. . . Maybe the Donmar just isn't the right place for a massively funny version: maybe the furniture setups and whatnot, that you might need to stage comedy fighting, just aren't feasible when the audience is so close on all sides and props and actors might risk toppling into the audience. Cos this version definitely chooses to go the other way, and turns from desperately romantic to horribly destructively bitter and cruel. And for me, these moments are the most interesting and most memorable of this production, the way the two old flames fall romantically into each others' arms again being unduly moving (rather than silly and funny) and the way they turn on each other being a particularly horrific instance of domestic violence (rather than pratfalls and exaggerated attitudes). Usually, I'd expect something about the characterisations and style of playing to lend itself to comedy. Not so here, for me. To set the scene, not only is the Donmar ridiculously intimate, and thus a perfect platform for moments of quiet portentousness, but this intimacy is heightened by mournful violin playing in minor keys at specific moments, by dark lighting that heightens such moments of mournful nostalgia or danger, and by acting that is more naturalistic and emotive than the usual comedic exaggeration, accompanied by comedic attitudes. By contrast, typically, you'd have a brightly lit sitcom set filled with comedic exaggeration that defuses painful moments and emphasises laugh lines. For example, you'd have Matthew MacFadyen playing up his poshness by precise and prim line readings, or you'd have Toby Stephens puffing up his masculinity as a target to be punctured, or you'd have Alan Rickman singling out every odd word in the script with lingering nasal emphasis; all the kind of non-naturalistic silliness that sets up an audience to laugh and laugh and laugh some more. Mangan, despite his comedic origins in just such shallow puffed-up comedy, doesn't play it that way at all. He's the most normal unaffected Elyot I've seen: his worry is real, his love is real, and his toxicity is real. This will probably result in critics, looking for a good laugh, slamming this production. It will also probably result in a smaller number of critics, interested in seeing something a bit different, praising the production. Rachael Stirling can do broad comedy brilliantly: witness the recent "Scandaltown," in which her hilariously puffed up monster of a character stormed about the stage being broad, dumb, mean and generally hilarious. Stirling has the most marvellous voice for comedy too, deep, smoky and authoritative, perfect for setups and even more perfect for punchlines. And it IS used for comedy here, but equally as much for a roar of anguish that I really wasn't expecting from this play. The portrait of genuine affection combined with it's flipside, total violent toxicity, is a confection that ultimately is more disturbing than funny, and although Coward can't help but be funny, given his jokes loaded upon jokes, what lingers with me from this production is it's portrait of toxic relationships, how cyclical and addictive they can be. Sargon Yelda is amusingly stolid and Laura Carmichael, always excellent in everything I've seen her in, is amusingly straight-laced, but even this amusement turns to bitterness in Michael Longhurst's vision of this play. For one uber-romantic moment and one uber-toxic moment, and for a fine cast across the board, I'd rate this 3 and a half stars, downgraded from 4 stars cos I missed having more laughs. |
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Post by Jon on Apr 8, 2023 22:52:28 GMT
I was there as well and enjoyed it. I've not seen Private Lives before so was going in cold but it's interesting how this 93 year old play was ahead of its time in exploring toxic relationships.
I think Rachael Stirling was the strongest of the cast as Amanda but they all on form.
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Post by zahidf on Apr 9, 2023 8:56:43 GMT
What's the running time for this please?
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Post by foxa on Apr 9, 2023 9:30:13 GMT
Thank you for the reviews but - oh no! - I booked because I was looking for the laughs (I'm always looking for laughs these days) - but having been forewarned I will be less disappointed when I see it in a few weeks' time.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Apr 9, 2023 10:09:10 GMT
I was there too. One of the most bizarre productions of a Coward play I've ever seen. Running time, maybe two hours ten minutes? Spoilers... First, it's not funny, except maybe in the first act. It's played very naturalistically and with an emphasis on the toxic nature of relationships. The domestic violence scene that closes the second act is brutal and raw. The food fight bit made me feel squeamish. There are two really weird directorial choices which I didn't understand. First, during the interval two of the musicians (a man and a woman) come down from the orchestra and play on stage, but the male musician keeps interrupting the piece to give "helpful" advice to the female musician on the flaws in her musical technique, and she becomes increasingly irritated and finally storms off in a huff. The male musician is thrilled to have the stage to himself and delivers a solo, while the actors are waiting for him to stop and get off the stage, and finally a stagehand has to make him leave the stage so the play can resume. I guess this is supposed to be a bit of fun during the interval that carries on the theme of the war of the sexes but it's just weird. Amanda and Elyot have a toxic romantic relationship, fighting is part of the passion of their relationship. He's not trying to put her down because she's a woman and they are equally toxic, she gives as good as she gets and even initiates the violence. It's a completely different dynamic from some jerk mansplaining as a calculated choice to try to undermine a female colleague. All three of Coward's female characters stand up for themselves, so it feels regressive introduce an original female character who doesn't fight back and is bullied off the stage.
The second thing and the thing that destroyed the play for me, they've added a sound track of artificial sound effects, basically a background track which plays through the speaker system at various points throughout the play. Maybe it's because I was sitting directly underneath the speaker but the sound effects were so loud it was a constant source of distraction and made it incredibly hard to focus on the actors. I overheard some other people complaining about it too. I don't understand why anyone thinks a live theatre play needs a background track anyway. Some of the sound effects were fine but didn't really work (for example when Stirling throws a glass at the wall there's a really hammy and overly dramatic "glass smashing" sound effect but the timing is slightly off, so she smashes the glass then a beat later the sound effect plays. She really does smash the glass for real so why add a fake sound effect over it?) During the whole of the last half, there's a background track of car noises. Like cars going brmm brmm, car doors opening and closing. But super loud and distracting. WHY?? They're in the living room of an apartment. Not in the pit of a Formula 1 race. It felt like trying to watch a movie on your phone while driving down the M1 with the windows open. |
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Post by Dawnstar on Apr 9, 2023 11:58:33 GMT
When restricted view tickets were released a few day ago I considered buying one. Based on the above comments, I'm now glad that I didn't. This doesn't sound like the sort of take on Private Lives that would be to my taste. I'd rather see it played as a comedy.
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Post by Jon on Apr 9, 2023 21:13:13 GMT
I'm a bit confused about Private Lives being a comedy, I mean it has funny dialogue and scenes but it's not Noises Off!
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Post by Jan on Apr 10, 2023 7:25:35 GMT
I'm a bit confused about Private Lives being a comedy, I mean it has funny dialogue and scenes but it's not Noises Off! Noises Off isn’t a comedy, it’s a farce. |
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Post by foxa on Apr 10, 2023 9:07:50 GMT
I believe it's always described as a comedy. Coward subtitled it 'an Intimate Comedy,' Wikipedia has it as a 'comedy of manners' and the Donmar calls it a 'dark comedy.'
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Post by Jan on Apr 10, 2023 9:29:31 GMT
I believe it's always described as a comedy. Coward subtitled it 'an Intimate Comedy,' Wikipedia has it has a 'comedy of manners' and the Donmar calls it a 'dark comedy.' Correct. And what’s more Coward himself insisted on several occasions that it was a comedy and in the original production in which he was the lead it was billed and played as such. No scope at all for any confusion. |
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Post by Latecomer on Apr 10, 2023 15:50:40 GMT
Although sometimes society looks back at what was “funny” years ago and takes another look? I am intrigued at the toxic relationship vibe being looked at as a drama and not played for laughs. And as for “well he meant it like x or y” I’m pretty sure Shakespeare would be a bit surprised at some of the versions of his plays I’ve seen!!!!!
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Post by lynette on Apr 10, 2023 18:41:55 GMT
I was disappointed not to get a ticket cos didnt try til too late but perhaps I can live without this one.
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Post by Being Alive on Apr 10, 2023 22:41:39 GMT
Whilst I appreciate people not thinking this is an out and out comedy, I still laughed a lot!
This is unquestionably funny, and well written. Longhurst has directed this, however, to show a couple that can't live without each other (fights and all). The end of each act is pretty startling (I can't do spoiler tags but some of that is not in the original stage directions...)
Well cast (Rachael Stirling one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen) and a nice design, but like, can't say that I enjoyed it really.
3 stars
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Post by frankubelik on Apr 11, 2023 6:52:07 GMT
It's a very different and dark interpretation but very enjoyable nonetheless with Rachael Stirling incandescent as Amanda. Solid support from the others with Stephen Mangan playing it in a very modern style. The ridiculous interval interlude added nothing and I question why Longhurst decided to allow such dreary music (only one piece of which was recognisably Coward) throughout.
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- it’s one of my favourite plays and I rather disliked the recent UK tour, so would love to see a good production
I get what you and 
