3,303 posts
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Post by david on Jun 18, 2023 10:20:54 GMT
It’s been a while since I found a play at the Donmar really engaging but last night’s viewing ticked all the boxes for me. Jack Thorne has written a really interesting play that as a viewer gives you plenty to think about (how similar battles between the media and Government are playing out today). The writing is brought brilliantly to life by a wonderful cast led by Stephen Campbell-Moore and Adrain Scarsbrough. A nice balance between dramatic / emotional and really laugh out loud comedic moments ( and songs) made for a wonderful evening of theatre. Thanks also to Steve about the interval entertainment. A great way to pass the interval with the musical skit. For me it’s Campbell-Moore as John Reith who is worth the ticket money. His portrayal of Reith is one that I hopes gets recognised at awards season. He completely owns the stage and makes Reith a really complex character with plenty of depth with both his personal issues and his battles with Churchill for the heart and soul of the BBC during the 1926 General Strike. For the other cast they are also a great watch and the use of the sound effects recreation and added to my enjoyment of the play. I’d definitely recommend seeing this. |
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181 posts
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Post by caa on Jun 19, 2023 22:22:32 GMT
It was ok. After seeing patriots last week, during which I was engrossed throughout, I was hoping for more of the same. Unfortunately I found my mind wandering during a lot of this. The rest was all a bit meh. 2.5/5 Pretty much sums up my view, I thought it took a long time to get going |
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1,502 posts
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Post by foxa on Jun 21, 2023 22:48:46 GMT
I am in the 2.5 gang too. Just didn't take off for me, though I liked some of the staging a lot.
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3,557 posts
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Post by showgirl on Jun 24, 2023 3:49:29 GMT
Peeved to say I'm also in the underwhelmed camp and though this does sometimes happen, I'm baffled as to why all the professional critics' reviews I've read are so much more positive than those here. Despite the latter I was still really looking forward to last Thursday's matinee and hoping it would be the highlight of my 3-event day (exhibition, play and film) but I left at the interval. The heat in the Donmar circle didn't help and whilst I don't think I actually nodded off at any point (which could have been dangerous given that I was perched up there, as you have to lean forward to see), my attention was definitely wandering and though the staging was good, the dialogue in particular and treatment in general didn't work for me. This is the first work in any medium I've seen by Jack Thorne so probably not fair on this basis alone to compare it with the numerous plays I've seen by James Graham, but varied as the latter have been, there hasn't been a single dud amongst them and I've enjoyed them all. Now hoping that Dear England will live up to my expectations.
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5,688 posts
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Post by lynette on Jun 24, 2023 21:39:22 GMT
I thought they have air con at the Donmar?
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3,557 posts
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Post by showgirl on Jun 25, 2023 4:05:18 GMT
I thought they have air con at the Donmar? Possibly, but if so it was inadequate & after all, heat rises & I was in the uppermost row of the circle. |
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4,778 posts
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Post by Mark on Jun 25, 2023 8:23:31 GMT
This was “fine” but I never once felt invested, or particularly interested, in what was happening.
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Post by alessia on Jun 26, 2023 21:39:30 GMT
This was “fine” but I never once felt invested, or particularly interested, in what was happening. Same here. Just home from this and I feel quite disappointed, i was never engaged and kept looking at my watch. Been a while that I felt so disinterested in a play, shame as I loved the Motive and the Cue. |
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5,139 posts
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Post by Being Alive on Jun 26, 2023 22:32:43 GMT
Oh I really quite liked this.
Another great play from Jack Thorne as far as I'm concerned - not as good as Motive and the Cue, but still strong It's a little slow to get going, but after about 15 minutes it had me and then it sped along at a nice pace.
Lovely design and idea of how to stage it - it does feel like the text needs a bit more room that is available at the Donmar but Katy Rudd did well with what she had space wise.
Stephen Campbell Moore is excellent as John Reith and I found him to be hugely moving in Act 2. Strong performances too from Haydn Gwynne and Adrian Scarborough.
4 stars from me.
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898 posts
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Post by bordeaux on Jun 27, 2023 10:55:09 GMT
I really enjoyed this last night too. Perfectly happy to stand at the back for a tenner. It is of course a fascinating history lesson and a wonderful evocation of the time and of early radio. It is really well performed, funny, moving and full of contemporary echos in its consideration of the relationship between the BBC and the government. Brilliant sound work too, particularly relevant due to the subject mattter.
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524 posts
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Post by wiggymess on Jun 27, 2023 13:56:07 GMT
Could i please just ask about the staging for this? We're sat A2+3 on the balcony and a little worried about sightlines.
thanks!
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Post by swill on Jun 29, 2023 20:45:23 GMT
Could i please just ask about the staging for this? We're sat A2+3 on the balcony and a little worried about sightlines. thanks! Fantastic view from balcony C45 (opposite side but - which even had a pillar to see elements that are not crucial at all to the play) but you will be able to see that from A because there is not a pillar! |
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524 posts
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Post by wiggymess on Jun 29, 2023 20:47:22 GMT
Could i please just ask about the staging for this? We're sat A2+3 on the balcony and a little worried about sightlines. thanks! Fantastic view from balcony C45 (opposite side but - which even had a pillar to see elements that are not crucial at all to the play) but you will be able to see that from A because there is not a pillar! Thank you! Big relief. |
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307 posts
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Post by jm25 on Jun 29, 2023 21:55:14 GMT
Count me as another one who struggled to connect with this. Didn’t feel engaged with it at all. The applause at the end didn’t feel overly enthusiastic either.
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Post by NorthernAlien on Jun 30, 2023 23:45:06 GMT
Saw this tonight, and I'm not sure how I feel about it.
About an hour before curtain up, it rained in Covent Garden. Not a lot, but enough that the humidity should have been relieved. Somehow, the humidity got worse. The air cooling (or whatever it is they have), in the performance space wasn't working, and as well as all the theatre lighting, the cast were wearing a lot of wool.
The effect of all this is that I think I saw a poor performance - I suspect several of the cast were fighting severe dehydration and were basically slowly being boiled. As it was, there were a lot of fluffed lines, and is Reith supposed to stutter? Speaking of - no idea what was going on with the accent, which travelled around Scotland, Wales, Ulster, America, and, according to someone shuffling out next to me at the interval - The Netherlands. It was all very distracting.
The two people next to me couldn't wait to leave at the end, and I suspect had we not been sat next to one of the aisles where cast were coming on and off that they'd have possibly gone earlier. We also had a phone that went off several times in the second act. They'd have got away with it (old sounding ring tone), if it wasn't for Siri speaking to whoever had hastily silenced it...
As for the actual play - it feels like there's too much going on, and as if Jack Thorne couldn't decide what story they were trying to tell. Is this about the unions? The general strike? Reith v Churchill? The early years of the BBC? John Reith himself? It felt like, in attempting to weave everything together, nothing actually coalesced.
Hadyn Gwynne was excellent though.
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3,557 posts
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Post by showgirl on Jul 1, 2023 4:53:44 GMT
I was also puzzled about Reith's accent which seemed vaguely Welsh to me; not sure how it was meant to sound and agree re the heat and humidity, which I mentioned in my post.
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1,502 posts
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Post by foxa on Jul 1, 2023 11:01:20 GMT
When we saw it, Reith seemed a bit flubby - we weren't entirely sure if he was having an off night or if it was a suggestion of a stammer, but it didn't add to the performance.
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392 posts
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Post by lichtie on Jul 1, 2023 14:19:58 GMT
It's easy to find recordings of the real Lord Reith for comparison. The wandering is there in the original too (between Scots, upper class Scots, and his beloved BBC English), as is a degree of word chewing.
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1,254 posts
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Post by theatrelover123 on Jul 1, 2023 16:31:34 GMT
It's easy to find recordings of the real Lord Reith for comparison. The wandering is there in the original too (between Scots, upper class Scots, and his beloved BBC English), as is a degree of word chewing. I was there this afternoon and it also wandered to Ireland (both Northern and Southern), Jamaica, Wales, America, Norway and the land of Garble. |
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Post by Latecomer on Jul 2, 2023 17:23:55 GMT
I sort of enjoyed this but felt a bit dissatisfied. The ending was a bit of an anticlimax. I think there was a more interesting play in there waiting to come out….
Good day out though and everyone very professional, just a play that wasn’t really sure of what it wanted to say?
Nice to be in London for Pride day and see it so busy and colourful.
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423 posts
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Post by dlevi on Jul 2, 2023 20:54:55 GMT
I saw this Saturday night and found it to be weak in all areas except Stephen Campbell Moore who against all odds ( meaning the script) managed to create a three dimensional character. But the play? I think it must have begun life as a Radio Four play - and now it has been fleshed out with other stuff while still keeping the whole radio aspect of it - front and center. I also think it's been in Jack Thorne's drawer for awhile it felt as if the Donmar were offered a "new Jack Thorne" play and had to say yes. The script itself goes in several different directions and I think it's flaw is that doing a play about being "impartial" is anti-theatrical. This one simply wasn't for me.
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245 posts
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Post by barelyathletic on Jul 4, 2023 12:58:45 GMT
I saw it last night and really enjoyed it. A play full of ideas. Loved the energy of the staging and enjoyed all the performances. It faltered a little in the second act but still a provocative, engaging theatrical evening.
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1,470 posts
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Post by mkb on Jul 8, 2023 19:30:27 GMT
If an audience member is checking their phone, what do you do? Well, a gentleman, possibly American, in Friday night's show, decided this necessitated a loud "Please turn off your phone!". Instead of a few people being distracted by the phone screen, the whole audience turned to see what was going on, and Adrian Scarborough stumbled over his next line asking for a light for his cigar. But, at least there were no more phones.
Sad to say, that was the most exciting part of last night's drama. I'm very much in the disappointed camp.
BBC impartiality and workers striking for wages to keep pace with rampant inflation are topics that should resonate a century on, but there was nothing insightful for the history here to teach us. It was indeed quite a dull history lesson at that.
Despite Boris Johnson presenting himself as a latter-day Churchill, the truth is that the two were vastly different in looks, mannerisms and politics. But Scarborough's Winston seemed to be channeling clown Bojo, (and Clementine, Carrie). I assume this was deliberate by writer and director. The performance was a world away from the Churchill recorded in archive film.
I too struggled with Campbell-Moore's verbal tics and accent(s). If the real-life John Reith did in fact have a unique speaking style, then to imitate that precisely can have the dangerous effect of making it feel unreal.
It was Haydn Gwynne who surprised me. Not because she delivered a superlative performance -- she always does -- but because her turn as Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin was so convincing. I'm not usually a fan of cross-gender casting in a straight play, but she pulled it off remarkably.
The dialogue from Jack Thorne felt lazily written and half realised. He had clearly spent much time researching, and shoe-horned in as many gleaned factoids as possible into character lines without regard for how unnatural the effect.
I'd steered clear of this thread until today, so was unaware of and missed the interval act.
Even downstairs at the Donmar is too hot. They need to turn up the AC.
Two stars.
Act 1: 19:33-20:30
Act 2: 20:52-21:54
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Post by capybara on Jul 18, 2023 21:57:23 GMT
Saw this tonight. Three stars seems about right.
Interesting in places, slow in others.
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343 posts
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Post by properjob on Jul 24, 2023 19:00:35 GMT
I think I agree with most here. It was an interesting and illuminating story with a strong cast and I loved the staging with the on stage foley and the whole design but I did find myself checking my watch a few times.
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