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Post by showgirl on Dec 17, 2023 17:36:44 GMT
The herbal cigarette smoke was extremely unpleasant & pervasive during Meetings at the Orange Tree recently, too. Theatres should warn their audiences and improve their aircon before exposing people to this.
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Post by n1david on Dec 17, 2023 21:41:22 GMT
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Post by Being Alive on Dec 17, 2023 22:16:21 GMT
Can't say it was noticeable on Thursday when I was in - certainly not to the point I was actively thinking about it!
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Post by showgirl on Dec 18, 2023 5:22:56 GMT
Indeed, but though I could be wrong, I don't recall this info being available when I booked, months ago. Also, it doesn't say how much smoking/how frequent, etc, which is definitely relevant. Will email or ring the Almeida to ask. |
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Post by n1david on Dec 18, 2023 9:37:56 GMT
Indeed, but though I could be wrong, I don't recall this info being available when I booked, months ago. I think if you book a new show that's in development, they probably don't have this info at the time they open booking. It's like running time, they won't know this sort of information because the details of the show haven't yet been finalised. Given that we know that shows can change even during preview season, asking them to know this sort of detail for a new show months earlier is unrealistic. But the info was available by the time the show opened. And, no, it doesn't say how much, but it flags up that it happens, so for people who are sensitive to it, they can get in touch and check. |
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Post by stevej678 on Dec 18, 2023 10:43:17 GMT
Is it really essential to have characters smoking herbal cigarettes for much of the performance, particularly in an intimate space like the Almeida? It feels like a choice rather than necessity. Would any theatregoer feel any less immersed in the time or setting without it?
Warnings given or not, it seems to show a fairly flagrant disregard for the audience given smoking in indoor public spaces is otherwise not permitted. I know I certainly wouldn't want to spend an evening breathing in the smoke of cigarettes on stage, herbal or otherwise.
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Post by tmesis on Dec 18, 2023 10:58:04 GMT
At Saturday’s matinee I was in row F stalls and didn’t even think about the smoking.
I could barely smell any cigarette smoke let alone be troubled by it.
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Post by thistimetomorrow on Dec 18, 2023 14:55:26 GMT
I was front row when I went and I did think I came home with my clothes smelling like the herbal cigarettes lol.
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Post by stevemar on Dec 19, 2023 14:47:14 GMT
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Post by rumbledoll on Dec 19, 2023 15:53:29 GMT
A wonderful interview, thank you for sharing! |
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Post by pws on Dec 19, 2023 23:15:31 GMT
Just come home from seeing this. So good, perfect Xmas entertainment.
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Post by dlevi on Dec 20, 2023 8:03:50 GMT
Saw this last night and found that, for me it missed the mark emotionally . The performers are all fine but ultimately I didn't feel much of anything for any of the characters. The design was evocative, the staging was fluid - though getting some sense of just how much time was passing would've been nice. It felt like a step backward for Conor McPherson from his superb Girl From North Country. Of course there he had great songs from Bob Dylan to work with, here there were Polish folk songs and Elvis Costello's attempts to evoke ... I don't know what; just that they were attempting to be poetic but weren't. It's a worthy effort but one which looks better on paper than live on stage.
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Post by doornumberthree on Dec 20, 2023 18:19:57 GMT
Saw this last night and found that, for me it missed the mark emotionally . The performers are all fine but ultimately I didn't feel much of anything for any of the characters. The design was evocative, the staging was fluid - though getting some sense of just how much time was passing would've been nice. It felt like a step backward for Conor McPherson from his superb Girl From North Country. Of course there he had great songs from Bob Dylan to work with, here there were Polish folk songs and Elvis Costello's attempts to evoke ... I don't know what; just that they were attempting to be poetic but weren't. It's a worthy effort but one which looks better on paper than live on stage. I saw it this afternoon and have to after, I felt like Anya Chalotra was too wooden and made her character really unlikeable. I really wanted to love this and I really didn’t. Also I was sat in row F of the stalls and the cigarettes were awfully strong and caused the audience to cough for at least 45 minutes solid. Lots of people complaining in the interval. |
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Post by Steve on Dec 20, 2023 19:07:59 GMT
Loved this at the matinee: the mood, the measured stately pace, the fact that dots were connected that the movie didn't, the juxtaposition of joyfully communal and lonely melancholy music. Luke Thallon does so much, while appearing to do so little, carrying the narrative effortlessly as usual, and it was great to hear Anya Chalotra singing again, after being disappointed that she only sang the one (magnificent) song in "The Village" at Stratford East. Some spoilers follow. . . I recall I didn't really like the film, as it's structured to be frustrating (aka challenging), with massive time jumps presenting a puzzle to the viewer to figure out what the heck was going on at all times. That would have been an exciting intellectual exercise were the plot trajectory not towards a resolution that is in your face annoying (aka juvenile) if it isn't earned, and the time jumps ensuring it wasn't. At least for me. So the fact that McPherson fills gaps in the plot, for me, is really satisfying, as it builds a bridge towards that ending, such that I felt for the characters rather than being frustrated by them. Even more satisfying are the added Elvis Costello songs, which build a really romantic and wistful longing into the fabric of the show, making this less like the bitty solve-the-Cold-War intellectual puzzle that the film presented and more like the musicals, Dr Zhivago, Love Story or Once, in which moving music bonds us to the characters and connections in a way that hits deeper than words. Like in Zhivago, the songs foreground a burgeoning romantic love connection, while political Machiavellis and monsters (Elliot Levy was lively, charming and slippery where Jordan Metcalfe was blunt and funny) threaten it all; like in "Love Story," noone needs to say they're sorry, because the music does it for them; and like in "Once," the wistfulness of the music effectively prepares you for the story's trajectory. Thallon really impressed me today when someone in the front stalls butt-dialled emergency services towards the beginning of the second half, that person's phone announcing loudly "calling emergency services," in a way that left room for doubt about whether there was a real emergency or not. So Thallon, who is playing a performer, after all, says "Is everyone alright?" No response. "Calling emergency services?" No response. "Were we that bad?" Massive laugh of relief from the audience, before the show resumed, the tension relieved lol. But then, I've seen Thallon answer a call at the Globe at the last minute, to go on for someone else indisposed, book in hand, and give the most entertaining performance of the afternoon, so it's not a surprise. Anyhow, the storytelling here is one-step-at-a-time measured, and can come across as a bit slow paced, but if you accept that stately pace, as well as the thoughtful muted nature of Thallon's protagonist (which McPherson explains, and Thallon makes perpetually fascinating), as well as the general melancholy vibe, then this show is really quite unique and wonderful. Chalotra does a great "Once" style job of playing the more active, elemental, yet simultaneously more realistic and grounded, muse to Thallon's more romantic melancholy character. I also really liked Alex Young's stuff upper lipped stirring portrayal of an artistic idealist, faced with totalitarian horror. All in all, this is a rare and unique show, slow, but unique and fulfilling, for me, nonetheless, and much more entertaining than the film. 4 and a half stars.  |
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Post by sf on Dec 20, 2023 20:37:37 GMT
I also saw it this afternoon, and I also liked it more than the film (and I liked the film). Very strong writing and direction, pitch-perfect performances, evocative designs, and Elvis Costello's songs are lovely, and absolutely in tune with the setting(s) and the period. It's a beautiful production, and it deserves a much longer life.
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Post by singingbird on Dec 22, 2023 22:37:47 GMT
I caught this last week and have been trying ever since to figure out what I made of it. What a strange mixed bag of a show.
I really wouldn't define it as a musical. The songs, which are few and far between, in no way enhance the action and 95% of the sung material is diegetic. I also thought Costello's work felt quite contrived and by-numbers (and I speak as a Costello fan) and the script often prosaic and lacking in poetry.
For the entire first half I was more interested in the secondary characters than the leads, and the main narrative appeared to be going nowhere. The second half, however, felt like a totally different play and suddenly everything got much more intense and interesting for the leading couple.
By the end, I was almost in love with both leading characters and had also developed quite a crush on Anya Chalotra's portrayal, although I concede her character was something of a manic pixie dreamgirl - a male writer's fantasy of a quirky/damaged woman.
The weirdest thing is, despite only giving it a 3 stars maximum while watching it, subsequently I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. It's really haunting me. I actually think the story would make a great musical - I mean a proper musical - probably in a chamber-opera style. Something like Passion, or perhaps Aspects. These characters genuinely want to sing, and it's a shame this production didn't have the courage to embrace that full on.
The film had totally passed me by (even though I'd loved some of the director's earlier efforts) but I really want to see it now - I think it sounds stronger than the stage production.
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Post by parsley1 on Dec 22, 2023 22:53:56 GMT
Thought this was dreadful
A film less than 90 mins
Dragged out for more than 2.5 hrs
Utterly pointless unmemorable and lacking any focus
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Post by showgirl on Dec 24, 2023 4:33:30 GMT
Having seen this yesterday, I'm also quite unsure what to make of it, though agree that it's not what I consider a musical, has few songs - and none that I recognised as in the style of Elvis Costello, of whom I'm another fan. Despite the length and ponderously slow development, I wasn't exactly bored and the much-mentioned cigarette smoke, though noticeable, wasn't overwhelming but I was left wondering what the point had been and emerged feeling understandably rather downcast. I had planned then to see an early evening film (probably my only chance as despite good reviews, it's only showing in a single, independent cinema), but decided instead that after this and One Life beforehand, I had had enough drama and misery for one day.
For me the greatest issue was that though there's a fair bit for your eyes and ears to enjoy, ie the staging and music, there's almost nothing with which your mind can engage so mine was wandering frequently, whereas in a play/play with music, I expect and need to connect via the ideas and dialogue.
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Post by stevemar on Dec 24, 2023 16:31:44 GMT
I do understand the criticisms of it being slow/leisurely, but this added to the melancholic atmosphere for me, including all the smoking (not a big deal at all). Much more a play with music and that was fine; it didn’t follow a conventional musical path, though I would have liked Luke Thallon to sing more given that he sings well.
The acting carried it for me, even though I didn’t feel as emotionally involved as I might have.
Anya Chalotra but particularly Luke Thallon playing the damaged Wiktor were sympathetic. He brings such intelligence and subtlety to all his performances, and seeing him develop here at the Almeida, National and Old Vic makes him a must see actor for me.
My rating may seem a tad generous, but the quiet devastation has stayed with me. I’m with Steve on this one.
4.5 stars.
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Post by nash16 on Dec 28, 2023 18:16:13 GMT
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Post by mkb on Dec 30, 2023 0:33:24 GMT
I have not seen the film, so do not have that to compare to. I do like the music of Elvis Costello, and I did very much enjoy Girl from the North Country (not Black Country as I stupidly misremembered during the interval, much to the hilarity of my husband).
Cold War opens promisingly enough with some pleasant folk singing and character set-up. Oddly, the two strongest characters, played by Alex Young and Elliot Levey, vanish and barely reappear. What a criminal waste of two fine talents!
Instead, the piece focuses on the on-off relationship of Zula and Wiktor set against the backdrop of 1950s Poland when it is effectively controlled as a satellite state of totalitarian Russia. That that love story fails to engage is principally because we know so little about either character, certainly not enough for them to be interesting, and the behaviour we witness shows Zula to be utterly unlikeable and for us to wonder in astonishment how Wiktor could be so pathetically in awe of her regardless of how badly she treats him.
Luke Thallon's acting here as Wiktor seems to be seeking to emulate the style of Andrew Scott, but without the latter's ability to sound entirely natural when employing forced and random mid-phrase pauses and trailing off sentences. It's not a bad performance, but it's not a great one either.
Anya Chalotra creates in Zula a person I cannot fathom. I do not understand what drives her or who she is. There's not even an aura of mystery to excite fascination.
Some of the dialogue is risibly bad, and the presentation of national politics and state repression of citizens is cartoon-like, which works in a satire but not in a serious drama.
The cigarette smoking was so overdone -- and stunk to high heaven even in the rear stalls -- that it became a distraction, as I started to make bets with myself as to who would be next to light up and how soon. Actually, that distraction was not entirely unwelcome as it offered some relief from the ennui imposed by the dull narrative.
The songs were nice.
Two stars.
Act 1: 19:33-20:44
Act 2: 21:06-22:13
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Post by n1david on Jan 5, 2024 19:19:00 GMT
Tonight's performance cancelled due to cast illness, but only at 6.30pm, which is late given the Almeida's location.
I haven't been to this yet, I am booked for next week, but given my previous record here with not seeing Spring Awakening and the Secret Life of Bees due to cast illness (and knowing that others didn't get to see Tammy Faye), one has to wonder whether there is a curse on musicals in this place...
"Credit note or refund" being offered so no rebooking options given how well the run is sold...
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Post by zahidf on Jan 5, 2024 20:22:36 GMT
I have not seen the film, so do not have that to compare to. I do like the music of Elvis Costello, and I did very much enjoy Girl from the North Country (not Black Country as I stupidly misremembered during the interval, much to the hilarity of my husband). Cold War opens promisingly enough with some pleasant folk singing and character set-up. Oddly, the two strongest characters, played by Alex Young and Elliot Levey, vanish and barely reappear. What a criminal waste of two fine talents! Instead, the piece focuses on the on-off relationship of Zula and Wiktor set against the backdrop of 1950s Poland when it is effectively controlled as a satellite state of totalitarian Russia. That that love story fails to engage is principally because we know so little about either character, certainly not enough for them to be interesting, and the behaviour we witness shows Zula to be utterly unlikeable and for us to wonder in astonishment how Wiktor could be so pathetically in awe of her regardless of how badly she treats him. Luke Thallon's acting here as Wiktor seems to be seeking to emulate the style of Andrew Scott, but without the latter's ability to sound entirely natural when employing forced and random mid-phrase pauses and trailing off sentences. It's not a bad performance, but it's not a great one either. Anya Chalotra creates in Zula a person I cannot fathom. I do not understand what drives her or who she is. There's not even an aura of mystery to excite fascination. Some of the dialogue is risibly bad, and the presentation of national politics and state repression of citizens is cartoon-like, which works in a satire but not in a serious drama. The cigarette smoking was so overdone -- and stunk to high heaven even in the rear stalls -- that it became a distraction, as I started to make bets with myself as to who would be next to light up and how soon. Actually, that distraction was not entirely unwelcome as it offered some relief from the ennui imposed by the dull narrative. The songs were nice. Two stars. Act 1: 19:33-20:44 Act 2: 21:06-22:13 I enjoyed it more than you but I do agree the main characters are pretty unlikeable. I enjoyed the dialogue more though and politics. |
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Post by theatrefan77 on Jan 5, 2024 21:13:35 GMT
Tonight's performance cancelled due to cast illness, but only at 6.30pm, which is late given the Almeida's location. I haven't been to this yet, I am booked for next week, but given my previous record here with not seeing Spring Awakening and the Secret Life of Bees due to cast illness (and knowing that others didn't get to see Tammy Faye), one has to wonder whether there is a curse on musicals in this place... "Credit note or refund" being offered so no rebooking options given how well the run is sold... I'm due to see this tomorrow. So far I haven't received an email with a cancellation notice, so fingers crossed |
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Post by mjh on Jan 5, 2024 21:28:19 GMT
It was indeed a last minute cancellation but according to Elliot Levey who came out and spoke to us, Luke Thallon became ill this afternoon and while they tried to pull together an emergency cover for tonight it didn’t work out. They were frantically rehearsing so they could try and do the show tomorrow.
Katarina Novkovic came out and sang a song too and we all got a free drink. Given the circumstances I think they handled it quite well.
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