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Post by blaxx on Nov 18, 2023 4:04:23 GMT
So no movement sections?  |
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Post by couldileaveyou on Nov 18, 2023 7:00:37 GMT
So no movement sections? two or three, most notably act one finale |
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Post by matildaswinton on Nov 18, 2023 23:06:52 GMT
Didn’t enjoy this tonight. Poncia was excellent and a standout, though. Adela felt extremely forced and not emotionally connected, like she was tryingggg to showww her wordsss were importantttt but felt fake.
I saw a lot of Frecknall in this for the worse. So slow. Boring adaptation. Many curse words thrown in. Stand-and-speak valued over genuine interactions for the most part. The beginning had unnecessary we-are-all-talking-over-each-other-this-is-artistic vibe. Then it got slower and slower.
A lot is lost having Pepe onstage. I prefer the secrets to be more secret. It’s like they made everything obvious and forced, and then gave us some bell gongs, clock ticks and a slow-as-molasses tempo to summon up tension.
Makes me glad I missed R&J.
Bernarda, as mentioned above, does not come off as powerful. It just didn’t make sense what the point of view on the play was in this production.
I really wonder how others will feel. This has sold so well at high prices. Good work under bad circumstances from some of the actors. But overall, for me, a dud.
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Post by nash16 on Nov 19, 2023 0:22:45 GMT
The R&J was baaaad. I think it’s selling well because the theatre/straight play scene at the moment is so starved of any decent work. But it’s sad to hear this isn’t working. There was a brilliant production in the Lyttleton years ago, with another standout Poncia in Deborah Findlay. Why of why do young directors feel the need to underscore with tempo/clock countdowns to create drama. It’s so patronising. Will be missing this one. Didn’t enjoy this tonight. Poncia was excellent and a standout, though. Adela felt extremely forced and not emotionally connected, like she was tryingggg to showww her wordsss were importantttt but felt fake. I saw a lot of Frecknall in this for the worse. So slow. Boring adaptation. Many curse words thrown in. Stand-and-speak valued over genuine interactions for the most part. The beginning had unnecessary we-are-all-talking-over-each-other-this-is-artistic vibe. Then it got slower and slower. A lot is lost having Pepe onstage. I prefer the secrets to be more secret. It’s like they made everything obvious and forced, and then gave us some bell gongs, clock ticks and a slow-as-molasses tempo to summon up tension. Makes me glad I missed R&J. Bernarda, as mentioned above, does not come off as powerful. It just didn’t make sense what the point of view on the play was in this production. I really wonder how others will feel. This has sold so well at high prices. Good work under bad circumstances from some of the actors. But overall, for me, a dud. |
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Post by mrnutz on Nov 19, 2023 17:12:55 GMT
I found this pretty slow at quite a few points, but with enough to enjoy overall. Conversely to some thoughts above I actually found the parts with movement and Pepe to be some of the best moments.
Harriet Walter was the weakest link - with no weight to her portrayal I couldn't imagine any of the daughters being afraid of her. I don't know if she was deliberately playing it for laughs but she certainly got a few (as did others - during times when to me it felt like it wasn't supposed to be particularly funny).
An excellent set and some fantastic performances from many in the cast just about tipped this to a 3.5/5.
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Post by frankubelik on Nov 22, 2023 5:57:02 GMT
From the middle of the stalls, I had a hard time hearing much of the dialogue and have to wonder if less experienced stage actors simply cannot enunciate efficiently. I thought the set did not serve the piece at all well and had none of the claustrophobic atmosphere which should drive the piece. Overall bland performances - nobody stood out for me and sadly Ms Walter was very disappointing with little of the martinet on display. A rather muted response from the audience too.
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Post by mrnutz on Nov 22, 2023 9:58:42 GMT
A rather muted response from the audience too. Yes! I forgot to mention the same thing happened on Friday night, too. |
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Post by shakeel on Nov 25, 2023 0:56:43 GMT
Agreed with 3.5. It's fine, but the pacing's off and it doesn't build in the way it needs to. The ending's a bit of an anticlimax too. Sad, as I really enjoyed Frecknall's R&J (and Cabaret).
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Post by coco on Nov 25, 2023 10:21:16 GMT
I saw this on Wednesday but left at interval so I will not rate this. It’s my first time seeing Rebecca’s play and also first time seeing this play so I’m also not sure how the script really is. The main problem for me is Harriet’s Bernarda is not formidable at all to me, so while I could see the point of the play, it was giving me such a hard time as I always had to fill in the blanks of logic to make sense of the plot. And that’s why I didn’t want to see the second half. I know things wouldn’t get better for me.
But I would like to see more works of Rebecca as the pace of the play actually is fine for me, and I could see some interesting ways of doing theatre in it.
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Post by dr on Nov 25, 2023 18:03:31 GMT
Saw the matinee and wow - absolutely astonishing. As I said earlier in this thread, I'm a big fan of both Birch and Frecknall, so was prepared to be disappointed, but from the moment the set was revealed, I was in awe. I understand the criticisms about Harriet Walter, but it isn't her play, at least not in this rendering - as Adela, Isis Hainsworth is full of fire and resistance, and the supporting performances from Eileen Nicholas, Lizzie Annis and Pearl Chanda are extremely powerful, plus at times surprisingly witty. Frecknall's signature physicality and symbolism are haunting, invoking her Streetcar and Romeo and Juliet, while Birch employs the layered and rhythmic style of Anatomy of a Suicide and the latter section of Revolt, all to great, great effect. I felt it in my body - the repression, the simmering desire, the ambition to escape. "Intense" cannot cover it, and I will be thinking about this play for a long time. An enthusiastic response from today's audience - I do wonder if the "muted" reaction described above is due to shock at the force of the ending. 5 stars from me - and I doubt I will be the only one.
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Post by nash16 on Nov 25, 2023 18:22:11 GMT
If it evokes her Romeo & Juliet, I’m definitely out. That was appalling. Saw the matinee and wow - absolutely astonishing. As I said earlier in this thread, I'm a big fan of both Birch and Frecknall, so was prepared to be disappointed, but from the moment the set was revealed, I was in awe. I understand the criticisms about Harriet Walter, but it isn't her play, at least not in this rendering - as Adela, Isis Hainsworth is full of fire and resistance, and the supporting performances from Eileen Nicholas, Lizzie Annis and Pearl Chanda are extremely powerful, plus at times surprisingly witty. Frecknall's signature physicality and symbolism are haunting, invoking her Streetcar and Romeo and Juliet, while Birch employs the layered and rhythmic style of Anatomy of a Suicide and the latter section of Revolt, all to great, great effect. I felt it in my body - the repression, the simmering desire, the ambition to escape. "Intense" cannot cover it, and I will be thinking about this play for a long time. An enthusiastic response from today's audience - I do wonder if the "muted" reaction described above is due to shock at the force of the ending. 5 stars from me - and I doubt I will be the only one. |
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Post by harry on Nov 27, 2023 20:50:00 GMT
Boring question but could someone who’s seen it tell me in an dm or spoiler tags about the gunshots mentioned on the NT website? Is it just at the point it happens in the original Lorca or are there more in this adaptation? Thanks!
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Post by couldileaveyou on Nov 27, 2023 20:53:42 GMT
Boring question but could someone who’s seen it tell me in an dm or spoiler tags about the gunshots mentioned on the NT website? Is it just at the point it happens in the original Lorca or are there more in this adaptation? Thanks! Just Lorca's |
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Post by lonlad on Nov 28, 2023 23:40:10 GMT
Starriest press night tonight that I've seen at the National Theatre in ages -- the audience rapt throughout and enthusiastic at the curtain call, and rightly so: the production is a triumph and is going to be another hit for Rufus Norris's final stretch at the helm of the National. Commercial producers attached suggest a transfer in the offing. The playtext by the way is invaluable and worth buying in this instance to really understand how Alice Birch has filleted and layered Lorca's original.
The cast is superlative, Lizzie Annis and Isis Hainsworth first amongst equals: huzzahs all round.
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Post by couldileaveyou on Nov 29, 2023 10:26:51 GMT
Positive if not enthusiastic reception so far, 3* from the Times, Independent and The Stage, 4* from the Evening Standard and WhatsOnStage
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Post by prefab on Nov 29, 2023 12:06:03 GMT
This was one of the dullest plays I've seen at the NT in a long time, so I'm surprised that it's getting relatively good reviews. Admittedly I saw it early in its run (last Wednesday) from cheap seats way up in the circle. But still for me, almost the only parts of the play that worked were the modern dance bits added by Frecknall, which actually conveyed some of the emotions of longing and sexual repression, central themes that the actors struggled to convey in their dialogue.
It just all felt too monotonous, with the actresses constantly shouting at each other, and I didn't find them believable one bit as early 20th century Spanish villagers. Given that they took so many liberties with Lorca's original play, to the point that it's credited to Alice Birch "after Lorca," I wonder why they didn't just change the location to something the actors could handle better. (Rural Ireland in the early 20th century, perhaps?)
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Post by jr on Nov 29, 2023 12:30:13 GMT
I've returned my ticket for next month. Reading comments here have helped me to make up my mind. I've seen a few different productions in Spain, the (terrible) previous NT production and film and TV adaptations. This doesn't sound like a good version at all. I understand that you might to try and understand Bernarda as a victim of a system, this wouldn't make her less of a monster to her daughters. m.imdb.com/title/tt0092729/?ref_=ext_shr_lnkThat's a very good adaptation of probably the most successful theatre production in Spain. There were a few cast changes and a different director but they followed the original production. I think it is on DVD with English subtitles. |
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Post by couldileaveyou on Nov 29, 2023 12:50:26 GMT
Positive if not enthusiastic reception so far, 3* from the Times, Independent and The Stage, 4* from the Evening Standard and WhatsOnStage Another 3*** from BroadwayWorld and 4**** from Telegraph, iNews and LondonTheatre |
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Post by Steve on Nov 29, 2023 14:17:41 GMT
I LOVED this! A surveillance society version of the play that felt thrilling and immediate. The set is a character, it's see-through gauze walls making it resemble a prison or psychiatric hospital. I thought the whole ensemble wonderful, with Lizzie Annis exceptional. Some spoilers follow. . . For fans of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," think of this as "One Flew Over the Spinsters' Nest," with Harriet Walter as Nurse Ratched. The striking set allows Walter's Ratched/Bernarda Alba to be forever hovering behind doors and walls, or patrolling the grounds outside, penning her girls into their little see-through box cages, where the play usually has her character absent. Since you see everyone everywhere all at once, and since Alice Birch creates additional and overlapping dialogue for everyone everywhere, there is so much more to watch and listen to than usual, so many resonances in the machinations of every scheming inmate. Annis's limping Martirio is the most complex character, a kind of Stockholm Syndrome inmate of the asylum, a nascent Richard III, who has completely imbibed Nurse Walter's watchful cruelty, while at the same time still aching with empathy, love and a yearning for freedom. By depicting freedom visually, a gold lit shimmering Pape El Romano (James McHugh is the master of lingering lithe movement), watched by awestruck imprisoned girls from their individual cells, ballet dancing his way backwards and forwards, wherever he pleases, Rebecca Frecknall makes all the desperation so palpable. As Nurse Ratched, Walter is stern, uncompromising, terrifying; as the character best approximating the mischievous lead character of Cuckoo's Nest, stirring up all the other inmates, Thusitha Jayasundera is impish fun as Poncia, and Eileen Nicholas is superb as Bernarda's Mum, still infused with a free spirit despite a lifetime of incarceration. Usually with this play, for example the Almeida's one, set in Iran, I can watch from a distance, nodding and thinking, yes, that's terrible, that place far far away. But this one hits harder, for me, cos I can more easily imagine being sectioned into the merciless hands of a Nurse Ratched in a mental health facility lol. 4 and a half stars, as for me, Rebecca Frecknall does it again!  |
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Post by couldileaveyou on Nov 29, 2023 14:57:17 GMT
Positive if not enthusiastic reception so far, 3* from the Times, Independent and The Stage, 4* from the Evening Standard and WhatsOnStage Another 3*** from BroadwayWorld and 4**** from Telegraph, iNews and LondonTheatre FT **** Guardian *** |
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Post by Rory on Nov 29, 2023 16:09:48 GMT
Yet another 3 star review from Arifa Akbar 😏
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Post by minion on Nov 29, 2023 16:40:15 GMT
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Post by couldileaveyou on Nov 29, 2023 16:54:27 GMT
She's doing Miss Julie in Amsterdam from February |
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Post by minion on Nov 29, 2023 17:06:25 GMT
She's doing Miss Julie in Amsterdam from February Oh right. And also doing the adaptation herself. Just looked, and some else (Zinnie Harris) had done the adaptation for her when she'd first staged it. |
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Post by parsley1 on Nov 29, 2023 22:23:09 GMT
This felt like it lasted about 29 hours
Tedious
And a good lesson that Rebecca needs a rest
She has one directorial style
And it ain’t all that great
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