2,848 posts
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Post by couldileaveyou on Oct 23, 2023 16:13:32 GMT
For the first time ever in the candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, experience the work of Henrik Ibsen, one of the most influential dramatists of all time, with his scandalous Ghosts, a searing exploration of family secrets and forbidden desire. Running November 10th - January 28th, directed and adapted by Joe Hill-Gibbs.
Very promising cast featuring Greg Hicks, Paul Hilton, Hattie Morahan, Sarah Slimani and Stuart Thompson.
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Post by Jan on Oct 23, 2023 17:33:15 GMT
I’m seeing it but only because the running time is usually about 1:40 which is all I could endure on those terrible seats. Greg Hicks is one of my absolute favourites.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Oct 23, 2023 18:00:05 GMT
"adapted" worries me.
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Post by David J on Oct 23, 2023 18:09:38 GMT
I’ll do you one better “adapted by Joe Hill-Gibbs” 😳 |
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Post by Jan on Oct 23, 2023 20:44:48 GMT
I’ll do you one better “adapted by Joe Hill-Gibbs” 😳 He’s not the obvious choice to direct this play just as Richard Jones wasn’t for Pygmalion. But similarly as I’ve seen this play three times before it might be interesting for me at least to have an unexpected approach to it. I always think there’s a massive confusing flaw in the plot in a literal translation so let’s see. |
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Post by Steve on Nov 18, 2023 23:03:10 GMT
I really enjoyed this tonight. It's a mesmerising candlelit version of Ibsen's "Ghosts" that plays at 1 hour 40 minutes straight through without an interval, much as the Lesley Manville version did at the Almeida. It's a worthy ten year tribute to the Venue too, with it's run marking ten years since the opening Gemma Arterton "Duchess of Malfi," utilising candles in a way that is as significant to this production as they were to that Premiere production. Greg Hicks and Stuart Thompson bring some much needed counterbalancing earthiness to an otherwise dreamily hypnotic show. Some spoilers follow. . . You know those stylish movies, often involving Scorsese or Welles or Hitchcock, where the shot just keeps on going without cutting away, so the world of the movie feels all-encompassing? Well, Joe Hill-Gibbins, in his script and in his direction, delivers the theatrical version of that, whereby one scene bleeds into the next without a decisive marking of the end of scenes, characters joining and disappearing from the conversation seamlessly. Significantly, Hill-Gibbins chooses to keep one character, Stuart Thompson's Osvald permanently present, keeping the most-trapped character trapped, on the plush carpet set beneath the crepuscular candlelight. The sacrifice is that we don't get the dum-dum-dum slap at the end of scenes. But the benefit is that the world closes in on Osvald's character in a more caged and claustrophobic way than you would normally experience with this play. Like in Malfi ten years ago, the candles are lit and squelched judiciously to match the drama (although they don't drip all over the audience any more as they did on me at the first preview of Malfi lol). It was great to see Hattie Morahan back doing Ibsen after the incredible Young Vic Dollhouse, also about a decade ago. As Mrs. Alving, Osvald's scandalously liberal mother, she is initially dignified and restrained, but later movingly impassioned and desperate as the plot ties her in knots. The way the script and direction bleed one scene into the next, with characters unable to break from the inexorable movement of the plot in such a contained dimly lit space, makes for a hypnotic and mesmerising experience, but its a relief that Greg Hicks, in particular, is so earthy and grounded, bringing in a breath of the air of an outside world into this claustrophobic atmosphere. Stuart Thompson's Osvald is also earthy, staccato and breathy, but more tragically so, as he is doomed never to leave the stage. All in all, this is a hypnotically effective version of "Ghosts," that sacrifices some moments of pithy aftermath to create a mesmerising, memorable and unique whole. 4 stars from me.  |
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Post by mattnyc on Nov 19, 2023 16:05:07 GMT
Seeing this in a couple weeks and I’m very much looking forward to it. I don’t think anything could ever come close to the Lesley Manville production, but this should be a special event given the setting.
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Post by Jan on Nov 19, 2023 17:24:18 GMT
Seeing this in a couple weeks and I’m very much looking forward to it. I don’t think anything could ever come close to the Lesley Manville production, but this should be a special event given the setting. I’m seeing it too. I didn’t much like the Richard Eyre/Lesley Manville production, far too melodramatic for me. I did like the Katie Mitchell production which was understated and impeccably cast with Simon Russell-Beale in the lead. |
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Post by thistimetomorrow on Nov 19, 2023 18:58:55 GMT
Would like to see this, but think I'll be too short for the standing tickets in the gallery. Hoping to find a good deal in the new years sale!!
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Post by pledge on Dec 7, 2023 21:39:53 GMT
A potentially good cast thrown to the wolves in a self-indulgent production that plasters early C21st sensibilities all over these C19th characters and their world; while cutting it to 95 mins drives a train through Ibsen's carefully manufactured structure, robbing the play of its slowly accumulated force and impact, and reducing the last 20 mins or so (which are tricky to handle at the best of times) to a sequence of soap-like revelations and climaxes. The trouser-less Osvald becomes such a whiny Mummy's boy (he refers to her as "Mummy" throughout) that it becomes difficult to care about him, and Manders SO weaselly and hypocritical that his character loses any counterbalancing probity. Far from being understated (as in Katie Mitchell above) every emotion is amplified and wildly semaphored. Paul Hilton and the great Hattie Morahan do their best, but deserve much better; while the indestructible Gregg Hicks hardly seems to have aged since his days at the NT 40+ years ago. A serious misfire.
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Post by Jan on Dec 8, 2023 7:51:24 GMT
.... while cutting it to 95 mins ... Is it cut ? It's never much more than 1:40 without intervals. The Almedia one was about that too. I haven't looked up how long the Katie Mitchell one was but I expect it was longer because Katie Mitchell. Agree on Hicks. 42 years since Peter Hall's Oresteia. He's only 70 so many years to go. |
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Post by pledge on Dec 8, 2023 10:29:50 GMT
You may be right (though the vogue these days does seem to be for "Ibsen-lite"), perhaps it just felt really rushed to me compared with several previous productions...
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Post by kate8 on Dec 20, 2023 7:46:51 GMT
Would like to see this, but think I'll be too short for the standing tickets in the gallery. Hoping to find a good deal in the new years sale!! There’s an offer on weekday matinees, promo code GHOSTS30 for 30% off. |
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Post by thistimetomorrow on Dec 21, 2023 4:10:39 GMT
There’s an offer on weekday matinees, promo code GHOSTS30 for 30% off. Ahhh I ended up getting a ticket in the TKTS NY Sale. Thanks for sharing this though! |
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1,052 posts
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Post by David J on Dec 23, 2023 19:09:43 GMT
So despite my objections I went along yesterday
I’d say this is the better of the shows I’ve seen of joe Hill-Gibbons
What is obvious is that he put so much investment into the scenes between Mrs Alving and Pastor Manders. Hattie Morohan and Paul Hilton excel here. The first half is pretty much devoted to them
There is also an emphasis on the sex underlying this play with the carpet and the sexual tension between Alving and Manders
Consequently what this all does is overbalance the play and makes Osvald and his illness feel like an after thought. Stuart Thompson was the weakest in the cast, and doesn’t delve deep into what the character is going through
Sarah Slimani was good as Regine and it is always a pleasure to see Greg Hicks, who brings a moment of poignancy during Jacob Engstrand’s revelation
The use of the lighting in the Sam Wanamaker helps bring the sense of confinement the characters endure in the Alving House
3.5 stars
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Post by Jan on Jan 9, 2024 21:31:31 GMT
A very simplistic and unsubtle version of the text here but this tends to be the house style at this venue. And the first half directed as if it was a sitcom. But the play just about survives.
Joe Hill-Gibbins enhances his reputation as master of odd floor coverings.
3*
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