1,245 posts
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Post by joem on Mar 10, 2024 19:22:59 GMT
This was better than I expected and really rather good.
Although inevitably it's more NyeHS than a considered work on Bevan's political career and influence on British politics, it is dramatic and the characters well drawn and sympathetic. Certainly the birth pangs of the NHS are well documented - even if it's later woes are not dealt with.
Sheen is very good in this - what a contrast to Under Milk Wood - and the emotions are tasteful and believable, never mawkish.
Solid production with strong supporting performances.
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628 posts
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Post by jek on Mar 16, 2024 10:37:04 GMT
Saw this last night and thought it was good in parts. Some of the 'episodes' are better than others - a bit more of the Dennis Potter influenced bits would have helped - or maybe that's just because I am old enough to remember the first broadcasts of The Singing Detective and Blue Remembered Hills. I also - given that one of my sons was in it - inevitably thought of the London Olympics opening ceremony (all those swirling beds and nurses) and all that hope and expectation there was around that. My husband and I first met over 30 years ago when we were studying for PhDs in Labour History/Politics and so the subject matter of Nye is right up our street. It was good to be reminded of (and no doubt for many in the audience introduced to) just how much opposition the BMA put up to the founding of the National Health Service. It was also good on the pragmatism/compromises necessary to get things done in politics. Good use of video too. But it was a bit long. Good that it is going to Wales.
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Post by Mr Snow on Mar 19, 2024 11:06:53 GMT
Reading this they seem to have tightened it ...a bit. Still too many extraneous scenes and other characters being underdevleoped. Although it's set up in Act 1, Act 11 is a clunkly change of style. And I'm still wondering why he wasn't told the full news of his condition at the end?
It also completely sidelines the other thoughts about a National Health Service going round at the time. The Citadel, The Beveridge Report etc. Yet simultaneously it fails to fully recognise what a revolutionary act this was. My father was a medical student at the time the NHS was set up, and his understanding of what his world would look like in the future, was rewritten in a flash! The NHS was not why HE went into medicine.
But was it really a Drama? I do wonder how it would play to someone who knew nothing about the NHS? The most dramtic scene, the showdown with the BMA relied on tape!!! As a "docudrama" it left as many questions unanswered as blanks filled in.
So with the actors and the NT displaying all their skills, the time passed relatively quickly but to little real effect. I'm sure there's an really interesting play to be written about Bevan, but sadly this isn't it. Felt like 3 stars on the night, but the material is really only 2 stars.
(The Singing Detective analogies are spot on, lets just say its something of a "homage".)
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Post by sophia on Mar 21, 2024 11:51:36 GMT
I think I would have preferred this if it had focused on founding the NHS and gone into more detail about that, with perhaps some occasional flashbacks to earlier in Nye’s life - rather than trying to tell his entire life story and the NHS aspect feeling a bit rushed in the last 25/30% of the show.
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2,476 posts
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Post by zahidf on Mar 21, 2024 11:54:35 GMT
I enjoyed it overall for sure, but could have done with a tighter focus maybe
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Post by seasider on Mar 23, 2024 22:49:46 GMT
Saw this this afternoon. I enjoyed it but agree it lacks focus. Acting is excellent and overall I would say 3.5 stars.
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Post by david on Mar 23, 2024 23:50:00 GMT
My NT double show day came to end with a viewing of Nye this evening. I will say that I got far more out of this one with MS than the Dylan Thomas one. Nye was far more interesting a watch and I think have row B stalls seat to watch it from also helped. MS was terrific in this along with some nice performances from the other cast members. I did like the Singing Detective presentation style of the piece and getting to see him sing in Act 1 was good fun.
From reading other board member reviews, I’d agree that I would also of liked more focus on the establishment of the NHS and Bevan’s struggles both politically and with the BMA. The use of the video projections here I thought weren’t particularly effective in trying to establish his struggles. More scenes played out with other actors would have been a better creative decision. Though I will say that Nye did a far better job with the NHS plot line than the Human Body at the Donmar did.
I’ll be giving the Food for Ravens film a watch when I get back as a comparison piece to this play.
Overall, whilst a fun and engaging watch this evening and I definitely got value my £20 ticket, I think a tighter and more focused script would have elevated this from a 3⭐️ rating.
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Post by bram on Mar 30, 2024 17:46:22 GMT
A thoroughly entertaining and informative evening with a wonderful performance from Nichael Sheen. Fun and moving
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1,826 posts
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Post by Dave B on Mar 31, 2024 18:02:16 GMT
Given the chat in General about understudies etc, this is pretty positive from the NT but also a big BAH. Going tomorrow and in the Are you ready for Nye? email it says
And just to add in fairness to the NT they sent this email more than 48 hours before the performance so I could have exchanged for credit.
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Post by theatre22 on Mar 31, 2024 19:19:05 GMT
I think this absence was planned for a while as it was noted on the booking page but it was all the way at the top and would be easy to miss. I think I only noticed it because these dates seemed to have slightly better availability than others. The best notification I saw recently was for Sunset Boulevard where you clicked on the date to book and it told you then if Nicole wasn’t scheduled to perform. Others seem to list it on different pages to the booking which is easy to miss or don’t bother to highlight the alternate if there is one at all.
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Post by Dave B on Apr 2, 2024 7:57:53 GMT
So Lee Mengo on last night. It sounds like I had missed a note about it on the booking page and so no Michael Sheen who was our main reason for booking. Oh well c'est la vie.
I'd be really interested if anyone knows this was his first night taking over for this absence. Not that I could tell from his performance but there looked to be a definite moment at the curtain call as he looked to a couple of cast members for reassurance it had gone ok (it had!) and it was nice to see the entire cast really supporting and congratulating him and giving him a minute to take it all on. It was a really lovely moment.
Anyways, I agree with many comments above. This is a bit unfocused and never manages to give enough detail to really interest me in Bevan's life or the people around him. The moment that I thought really zinged was the compromise conversation with Churchill (an excellent Tony Jayawardena!) and the lobby doors were a lovely piece of staging. I was way more interested in the politicking but that might have just been me. A fairly sold three stars, glad for my usual £20 front seats.
Without wanting to take anything away from Lee Mengo who did a fine job, I find myself trying to balance the charisma that I've seen from Michael Sheen on stage and screen and wonder if he tones this right down or even turns it off for Bevan. Mengo played him quite flat, focused, directed but not with a magnetism that might necessarily bring people along with him as a politician. This might of course just have been my expectation from the casting of Sheen. The play and story didn't grab me enough to make a second visit for a comparison, I figure if anywhere had someone who might have seen both it would be here so I'd be interested in any thoughts!
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5,688 posts
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Post by lynette on Apr 2, 2024 17:24:45 GMT
Without being unkind to Lee Mengo whose work I do not know, would it not be fair to publish when he is doing it and when Sheen? Once I turned up to a play expecting Maggie Smith and she wasn’t on; I was given a refund because I didn’t want to see anyone else do the part at that time.Mean? Maybe but we do book to see performers not just the piece being offered. In fact the performer I guess drives the advance booking more than the play.
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2,740 posts
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Post by n1david on Apr 2, 2024 17:37:09 GMT
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Post by artea on Apr 2, 2024 21:49:27 GMT
The Lee mengo dates have been well- publicised on nye homepage and on the relevant performance dates since at least opening of public booking.
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5,138 posts
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Post by Being Alive on Apr 3, 2024 11:08:34 GMT
Yeah it's very well advertised on the website when Sheen isn't on
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1,470 posts
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Post by mkb on Apr 6, 2024 2:33:06 GMT
This was a night of disappointments. Firstly, Michael Sheen who *was* scheduled to perform tonight, was "indisposed". While understudy Lee Mengo is good, I was particularly looking forward to seeing Sheen, having never seen him live, and he was the main draw. Checking my spam and deleted items, there was no pre-show email at all, so I've no idea if the schedule change was forewarned or last-minute. (Sheen was supposed to be back from Thursday. Was he on last night?)
The more significant disappointment was the play itself. My expectations were clearly too high and it failed to match them.
I see that playwright Tim Price has experience writing for Casualty, Eastenders, Holby City and Doctors, and it shows. This is dumbed-down to lowest-common-denominator intellect levels. It feels like a piece written for kid's tv. Nye's political opponents are caricatures who would not be out of place in a pantomime, and the rest of the secondary characters are barely drawn at all.
I cringed at Churchill who appears to be channelling Sydney Greenstreet rather than your actual Winston, and "deputy PM" Herbert Morrison is a grotesque parody of a villain. Meanwhile, Clement Attlee sounds like Margaret Thatcher in calm mode.
Bevan and his wife Jenny Lee are the only people here with any depth to them, but even then we're very much in the shallow end of the pool. Lee, as presented, is hard to warm to, and that seems entirely at odds with the far more interesting real-life person I have subsequently read up on. A play centred on her would be intriguing.
Despite being the eponymous hero, Bevan himself never quite rings true; he feels not fully formed. The scene where he persuades a strong-minded and resistant Lee into a first date by force of charm and by not taking no for an answer is excellent, and the best of Price's attempts to show us the man. But a later scene where Bevan unexpectedly supports his political opponent is weak and unconvincing. I was desperate to hear the nuanced reasons behind his thinking, because his sudden conversion to realpolitik jars.
Any actual history is over-simplified. You'd think Bevan single-handedly came up with the concept of universal healthcare free at the point of use and that its implementation was his work alone.
Metaphors are deployed without subtlety. I am not sure I believe that a miner striking a seam of coal with his pickaxe at exactly the right point can bring the whole lot crashing down, but you just know that Price has only written that so that Bevan can have the same metaphorical effect later. It's very lazy. And who knew that seams of coal glow green and emit an electronic buzz when touched? Thanks for that insight Mr Norris! (I know some poetic licence is allowed as events are playing out in Nye's unconscious mind, but still...)
Actually, I'm being unfair on director Rufus. Some of his touches work very well. He just never seems to have a feel for what works and what doesn't -- cf. Hex -- so we get all his ideas, the good and the bad.
What is exceptionally good is the final five minutes. Whatever you feel about what went before, I defy you not to be moved. I think I was blubbing partly out of pride for what had been achieved in 1948 and partly in sorrow at what the NHS has now become in 2024.
Three stars.
Act 1: 19:33-20:46 Act 2: 21:10-22:11
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1,470 posts
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Post by mkb on Apr 6, 2024 12:09:40 GMT
The National have just sent me an email with subject line:
***** 'Michael Sheen is perfect'
They really know how to rub salt in the wound, don't they?!
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2,323 posts
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Apr 7, 2024 10:28:23 GMT
This was a night of disappointments. Firstly, Michael Sheen who *was* scheduled to perform tonight, was "indisposed". While understudy Lee Mengo is good, I was particularly looking forward to seeing Sheen, having never seen him live, and he was the main draw. Checking my spam and deleted items, there was no pre-show email at all, so I've no idea if the schedule change was forewarned or last-minute. (Sheen was supposed to be back from Thursday. Was he on last night?) The more significant disappointment was the play itself. My expectations were clearly too high and it failed to match them. I see that playwright Tim Price has experience writing for Casualty, Eastenders, Holby City and Doctors, and it shows. This is dumbed-down to lowest-common-denominator intellect levels. It feels like a piece written for kid's tv. Nye's political opponents are caricatures who would not be out of place in a pantomime, and the rest of the secondary characters are barely drawn at all. I cringed at Churchill who appears to be channelling Sydney Greenstreet rather than your actual Winston, and "deputy PM" Herbert Morrison is a grotesque parody of a villain. Meanwhile, Clement Attlee sounds like Margaret Thatcher in calm mode. Bevan and his wife Jenny Lee are the only people here with any depth to them, but even then we're very much in the shallow end of the pool. Lee, as presented, is hard to warm to, and that seems entirely at odds with the far more interesting real-life person I have subsequently read up on. A play centred on her would be intriguing. Despite being the eponymous hero, Bevan himself never quite rings true; he feels not fully formed. The scene where he persuades a strong-minded and resistant Lee into a first date by force of charm and by not taking no for an answer is excellent, and the best of Price's attempts to show us the man. But a later scene where Bevan unexpectedly supports his political opponent is weak and unconvincing. I was desperate to hear the nuanced reasons behind his thinking, because his sudden conversion to realpolitik jars. Any actual history is over-simplified. You'd think Bevan single-handedly came up with the concept of universal healthcare free at the point of use and that its implementation was his work alone. Metaphors are deployed without subtlety. I am not sure I believe that a miner striking a seam of coal with his pickaxe at exactly the right point can bring the whole lot crashing down, but you just know that Price has only written that so that Bevan can have the same metaphorical effect later. It's very lazy. And who knew that seams of coal glow green and emit an electronic buzz when touched? Thanks for that insight Mr Norris! (I know some poetic licence is allowed as events are playing out in Nye's unconscious mind, but still...) Actually, I'm being unfair on director Rufus. Some of his touches work very well. He just never seems to have a feel for what works and what doesn't -- cf. Hex -- so we get all his ideas, the good and the bad. What is exceptionally good is the final five minutes. Whatever you feel about what went before, I defy you not to be moved. I think I was blubbing partly out of pride for what had been achieved in 1948 and partly in sorrow at what the NHS has now become in 2024. Three stars. Act 1: 19:33-20:46 Act 2: 21:10-22:11 I saw yesterday afternoon and was equally disappointed not to see Michael Sheen. I was walking passed the National later in the evening after watching A Mirror at the Trafalgar Theatre. Had a look at the notices and he wasn’t playing in the evening either.
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Apr 7, 2024 10:31:05 GMT
This was a night of disappointments. Firstly, Michael Sheen who *was* scheduled to perform tonight, was "indisposed". While understudy Lee Mengo is good, I was particularly looking forward to seeing Sheen, having never seen him live, and he was the main draw. Checking my spam and deleted items, there was no pre-show email at all, so I've no idea if the schedule change was forewarned or last-minute. (Sheen was supposed to be back from Thursday. Was he on last night?) The more significant disappointment was the play itself. My expectations were clearly too high and it failed to match them. I see that playwright Tim Price has experience writing for Casualty, Eastenders, Holby City and Doctors, and it shows. This is dumbed-down to lowest-common-denominator intellect levels. It feels like a piece written for kid's tv. Nye's political opponents are caricatures who would not be out of place in a pantomime, and the rest of the secondary characters are barely drawn at all. I cringed at Churchill who appears to be channelling Sydney Greenstreet rather than your actual Winston, and "deputy PM" Herbert Morrison is a grotesque parody of a villain. Meanwhile, Clement Attlee sounds like Margaret Thatcher in calm mode. Bevan and his wife Jenny Lee are the only people here with any depth to them, but even then we're very much in the shallow end of the pool. Lee, as presented, is hard to warm to, and that seems entirely at odds with the far more interesting real-life person I have subsequently read up on. A play centred on her would be intriguing. Despite being the eponymous hero, Bevan himself never quite rings true; he feels not fully formed. The scene where he persuades a strong-minded and resistant Lee into a first date by force of charm and by not taking no for an answer is excellent, and the best of Price's attempts to show us the man. But a later scene where Bevan unexpectedly supports his political opponent is weak and unconvincing. I was desperate to hear the nuanced reasons behind his thinking, because his sudden conversion to realpolitik jars. Any actual history is over-simplified. You'd think Bevan single-handedly came up with the concept of universal healthcare free at the point of use and that its implementation was his work alone. Metaphors are deployed without subtlety. I am not sure I believe that a miner striking a seam of coal with his pickaxe at exactly the right point can bring the whole lot crashing down, but you just know that Price has only written that so that Bevan can have the same metaphorical effect later. It's very lazy. And who knew that seams of coal glow green and emit an electronic buzz when touched? Thanks for that insight Mr Norris! (I know some poetic licence is allowed as events are playing out in Nye's unconscious mind, but still...) Actually, I'm being unfair on director Rufus. Some of his touches work very well. He just never seems to have a feel for what works and what doesn't -- cf. Hex -- so we get all his ideas, the good and the bad. What is exceptionally good is the final five minutes. Whatever you feel about what went before, I defy you not to be moved. I think I was blubbing partly out of pride for what had been achieved in 1948 and partly in sorrow at what the NHS has now become in 2024. Three stars. Act 1: 19:33-20:46 Act 2: 21:10-22:11 And your thoughts on the play. I agree with totally. I gave a generous score of two out of five. My wife gave it a score of one
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Post by jek on Apr 7, 2024 12:22:25 GMT
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Post by Latecomer on Apr 7, 2024 12:38:58 GMT
He tweeted today to say he was touched by the responses to the programme, and was wiped out by a virus at the moment so it had cheered him up. So he’s poorly. I hope it’s not like the virus I have just recovered from….it’s taken me 2 weeks off work to get better.
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Post by Latecomer on Apr 13, 2024 20:43:28 GMT
I enjoyed this. Went in with low expectations and I found it entertaining and imaginatively staged and quite moving at the end. So lovely to see Michael Sheen and hear him sing (rather well!). Not everyone could have pulled that play off wearing pyjamas and with a horrible wig, MS could. For a £20 front seat it was a bargain!
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Post by clarefh on Apr 21, 2024 8:56:38 GMT
I was at the matinee for this yesterday.
It’s an enjoyable enough play, that doesn’t drag with a strong central performance. The friend who I was with loved it ( she’s a doctor who came here because she believed in the NHS and the play seemed to really mean something to her). The staging had some nice moments and the acting on the whole was good.
For me I found it quite weak dramatically - as others have noted it doesn’t seem to have a central drive to it or anything that holds it together. It feels like just a series of scenes that ‘tell’ a life story, but without any real drama or emotion or depth. It gets away with this a bit I suspect because of the fact that a lot of the audience come with a level of emotion and investment already. It is moving towards the end because of the subject matter and, for me, where we are now.
I saw Glass Menagerie that evening at the Rose which was really very good and I think made the contrast with this more stark! Having said that most of the audience seemed to love Nye and there was a standing ovation at the end so it clearly works well for others.
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Post by danielwhit on Apr 23, 2024 20:49:43 GMT
Having seen this at both the theatre and on screen, this is one of an unusual group of plays which I think comes across better on screen than in person.
Very well produced for the screen and a delight to have a genuine live broadcast again.
Fingers crossed for more to come.
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Post by NorthernAlien on Apr 24, 2024 9:37:57 GMT
Bevan and his wife Jenny Lee are the only people here with any depth to them, but even then we're very much in the shallow end of the pool. Lee, as presented, is hard to warm to, and that seems entirely at odds with the far more interesting real-life person I have subsequently read up on. A play centred on her would be intriguing. There's one coming! (Please bear in mind the below is a Press Release - it's designed to excite you into buying a ticket!) Knights Theatre supported by Creative Scotland, OnFife and the Open University in Scotland present
Jennie Lee: Tomorrow is a New Day
WORLD PREMIERE
Written by Matthew Knights | Directed by Emma Lynne Harley
Performed by Trish Mullin, Kit Laveri & George Docherty
New Jennie Lee play to be staged in the politician’s Scottish birthplace for 120th Birthday anniversary
Friday 1 November - Wednesday 13 November 2024 (not 3 - 11 November)
**********
Jennie Lee was the youngest MP for North Lanark in 1929 at the age of 24, the first Minister for The Arts and the founder of the Open University
The play will premiere in Jennie Lee’s hometown of Lochgelly in November 2024 to coincide with what would have been Jennie’s 120th birthday on 3 November
Plans are afoot to launch a fundraiser for a Jennie Lee mural in Lochgelly in advance of the play, creating a lasting monument in the town
In the run up to the production, a programme of creative writing groups will run for local residents supported by The Open University in Scotland, encouraging everyone to explore their creative potential in the true spirit of Jennie Lee as a champion of artistic and educational opportunities for all
*******
Welcome to the Jennie Lee Museum, Fife’s best kept secret … Jennie Lee was born in Lochgelly, Fife in 1904, and became the youngest ever female MP for North Lanark in 1929 at the age of 24, before she could legally vote!
After the death of her husband Nye Bevan the founder of the NHS she fought to protect his legacy and went on to become the first ever Minister for The Arts and founder of The Open University.
Inside an abandoned museum, the radical spirits of history never rest. Before she can tell her story, Jennie must confront the woman she became and the woman she once was. A story about fighting to be true to your ideals in a world which wants to crush them.
Knights Theatre Artistic Director and Jennie Lee: Tomorrow is a New Day Playwright Matthew Knights said: “I founded Knights Theatre with the aim of using social history to engage communities in Scotland with social issues. Jennie Lee was a passionate fighter for social justice who grew up in the working-class mining communities of Lochgelly and Cowdenbeath in Fife. This was where she formed her core ideas and beliefs that shaped her outlook on life. Although they were industrial mining communities they were also places where tales were told, art and culture flourished and there was a spirit of self-education.
“I wanted to explore her story in the place where she grew up alongside the communities who live there today. The play is set in an abandoned “Jennie Lee Museum” in which the museum mannequins come to life to tell her story, posing questions about how we interpret the past and what it means to us today. The play features both a younger and an older version of Jennie who encounter each other and explore how she changes through her life and fights to remain true to her ideals. This is an entertaining play which aims to appeal to older generations who may remember Jennie and new generations who may be inspired by her story for the first time.
“We have been developing this play since 2019, sharing work-in-progress versions with Fife audiences and online during the pandemic. We are excited to be presenting the premiere in Jennie Lee’s birthplace of Lochgelly where her journey began and plan to tour throughout Scotland in the near future.”
Heather Stuart, OnFife Chief Executive, said: “Jennie Lee was one of our own - and a personal hero of mine - and we are incredibly proud to be so closely associated with her formative years. As an organisation all about making learning and culture available to all, we're thrilled this play will premiere in our theatre in her hometown and will show just how much of a trailblazer she was."
Susan Stewart, Director of The Open University in Scotland, said: “The Open University in Scotland is delighted to support this new play by Knights Theatre which will raise awareness of Jennie and her life achievements, her hometown and particularly her work in co-founding the Open University.”
Jennie Lee: Tomorrow is a New Day is a play by Matthew Knights produced by Knights Theatre, supported by Creative Scotland, OnFife and The Open University in Scotland.
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