Underdog: The Other Other Bronte - Dorfman NT

[viscountviktor]

I agree with others that it fell apart at the end - I left the theatre wondering what it was trying to say about Charlotte.

Up until then, very funny, great performances. I have it 7.5/10.

[amyja89]

This isn’t perfect, but it was certainly right up my street. I’m a sucker for the clashing of historical culture and modern language, so the effing and jeffing of the sisters and other 21st century touches all really worked for me.

[showgirl]

Having grappled in vain with Friday Rush (from work, so furtively), I gave up and did as jek had done and splurged on a midweek matinee seat which would otherwise have been £50. Even at £36 this was still double my average spend so I was really hoping to enjoy the play. In fact, though it was interesting and quite watchable, it wasn't as innovative and ground-breaking as I'd hoped, probably because it has become so normal now to include pop music, dancing and contemporary language and concepts such as "in the room". Whilst it was about the Brontes and it must be several years since I last saw "Pride and Prejudice - Sort Of", that's the play it most reminded me of in the treatment. However, I couldn't fault everything else about the production, eg cast, costumes, staging.

[thistimetomorrow]

I quite enjoyed this. It's probably my favourite of the current 3 shows at the National at the moment, but definitely not a 5 star top play. I did really like Rhiannon as Anne and the cast generally.

[mkb]

Booking for this was a big mistake. I am really not sure why I thought it would be my thing. It absolutely wasn't.

Despite a gorgeous set (that almost disappears after the first minute), good lighting and some spirited performances, the content held no appeal for me at all. It became an endurance test with much checking of watch. The quality of the writing and direction is so poor that I was in amazement that this had been given the go-ahead for the Royal National. One usually finds productions like this playing to a dozen people in a regional studio theatre off the back of an arts grant.

One star.

Act 1: 19:33-20:39
Act 2: 21:00-21:36
(Seen Friday 19 April 2024)

[artea]

Another dud from Rufus Norris. Far too much of it is not just incessantly effing but incessantly "literally" effing. It's like being being harangued for nearly 2 hours by a big blood red dress called Charlotte. Sometimes Charlotte is given someone else to harangue. These others might as well not be there. Charlotte doesn't need them. She tells them as much. It's all very wearing. I couldn't have cared less. No wonder the brother is drunk out of his head. And yet ... however ... there is one scene of brilliance which has nothing to do with the rest of the play tonally or otherwise: the clippety-cloppety carriage journey from Keighley to London (17 hours we're told) which starts Act 2. It's a light interlude before the haranguing starts up again but it's theatrically imaginative, beautifully and simply written, directed and acted, so full of small details and very, very funny. I thought it would have made a wonderful way in to a stage adaptation of a picaresque novel from C18 such as Tobias Smollett's The Expedition of Humphry Clinker. I know this is an eccentric notion now and will never happen in 2024+ at the NT, but there was a time when C19 Nicholas Nickleby could provide a big theatrical success. And it would be an awful lot more worthwhile than Underdog the other other Brontë. So, not for me then.

[ladidah]

Saw this yesterday, what a strange play. When it worked, it really worked but occasionally it felt a bit try hard and panto. The metaphor at the end was really shoved into your face, no subtlety at all.


Audience reaction was very bland. A quick round of applause and then everyone trailed out in silence. I think most of us weren't sure if we cad just seen a tragedy or a comedy.

[jek]

This was just not for me. I could admire the acting and the craft but I didn't find it funny (unlike people sitting around me). And I didn't think it had anything particularly revelatory to say. It wasn't terrible like some things I've seen at the National (I'm thinking Saint George and the Dragon here) but it just didn't add up to much.

[Dave B]

Anyone able to help me out with the reasonably recent pop song played out in the background close to the end of this? I immediately thought it was MARINA (formerly and the Diamonds) but I can't place the exact song now and it is bugging me! Ta!

[amyja89]

IIRC, One Kiss by Dua Lipa was played during the London party sequence. Is that what you're thinking of?

[Dave B]

May 4, 2024 22:38:29 GMT amyja89 said:

IIRC, One Kiss by Dua Lipa was played during the London party sequence. Is that what you're thinking of?

Ah, thank you but no. It is further along just after Branwell and Emily take their seats on respective sides of the stage next to the revolve. Maybe 5 minutes from the end of the play.

[amyja89]

Oh god, I have no memory of that at all! Nurse!

[prefab]

This is not the worst play I've ever seen at the NT, but I think it actually is the worst play I've seen at the Dorfman Theatre. And I actually wonder why they booked it into the Dorfman, rather than either of the two larger theatres, since all the performances were pitched so big and so broad. The Dorfman can work so well when you've got a more intimate, delicate play like After Life or Infinite Life. But here I just felt like I was being bludgeoned by Gemma Whelan's Charlotte.

For me, it only got interesting when it mentioned actual events from the Brontes' lives and the reception of their work. But mainly that just made me wish I was reading a good biography of them rather than watching this play.

[ladidah]

I've never been to that theatre before, and I felt it didn't really suit it, so interesting to hear you felt the same!

[raiseitup]

May 4, 2024 22:36:02 GMT Dave B said:

Anyone able to help me out with the reasonably recent pop song played out in the background close to the end of this? I immediately thought it was MARINA (formerly and the Diamonds) but I can't place the exact song now and it is bugging me! Ta!

I believe it was a slowed down version of the outro of Olivia Rodrigo's All-American Bitch.

"I'm grateful all the time
I'm sexy and I'm kind
I'm pretty when I cry
Oh, all the time
I'm grateful all the f***ing time
I'm sexy and I'm kind
I'm pretty when I cry"

[Dave B]

May 23, 2024 9:09:11 GMT raiseitup said:

I believe it was a slowed down version of the outro of Olivia Rodrigo's All-American Bitch.

Aha! Nice one, thank you!