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Post by Steve on Aug 3, 2024 11:59:41 GMT
If you know John Steinbeck’s bestselling, Pulitzer-winning, syllabus-hugging 1939 novel, which depicts the Joad family’s journey from hard times in Depression-era Oklahoma to even harder times in the promised land of California, you’ll know it’s a purposely punishing tale. Nobody will leave this show in any doubt of the effects of poverty or economic migrancy. Yet there’s something so doggedly doleful about Carrie Cracknell’s almost three-hour production that it’s hard work sitting through it. . . The reviewer states that the source material is "purposely punishing" but then goes on to further indict the production as "doggedly doleful." I felt that the purpose of Maimuna Menon's presence and music (at one point she and her band take part in a joyful hoedown) was precisely to avoid the production as a whole coming across as "doleful." Personally, I found the music pleasurable to listen to, just as blues and folk always make something pleasurable out of something doleful. I also thought that Christopher Godwin's characterisation of the feisty Grampa Joad was anything but "doleful." And I found something inspirational in Cherry Jones's Ma Joad's resilience, rather than something boring and doleful. Different people will take to the same elements differently (luckily for me, in this case, lol). |
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Post by aspieandy on Aug 3, 2024 17:12:12 GMT
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Post by Dave B on Aug 3, 2024 22:22:57 GMT
Question for anyone who has seen this.
At pretty much the start after the interval, when they are in the tent city, does one of the tents get knocked over as if by accident on the lefthand side of the stage - possibly by the younger brother?
It happened when I saw it last week and there is no dialogue about it and it looked really odd at the time. I had the distinct impression it was not planned and I even thought that one of the tent poles had given a cast member quite a knock, perhaps even on the head. There appeared to be a lot of concern from other cast members with what looked to be improvised reasons for several cast members to go over and check on him. I was expecting a show stop to be honest. The cast member did disappear from the stage for a while a few minutes later before I think reappearing at the barndance later.
Ta!
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Post by jonnymb on Aug 3, 2024 22:42:38 GMT
Question for anyone who has seen this. At pretty much the start after the interval, when they are in the tent city, does one of the tents get knocked over as if by accident on the lefthand side of the stage - possibly by the younger brother? It happened when I saw it last week and there is no dialogue about it and it looked really odd at the time. I had the distinct impression it was not planned and I even thought that one of the tent poles had given a cast member quite a knock, perhaps even on the head. There appeared to be a lot of concern from other cast members with what looked to be improvised reasons for several cast members to go over and check on him. I was expecting a show stop to be honest. The cast member did disappear from the stage for a while a few minutes later before I think reappearing at the barndance later. Ta! The tent got knocked over when I saw it as well, but looked like part of the action during a scuffle/ fight. If I remember correctly, it was quite a way into the scene, long after the Joads have set up their own half-tent. Perhaps it's set up to collapse and took it's cue too early? |
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Post by nottobe on Aug 4, 2024 12:06:53 GMT
I managed to see this last night after my first attempt being cancelled and I was about worried it would be cancelled again. It was around 7:20 and the show still didn't start so a theatre staff member apologised for the delay as said it would start soon to which there was a slight kerfuffle. I would say it eventually began around 5 minutes later.
Well I have to say I was very impressed with the show and found it to be very good. Yes it is quite a bleak tale but it is one that still feels relevant. I very much enjoyed the staging, especially the use of the pool and found it all very evocative and cleverly done. The cast are all very good and carry the story well.
I would say if you know what you're getting with this show story wise than you will find it rewarding. I did notice some people left in the interval but they also had the Friday rush tickets but on the whole it seemed like a good response.
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Post by aloysius on Aug 8, 2024 21:25:50 GMT
I thought this was a rewarding play that has a powerful moral message for modern society. Though it's undoubtedly a slog - we are made to feel the pain of those poor actors straining every sinew to push the car around. I can handle unrelenting bleakness but I do wish that the accents weren't so egregiously bad if I'm going to have to for three hours. But the final act with its unsettling closing scene, the line dance, the tent city and a few other moments made it a memorable and worthwhile evening.
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Post by knutinkerbell on Aug 10, 2024 15:18:19 GMT
Got an email from NT before the play and unfortunately read it. It was a trigger warning that spoiled the end. I’m totally angry about this s**t cause so you know from the start what will happen. It ruined it totally for me cause there is no other ending what may surprise me.
Saw it today so it was two stars for me.
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Post by lt on Aug 10, 2024 15:46:44 GMT
Got an email from NT before the play and unfortunately read it. It was a trigger warning that spoiled the end. I’m totally angry about this s**t cause so you know from the start what will happen. It ruined it totally for me cause there is no other ending what may surprise me. Saw it today so it was two stars for me. I do wish theatres would avoid putting plot spoilers into their trigger warnings. I had exactly the same experience when I saw Wedding Band at the Hammersmith Lyric recently. I don't usually bother with these warnings, but just clicked on it out of curosity and it gave away a critically important part of the plot. |
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Post by knutinkerbell on Aug 10, 2024 17:08:10 GMT
Got an email from NT before the play and unfortunately read it. It was a trigger warning that spoiled the end. I’m totally angry about this s**t cause so you know from the start what will happen. It ruined it totally for me cause there is no other ending what may surprise me. Saw it today so it was two stars for me. I do wish theatres would avoid putting plot spoilers into their trigger warnings. I had exactly the same experience when I saw Wedding Band at the Hammersmith Lyric recently. I don't usually bother with these warnings, but just clicked on it out of curosity and it gave away a critically important part of the plot. Same here, wouldn’t read it. But was chilling and trining a coffee and realised it when it was to late. Was the first time I though I want my money back. And I bet the ones being triggert don’t read this mails. |
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Post by nth on Aug 11, 2024 19:57:11 GMT
Saw The Grapes of Wrath yesterday (11 August) and was incredibly moved by the production. At the interval I was close to tears even though they had yet to experience descent into life in California. The warmth and family bond and love depicted by this production needed the carefully observed steady build of the first half so you could feel the family and what they were going through. The music was an incredible important ‘character’ for the production that framed so much of the time, place, and wider narrative beats of the text. The acting was sublime with standout performance from all the actors. And I have to make special mention to the wonderful movement around the stage and composition throughout.
A wonderful production and I simply do not recognise the middling reviews some of the main papers have given. What they have written and what I saw and experienced do not even slightly match. Do these people even know the text? Half the criticism seems to be at Steinbeck rather than the production. I appreciate that reviews and personal experiences seldom fully line up, but it feels like they all went to a completely different production to the one I saw.
Recommended.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Aug 12, 2024 5:40:02 GMT
Poll added.
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Post by lt on Aug 12, 2024 7:37:30 GMT
Saw The Grapes of Wrath yesterday (11 August) and was incredibly moved by the production. At the interval I was close to tears even though they had yet to experience descent into life in California. The warmth and family bond and love depicted by this production needed the carefully observed steady build of the first half so you could feel the family and what they were going through. The music was an incredible important ‘character’ for the production that framed so much of the time, place, and wider narrative beats of the text. The acting was sublime with standout performance from all the actors. And I have to make special mention to the wonderful movement around the stage and composition throughout. A wonderful production and I simply do not recognise the middling reviews some of the main papers have given. What they have written and what I saw and experienced do not even slightly match. Do these people even know the text? Half the criticism seems to be at Steinbeck rather than the production. I appreciate that reviews and personal experiences seldom fully line up, but it feels like they all went to a completely different production to the one I saw. Recommended. I haven't seen the production yet. I have tickets for later in the run. But I must say when I read several reviews remarking on how gloomy it was, I did wonder if they had read the book. |
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Post by lichtie on Aug 12, 2024 9:14:26 GMT
I think the best way to look at it is that most of the flaws are there in the book as well (Steinbeck really overegged the ending - even liberal critics at the time thought he'd basically written a political tract rather than a novel, and it was only in hindsight it came to be viewed more favourably - though presumably not by the MAGA crowd). Personally I think John Ford captured the spirit better in the film - it still makes the same points, but without going OTT... For me this was 4* as in the end I felt it was too long because they went for the kitchen sink approach to the original.
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Post by peterbrook on Aug 13, 2024 7:14:44 GMT
Saw this last night. They must have decided to cut its length as it finished at 9.45pm having started at 7.05pm - perhaps there was less time given to the band.
I could see why Cherry Jones is a big star on Broadway (Saw her brilliant performance as the mother in John Tiffany's West End production of Glass Menagerie in 2016). But even so, last night was not my best at the National.
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Post by jamb0r on Aug 15, 2024 14:23:27 GMT
Just had an email to say tonight’s performance is cancelled due to a technical issue.
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Post by amyja89 on Aug 15, 2024 15:40:16 GMT
Just had an email to say tonight’s performance is cancelled due to a technical issue. Yikes! Thought they had managed to iron those issues out. |
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Post by dahlia on Aug 15, 2024 22:12:14 GMT
I caught one of the previews, one of the later ones, my original one was cancelled for technical reasons..
I enjoyed this production, but I wish I had been in the stalls. My circle seat meant that I couldn’t see the face expressions very well. The impact from stoic faces can’t be seen from the circle. The characters I remember, weeks later, are uncle Joe and Ma. Standout performances.
I enjoyed the scenography, and think the water feature was very well used. The first half is quite a slow slog, but since that’s the story there’s no reason to be mad about that, it works.
The music was well done, but I would have preferred tense silence. It was well fitted into the show, but I I think those 30 minutes could have been more effective as oppressive silence and breathing. Since it seems the show’s been shortened during the run, I think the music would be an obvious way to have done that.
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Post by tmesis on Aug 17, 2024 15:05:35 GMT
A tedious, badly acted misery-fest that felt twice as long as its 2hrs 45.
Awful, unconvincing accents.
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Post by dillan on Aug 19, 2024 15:53:44 GMT
How bad are the first 4 rows for this theatre? It's obviously a lot cheaper.
Does anyone also know where the Friday Rush tickets are?
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Post by nottobe on Aug 19, 2024 16:05:22 GMT
How bad are the first 4 rows for this theatre? It's obviously a lot cheaper. Does anyone also know where the Friday Rush tickets are? The Friday rush tickets I managed to get where in the second row of the circle which was a very good view and that was were all the rush seats were. I'm not sure how the view is in the front rows for this production but they can be quite uncomfy for long shows, and Friday rush is cheaper. |
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Post by jamb0r on Aug 19, 2024 17:05:55 GMT
The Friday rush seats I got were right in the middle of the first ‘proper’ row (5th row?) of the stalls.
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Post by edi on Aug 20, 2024 5:59:31 GMT
I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to , not sure exactly why. I found the whole thing a bit chaotic, I never had a chance to get into the individual characters, just watched them go through one bad situation after another bad situation. This in itself wasn't the issue, clearly the whole story is a series of hardship situations but I never really got to understand the family members as individuals. Would have liked to know more about the brother of the river for example. The accents didn't help.
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Post by thistimetomorrow on Aug 20, 2024 11:50:54 GMT
How bad are the first 4 rows for this theatre? It's obviously a lot cheaper not good. I sat in the 2nd row and missed a big element of the set that meant i could only see the heads of the actors (and tbh even that just about). |
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Post by lt on Aug 20, 2024 12:27:45 GMT
How bad are the first 4 rows for this theatre? It's obviously a lot cheaper not good. I sat in the 2nd row and missed a big element of the set that meant i could only see the heads of the actors (and tbh even that just about). That's cheery news, I've got a couple of tickets in the third row to see TGOW soon. |
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Post by thistimetomorrow on Aug 20, 2024 13:02:21 GMT
That's cheery news, I've got a couple of tickets in the third row to see TGOW soon. I'm quite short, but I think the people around me who were taller were also struggling for this scene specifically. The rest of the show is fine though. |
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