Giant - Royal Court

[lt]

Opening night was this evening, and I thought this was terrific. Very sharp and witty script that wasn't overlong, with excellent acting from the entire cast, which told a compelling story.

The play takes place in one room in Roald Dahl's house and tells the story of his publisher trying to defuse the situation after an unrepentant Dahl has written a damaging book review and gradually Dahl's full anti-semitic views become clear. It's pretty intense and the scale of Dahl's anti-semitism is disturbing to say the least.

The first half sets up what is to come and personally, I thought the second part was even stronger.

You'd never guess from watching this, this was the opening night.

I think this is a dead cert for a West End transfer.

[Jon]

Sept 20, 2024 22:18:16 GMT lt said:

Opening night was this evening, and I thought this was terrific. Very sharp and witty script that wasn't overlong, with excellent acting from the entire cast, which told a compelling story.

The play takes place in one room in Roald Dahl's house and tells the story of his publisher trying to defuse the situation after an unrepentant Dahl has written a damaging book review and gradually Dahl's full anti-semitic views become clear. It's pretty intense and the scale of Dahl's anti-semitism is disturbing to say the least.

The first half sets up what is to come and personally, I thought the second part was even stronger.

You'd never guess from watching this, this was the opening night.

I think this is a dead cert for a West End transfer.

How is John Lithgow as Roald Dahl? It's one of the reasons I've booked as he's a great actor.

[lt]

Sept 20, 2024 22:24:02 GMT Jon said:

Sept 20, 2024 22:18:16 GMT lt said:

Opening night was this evening, and I thought this was terrific. Very sharp and witty script that wasn't overlong, with excellent acting from the entire cast, which told a compelling story.

The play takes place in one room in Roald Dahl's house and tells the story of his publisher trying to defuse the situation after an unrepentant Dahl has written a damaging book review and gradually Dahl's full anti-semitic views become clear. It's pretty intense and the scale of Dahl's anti-semitism is disturbing to say the least.

The first half sets up what is to come and personally, I thought the second part was even stronger.

You'd never guess from watching this, this was the opening night.

I think this is a dead cert for a West End transfer.

How is John Lithgow as Roald Dahl? It's one of the reasons I've booked as he's a great actor.

He gives a brilliant performance, utterly believable as Dahl.

[Being Alive]

There's no way with the cast and creatives attached to this that this doesn't already have a house pencilled.

[Rory]

Sept 20, 2024 23:10:14 GMT Being Alive said:

There's no way with the cast and creatives attached to this that this doesn't already have a house pencilled.

Hopefully, but there aren't many theatres which are free.

[Phantom of London]

This, The Years and Til the Stars Come Down need to transfer.

[Rory]

Sept 21, 2024 17:25:46 GMT Phantom of London said:

This, The Years and Til the Stars Come Down need to transfer.

YES to all three of these!!! Although Romola Garai might have to choose between The Years and Giant.

[greenandbrownandblue]

This is very very good. A superb ensemble - and what a privilege to have seen two such powerful performances by Romola Garai in the space of a month.

Act 2 could be a teeny bit tighter, but other than that (and a printed grass background which just looked cheap), can't fault it.

Went to the 6:30 performance which they're doing on Saturdays. Brilliant idea as means I get home earlier - but only if they actually started on time! Went up nearly 20 mins late tonight, clearly waiting for latecomers judging by the number of empty seats at 6:30. Read your tickets, people!

[Dave B]

Sept 21, 2024 20:33:24 GMT greenandbrownandblue said:

Went to the 6:30 performance which they're doing on Saturdays. Brilliant idea as means I get home earlier - but only if they actually started on time! Went up nearly 20 mins late tonight, clearly waiting for latecomers judging by the number of empty seats at 6:30. Read your tickets, people!

Yes, this evening was sold out. I heard a returns queue still going at 18.25 but from the circle I could count over 25 seats free. I heard at the interval from a fella sitting by that there has been some sort of significant transport issues and so they had decided to start late. Given it was almost 20 minutes, it *really* could have done with an announcement.

Sat next to the RC team who were having kittens at the start of the second act as a guy in the front row had come back to his seat, put his drink on the stage and just left it there - even as the second act started.

RC has an actual programme for the first time in a while, decent too with pieces by David Byrne, Mark Rosenblatt, John Lithgow and Nicholas Hytner - and interesting pieces too with some context to the play and how it came to RC.

Lithgow is excellent but a great ensemble really sums this up. His star-power doesn't outshine anyone else, both Elliot Levey and Romola Garai match him excellent as does Rachael Stirling but her character has a lot less to do and so doesn't feel quite as essential. In great shape for a second preview.

[greenandbrownandblue]

If there had been significant transport issues, fair enough - but an announcement should have been made, as you say.

Agree re the programme - good pieces from Rosenblatt, Hytner and Lithgow.

[aspieandy]

Sept 21, 2024 20:33:24 GMT greenandbrownandblue said:

Went to the 6:30 performance which they're doing on Saturdays. Brilliant idea as means I get home earlier - but only if they actually started on time! Went up nearly 20 mins late tonight, clearly waiting for latecomers judging by the number of empty seats at 6:30. Read your tickets, people!

There was someone walking on the track - Earls Court side - which stopped the District and Circle lines. The delay at the RC was to allow as many as possible to make the first half.

I am also keen on 6.30 start times, esp. on Saturdays, however ... it might be a coincidence but London football matches had finished and a lot of fans were travelling when I was heading to the RC (including Fulham). The person on the track was removed after 10-15 mins at most but the disruption took a while longer to sort.

It runs at 2.20 including interval

[vickyg]

Very happy to have bought early tickets for this as I looked the other day and I think it was sold out, except for Mondays of course. Excited to see Romola Garai be excellent again so soon after the last time.

[Rory]

Really interesting article about the play.

x.com/guardian/status/1837767174703755583?t=hyfCL9hwdhgxXahWK9Iryw&s=19

[theatresellers]

Seems like Royal Court made an exception for doing a biography. This has been their policy for a while: 

We do not read musicals nor historical/biographical plays as we so rarely have an opportunity to produce this work.

[n1david]

I suspect John Lithgow and Nick Hytner may have turned their head...

[aspieandy]

Fwiw, it takes place over the course of an afternoon, I believe  (he lived 74 years).

[greenandbrownandblue]

Sept 22, 2024 21:34:20 GMT theatresellers said:

Seems like Royal Court made an exception for doing a biography. This has been their policy for a while: 

We do not read musicals nor historical/biographical plays as we so rarely have an opportunity to produce this work.

According to the programme, David Byrne asked Nick Hytner if he knew of any plays he could programme at short notice - and Hytner suggested this.

[thattheatreman]

Sept 23, 2024 5:04:23 GMT greenandbrownandblue said:

Sept 22, 2024 21:34:20 GMT theatresellers said:

Seems like Royal Court made an exception for doing a biography. This has been their policy for a while: 

We do not read musicals nor historical/biographical plays as we so rarely have an opportunity to produce this work.

According to the programme, David Byrne asked Nick Hytner if he knew of any plays he could programme at short notice - and Hytner suggested this.

Saw this last week. Still thinking about it a lot, brilliant piece of programming (and pretty brave in the current climate) with first class performances.  According the programme David Bynre "heard rumour" of the play and then convinced / had a "leading conversation" with Nick that got him to send it to him. Nothing mentioned about needing something "short notice".

Only an intermittent visitor the The Court for the past few years but have become much more regular recently. Can't remember a time when a theatre has gone from almost always empty to so full and buzzing in such short space of time. Told by box office "everything sells out now Upstairs and Downstairs". Remarkable reversal in fortune. Only downside is that I'd book again for Giant but doesn't appear like there are any seats left for the whole run.

[aspieandy]

This is just great; great acting, especially great writing: great great great Time flew on Saturday at the second preview. Cast not missing a beat, not a pin dropped.

It’s dense, pays to concentrate, but there are some great laughs along the way.

As I mention above, 2 hours 20 with an old-fashioned interval

Fwiw, I think this goes beyond a West End transfer.

<< ahoy! spoiler alert >>

… and also personal thoughts on the content.

In a structural sense this reminded me a little of Slave Play; an aspect of UK culture vs. US culture in which the dominant culture is questioned and drawn out by a contrast brought by an outsider from across the pond (for Kit Harrison representing middle-class England read Romola Garai representing New York publishing).

Here the cultures are the attitudes of British Jews in relation to Israel as compared with their US counterparts (in Slave Play it was different attitudes to socio-cultural politics and sex).

We see that difference manifest in the two publishing agents.

Alongside that theme, we have a character study of a complicated man from the early 20th century who believed his creativity came from a plane crash (he was a WW2 pilot for a time, nasty head bang, blinded for months) and who, I would imagine, likely also put his determined outspokenness down to the same event.

I think he was probably wrong about that and that, instead, he was high functioning autistic at a time when the condition had no name and no research. Correlation is not causation (who knew), though we do see examples of Aspie-type traits and choices throughout. So, yes, another of those outspoken Aspie-types.

The third theme is the exploration of an aspect of character; that of a traumatised man who has never come to terms with his childhood – from an objective pov, it’s not hard to see his writing as a way to help other children and perhaps to self-heal. This isn’t a biography so we don’t learn of his contributions to medical devices that helped thousands of children. He also fathered a number of children. He had a preoccupation with children and childhood. Communicating with them was his occupation and his home life.

From my personal pov, the most interesting aspect is he had no way of understanding himself and had no choice but to seek explanations elsewhere: he was destined for a life of barking up the wrong trees in the wrong wood: a life of extraordinary achievement mixed with extraordinary frustration (mostly at himself).

You wince at times – often - at Dahl; brutal, unvarnished, entirely unrecognising social boundaries, cultural boundaries, neurologically unable to compromise, rejecting friendship hierarchy in the name of a *truth*, testing loved ones beyond reason. And that’s on a good day.

At the end, he purposefully chooses to burn all his bridges, pushing back against attempts of control: whenever he gets a sniff not even of bullying or mere management but just reasoned compromise, he lashes out and sustains - regardless of who and what gets in the way, as might a flailing child, as he likely did.

Imo, in his flailing, he took his extreme wariness of Zionism, particularly international Zionism, and in the interview he sought out with the New Statesman developed that into a racist – anti-Semitic – tirade to spite everyone and himself. Rejecting control as ever, he threw all his beloved toys out the pram.

That's my thinking for the moment. I look forward to others.

[greenandbrownandblue]

Sept 23, 2024 6:47:40 GMT thattheatreman said:

Sept 23, 2024 5:04:23 GMT greenandbrownandblue said:

According to the programme, David Byrne asked Nick Hytner if he knew of any plays he could programme at short notice - and Hytner suggested this.

Saw this last week. Still thinking about it a lot, brilliant piece of programming (and pretty brave in the current climate) with first class performances.  According the programme David Bynre "heard rumour" of the play and then convinced / had a "leading conversation" with Nick that got him to send it to him. Nothing mentioned about needing something "short notice".

In the programme, Nick Hytner says that "David asked if I knew of anything that might work in a season he was programming at short notice. I had Giant in the front of my mind"

[parsley1]

Sept 23, 2024 6:47:40 GMT thattheatreman said:

Sept 23, 2024 5:04:23 GMT greenandbrownandblue said:

According to the programme, David Byrne asked Nick Hytner if he knew of any plays he could programme at short notice - and Hytner suggested this.

Saw this last week. Still thinking about it a lot, brilliant piece of programming (and pretty brave in the current climate) with first class performances.  According the programme David Bynre "heard rumour" of the play and then convinced / had a "leading conversation" with Nick that got him to send it to him. Nothing mentioned about needing something "short notice".

Only an intermittent visitor the The Court for the past few years but have become much more regular recently. Can't remember a time when a theatre has gone from almost always empty to so full and buzzing in such short space of time. Told by box office "everything sells out now Upstairs and Downstairs". Remarkable reversal in fortune. Only downside is that I'd book again for Giant but doesn't appear like there are any seats left for the whole run.

It’s astounding

The inaugural season has been a total box office success

I can’t recall the last time main house shows here were selling out before even opening

They have a new season event in a few weeks so I will report back

[lynette]

Sept 23, 2024 14:08:54 GMT aspieandy said:

This is just great; great acting, especially great writing: great great great Time flew on Saturday at the second preview. Cast not missing a beat, not a pin dropped.

It’s dense, pays to concentrate, but there are some great laughs along the way.

As I mention above, 2 hours 20 with an old-fashioned interval

Fwiw, I think this goes beyond a West End transfer.

<< ahoy! spoiler alert >>

… and also personal thoughts on the content.

In a structural sense this reminded me a little of Slave Play; an aspect of UK culture vs. US culture in which the dominant culture is questioned and drawn out by a contrast brought by an outsider from across the pond (for Kit Harrison representing middle-class England read Romola Garai representing New York publishing).

Here the cultures are the attitudes of British Jews in relation to Israel as compared with their US counterparts (in Slave Play it was different attitudes to socio-cultural politics and sex).

We see that difference manifest in the two publishing agents.

Alongside that theme, we have a character study of a complicated man from the early 20th century who believed his creativity came from a plane crash (he was a WW2 pilot for a time, nasty head bang, blinded for months) and who, I would imagine, likely also put his determined outspokenness down to the same event.

I think he was probably wrong about that and that, instead, he was high functioning autistic at a time when the condition had no name and no research. Correlation is not causation (who knew), though we do see examples of Aspie-type traits and choices throughout. So, yes, another of those outspoken Aspie-types.

The third theme is the exploration of an aspect of character; that of a traumatised man who has never come to terms with his childhood – from an objective pov, it’s not hard to see his writing as a way to help other children and perhaps to self-heal. This isn’t a biography so we don’t learn of his contributions to medical devices that helped thousands of children. He also fathered a number of children. He had a preoccupation with children and childhood. Communicating with them was his occupation and his home life.

From my personal pov, the most interesting aspect is he had no way of understanding himself and had no choice but to seek explanations elsewhere: he was destined for a life of barking up the wrong trees in the wrong wood: a life of extraordinary achievement mixed with extraordinary frustration (mostly at himself).

You wince at times – often - at Dahl; brutal, unvarnished, entirely unrecognising social boundaries, cultural boundaries, neurologically unable to compromise, rejecting friendship hierarchy in the name of a *truth*, testing loved ones beyond reason. And that’s on a good day.

At the end, he purposefully chooses to burn all his bridges, pushing back against attempts of control: whenever he gets a sniff not even of bullying or mere management but just reasoned compromise, he lashes out and sustains - regardless of who and what gets in the way, as might a flailing child, as he likely did.

Imo, in his flailing, he took his extreme wariness of Zionism, particularly international Zionism, and in the interview he sought out with the New Statesman developed that into a racist – anti-Semitic – tirade to spite everyone and himself. Rejecting control as ever, he threw all his beloved toys out the pram.

That's my thinking for the moment. I look forward to others.

Fascinating review, thank you. I’m not going to see this so everything I say can be happily ignored. A traumatic childhood, autistic tendencies, war experiences and sick children do not in any way at all excuse disgusting antisemitism. That said, his piece describing the death of his child from measles should be more widely known to encourage vaccination. 

[adamkinsey]

Thought this a fabulous play, superbly written, superbly performed. I'd love to see this again so hope it gets a transfer into the WE as no chance of getting in again at the RC.

Echoing the redoubtable Parsley, the RC has found a real winning streak. Long may it continue.

[aspieandy]

Can we have a poll on this one, please BurlyBeaR ?

[BurlyBeaR]

Poll added.