Love In Idleness and Lettice and Lovage - Menier

[Rory]

Love in Idleness is transferring to the Apollo from 11 May for seven weeks. Just received an email from the Menier.

[stefy69]

Mar 27, 2017 5:53:06 GMT Rory said:

Love in Idleness is transferring to the Apollo from 11 May for seven weeks. Just received an email from the Menier.

Excellent news, very pleased.

[Deleted]

After the first couple of weeks, it has three matinees each week, on Tue, Thu and Sat, and no Mon evening performance.

[Deleted]

Having seen it this weekend, I didn't really mind it being fairly frothy as it was given tremendous weight by the superb performances by Eve Best and Anthony Head. I know Rattigan can break my heart, but as I'm *still* recovering from After The Dance, I honestly don't mind a Rattigan play that doesn't leave me sobbing on the floor. Just one (fairly traditional TheatreBoard) question: there was a bit of corpsing in the second half. Please tell me this was an authentic case of the giggles and not Trevor Nunn getting in on the fake-corpsing trend?

[alnoor]

I saw it couple of weekends ago and yes there was corpsing--between Best and Head.

[orchidman]

There was a scene in the second half with the couple where Best's character was trying to act serious, and failed. Now, we might not be talking about the same thing given we saw the show on different nights, but I wouldn't call that corpsing because she didn't break character.

[couldileaveyou]

Isn't it just delightful? I danced my way from the Menier to Saint Paul.

The second act drags a bit, but the actors are so so good. Eve Best is in her own league, I hope she gets the recognition she deserves when it moves to the West End. And her costume at the beginning of the second act? Gorgeous, just gorgeous. Edward Bluemel is very good as well, I adored his adolescent outbursts. But all the cast, really, Helen George and Anthony Head are in very fine form. A really beautiful night at the theatre for me

[Dawnstar]

I really enjoyed Love In Idleness this afternoon. It seemed to be funnier than Less Than Kind, though I'm not sure if that's due to the difference in versions or my memory being vague. I thought the cast were excellent, especially Eve Best & Anthony Head. I confess to being amused to see an actor as well-known as Anthony Head joining in with the furniture moving between scenes!

[Tibidabo]

We saw this last night and the following (slightly grumpy) review may be, in a large part, down to spending 3 hours shivering underneath an air conditioning unit.  Honestly, I cannot begin to tell you how cold we were.  We nearly left at the interval but the FOH manager moved us to seats that had been vacated by other people leaving.  It was still freezing, but we were spared the insufferable cold air blasting directly onto us.  Many thanks to her for that.

We were unfamiliar with this particular Rattigan and a synopsis in the programme would have been nice, though it was simple enough to keep up (when my mind didn't wander off to warm baths, hot toddies and snuggly fleeces that is.)  The set-up was such that there were 2 fourth walls, a sort of L shape, and we were at one end at the front.  I quite liked this, though inevitably saw more backs of heads than is normal.  The costumes looked lovely from close up, though I really hated the sickly total pinkness of Helen George's first ensemble.  Between that, her later white get-up, her blond tresses and her pale make-up she really looked quite ghostly.  I also think she'd been given a recent note regarding stillness.  I only knew of her from Strictly and she seemed like a lovely girl, but it was apparent that most of the audience liked her portrayal of Diana better than I did.  She had some great lines that were well timed and well received, but her whole delivery seemed 'placed.'  Sort of acting-by-numbers. Her accent was truly bizarre.  If I remember correctly she already speaks in a cut-glass manner and I think she took it too far.

Anthony Head - well, I'm not in agreement with the majority on this board here either.  His accent was all over the place, the person I was with (young) found his delivery muffled and I found him really rather forgettable.

Eve Best was delightful.  A great performance, she zinged around the stage.  But.  I found her morphing into Felicity Kendall now and then.  Every time she threw herself onto the sofa and gazed up at Head's John Fletcher I expected her to come out with "Oh don't be so silly Tom!"

Edward Bluemel was a revelation.  I had seen him in The Halcyon, but this was completely different. An ingenious piece of casting.  This is what the smaller venues are all about for me.  A young actor, some good direction, learning his craft from other experienced players - you could almost see him embracing the learning experience.  I would love to have watched him on the first night and then again on the last to compare.  I imagine we'll be seeing a lot of him in the future.  His two-handers with Eve were the Best bits of the production for me. (See what I did there!)  He deserved his own bow - his bow with Helen George was, to my mind, rather strange seeing as she spent all of about 12 minutes on stage and he was the glue that held the whole thing together.

I have to mention Polton's wig.  It truly looked like that old school production trick of tipping a bottle of talcum powder into the hair to make it appear grey.  Bad bad bad.

So all in all this wasn't a great night at the theatre.  (This has ended up quite long so you are spared the tirade I had in mind about the Menier toilets.)  I have tickets for Lettice and Lovage but, apart from that, I shall do a Steve Redgrave and say if anyone hears me even contemplating purchasing any more for the Choco Factory you have my permission to shoot me.  To round off my night a mouse scuttled across my path in one of the underground tunnels at Baker Street and, whilst I cannot blame the Chocolate Factory for that, it seemed a perfectly apposite end to the evening!
(And yes, I screamed!)

[alece10]

Seems a shame that just because the air con was too cold and you have an issue with the toilets that you won't go there again. After all you seemed to have enjoyed the play judging by your review.
I'd you had gone to the old Union Theatre you would probably have committed suicide after. Their toilets were legendary.

[mallardo]

The Anthony Head character is Canadian is he not? You say his accent was "all over the place", Tibidabo, so I'm wondering if he tried for a real Canadian accent or just settled for American? I well remember the actor playing the same role in the touring production of Less Than Kind having a brilliantly accurate Canadian accent, something I had never heard anyone do on stage before.

[Dawnstar]

I'm sorry you found the air con too much Tibidabo . The Menier, especially the lobby/bar, often resembles the Black Hole of Calcutta in temperature, so yesterday I was very relieved they had it on!

mallardo I thought Anthony Head was trying for Canadian rather than generic American but I'm not very good at accent identifcation so I may be wrong.

[Deleted]

I wonder if he was trying for a very specific part of Canada - I didn't have any trouble believing him as Canadian, as the bits I recognised as Canadian were spot-on, but the rest didn't sound like anything I was familiar with, which makes me wonder how Americanised most of the Canadian accents I've heardly previously are.

[mallardo]

I'd say the general rule for Canada is that the further east you go the more pronounced the accent. But if we're talking about that clipped "ouoot" and "abouoot" thing it's nationwide. I was raised in Canada myself and spent considerable time trying to lose the accent so I may be overly sensitive on the subject.

[Deleted]

This is an historic play so an authentic accent would be different from today's accent, and even from that of the youthful Mallardo, wouldn't it?

[Dawnstar]

^Good point. Eve Best's character's accent isn't what we'd consider standard English nowadays.

[samuelwhiskers]

Her performance is interesting because it's really the character playing the role of upper crust society woman. I wonder how much that influenced things like accent choices.

[Tibidabo]

mallardo , You're obviously more of an expert on this, but I do know some Canadians and have been to Canada and would describe the accent as more 'gentle' than generic American. Anthony Head did a good job of this - at times. That wasn't really what I was meant - I think usually it's only people who hail from a particular area who are particularly bothered as to accent accuracy. I found that he let the accent swing between this, an occasional stronger American twang and losing it completely (ie. sounding English.)

However, the main reason I wasn't keen on his performance was that it simply lacked ooomph!

[mistressjojo]

I formed the idea in my mind that Tony Head's character was Anglo- Canadian - they speak of Canadian schooling but I get the impression he's been in the UK for quite some time.
Plus working in the government with all those public school accents sonething is sure to rub off a bit.
Overall I enjoyed this play. A light & frothy comedy of the style one remembers from Sunday afternoon telly .
I was in row B smack up against the pillar, and it only obstructed my view of the audience not the stage Not sure how it may affect those further back though.

[Tibidabo]

Apr 14, 2017 8:17:10 GMT mistressjojo said:

I formed the idea in my mind that Tony Head's character was Anglo- Canadian - they speak of Canadian schooling but I get the impression he's been in the UK for quite some time.
Plus working in the government with all those public school accents sonething is sure to rub off a bit.

Good point, that makes a lot of sense.

My comment about Anthony Head's accent has been taken further than it really warranted - his performance didn't really move me and I suppose I was trying to find reasons why.  His accent did vary, but I honestly don't think I'd have noticed if he'd blown me away with his Fletcher.

[Deleted]

Well. I just simply loved this. Eve Best is simply one of the most delicious creatures on the stage. She's gloriously beautiful and has the most delightful comic timing but there's a real person there, not just a character which makes you invest in her completely. I thought the cast were sensational. Anthony Head was utterly charming and his chemistry with Best was just lovely. Helen George wasn't in it much but has a fabulous cackle when she laughs which kept making me giggle for some reason. Edward Bluemel is also terrific and he also has great chemistry with Eve Best - they really look and act like mother and son.

[liverpool54321]

Saw the late added mid week matinee yesterday. Thought it was great fun and loved the twist at the end. Not been to Menier before with stage in one corner. Liked the way curtain was used and also the way cast all muck in to do the final scene change. And I got to be that close to Helen George!

[joem]

Slight but entertaining play. This would not have been the play to revive Rattigan's reputation but now that it has been we can enjoy this.

Slick production, super acting - not least from Eve Best and Anthony Head who played together beautifully - and creative use of the space with the audio-visuals helping to both set the context and allow for scene changes. What's not to like?

Well worth its West End transfer.

[gazzaw13]

I agree with Ryan - I loved it particularly the chemistry between Eve Best and Anthony Head which was extraordinary. I thought this was an excellent production of a quite good play. In other hands Eve Best's posh airheadedness and Edward Bluemel's angst ridden brat could have been wearing. I can't imagine ever seeing a better version of the play.

[Deleted]