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Post by andyb1986 on Jul 26, 2017 14:27:42 GMT
I also received the email about the discounted tickets. I don't know whether it's worth even booking a seat now for when I'll be in London at the end of September.
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Post by lynette on Jul 26, 2017 15:01:30 GMT
I dunno why they put this in the Haymarket. It was quite intimate and contemporary in setting in Stratford. Wrong place, too pricey and no 'stars' .
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Post by nash16 on Jul 26, 2017 17:04:29 GMT
The play's the thing. It's just not dramatic or interesting enough. The producers will have to have deep pockets to get it through the to its end date.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2017 11:48:23 GMT
I dunno why they put this in the Haymarket. It was quite intimate and contemporary in setting in Stratford. Wrong place, too pricey and no 'stars' . Lynette, do you think that, as a London-based RSC devotee, you would have leapt at this at the Haymarket if you hadn't already seen it at Stratford? Or would you have leapt at it anywhere else in London? The RSC transferred Brand directly from the Swan to the Haymarket, where I think it attracted good audiences. Although that starred Ralph Fiennes who had a large fan-base at the time. I think that the RSC audience in London is dying off and not being replaced at all. The presence of Matilda in London hasn't replenished the London RSC audience at all. And the RSC in the Barbican has zero relationship with the rest of the Barbican's theatre and dance programme so they play cold there, except for the last tottering remnants of the old RSC Barbican audience. |
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Post by lynette on Jul 27, 2017 12:39:10 GMT
You are definitely onto something here, HG. I would not have gone for this Queen Anne play in London because the prices at The Haymarket are usually very high. But the subject matter might have drawn me after good reviews. In Stratford I am prepared to give most offerings a looksee, taking the good with the bad as it were. There are hardcore RSC groupies in London. I think most of the financial supporters so called, are based in London, though not all. I've always said that the RSC needs to reach the punters in London. Travel and accommodation are an issue. Maybe scheduling is too. For a decent weekend you need to have three different plays available over a two day weekend plus other attractions, talks maybe or exhibitions. And discounts, maybe tokens for hotels and restaurants. Stratford I think is seen as quite a long way from London. I know the trains are rubbish. There doesn't seem to be a united marketing plan for the stuff 'up there'. Cultural packages - Longborough Opera, Highgrove Gardens, RSC ( there are other triangles available on request!) might be a way of getting Londoners there. I confess to having my own accommodation nearby.
I know you have advocated a London base but personally I don't like the Barbican and I didn't bother to see the RSC stuff there unless I had missed it in Stratford. They do need an indentity in London, an association with a theatre here. But a tricky choice and probably an expensive one. Interesting that we have new theatres in London, I'm thinking of Hytner's Bridge so there is a market isn't there? I don't know the ins and outs. Possibly they are putting all the money into developing Stratford with high production values, then maybe tours abroad. Do you know? They are getting TOP going again with some excellent new writing. They do a lot of school stuff and training. Their ripples do extend out a long way.
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Post by Polly1 on Jul 27, 2017 17:00:01 GMT
Saw Queen Anne last night (not free but Today Tix with discount). Top level closed but circle looked full from what I could see and stalls packed as obviously people had been moved down, so nice and buzzy and play given a rousing reception with many favourable comments on the way out. I enjoyed it greatly, ok a lot of the dialogue was stilted but it held my interest all the way through and Cunliffe and Garai were excellent, I thought. I hope it can attract an audience during the summer.
Could not help myself interjecting when a very nice American gentleman next to me told his two companions that the RSC toured all over Britain!!
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Post by stefy69 on Aug 2, 2017 6:56:33 GMT
Just had an e-mail from Ticketmaster ( I'm on their mailing list ) and the subject heading is : " Queen Anne opens to rave reviews ", really ? where ? Am I reading the wrong papers ?
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Post by Jan on Aug 2, 2017 7:24:13 GMT
I dunno why they put this in the Haymarket. It was quite intimate and contemporary in setting in Stratford. Wrong place, too pricey and no 'stars' . Lynette, do you think that, as a London-based RSC devotee, you would have leapt at this at the Haymarket if you hadn't already seen it at Stratford? Or would you have leapt at it anywhere else in London? The RSC transferred Brand directly from the Swan to the Haymarket, where I think it attracted good audiences. Although that starred Ralph Fiennes who had a large fan-base at the time. I think that the RSC audience in London is dying off and not being replaced at all. The presence of Matilda in London hasn't replenished the London RSC audience at all. And the RSC in the Barbican has zero relationship with the rest of the Barbican's theatre and dance programme so they play cold there, except for the last tottering remnants of the old RSC Barbican audience. You are right. They have trashed their brand in London starting with Noble's decision to leave the Barbican. Now they have a loyal core audience which is shrinking all the time, they are just competing for the general audience and they either don't like going to the Barbican or don't know when and what the RSC are doing there (or both). They also seem to treat theirLondon audience as a cash cow transferring only the more mainstream productions at high prices (still plenty of the £75 seats for Tempest available). The audience can't sustain that. There were big empty spaces for all of Sher's efforts there. I have not paid more than £10 for a full-price Barbican RSC stalls seat for years. I don't think Doran cares though, he is quite happy in his Stratford comfort zone. On this play, I never go to the rotten old Haymarket to see anything, even though I could have got a top price ticket for this for £5. If it had been on at the Pit as part of a coherent RSC season over there I might have seen it just on the basis of seeing everything (with a season discount). |
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Post by showgirl on Aug 2, 2017 8:16:39 GMT
They lost me in London when they left the Barbican, but I'd go wherever if only they transferred the "right" productions. So many of their new plays had great reviews but none has yet had a life beyond Stratford.
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Post by Jan on Aug 2, 2017 8:46:25 GMT
They lost me in London when they left the Barbican, but I'd go wherever if only they transferred the "right" productions. So many of their new plays had great reviews but none has yet had a life beyond Stratford. Same with their revivals. The Trevor Nunn/Henry Goodman "Volpone" didn't get a transfer for example. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2017 10:29:32 GMT
They lost me in London when they left the Barbican, but I'd go wherever if only they transferred the "right" productions. So many of their new plays had great reviews but none has yet had a life beyond Stratford. by Alice Birch had full runs this time last year at Shoreditch Town Hall and the Edinburgh Fringe. Queen Anne is a new play. It's running at the Theatre Royal Haymarket for three months, doncha know. A few years ago, Written on the Wind by David Edgar transferred to the Duchess. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2017 4:05:16 GMT
On this play, I never go to the rotten old Haymarket to see anything, even though I could have got a top price ticket for this for £5. Well, I felt I underpaid, with a 50% discount on central, non-premium stalls. But I wouldn't have attended at the standard, undiscounted price. The theatre decor is ridiculously over the top - Gold, Gold, Gold - but is otherwise ideal for this production, staged quite far forward in a semi-circle so, I should imagine, all visible from everywhere in the house. The play is quite different from what I'd normally see, and also unlike virtually everything else ever put on anywhere outside Stratford-upon-Avon, and it is interesting and entertaining to see it. It doesn't seem to press any specific contemporary analogies most of the time, which is very unusual and I guess is why some people here have considered it dull. Most of the dialogue sounds to be in verse, which I guess is why some people here have considered it stilted. Personally, I found the play and the production to be sufficiently robust to stand up in isolation and not to be part of a greater RSC season of plays. An ignored period of history, and a rare study of women in power. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2017 7:46:30 GMT
TodayTix has a 24 hour offer for £15 tickets for any performance this month. Just had a look and was offered top price stalls for £15 for a Saturday performance. £10 off of course with one of the many £10 referral codes, I've heard SEZCE is a good one  |
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Post by vdcni on Aug 24, 2017 7:06:33 GMT
Saw this last night with the top price stalls for £15 offer.
Thought it was mainly a solid production but never really more than that. I know the history quite well so the first act was just a pretty straight forward historical narrative. It perked up a bit in the second act when it felt that the playwright actually had something to say. Up to that point you might have well just read a book about the period.
Good performances from the leads though no one really stood out from the rest of the cast and though I saw the point of the first song the rest of the musical bits dragged - cut them out and the whole thing would have been a lot tighter.
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Post by bee on Sept 3, 2017 7:55:47 GMT
I saw this last night. It's a bit dry at first with the actors explaining things to each other so the audience gets filled in on the history behind the story, but once the story kicks in it moves along quite briskly. I liked that you're never really sure who you should be rooting for - Anne and Sarah are both admirable and infuriating at various times.
The staging is excellent and the acting is first rate. On the whole a very satisfying night out.
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Post by Dawnstar on Sept 3, 2017 15:19:04 GMT
Solid, a little stolid at times That looks rather like the descriptions of Queen Anne herself in the latter part of her reign! |
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Post by mallardo on Sept 10, 2017 10:02:54 GMT
I'm not sure why this play and production have been so little regarded and so quickly dismissed by some. It's certainly not easy to write an historical biography about a figure as sedentary and as little known as Queen Anne but, for me, Helen Edmundson has done a masterful job. She has found the key to the character and to her milieu and has shaped it all into a fine and fascinating piece.
Really, I enjoyed everything about it. I thought the songs and parodies both funny and necessary - they are central to the plot - and the journeys undertaken by the two leading characters both surprising and dramatically robust. Emma Cunniffe and Romola Garai are both superb as is the rest of the cast with James Garnon's Harley and Hywel Morgan's Prince George particularly standing out.
I have not always been a fan of director Natalie Abrahami's work but she does very well here. Her production is full of wit and nuance and pace. What could have been a dutiful slog through Anne's life was anything but. Strong production, strong performances, strong play.
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Post by martin1965 on Sept 10, 2017 13:41:34 GMT
I'm not sure why this play and production have been so little regarded and so quickly dismissed by some. It's certainly not easy to write an historical biography about a figure as sedentary and as little known as Queen Anne but, for me, Helen Edmundson has done a masterful job. She has found the key to the character and to her milieu and has shaped it all into a fine and fascinating piece. Really, I enjoyed everything about it. I thought the songs and parodies both funny and necessary - they are central to the plot - and the journeys undertaken by the two leading characters both surprising and dramatically robust. Emma Cunniffe and Romola Garai are both superb as is the rest of the cast with James Garnon's Harley and Hywel Morgan's Prince George particularly standing out. I have not always been a fan of director Natalie Abrahami's work but she does very well here. Her production is full of wit and nuance and pace. What could have been a dutiful slog through Anne's life was anything but. Strong production, strong performances, strong play. Well it was certainly a slog when i saw it in Stratford, still frankly amazed its in the WE! |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2017 18:26:27 GMT
Well it was certainly a slog when i saw it in Stratford, still frankly amazed its in the WE! Repeating a personal opinion ad nauseam doesn't make it any more of a universal truth. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2017 18:29:26 GMT
I really enjoyed it in Stratford. It was one of my highlights of the year.
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Post by lonlad on Sept 10, 2017 23:40:35 GMT
Turgid, laboured, and (Garai aside) badly acted - other than that, it was great! Oh, and the design is hideous as well - brackish and uninviting.
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Post by thesortinghat on Sept 11, 2017 11:44:01 GMT
The play was interesting, but I found it so badly acted by some that it was hard to concentrate at times.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2017 15:16:59 GMT
Some nice frocks though. Lots of material to swish about in.
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Post by thesortinghat on Sept 12, 2017 7:39:46 GMT
Some nice frocks though. Lots of material to swish about in. I did like the swishing! |
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Post by greenswan on Sept 20, 2017 6:25:15 GMT
This is really not up to scratch. Some of the actors seem like they've given up and are just phoning it in.
There's not that many great historical roles with women in powerful positions, so I'm annoyed they wasted the material on this play. It is also way too long - just not good enough for the length. There's really much better things on at the moment.
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