Oslo at NT

[lynette]

Well, I'm sorry I missed this guy's other work. I will look out for it now.

[showgirl]

Sept 21, 2017 10:30:28 GMT lynette said:

Well, I'm sorry I missed this guy's other work. I will look out for it now.

Can't recall whether I saw Blood And Gifts but I certainly recall The Overwhelming (about Rwanda and also at the NT, though in what was then the Cottesloe); chiefly for the way it created an almost palpable sense of menace and unease.  Very chilling and disturbing, as no doubt it was meant to be.

[sf]

Saw it yesterday afternoon, and loved it. Very, very clever piece of writing, turning something that could have been a rather dry history lesson into a gripping, funny, surprisingly moving play. Good performances across the board, and a magnificent one from Peter Polycarpou; slick direction and design too.

And I'm glad I saw it at the Lyttelton rather than the Pinter - if you're going to sit in the cheap(ish) seats, the ones in the Lyttelton are far better!

[misspiggy1979]

looking forward in seeing Oslo on the 14th, being half Norwegian, rather fitting! Plus, I am up on the cheap seats!

[bramble]

Really enjoyed this great piece of writing.Well directed.Well acted.Very satisfying.

[Snciole]

This feels like an old school play. It could easily have been written and produced not long after the Agreement in the mid-nineties.

I am a sucker for plays/screenplays about negotiations, Endgame from 2009 is a great piece of work about Apartheid, but this plays strength is in its conflict and resolution. So the scenes with Ahmed Qurei (Peter Polycarpou, who is one of Britain's finest stage actors I am yet to see him put a foot wrong) and Philip Arditti, brilliant as the vain, pigheaded but so very good Uri Savir are exciting because they have a lot that divides them and a lot to bring them together. Where it flags is the scenes with Mona and Terje (Lydia Leonard and Toby Stephens) who have very little conflict, it seems their marriage is mostly happy and Mona's role seems to be maidservant in between saving the world? Spying? What exactly is her job? The second half feels so long and it is a real shame that the break doesn't come around 15-30 minutes later. 


I liked the humour and shifts to more serious tone. It is a fine production and one of the few new plays I've seen recently that feels like it will be revived in a few years as opposed to just forgotten about. The NT still has issues but if putting on plays like this are the beginning of overcoming them then I am all for it. 

Yair Jonah Lotan as Joel Singer is like a much sexier Russell Tovey. More of him on the stage/screen/wherever, please. 

I also found myself wishing someone had called Stephen Rea's agent for the Shimon Perez/Economist part but I would cast Rea in everything if I could

[couldileaveyou]

Saw the closing night at the NT and really enjoyed it. Very well written - and way more humorous than I expected - it perfectly combines information, thrill, comedy and feelings. I found it a bit shouty at the times and maybe the finale is a bit more didactic that I'd like, but it's such a well crafted production that it's easily forgiven. Bartlett Sher is really one of the best working directors and I hope to see more of his shows (please, The King and I!) here in London. The cast was great, brilliant Toby Stephens and absolutely amazing Lydia Leonard, what a lovely performance. But great performances all around, Philip Arditti was outstanding in his role and Peter Polycarpou should win awards for his Ahmed Qurie. He has enjoyed a very respectable career, but I still think he's an underrated actor.

So glad I got to see it, may it prosper at the Pinter!

[jek]

Found this interview with Nabil Elouahabi really inspiring. Just imagine coming off stage and then going on to do a shift as an NHS night time driver.

www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/sep/24/nabil-elouahabi-identity-is-important-but-also-limiting-oslo-national-theatre-harold-pinter?CMP=twt_a-stage_b-gdnstage

[Rory]

That is amazing. Good for him!

[Phantom of London]

Saw this a couple of nights back and this Tony winning play, but could this also bag the Olivier for best play? I feel that The Ferryman has got this Already. But a play about the serious Israel/Palestine peace accord would be a very unlikely play to win the Olivier for best comedy, but the producers could easily enter this in the unlikely category has it had many laugh out moments, where this playwright inserted many great one liners - which aided the 3 hours to fly past. However unlikely to be entered for best comedy, so likely to leave empty handed.

4 Stars

[bordeaux]

Oct 15, 2017 18:52:10 GMT Phantom of London said:

Saw this a couple of nights back and this Tony winning play, but could this also bag the Olivier for best play? I feel that The Ferryman has got this Already. But a play about the serious Israel/Palestine peace accord would be a very unlikely play to win the Olivier for best comedy, but the producers could easily enter this in the unlikely category has it had many laugh out moments, where this playwright inserted many great one liners - which aided the 3 hours to fly past. However unlikely to be entered for best comedy, so likely to leave empty handed.

4 Stars

I think the judges are going to be spoilt for choice this year:  it seems to be a very good year for new plays, what with the ones you mention, plus Ink and Labour of Love, Albion, Beginning and perhaps more to come.  

[mallardo]

I have to say I've avoided this because it's a painful reminder that there was once a Peace Process and there was once such a thing as hope in the world. Given the shape we're in now it would just be too depressing.

[lynette]

Well, indeed mallardo, I see where you are coming from but in fact the play is uplifting because it says that we can make connections between people and it shows this happening. And in actual fact this negotiation process was I believe, influential in other critical negotiations between other groups. They could do with a bit of what this play shows in the EU negotiations. I do recommend but yes, sad.

[viserys]

I was surprised by how laugh-out-loud funny this play was at times.

And I agree with Lynette - there was an element of depression and frustration at how far they came once and how it all descended into fresh madness since, but at the same time the play held some hope that if this was possible once, why should it not be possible again? Not just in the Middle East but everywhere if people could only meet as human beings without any religious or cultural creed. That said, I can't for the life of me imagine Theresa May and Angela Merkel finding common ground on a girls night out in Brussels...

[Latecomer]

I thought one of the best things about the play was that, although the peace process didn't in the end succeed, the message was definitely "we just have to keep trying and MAKE CONNECTIONS" and that somewhere down the line we would be lucky with people thrown together. It also made me think about the Northern Irish peace process and Mo Mowlan and how she used her personality to help negotiations. Very clever play as the end was desperately sad but somehow uplifting at the same time.

[lynette]

Ok, I’m loving The May/Merkel girls' night out in Brussels. To be honest I wonder how much these people are allowed to be normal. Times have moved on so much I don’t think they can sit down and have a cuppa anymore. Not allowed.

[alexandra]

Doesn't David Edgar's The Prisoner's Dilemma have a section very much like this play? And more interesting, I thought. I found it a bit dumbed down: a joke every 10 minutes to lighten things up, and lots and lots of acting. Though Peter Polycarpou was good. I wish Toby Stephens would do a lot less acting and a lot more being, but then I always do with him.

Also, I realise it was deliberate, but the misogyny was just so tiring.

[RedRose]

By the way, today tix are doing rush tickets for this now.

[showgirl]

Yes, and when I was looking at the NT site, I could see Friday Rush tix still available several days later.

[partytentdown]

Enjoyed this more than I imagined, got a £20 rush seat on TodayTix and was seated in Row H of the Stalls with a great view. It's long and quite dense - you have to concentrate to keep track - but it did go quickly and I was never bored. Have to admit I'm fairly uneducated about this topic and I think a quick scan of wikipedia beforehand would have aided my understanding of some of the situations and characters but overall the play rockets along.

[mallardo]

Oct 20, 2017 7:33:48 GMT @theatremonkey said:

Oct 16, 2017 10:35:06 GMT mallardo said:

I have to say I've avoided this because it's a painful reminder that there was once a Peace Process and there was once such a thing as hope in the world. Given the shape we're in now it would just be too depressing.

In view of the review above mallardo , I think you should re-consider. It's a fine piece of writing for sure.

I have reconsidered, TM, in part because of the very wise comments made here - I'm definitely going to see it.

[lynette]

The joke being 'ancient' is part of the story. It is certainly an old one, as old as the problem in the play and both sides can laugh at it...irony, tm.

[TallPaul]

Bit rich of you, TM, to refer to an ancient joke, when most of yours date from before Jesus   .

[lynette]

Risking banality here - the irony not in the joke but that they can all laugh together.

[lynette]

O I see. Gotcha. Maybe the writer doesn’t t know any more modern Jewish jokes. To be honest most Jewish jokes are old. Not to be confused with Jewish comedians who make more modern jokes of course.