Obsession

[jadnoop]

Just come out of today's matinee. Given how negative the comments here were, I figured that it would at least nip over my low expectations, but it was really the worst arts event I've been to in years.

I don't know if there's a theatre equivalent of the bad sex awards they have for writing, but if so this should be nominated. That first scene with the stunted dialogue, combined with the tacky video close ups and forced moves. Ugh.

[Rory]

It jumped the shark several times over. The haunted accordion, the spewing car, the rubbish flinging, the dodgy treadmill running. Take your pick. Not since Kit's Doctor Faustus have I been so open mouthed by the naffness of the enterprise. You could hear the Barbican audience tittering away on the NT Live when to elicit laughs clearly wasn't the artistic intention and I thought the cast looked pretty peeved at the curtain call.

[samuelwhiskers]

I was in the cinema over the weekend and when a trailer for this came on half the row behind me started loudly slagging it off. Quite funny.

[jadnoop]

May 2, 2017 19:11:16 GMT @theatremonkey said:

On the play, I'm blogging thoughts tomorrow, but it was patchy. Good start as someone noted, then dreary 40 minutes, predictable twist and acceptable end. Strong acting, and stylish direction. One question:

SPOILER: Click to show

I thought, very strongly, that Gino was repressed gay. That was why he was running, and angry. Thoughts?

At times I thought the same thing. However, the way that eroticism/sexual attraction was presented throughout the play felt so unnatural and mechanical that I might simply have been reading too much into it.

Part of the issue -for me at least- was the strange way that the play presented the passage of time. In a similar way to how space was compressed on the stage using the treadmill, time in the story seemed to pass within the story in a way disconnected from what the audience sees; scenes seemed to pass in more-or-less 'real time', until a line which might suggest that months were meant to have passed.

In particular,

SPOILER: Click to show

in the scenes with Gino and the artist I assumed that they travelled together for a fairly short time, but there was a moment when the artist to Hanna that Gino has done things that she would find shocking, and I wondered whether this suggested a longer (and deeper) relationship.

edit: the spoilers within the quote seem to jump around a lot. Can't get them to work properly. Finally working

[vabbian]

I booked this because Jude Law is hot

Bad bad decision. awful production

I have learned my lesson, DO NOT BOOK THINGS JUST BECAUSE JUDE LAW IS HOT

[kathryn]

Maybe it was going in with such low expectations, or maybe it was seeing Woyczeck last night, but I quite enjoyed this. It wasn't great, but it didn't bore me, the performances were strong, and I thought it flowed well. I wasn't bothered by the time jumps/time compression.
The treadmill bits didn't work but the rubbish throwing didn't overly bother me.

First van Hove production I've seen that I haven't either loved or been left completely cold by, so that's a novelty for me at least!



I guess booking things because Jude Law is hot is not such a bad move for me!

[aksis]

Just saw this in Amsterdam.
Missed any emotional connection to the characters. But as said before... Jude Law

[tmesis]

In retrospect, and having just seen Salome and Common, this by comparison seems to be a model of clarity and also grippingly involving.
And hey...Jude Law

[Deleted]

If Obsession is better than either Common or Salomé, then I am EXTREMELY glad I returned my tickets for them both!

[peln]

IMHO Jude Law miscast as the flat broke romantic American drifter he is not suitable for this role any more than Imelda Staunton in Albee