King Lear Old Vic Glenda Jackson

[PalelyLaura]

Just about to head back in after the interval. I'm not loving it, but it's certainly not as bad as the Vanessa Redgrave / James Earl Jones Much Ado...

[phantom1986]

The only real reason to see this production is the incredible Glenda Jackson - what a treat to have her back onstage after 25 years and she's on all guns blazing form here. We can only hope this is the beginning of a return to acting for her.

Barring two nice supporting turns from Morfydd Clarke and Harry Melling the rest is pretty much a mess. The modern dress almost works but no idea what the set concept was and the final scene is car crash. Go for Jackson though. Utterly thrilling.

[adolphus]

Ugly, brash staging. What's to be gained from not highlighting the upfront action instead of showing us the glaringly lit recesses of the Old Vic stage? Staging must serve the action and actors. The lack of mics is also a problem - even from the stalls, I couldn't hear much of what Gloucester said,and nothing from the storm scene. Jackson is very good but she and the others are undermined by the staging / directorial vanity. Unmemorable but for Jackson's strong return

[Deleted]

They deffo have mics - on Tuesday the Harry Potter kid got his caught when he took his necklace off. I was in the gods and could hear everything so maybe it's only for up there?

[Someone in a tree]

I'm glad I didn't get tickets for this now and went for the RSC one instead

[kathryn]

I saw it tonight, glad I didn't pay more than a tenner!

It was terrible! First Lear I've seen where Gloucester's blinding made the audience laugh. I may be in the minority - the audience applause was enthusiastic and a few people even stood at the end - but I didn't even think Jackson was good. Incredibly one-note performance from here. They seem to have dealt with audibility issues by having everyone shout most of the time.

Why on earth did Kent snog Cordelia? And then just get up and march off at the end?

[harry]

Ran about 3hr 35min tonight, 2hr to the interval.

It's a bizarre evening. I mean it's so incoherent. Where are we? Who are these people? It really feels like each part was cast in isolation with no consideration of any of the other cast. For example, if we're being asked to believe that Glenda Jackson is a man and that Celia Imrie, Jane Horrocks and Morfydd Clark are sisters - despite a 35-40year age gap between the eldest and the youngest (while the gap between father and eldest daughter must be only about 15 years) - that needs grounding in some sort of reality. And the characters have to feel like they are all in that shared reality and understand their relationships to each other. Instead everyone just gives their own performance, and the production does absolutely nothing to bring them together. With the (lack of) set and the scene number projections it fees almost like a performed reading that's been thrown together without the cast rehearsing with one another at all.

Nobody gives a definitive reading of any of the characters, although I equally wouldn't say anyone stood out to me as really terrible. Jackson gives a rather mannered Lear, neither Imrie nor Horrocks has the fire for the elder sisters. Simon Manyonda gives an extraordinary Edmund almost as if he thinks he's in a Frantic Assembly production. Harry Melling just hasn't got the acting chops for Edgar, but he does get his willy out so I suppose at least he's committed to it! Rhys Ifans was better than I thought he'd be, definitely more than just a weird Welshman who does movies. Morfydd Clark started out well but then Cordelia is such a nothing part that it's hard for her to re-register in the second half. Karl Johnson brings a bit of class as Gloucester, and Sargon Yelda gives a clear and interesting reading of Kent (although the seed needs sowing much earlier if the kiss with Cordelia is going to work). But as a whole it is so disjointed, visually dull and ends up a very long and unsatisfactory evening.

[wickedgrin]

Reading the above it's bound to get 4 and 5 star reviews then!

[callum]

Eesh - seeing this front row next Wednesday. Would it be best for me to suddenly realise that I can't make the 7pm start because of work and seek a refund?

[profquatermass]

So is this even worse than Much Ado with Vanessa?

[Deleted]

Nah, the cast have all managed to learn their lines at least.

[lynette]

Oct 29, 2016 23:36:25 GMT harry said:

Ran about 3hr 35min tonight, 2hr to the interval.

It's a bizarre evening. I mean it's so incoherent. Where are we? Who are these people? It really feels like each part was cast in isolation with no consideration of any of the other cast. For example, if we're being asked to believe that Glenda Jackson is a man and that Celia Imrie, Jane Horrocks and Morfydd Clark are sisters - despite a 35-40year age gap between the eldest and the youngest (while the gap between father and eldest daughter must be only about 15 years) - that needs grounding in some sort of reality. And the characters have to feel like they are all in that shared reality and understand their relationships to each other. Instead everyone just gives their own performance, and the production does absolutely nothing to bring them together. With the (lack of) set and the scene number projections it fees almost like a performed reading that's been thrown together without the cast rehearsing with one another at all.

Nobody gives a definitive reading of any of the characters, although I equally wouldn't say anyone stood out to me as really terrible. Jackson gives a rather mannered Lear, neither Imrie nor Horrocks has the fire for the elder sisters. Simon Manyonda gives an extraordinary Edmund almost as if he thinks he's in a Frantic Assembly production. Harry Melling just hasn't got the acting chops for Edgar, but he does get his willy out so I suppose at least he's committed to it! Rhys Ifans was better than I thought he'd be, definitely more than just a weird Welshman who does movies. Morfydd Clark started out well but then Cordelia is such a nothing part that it's hard for her to re-register in the second half. Karl Johnson brings a bit of class as Gloucester, and Sargon Yelda gives a clear and interesting reading of Kent (although the seed needs sowing much earlier if the kiss with Cordelia is going to work). But as a whole it is so disjointed, visually dull and ends up a very long and unsatisfactory evening.

Anyone know how they rehearsed? Together? Sounds like they did it a la Shakespeare i.e. Given their 'parts'....

[madsonmelo]

I won't be in London as I've planned, so I have a ticket for November 30 at Stalls L31. I first bought at ‎£65, but depending on how much can you pay for it, we can talk. I just don't wanna lose, entirely, this ticket.

Or is there a place in this forum where I can post this announcement?

[d'James]

I think the Noticeboard is the place to 'advertise' it, as long as you don't want more than you paid (*cough* a certain DM I had from a different poster asking for double face value *cough*).

Hope you find someone soon.

[Deleted]

If you booked before 13 Oct when they announced the change to the start time and long running time, you could try contacting them to see what the options are


"If this change causes a problem with your booking please do not hesitate to contact us on 0844 871 7629 or email [e-mail]. Otherwise, you are not required to take any further action and we look forward to seeing you at The Old Vic very soon."

[martin1965]

Oct 30, 2016 15:20:59 GMT callum said:

Eesh - seeing this front row next Wednesday. Would it be best for me to suddenly realise that I can't make the 7pm start because of work and seek a refund?

No! Make your own mind up.

[crabtree]

see it for the great cast, and it is still a mighty play. It's good to have Glenda back....I wonder if the play was her choice.

[Snciole]

I didn't hate this. I felt like the long running time flowed and Jackson got the right note of vulnerable masculinity. I think the more I see Lear the more I like it. My first was Simon Russell Beale's and it was absolutely baffling. Visually this isn't as nice as the Royal & Derngate I saw earlier this year in Brighton (except for the storm scene which looks incredible) but as a result it all feels very stripped back and clearer without any distractions.

I think for me the supporting roles aren't rewarding, people seem to come and go without much of an introduction, so maybe I wasn't expecting too much from them. This was the first Lear Ihave seen where I felt the Edmund and Edgar casting was appropriate and Simon Manyonda's bottom was magnificent.

[Deleted]

Oct 31, 2016 8:50:48 GMT Snciole said:

I didn't hate this.

They should use this quote on the poster

[Deleted]

I basically agree with everything Scniole has written. It was super-long, but I didn't spend twenty minute periods wishing it would just hurry up or anything, and the storm was GREAT (although woe betide you if you don't already know the play going in, 'cos you're probably not going to hear any dialogue during that bit).

[Snciole]

Oct 31, 2016 9:10:38 GMT @xanderl said:

Oct 31, 2016 8:50:48 GMT Snciole said:

I didn't hate this.

They should use this quote on the poster

Ha! It is this sort of brutally honest review that makes me Britain's Worst Theatre Blogger 

[kathryn]

Oct 31, 2016 8:50:48 GMT Snciole said:

This was the first Lear Ihave seen where I felt the Edmund and Edgar casting was appropriate and Simon Manyonda's bottom was magnificent.

We felt Edmund didn't come across manipulative and scheming enough, and Edgar too ripe and over-done as Poor Tom.

We really missed the pathos. A lot of moments got laughs that don't, usually. Maybe it was the Brechtian approach? Although that was a bit half-arsed....

But then, we have been rather spoilt for Lear by the excellent Jacobi/Donmar production. 

I wasn't that keen on SRB at the NT, but it felt far more coherent than this production. Decisions had obviously been made about Lear's reign, personality, and relationship with his daughters, and those decisions were clearly expressed. The Old Vic production didn't seem to have made any decisions about those things at all - it was as though the action of the play existed in a void. Apart from the rather odd decision about Kent and Cordelia - though that came so out of the blue, it jarred. Maybe that is the concept behind the production and we just didn't find it satisfying...

[youngoffender]

Count me in the 'didn't hate' category, but I think there's a strong case for surtitles instead of the scene numbering - if the ENO do it for works sung in English, why not do it for a 400-year-old play with difficult language where about 1 in 5 words are getting lost by mumbling and/or storm effects? The production left me totally unmoved, but Warner's distancing approach seemed determined to achieve just that - with every aspect of the staging shouting 'it's just actors doing King Lear', it would almost be perverse to feel anything.

Still waiting for Daniel Day-Lewis to come back to the stage in a decade or so and give his definitive Lear. I don't need to see another in the interim.

[callum]

Oct 31, 2016 8:24:28 GMT crabtree said:

see it for the great cast, and it is still a mighty play. It's good to have Glenda back....I wonder if the play was her choice.

She wanted to do Cinderella in the Palladium but she lost fairy godmother to Amanda Holden.

[Tibidabo]

Oct 31, 2016 11:05:32 GMT callum said:

Oct 31, 2016 8:24:28 GMT crabtree said:

see it for the great cast, and it is still a mighty play. It's good to have Glenda back....I wonder if the play was her choice.

She wanted to do Cinderella in the Palladium but she lost fairy godmother to Amanda Holden.

I can't stop giggling at the thought of what those impish irreverents Sir Julian of Clary and Lord Paul Of Grady would do with her wand each night....