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Post by showgirl on Sept 29, 2017 15:18:57 GMT
"A mistake I shall not be making again in a hurry in case I get taken away by Interpol."
But @ryan, think what a great anecdote that would have made! And anyway, how do you know you wouldn't like it if you haven't tried?
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Post by Jon on Sept 29, 2017 15:21:27 GMT
I assume Ryan will have to add being on a watchlist alongside with his many restraining orders...
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Post by alicechallice on Sept 29, 2017 15:37:30 GMT
Oh and I almost went on the terrorism list too. Thank God Theresa May was out of the country or she'd have had me deported. I was at the end of the row and so I stood against the wall waiting for the show to start having a little aperitif. I'd left my bag on the (MY!) upturned seat as people kept coming back and forth along the row and with it being narrow leg room (and the audience being mostly geriatric), my bag would have tripped them up. And then the lady next to me reported my lovely bag to an usher who started speaking into her walkie-talkie. I was trying to prevent an accident and was almost accused of being a terrorist! The cheek of it. "Who leaves a bag around in London?" she cried. "Someone who is stood next to it and trying to stop you from tripping up you old heffer, that's who!" I replied. We didn't speak after that. A similar thing happened to me at Who's Afraid...? at the Harold Pinter earlier in the year. Despite the fact that a woman in my row had let me squeeze past to find my seat and leave my bag there while I went to the toilet, she didn't say anything to the fire warden who then removed said bag. When I returned to my seat, I had a very similar "you don't leave bags unattended in London comment" from her grouchy husband too. Sometimes you have to when you're using a theatre with an unbelievably small toilet cubicle! @ryan and Jonathan Bailey were already in there, no room for my fanny pack too! |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2017 16:29:24 GMT
A mistake I shall not be making again in a hurry in case I get taken away by Interpol. I turned up to attend the Royal Gala to open Wales Millennium Centre and was identified as a terrorist suspect by the plain clothes police on duty. After being apprehended and detained on a public staircase, then searched in the disabled toilet, then released, then detained again and finally escorted from the building, it was not an experience I would recommend. Except that it gave me a good story which I can bore anyone with, in minute detail, for many many minutes. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2017 16:45:19 GMT
I think leaving your bag on a seat and standing near it - fine
Leaving your bag on a seat and going to the loo - not fine
How do they know you're in the loo and haven't actually left it there and left the theatre?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2017 16:52:40 GMT
Sitting with your bag - How do they know you're not a suicide bomber?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2017 17:09:13 GMT
The price of theatre tickets these days? There are easier targets.  |
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Post by alicechallice on Sept 29, 2017 18:50:44 GMT
I think leaving your bag on a seat and standing near it - fine Leaving your bag on a seat and going to the loo - not fine How do they know you're in the loo and haven't actually left it there and left the theatre? Yes, you're quite right. I much prefer to have my bag searched on the way in, rather than having to claim it back & having people make remarks to me as I do so. This was pre-Manchester though so they weren't really doing bag checks. And as pointed out above, if I was suicide bomber, even when I had my bag back in my possession, it wouldn't have made the rest of the audience any safer. |
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Post by foxa on Sept 29, 2017 23:26:12 GMT
Saw this tonight - an early preview. My first thoughts:
Tamsin Greig is a marvel - as has been mentioned above, you would not know that she hadn't been originally cast. They were very, very lucky that she was able to step in.
In a nutshell, the play uses some of the conventions of comedy/farce (near misses, misunderstandings, physical comedy, silly props, etc.) and some time trickery to explore Labour's ups and downs for the past 26 years based in the microcosm of a constituency office of an MP and his agent, Freeman and Greig, respectively.
Positives: Greig and Freeman are very watchable performers and the play has ambition and scope. I found the second act particularly interesting/entertaining - that's when the time trickery began to pay off.
Negatives: Most of the other parts are woefully under-written and there many contrivances that I just didn't buy. If you are in the rear stalls you will miss some of the stuff on the big screens.
Audience reaction: Very keen with a good portion of the audience giving it a standing ovation at the end.
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Post by andrew on Sept 29, 2017 23:48:44 GMT
Today the way day seats worked was
1) Box office opens at 10am with everything on sale other than day seats. Some £10 availability in restricted view etc.
2) Somewhat inexplicably the day seaters are kicked off of the step and have to stand for 30 minutes from 10am
3) At 10.30am day seaters are invited inside to queue and the tickets are sold
As TM says the day seats are row A. There were 15 available for sale today, £10 each, two per person, cash or card.
To the play. It's another fun James Graham romp through the personal history of Freeman and Grieg as MP and constituency office manager from the era of Kinnock to Corbyn. I thought it quite nicely weaved together their personal story, pieces on the politics of the Labour Party as well as an insight into some of the conversations occurring behind Red-rosed doors at different points through recent history. I won't go into it but the denouement was a bit predictable for my liking, although the general non-linear structure was quite fun.
Ultimately this is being marketed and will be sold on the basis of the two stars who were completely excellent. Martin Freeman is brilliantly expressive, passionate, and funny. I would've liked to have seen Sarah Lancashire do this but TG slips in easily and matches Freeman well.
The whole play didn't quite lift me completely to give it five stars rather than its very respectable 4. Compared to Ink or This House, it's less exciting and is a more personal play, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but then I think the personal stuff didn't really move me enough to make the complete package. Probably that goes back to the script rather than the director or the players. It's a noble effort though, and well worth attending.
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Post by Mark on Sept 30, 2017 12:35:47 GMT
I love dynamic pricing. Just got a £10 stalls seat for the matinee
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Post by Mark on Sept 30, 2017 17:49:21 GMT
Thought this was brilliant.
(Potential spoilers)
The structure of the play is very clever with the whole “merrily we roll along” thing going for it in the first act and then rolling forward again in act two to “finish the scenes” as it were.
Tamsin! She didn’t disappoint. You’d think this part was written for her, she’s just so strong in the role you would never have known she was a late addition to the cast. Martin Freeman as well very believable as a politician actually.
The set is good, two identical sets almost which change as the eras do.
Definitely one to see
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Post by andrew on Sept 30, 2017 19:23:40 GMT
Oh yeah I should've added about THE SET, if they hadn't started showing it happening in front of you from my front row perspective I'd never have known how they did the scene changes so quickly. A curtain comes down for 30 seconds and loads of tiny changes have happened. As it turns out, two sets on a revolve gives you a whole scene to change the other one behind the action. The attention to detail is amazing, as we go back in time we see the television go through different iterations with footage from that era, the computer get bulkier then disappear, casework folders change, Labour paraphernalia devolves. They've also done quite a large amount of Martin Freeman work, shooting at least a dozen different scenes as part of "local news" B roll which features completely in the background very rarely is featured on the main projection, ties into the story. And at one point Jeremy Corbyn's speech from last weeks Labour conference was pulled neatly into a video montage.
GREAT design.
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Post by Rory on Sept 30, 2017 19:26:28 GMT
Thanks for posting all these reviews guys. This sounds super, and Tamsin never disappoints!
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Post by jason71 on Sept 30, 2017 20:41:04 GMT
What is the running time?
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Post by Mark on Sept 30, 2017 23:04:57 GMT
What is the running time? Around 2:50 |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2017 8:03:52 GMT
Thought this was very good. As noted above, clever structure which pays off in act 2 although possibly they needed to reinforce some things a bit ( eg I'm assuming the independent who cost him his seat was Len, but had forgotten the details of that by the time we got back to that scene ) The love plot is a bit perfunctory but really that's an excuse to explore things like the evolution of Labour, various phases of regeneration in the Midlands, why people get involved in politics and then get disillusioned. Very positive audience response, people particularly seemed to like Tamsin Grieg swearing. It is VERY sweary incidentally, if that sort of thing bothers you. Great attention to period detail including the multiple TVs and at one point a scrolling Teletext news summary. 2 hours 50 at the moment but suspect it will speed up a bit - the interval seemed very long yesterday. £10 seats at the back of the stalls were a bargain. Only thing you miss is the top of some of the projections on the curtain during scene changes but most of the key stuff is repeated on screens at the side. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2017 15:54:12 GMT
Oh yes, Tamsin is fabulously sweary in it. Poor Cheryl.
The set change was amazing. I didn't notice it at first but then saw it spinning around during one of the changes. It's fabulously well done.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2017 18:08:17 GMT
Oh @ryan I did have a chuckle! but yes it doesn't take a Dr Watson (see what I did there) to figure out the owner of the bag was stood right next to it. Fingering a Twix. (Couldn't resist)
Ah Queen Tamisn. A lovely James Graham. If only the thought of Martin Freeman didn't make me want to...well not be there.
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Post by maggiem on Oct 2, 2017 8:04:50 GMT
Well. God bless Tamsin Greig. You'd never have guessed that she was a late addition, she was glorious. It was was as though the part was written for her and I actually couldn't imagine Sarah Lancashire playing the role to be honest. It's pretty much a two-hander for most of the play. I found the first act rather labour-ious (I thank you) but it picks up in the second act. Rachael Stirling is WASTED in a pretty thankless role but she does look lovely in leggings and wellie boots and that voice is worth a ticket price anyway. Tamsin Grieg does make you think that the play is a lot better than it is though. I think it'll get zippier as the run goes on. Lots of Labour voters in the audience cheering away when a clip of Baroness T resigning was shown and several people giving standing ovations at the end. Show offs. I was at the Saturday matinee, and I'll endorse your views here. Tamsin was great, and not for a moment did I think I was watching a preview. My only quibble was that they were getting such big immediate laughs that the next line of dialogue sometimes got drowned out. One bit of unexpected fun, though... I found myself sitting next to the director in the Grand Circle (B5 & B6), so I was able to tell him at the interval what I've said above (well, not the drowned out lines bit. I'm not THAT bold!). |
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Post by stefy69 on Oct 4, 2017 5:53:19 GMT
Excellent reviews for this in this morning's papers 4 to 5 stars seems to be the norm.
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Post by lonlad on Oct 4, 2017 6:22:14 GMT
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Post by Mark on Oct 4, 2017 7:26:11 GMT
"Greig looks uncomfortable in the role of a lefty true believer — her heart is not in i" Wondering if they saw the same play... uncomfortable in the role?!?! Heart not in it?!?! She's brilliant! |
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Post by dani on Oct 4, 2017 8:02:53 GMT
There is a slightly unimpressed review in The Stage, though it lays the blame on Graham's over obvious jokes and is very positive about Tamsin.
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Post by n1david on Oct 4, 2017 8:38:58 GMT
Given that this is so linked to the story of the Labour Party, I wonder if the reviewer's view of Labour affects their view of the play? Has Quentin Letts reviewed it yet?
(Disclaimer: I have no knowledge of the political views of either the ArtsDesk or Stage reviewers, so this is only a hypothesis)
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