1,345 posts
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Post by tmesis on Jun 14, 2017 21:07:44 GMT
Strange Interlude (NT)
I expected a yawn-fest but I thought it one of the best things at NT in the last decade.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2017 21:19:51 GMT
We had this confusion between play and production in a similar thread. If you mean play then its just what is written, not what the director and cast brought to it.
So, setting those parameters, once we are past the obvious ones of Shakespeare. (For me, Hamlet, Winter's Tale etc.) and Chekhov (Vanya and Cherry Orchard etc.), texts such as Our Town and She Stoops to Conquer, more recently Jerusalem, Let the Right One In and The Nether. Any play where I've only seen one production is difficult to judge but Angels in America would have been on the list even before this years production.
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Post by crabtree on Jun 14, 2017 22:08:13 GMT
The RSC Nicholas Nickleby
War Horse
Diana Rigg in Medea
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2017 22:13:19 GMT
I'm trying to think what plays I've read but not seen (not many - some Ayckbourn when I was a teenager, a couple of Shakespeares, a Christopher Fry play - A Sleep of Prisoners), plays that I've read and seen, and plays I've only seen.
I find it hard to tell whether I've adored a play I've seen because of the production or because of how fantastic the play is of itself. I have read and enjoyed Tango at the End of Winter, and Ghetto, and also other plays I loved like Nell Gwynn, The Nap, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead... but then I was prompted to read them because I'd seen and loved a stage version, so that was in my head while reading them, so maybe it's coloured my view.
There are lots of plays that I've only seen onscreen over the last couple of years without knowing them at all before, and which I've never read, but which I've massively enjoyed and thought were good plays - A View From the Bridge, Deep Blue Sea, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Streetcar Named Desire... I grew up in rural north Wales in the 80s, with occasional trips to Stratford, we didn't get modern theatre!
I've seen quite a lot of Shakespeare and I do enjoy them, but I can't be doing with any more Hamlets. I've seen several productions and studied it at school, and I'm not keen. I like Much Ado and Richard III best of the ones I know.
I'm rambling now, I'm sorry! I should go to bed.
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5,688 posts
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Post by lynette on Jun 14, 2017 22:33:23 GMT
'Modern' plays?
For me, immediate thoughts: Conor McPherson's The Weir and The Seafarer; Stoppard's Arcadia and The Invention of Love; Jerusalem; Constellations; A Day in the Death of Joe Egg; Rory Kinnear's The Herd ( was that the title?) Another Stoppard, R&G are Dead has to make the list as without it much of what followed in contemporary theatre wouldn't have. Noises Off, made me weep with laughter and is a celebration of theatre as is The Play that goes Wrong ; Copenhagen another challenging piece and a brave one.
Classics: Hytner's definitive for our time Othello; yes, Tennant's Hamlet which didn't really let rip but what I saw was brill; that Medea with Helen McCrory; McKellern's Lear;
And I'll spend the rest of the night ...and my life... completing the list.
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5,688 posts
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Post by lynette on Jun 14, 2017 22:36:50 GMT
Almost forgot!!
The Comedy of Errors, the Judi Dench Michael Williams show RSC circa 1977
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Post by peggysue on Jun 15, 2017 6:21:03 GMT
Mojo with Ben Whishaw
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2017 6:39:06 GMT
We had this confusion between play and production in a similar thread. If you mean play then its just what is written, not what the director and cast brought to it. So, setting those parameters, once we are past the obvious ones of Shakespeare. (For me, Hamlet, Winter's Tale etc.) and Chekhov (Vanya and Cherry Orchard etc.), texts such as Our Town and She Stoops to Conquer, more recently Jerusalem, Let the Right One In and The Nether. Any play where I've only seen one production is difficult to judge but Angels in America would have been on the list even before this years production. Surely that would be Best Play You Have Read or Best Play in the World? This is Best Play You Have Ever Seen which implies specific productions? Or that's how most people have taken it |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2017 8:53:08 GMT
We had this confusion between play and production in a similar thread. If you mean play then its just what is written, not what the director and cast brought to it. So, setting those parameters, once we are past the obvious ones of Shakespeare. (For me, Hamlet, Winter's Tale etc.) and Chekhov (Vanya and Cherry Orchard etc.), texts such as Our Town and She Stoops to Conquer, more recently Jerusalem, Let the Right One In and The Nether. Any play where I've only seen one production is difficult to judge but Angels in America would have been on the list even before this years production. Surely that would be Best Play You Have Read or Best Play in the World? This is Best Play You Have Ever Seen which implies specific productions? Or that's how most people have taken it I think people are taking it as the best play and production they have ever seen. I've seen plenty of poor productions of great plays as well as great productions of poor plays, sometimes a play seems great or poor because of the production.
In that case, the best example I've seen of great play in a great production might well be Peter Brook's Hamlet at the Young Vic.
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12 posts
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Post by hussymare on Jun 15, 2017 9:09:49 GMT
James Plays at the Edinburgh Festival 2014
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527 posts
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Post by vabbian on Jun 15, 2017 9:11:15 GMT
Man and Superman - NT
front row with Ralph Fiennes
sublime~
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943 posts
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Post by vdcni on Jun 15, 2017 9:59:55 GMT
Hamlet (RSC Tennant)
Macbeth (RSC Stewart/Fleetwood)
The Weir (Donmar)
The York Realist (Royal Court)
Noises Off (Old Vic)
A View From The Bridge (Young Vic)
History Boys (National)
A Dolls House (Donmar/Young Vic)
There's also a few things where I can't say the play/production are the best but there was a performance which I absolutely loved so the play itself stuck in the memory as long as the above. So Long Days Journey Into Night for Laurie Metcalf, Masterclass for Tyne Daly and Blithe Spirit for Angela Lansbury.
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45 posts
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Post by publius on Jun 15, 2017 13:02:05 GMT
- The Father: touching and heart-breaking, but the staging was also so exhilarating. I'm not sure I would want to go again though. I'm not sure that as a play it worked as well as I hoped but the staging and production left me trying to fight back the tears.
When you realise what the removal of furniture represents it really hits hard.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2017 19:48:30 GMT
@phantomoflondon The Normal Heart would be on mine if I'd ever seen a live production *grumble grumble* danieljohnson14 Reg makes it into my top 10 but I didn't feel I could just list all 'my AIDS plays' (as elderly relatives would have it). And not just for the Julien Ovenden production factor  (What I had to mention it before Ryand did!) |
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4,970 posts
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 15, 2017 23:22:18 GMT
I have to say I haven't seen a live production. But did see a recording in the archives in New York Libary of the Performing Arts, even seeing that you felt that I saw a regal production and understand how it nailed the Tony.
I would love to see a production and surprised no one like Young Vic or Almeida did it - to take advantage of the National doing Angels.
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34 posts
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Post by Jasmine on Jun 16, 2017 7:26:20 GMT
Van Hove's A View From The Bridge Yael Farber's The Crucible The Ferryman Marianne Elliott's Angels In America Hangmen People, Places & Things Curious Incident Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf (I  Imelda) Robert Icke's Hamlet (2017 has been a good year for plays, so far) |
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1,013 posts
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Post by talkstageytome on Jun 16, 2017 8:57:50 GMT
Best production? The John Tiffany directed The Glass Menagerie. Quite simply put, it broke me. I can't fully explain why, but I've never sat at the end of a show just frozen before. I could barely move. Even writing it down it sounds so silly and like a massive overreaction, but I'll never forget the perfection of that production - in my eyes, anyway. Still bitter about its lack of Oliviers. Also loved Do and Viv and Rose, Antony and Cleopatra (rsc 2013?), Love Song (Frantic Assembly, tour) and Beautiful Burnout (Frantic Assembly, tour ) |
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421 posts
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Post by schuttep on Jun 16, 2017 9:06:01 GMT
I agree with many of the choices here.
But no-one's yet mentioned Wit by Margaret Edson that I was fortunate to see on Broadway, it's London transfer, and last year at Manchester Royal Exchange with the unbelievably talented Julie Hesmondhalgh.
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270 posts
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Post by littlesally on Jun 19, 2017 15:35:36 GMT
Recently, People Places Things was the stand out production.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2017 11:47:07 GMT
Oh I forgot Love Song which took me utterly by surprise and broke me a bit!!
Also I wish I'd seen Wit somewhere...someday maybe!
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631 posts
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Post by ncbears on Jun 20, 2017 14:57:58 GMT
Prelude To A Kiss at Berkeley Rep in California - before it went to Broadway or became a good but not great film.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf - Steppenwolf in Chicago before its Tony winning transfer to Broadway but also a John Lithgow starring production in Los Angeles.
Othello, the Remix at Chicago Shakespeare which was after its world premiere at the Globe.
Hamlet at Chicago Shakespeare with Ben Carlson directed by Terry Hands.
In the UK, Oleanna (1994?) Curious Incident at the Apollo, Ghosts at Trafalgar, and King Charles III at Wyndham's.
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1,120 posts
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Jun 20, 2017 18:57:06 GMT
I love John Lithgow an inappropriate amount.
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2,323 posts
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Jun 20, 2017 19:47:11 GMT
Well the clue to mine is my avatar.... You are Hattie Morahan and I claim my £5 |
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816 posts
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Post by stefy69 on Jun 20, 2017 19:50:30 GMT
Well the clue to mine is my avatar.... You are Hattie Morahan and I claim my £5 and for the full £5 the play is... ? |
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2,323 posts
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Jun 20, 2017 19:52:29 GMT
I thought you were very good in a Dolls House
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Imelda)
