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Post by MrsCondomine on Aug 8, 2018 10:31:25 GMT
Well. I enjoyed this for the first bit (it's all very jolly japes and rather amusing) and then it gets a bit dull and repetitive for a bit and then the ending is really rather lovely (visually if nothing else) despite Indira Varma doing a bit too much "whoosh" acting for my liking. Strangely she also picks "things" up with one hand in a ball. I don't think she'd have got very far as a removals expert to be honest. The set originally looks like something that was left over from a cheap touring production of 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' but then it redeems itself hugely with the denouement. Rhys Ifans is really rather good and it's nice to see 'Play School's Derek Griffiths at The Nash. Shame he didn't seem to bring Jemima and Big Ted with him though. But for me, it was all about Indira Varma. Such star presence, I couldn't take my eyes off her. That could have been something to do with coveting her fabulous tiara but I think it was more to do with her. I think she probably thought that she left the "I'm picking something heavy up and throwing it away" mimes back at drama school but she coped manfully with it. And quite frankly she simply looked gorgeous with a capital GORGEOUS. Someone needs to cast her in the next production of 'Private Lives' right away.*frenzied screaming* YEEEES She's a big reason I booked my ticket to be frank. She's the best. |
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Post by Jan on Aug 8, 2018 13:09:09 GMT
Indira Varma. Agree. A big admirer since her work in the film “Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love”. Actually she reminds me a lot of Deborah Findlay circa 1990 - she’s that good.
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Post by peggs on Aug 8, 2018 13:47:03 GMT
What is 'whoosh acting please @ryan?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2018 14:13:40 GMT
What is 'whoosh acting please @ryan ? She pretends to pick a lot of stuff up and throw it away with a 'whoosh'. Like mime. With a bit of a noise. |
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Post by sherriebythesea on Aug 8, 2018 15:53:00 GMT
Indira Varma! I'd love to see her performing. Sigh...this ends before I get there....
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Post by peggs on Aug 8, 2018 16:41:34 GMT
What is 'whoosh acting please @ryan ? She pretends to pick a lot of stuff up and throw it away with a 'whoosh'. Like mime. With a bit ofo a noise. I see. I think. Had just about decided to return ticket and now @ryan has me all of a dither, is Indira Varma throwing away a lot of pretend stuff and being fabulous sufficient to make me go? |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2018 16:46:39 GMT
Well. She also looks like this 👇 Although it really doesn't show you the full fabulousness.  |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2018 18:47:35 GMT
Her costume is beautiful. The ruching made me sigh.
I once met her, in a coffee shop. She’s a good friend of a friend and coped admirably with me wibbling all over her. So she’s a good egg as well as rather talented.
The ending really is worth seeing. I thought it a proper coup de theatre, but then I am probably far too interested in the physical Olivier stage/revolve.
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Post by peggs on Aug 8, 2018 19:56:01 GMT
That is certainly some tiara!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2018 20:02:50 GMT
That is certainly some tiara! Isn't it just? If I was close enough to have stolen it, I would have done! |
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Post by peggs on Aug 8, 2018 22:19:22 GMT
That is certainly some tiara! Isn't it just? If I was close enough to have stolen it, I would have done! Oh @ryan now that would have livened it up for everyone else, surely you could have carried out a sprightly dash? |
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Post by asfound on Aug 16, 2018 15:47:40 GMT
Had the afternoon off so it was either this, cinema or the Tate Modern - given it's the school holidays I decided against the screaming hordes of Hugos and Jemimas of the latter or the overabundance of generic kids' flicks.
To sum up what the first 80 minutes was like, the woman sat next to me left within half and hour and the guy directly behind started to snore a few moments later - and I didn't even get annoyed. Plenty of walk outs. There is no real philosophical exploration of death and loss, just Rhys Ifans repetitively throwing tantrums in Joker make-up until the final scene with a decent farewell monologue by Indira Varma and some clever set manoeuvres. I'd be interested in seeing another version because I honestly didn't feel like the script was salvageable.
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Post by JJShaw on Aug 17, 2018 11:37:00 GMT
To sum up what the first 80 minutes was like, the woman sat next to me left within half and hour and the guy directly behind started to snore a few moments later - and I didn't even get annoyed. Plenty of walk outs. There is no real philosophical exploration of death and loss, just Rhys Ifans repetitively throwing tantrums in Joker make-up until the final scene with a decent farewell monologue by Indira Varma and some clever set manoeuvres. I'd be interested in seeing another version because I honestly didn't feel like the script was salvageable. I saw it yesterday afternoon purely based on the posters and the tagline, and since I got an entry pass ticket I thought I should try and broaden my horizons and see something I might not have gone to see. Boy was this just boring. Fortunately the last monologue and set staging made it interesting and was really quite beautiful, but my goodness the middle third was just so so so so dull. The 80 minutes leading up to the end are just "you're going to die" "I don't want to" "but you are" "ok but also no". THATS IT. had I not been smack bang in the centre of row C (right next to the catwalk that comes through the audience) I really did contemplate walking out it was just so boring. The only other show I considered walking out of was American Idiot (thank goodness each show was only a one act, although this felt so much longer...) Not sure if it was just for that matinee but the amount of saliva coming from the King's mouth as he spoke was unnatural, with an actual dribble at one point. you could see everyone in the first couple of rows wince when he came close to the edge of the stage, myself included when he would walk the catwalk and stop near me all I could think was please don't spit on me. Theres good diction and enunciating and then... this. He spat so much he literally washed his smeared lipstick and white make up clean off his chin leaving a peachy chin in between his white face. Both the queens were good and their dialogue was the only sort of salvageable thing to come from this play. Also the old maid/nurse lady. The Doctor didn't have the material for his character to do much and the guard was just... there? Thank goodness for the girls! Not comedic enough to be a comedy, not tragic enough for me to care, was genuinely surprised that the King wasn't dressed like Trump to try and be politically satirical (because he was so winey I assumed that would have been a fine direction to go in at the start.) |
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Post by glossie on Aug 17, 2018 17:48:36 GMT
I remember seeing this in Bath a couple of years ago, with Alun Armstrong as King. To be honest I don't really recall a great deal about it although I think I quite enjoyed it. But right at the end, AA stood front of stage and sang. If it had been the worst thing I'd ever seen, it would have been worth the ticket price, train fare and every single second of getting there for just those few minutes alone.
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Post by Phantom of London on Aug 18, 2018 22:33:10 GMT
I saw this Thursday and have to say for a 80 minute short play, I felt every minute.
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Post by kathryn on Aug 19, 2018 7:10:30 GMT
Oh dear, this really does sound dire. Maybe I’ll return my ticket for credit...
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Post by lichtie on Aug 19, 2018 11:36:17 GMT
Well, it drags at the end which could have done with a sharp trim (depsite the big stage reveal), but otherwise I enjoyed this. But then I'm a fan of the Theatre of the Absurd... The cast seem to have setlled down nicely into playing it as close to slapstick as possible (which is where it needs to be to avoid ending up like a maudlin repetitive droan). Adrian Scarborough and Indra Varma were particularly good. But if you're not a fan of people repeating themselves endlessly and no plot then you might want to give it a miss. And if you think Godot is the epitome of poor theatre definitely avoid...
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Post by Being Alive on Sept 5, 2018 10:11:15 GMT
Should I ask for a credit? I went to London yesterday, and cant really be bothered to trek down on Friday. For reference, I hated Macbeth, I got annoyed at Home I'm Darling, and I didn't think Network was everything people were raving about (if that sways your opinion!)
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Post by lynette on Sept 5, 2018 19:05:28 GMT
O go on, risk it!
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Post by tmesis on Sept 8, 2018 20:44:31 GMT
I've just come out of this. Another (extremely) duff night at the Nash.
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Post by sfsusan on Sept 11, 2018 14:53:28 GMT
I started clipping posts to quote, then gave up as I agree with so many of the comments: starts out funny, repeats itself endlessly, ends interestingly. And the spitting actually became distracting (I was in J next to the aisle and kept thinking, "no, no, no... stay back"). At the end, the woman next to me (a complete stranger) turned and asked, "Did you enjoy that?"... I had to look at her and say, "I'm not sure". {But about the ending...}
I wonder how comfortable it is for the actress to stand in the dark waiting for the audience to realize the play is over and start applauding? It seemed like it was a really long time in dead silence.
In some ways, the audience's somewhat stunned reaction to the end reminded me of seeing Christian Slater in "Glengarry Glen Ross".... into the silence, a lone voice said "Is that IT!?" |
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Post by MrsCondomine on Sept 25, 2018 11:10:05 GMT
I went to see this in the end and cried like a baby at the conclusion. Also the cat speech  Also Rhys Ifans in that getup |
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Post by RedRose on Sept 26, 2018 7:53:12 GMT
I have returned my ticket for next Wednesday. My time to see stuff is very limited and I cannot risk regretting to see something terribble at the Nash again. I am still traumatised by the horrible double dud of Salome and Common last year.
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Post by lynette on Oct 3, 2018 21:40:53 GMT
I have returned my ticket for next Wednesday. My time to see stuff is very limited and I cannot risk regretting to see something terribble at the Nash again. I am still traumatised by the horrible double dud of Salome and Common last year. Not terrible. Far from it. I really enjoyed it and admired both the writing and the performances. It starts off all funny ha ha, slap stick even and then moves into darker territory with relentless intensity as befits the theme. My next door neighbours were guffawing annoyingly for about twenty minutes then silence and no comment at the end. Lear, check, Beckett, check, touch of the Dr Faustus, check and all that twentieth century angst. Lovely. The line up at the end like weirdo dolls was very impressive. Lovely direction all thru and Ifan a bit of a triumph. |
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Post by artea on Oct 4, 2018 22:39:52 GMT
(My first post here. It'll probably be too long and there will be spoilers - well, the run has almost ended and it's the only way now I can think of to try to put across why I thought it was so good when most reactions have been so negative.) I'd go further than lynette. I think this is the best production put on so far under the Norris regime. After the reviews it has had and the presumably poor audience figures (esp at full price), it will probably be the first and last Ionesco to appear at the NT. A pity. Ionesco is apparently Romanian for Johnson. He holds the world record for a play running in its original production at the same theatre. La cantatrice chauve 60 years+ au Théâtre de la Huchette in Paris. (The theatre is however tiny!) The complete focus of the 90 minutes of the play is on the 400+ year old king of a dying country railing against his own inevitable death and the various reactions (helpful or not) of those around him. The king is left filling all the time he has left alive with banalities (cf Beckett) while complaining he lacks time to do things. Such is life on basic and metaphysical levels! The jokes are actually largely funny. Exit the king does repetition (like Godot) but also develops, gets darker and darker, and at the end quietly achieves a shattering climax of Shakespearean (and dare I say Wagnerian) proportions (that bridge, that walk into the fire)... And it's all done in such a short time. At the end, Indira Varma seems to take the weight of 400 years off the king's shoulders. He is able to move upright for the first time in the play. She ushers him to his death which he silently finally becomes reconciled with. Varma's final three words are magnificent and, as they say, worth the entrance money to hear. The end justifies everything gone before. Shattering stuff I found. All aspects of the production are in sympathy with each other. It's all imaginatively integrated - a theatrical world away from the complete disasters of Salome, Common etc, and from the mediocrity of so much else from the Norris regime. It's so visual too. This is a production that demands to be seen unlike so much put on in the Dorfman in particular where largely radio plays with added chairs and tables and too much clunkiness have reigned and direction has consisted of little more than shifting traffic. This is French absurdist theatre done very seriously with a marvellous luxury cast, director/adaptor and designer, and no sign of Rufus Norris. The play however runs counter to the current prevailing socio-political mood and aims in theatre. I think it has been unfairly dismissed. It could have been up for awards: best designer best director best actors (Varma and Ifans - heaven only knows how he keeps that voice going throughout). Bravo Patrick Marber. 5 stars from me. |
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