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Post by joem on Feb 28, 2016 10:31:31 GMT
Looking forward to this. Brenton's recent history plays have been of fluctuating quality but he is never less than interesting.
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Post by stefy69 on Mar 1, 2016 7:01:15 GMT
Me too a fascinating subject can't wait !
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Post by cat6 on Mar 30, 2016 21:20:04 GMT
Hello! I bought tickets, since I love the Hampstead Theatre, and this is the show playing when I'm in London. Looks interesting from the very little information the Hampstead Theatre site has. I have no idea who the actors are! I'm glad to see 2 positive posts.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2016 22:56:35 GMT
They've not cast it yet, but Howard Brenton is always a reliable enough historical playwright, and though I know he's usually directed by Howard Davies, I'm actually a little more excited about John Dove being in charge of this one. Should be a jolly good show.  |
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Post by lynette on Mar 31, 2016 15:45:53 GMT
Just booked this. Looks interesting but no cast yet. Tall blonde posh bloke? Lawrence Fox?
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Post by peelee on Apr 4, 2016 17:42:19 GMT
Peter O'Toole was tall and blond but that was the film company's casting decision.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2016 7:17:46 GMT
I was having this discussion at the weekend-hoping that actually they don't follow the 'blonde and pretty' route just because O'Toole's has become the 'image'. Not that I object to a blonde pretty boy but it doesn't have to be.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2016 7:48:12 GMT
Historically, Lawrence was a good 22cm shorter than Peter O'Toole, but best as I can tell from black and white photos, blond and pretty wouldn't be such a bad casting call. Apparently Lawrence was very self-conscious about his (lack of) height, so it would be a shame not to acknowledge that in the casting if not the writing.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2016 10:54:58 GMT
Casting just in! Jack Laskey as Lawrence, Sam Alexander, William Chubb, Geraldine James, Khalid Laith, Rosalind March, and Jeff Rawle as everyone else. Not bad!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2016 11:44:46 GMT
Well hello Jack Laskey!  |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2016 11:58:51 GMT
So the Lawrence Fox suggestions were close, but used the sidekick from the wrong Inspector Morse spinoff.
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Post by peggs on Apr 5, 2016 20:27:39 GMT
Why do I recognise Jack Laskey please, what would I have seen him in?
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Post by RedRose on Apr 5, 2016 20:48:49 GMT
Why do I recognise Jack Laskey please, what would I have seen him in? What Xanderl meant: Endeavour |
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Post by peggs on Apr 5, 2016 21:14:09 GMT
That was far too subtle for me! Now you've spelled it out i've gone back to the photo and gone oh yeah. Thanks.
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Post by showgirl on Apr 6, 2016 5:02:36 GMT
I've never heard of Endeavour (is it some tv thing?) or the actor, but I always book any Hampstead productions which appeal as soon as public booking opens, which is usually well before any casting is announced. I do prefer it that way as what attracts (or repels!) me is the subject and the writer, not the cast. Indeed, in some cases I've booked, only to be concerned to learn that the play will feature an actor I don't rate, but that's still just one person.
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Post by RedRose on Apr 6, 2016 12:35:29 GMT
Endeavour is an ITV crime series, it's the prequel of Inspector Morse (Endeavour is his first name). The young Morse is played by Shaun Evans, it's setting is Oxford, just like IM and its sequel Lewis with Laurence Fox.
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Post by showgirl on Apr 6, 2016 15:11:30 GMT
Ah, thank you for the enlightenment, RedRose. Though I'm still mystified about how people who go to the theatre so much find time to watch tv, too!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2016 15:19:33 GMT
(IPlayer app on my mobile phone, handy for entertaining myself on the endless train journeys in and out of the capital.  ) |
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Post by cat6 on Apr 6, 2016 15:29:59 GMT
I've never heard of Endeavour (is it some tv thing?) or the actor, but I always book any Hampstead productions which appeal as soon as public booking opens, which is usually well before any casting is announced. I do prefer it that way as what attracts (or repels!) me is the subject and the writer, not the cast. Indeed, in some cases I've booked, only to be concerned to learn that the play will feature an actor I don't rate, but that's still just one person. I book at the Hampstead as soon as tix are available for any show coinciding with my visit to London. Great little place! Endeavor I think is the prequel to Morse (TV Thames Valley Police drama). I never watched Endeavor, however. Separately, wasn't Mr Laskey in a Star Wars or something? (Can't bear these! So glad there is no CGI in theatre. Hope I haven't spoken too soon.) Enjoy the show. OOPs -- sorry, I see I'm very late with my comments. Still, enjoy the show! (this was my edit) |
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Post by Flim Flam on Apr 6, 2016 17:29:20 GMT
Not only does Endeavour contain a very nice leading performance by Shaun Evans, but his boss is played by the ever lovely Roger Allam.
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Post by showgirl on Apr 6, 2016 18:24:17 GMT
Well, I have heard of Roger Allam, but again, know him only from theatre and radio - though that could be an age thing. And of course he was appearing at Hampstead Theatre not that long ago... but no hope of him appearing in this, I don't think.
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Post by peggs on Apr 6, 2016 20:27:32 GMT
Ah, thank you for the enlightenment, RedRose. Though I'm still mystified about how people who go to the theatre so much find time to watch tv, too! We don't sleep a lot |
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Post by joem on Apr 28, 2016 21:23:38 GMT
Interesting. Very wordy, although it isn't a very long play, but very much in the mould of Brenton's recent work.
The action concentrates on what it says on the tin - Lawrence's doings after Arabia - but it is mostly set in George Bernard Shaw's household. GBS and his wife were great friends of Lawrence; she helped edit The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Issues which come to the fore include real and invented truths, class (of course) and, en passant, have we (the British) been, historically, horribly naughty towards the Arabs. It overlooks Lawrence's rather simplistic conception of the Arab world.
Brenton is fond of lines - he wrote a whole play about the partition of India and Pakistan - so the Sykes Picot line obviously gets some mentions here too.
Good pace and acting, slick if fairly simple production. Most of the good things you've come to expect from Hampstead Theatre.
It will be interesting to contrast this to Rattigan's "Ross" on a similar theme.
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Post by lynette on Apr 29, 2016 14:27:01 GMT
I recently 'found' Endeavor on Netflix. Enjoyed it. So looking forward to seeing bloke in the flesh, as it were. Yeah, Roger Allam, would be nice to see him at Hampstead again.
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Post by Steve on May 5, 2016 18:16:13 GMT
I saw this last night, and liked it alot. It's a sedate serene portrait, by Howard Brenton, which presents Lawrence as a mystery to be solved, then doubles back over his history to solve it. It's incredibly faithful to the facts of Lawrence's life, as far as I can tell, except in two speculative instances. Some spoilers follow. . . First, Brenton asserts that Lawrence was gay, and that this was a secret he kept in the closet. I buy this assertion, though there is no evidence to prove it bar Lawrence's own descriptions of gay love as a beautiful thing, and Lawrence's complete lack of known sexual partners. Second, Brenton suggests that Lawrence's masochism, which involved soliciting beatings, was less of a sexual taste acquired out of childhood formative experience, as it is for most masochists, and more of a response to his guilty feelings about the War. This I find dubious, but it fits in so perfectly with Brenton's portrait of Lawrence, that I like it anyway. The plot involves Lawrence (Jack Laskey) hiding from press and public at Bernard Shaw's house, while Mrs Shaw (a gentle and caring Geraldine James) edits his book "Seven Pillars of Wisdom." As Mrs. Shaw attempts to understand Lawrence, Lawrence flashes back to his days in Arabia, where we get to witness his formative experiences. Brenton creates a mirror for Lawrence in the play that Bernard Shaw (Jeff Rawle) was then writing, "St. Joan." Like Joan of Arc, Lawrence was a soldier who led people into battles, and while she was a martyr, and Lawrence lived, Brenton opens doors to consider the degree to which something in Lawrence died when he betrayed the Arabs for his British masters. . . Following "St. Joan," Brenton refuses to demonise any of the players, so there are no real villains in the play. On the extreme left of political thought, a hilarious and affable Jeff Rawles is the most delightful thing in this production, as a twinkly-eyed Bernard Shaw, and on the extreme right, William Chubb is wonderful as the blunt forthright secretly affectionate General Allenby. The fact that there is no external conflict (his hiding from the reporter, Lowell Thomas, is mostly an irrelevance) in the play means that most scenes involve characters worrying about Tom, ie Lawrence. All the real conflict is inside Tom, so it is fortunate that Jack Laskey gives such a subtle sensitive interpretation of all of Lawrence's moods, and conjures up a character we care for, despite his secretiveness. As Brenton completes his final brush strokes of this meticulous and slowly painted portrait, Laskey's Lawrence is metaphorically laid bare before us. It's not explosive, but it's touching. 3 and a half stars |
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