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Post by TallPaul on Jan 6, 2018 13:12:43 GMT
Fans of Janie Dee will, I'm sure, be pleased that post-Follies, she is to star in Monogamy, Torben Bett's new play .
She will be playing Caroline Mortimer, the nation's favourite TV cook, who has it all, except a happy home life. Sound familiar?
After a short tour to Malvern, Guildford and York, the play will then run at the Park Theatre from 6 June to 7 July 2018.
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Post by showgirl on May 11, 2018 3:44:00 GMT
I saw this at Guildford yesterday. As you'd expect on a fine spring day and with the above description, the performance was well-attended and the audience enjoyed the humour in this play - as did I. However, though I know Torben Betts was a protege of Alan Ayckbourn (now apparently doing well on the basis of his own reputation), this latest play is so Ayckbourn-like - though fortunately not Ayckbourn-lite - that I realised afterwards that, had I seen it without knowing the author's name and had to guess, Ayckbourn is the name which would immediately come to mind.
Not that that's a bad thing and the play is enjoyable in its own right, though imo the developments are utterly lacking in credibility, right down to the apocalyptic ending - but what has happened to the author's own voice?
NB: for fans of Janie Dee, she works astonishingly hard and unlike the other characters, is never off-stage, so I hope she has a strong constitution!
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Post by Latecomer on May 19, 2018 18:18:06 GMT
Thought this was very poor......bizarre is the best word I can use to describe it....many different strands/issues tossed into the plot at seemingly random moments and none really developed. And the ending? Really?
Poorly attended at Aylesbury and we all left a bit shell shocked....as one of the audience members was overhead saying on the way out "I think it was supposed to be funny"
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Post by BurlyBeaR on May 25, 2018 9:30:41 GMT
So who’s playing the Diana Ross part? 🙂
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Post by joem on Jun 9, 2018 17:24:39 GMT
Well this is not bad if you don't take it seriously but then, mostly, I don't think you're expected to.
Very Ayckbournish to start off with - dysfunctional middle-class family, older philandering husband with idealised wife who is on the box, son who wants to come out and twin daughters we never see. Aided and abetted by wife's assistant and a hunky builder. Usual shenanigans who wants what from whom. It threatens to get serious in the second act but simply moves into Ortonesque black farce. At times I am not entirely sure if Betts' wants to change the tone but then ends up pricking his own creeping pomposity.
Fair amount of laughs, it tootles along pleasantly. Wouldn't not recommend it.
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Post by vdcni on Jun 14, 2018 7:13:06 GMT
Well this is a mess, I mean it's entertaining enough and it got a fair few laughs but as a piece of writing it's all over the place. Dee is great but her character is a mess of contradictions, it felt like he introduced the religious angle to make sense of her character and tie the whole thing together but it didn't work.
It also felt about 20 years out of date, actually set this in the 1980's or early 90's and the whole thing would have made more sense.
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Post by dani on Jun 14, 2018 11:57:22 GMT
1* from Fiona Mountford in today's ES. "Did anyone involved even read the wild mash-up of a script before they started? Did playwright Torben Betts?"
I imagine the answer to the second question is "Yes"
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2018 15:01:32 GMT
1* from Fiona Mountford in today's ES. "Did anyone involved even read the wild mash-up of a script before they started? Did playwright Torben Betts?" I imagine the answer to the second question is "Yes" I wouldn't bet on it . . . |
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Post by theplayer on Jun 28, 2018 21:05:35 GMT
Went to the matinee today. Unlike most of you in this thread, I really enjoyed it. The actress who played Amanda stole the show.
It was well written and funny.
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Post by lynette on Jul 7, 2018 22:24:55 GMT
Saw this tonight. Air conditioned Theatre so happy to sit there though I was thinking of an early bath...ha ha.. because it was so predictable. The posters above are right, very Ayckbournish but not sustained in the way he does it. I too was concerned about the setting, was it retro, was it 50s or 80s and then of course it became clear it was now with the mobile phone funny stuff. Very well acted for what it is. Some athletic stuff from the father. Ten minutes too long. Maybe twenty minutes too long. Maybe....
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5,139 posts
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Post by TallPaul on Nov 5, 2018 13:28:42 GMT
Well, it seems that Torben Betts has taken note of everyone's comments, especially those that were less than positive. What power TheatreBoard has!
Monogamy has been 're-worked', given a new title and is going out on a further tour as Caroline's Kitchen. It's even going to New York, though not to Broadway...yet.
Caroline Langrishe, who hasn't aged a day since Lovejoy, replaces Janie Dee.
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