406 posts
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Post by MrBunbury on Jun 5, 2018 8:46:23 GMT
I agree with the comments above. Laura Linney holds the attention for 90 minutes and she is warm and engaging. It definitely made me interested in the book.
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629 posts
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Post by jamb0r on Jun 5, 2018 10:51:27 GMT
It looks like they might be releasing unsold day seats online. Just picked up a ticket in front row gallery 1 for £15, they appeared at about 11:15 (I’d been refreshing the page all morning because I noticed they did the same thing yesterday).
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29 posts
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Post by vegas on Jun 5, 2018 17:07:06 GMT
So glad people are finding good deals on seats. I'm traveling from the U.S., planning an intensive 2-week play-a-thon, and I've already booked one week's worth of shows. I would love to see Laura Linney, but I'm torn between paying for an expensive ticket now or rolling the dice for a good day seat. I hope to hear more reports from you lucky day-seaters.
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546 posts
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Post by drmaplewood on Jun 5, 2018 21:09:06 GMT
A sprinkling of £15 Gallery 1 tickets are on sale for the next few days too, just got one for saturdays matinee l
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629 posts
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Post by jamb0r on Jun 5, 2018 22:07:19 GMT
Well this was wonderful tonight. I didn’t know anything about the play, and only went because I love Laura Linney and she did not disappoint! She made great use of the space playing to all corners of the theatre. It didn’t feel like a preview at all and felt like she’d been doing it for months. A well deserved standing o at the end.
I was in gallery 1 J5 tonight (£15) and the view was perfect - i was worried it was going to be an extreme side view and maybe looking at her back most of the time, but didn’t feel like that at all. You’re pretty much in her eye line and half way down the performance space, and most of the performing is towards the back. If anyone’s going for the cheap seats that appear in gallery 1 I’d recommend the low numbers side first (as far away from the end of the row as possible), as she sits in a chair for quite a while which is angled a bit towards that side.
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1,970 posts
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Post by sf on Jun 5, 2018 22:57:47 GMT
I was in gallery 1 J5 tonight (£15) and the view was perfect - i was worried it was going to be an extreme side view and maybe looking at her back most of the time, but didn’t feel like that at all.
That's good to hear - I'll be sitting just behind there (Gallery 1, K4) when I see it later this week.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2018 8:45:53 GMT
Well. The front row of the stalls at the sides are almost like being on the stage with Laura Linney herself. I could have grabbed her ankles and tripped her up as she walked by if the mood took me. It did not. The carpet around the edge of the stage feels nice though.
Whether you enjoy the play will depend on whether you were a member of Oprah Winfrey's Book Club I think. I'll bet she LOVED the book. There are some amusing parts however and Laura Linney is very good at doing that 'I'm about to cry but I will stop myself' acting which was nice. Laura though, is just something else. She's really rather glorious and has such a presence about her, she's luminous. I think she should be allowed to come back to the Bridge Theatre every year and choose whatever part she likes. Strangely I think I preferred her when she was playing her mother though, she was more interesting.
Heaven knows how she remembers all those words though.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2018 9:19:16 GMT
A bunch of side stalls seats at £25 seem to have been released for other performances too - just swapped my back of Gallery 3 seat for next week for front row side stalls.
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587 posts
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Post by Polly1 on Jun 6, 2018 10:36:34 GMT
A bunch of side stalls seats at £25 seem to have been released for other performances too - just swapped my back of Gallery 3 seat for next week for front row side stalls. This site is such a treasure trove! Just got a good £25 seat for next Wed. Thank you. |
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Post by vegas on Jun 6, 2018 16:03:41 GMT
I snagged a 25# front row side seat as well. (I'm American, and don't know how to enter the symbol for GBP. <  I've never read this book, but I love Laura Linney's stage work. (Saw her in Time Stands Still.) I would watch her read the phone book! I look forward to experiencing the Bridge. I hope I don't get lost trying to find it . . . Leaving for London in 3 days! |
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29 posts
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Post by vegas on Jun 6, 2018 19:35:35 GMT
Thank you, Monkey!
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629 posts
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Post by jamb0r on Jun 7, 2018 10:28:55 GMT
WhatsOnStage - 5*
The Times - 5*
The Stage - 4*
Time Out - 4*
The Guardian - 4*
Evening Standard - 4*
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1,970 posts
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Post by sf on Jun 7, 2018 16:22:31 GMT
4* in the Torygraph too.
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1,970 posts
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Post by sf on Jun 11, 2018 11:28:07 GMT
And... wow. Very strong adaptation by Rona Munro of a novel that has a lot more going for it than you'd guess from the synopsis, and Laura Linney is absolutely breathtaking - she's giving probably as good a performance as I've ever seen.
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4,155 posts
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Post by kathryn on Jun 11, 2018 11:30:27 GMT
Yes, we loved this saturday too!
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1,255 posts
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Post by theatrelover123 on Jun 11, 2018 16:15:03 GMT
Laura Linney should get awards for her performance in this. Heartbreaking and funny.
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Post by cropley on Jun 11, 2018 16:42:55 GMT
Found this surprisingly disappointing. Great performance from Linney but there was little to no story to justify it. No incidents of interest. No modulation. It just floated along. Kept waiting for something to happen to make it interesting but it never came. Not sure if the book is the same. The play would have been equally good if Laura had just been standing there reading the book. There just wasn't quite enough story development for one person to be entirely engaging for an hour and a half. Time went quickly though. 4 star performance. 2-3 star play. Shame. Won tickets in TodayTix lottery for £20 each though and ended up in premium £70-£80 seats. Which was nice.
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747 posts
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Post by Latecomer on Jun 16, 2018 14:59:35 GMT
I really enjoyed this from the front row Forum unofficial meet up (Neil and Polly1 were also there!)
I was struck by how great Linney was at switching between herself and her mother. I was struck by how I often end up doing the "you remember, X from primary school that married Y and is now doing..... " to my two children that have now left the village. I was struck by how much people hide of their pasts, how everyone's past is different and how, in the end, it all catches up with you.
A good match with Mood Music for matinee as that had lost of fallout from childhood.
Having seen some of the more negative comments above I wonder if it helps to be a bit older when you see this?
LInney was stunning....great to see her on stage.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2018 8:30:26 GMT
Perhaps I’m a bad person but this slightly felt like 90 mins of self-indulgent whinging to me. Great performance but I’m not rushing out to buy the book. However this is clearly a minority view as there were tears everywhere and everyone else jumped to their feet at the end.
Agree with what TheatreMonkey has previously said about this theatre as well – it rolls the audience reaction back to the stage in a lovely warm way.
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397 posts
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Post by altamont on Jun 23, 2018 21:57:48 GMT
Regarding (1) - yes, that happened this evening as well
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Post by showgirl on Jun 23, 2018 22:15:09 GMT
Saw this a couple of days ago and found it interesting but not unmissable; as @theatremonkey says, it was well done but the story was nothing special. Having braved gallery 2 for Julius Caesar, this time I was relegated to gallery 3, row B, and wouldn't choose to sit at that level again as it was too reminiscent of the dreaded Cottesloe/Dorfman in requiring you to lean forward to see over the rail, though fortunately not also sideways at the same time.
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1,083 posts
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Post by andrew on Jun 24, 2018 10:17:44 GMT
That wasn't bad, this afternoon. Not sure the story was particularly special for any reason, but very nicely done - as Latecomer says, the switches were good. Two things: 1) Did she react to audience reaction to the line about being called a stepmother? This afternoon she pointed and agreed with someone in the circle. 2) The "false ending" when she says 'my name is Lucy Barton.' Deliberate (I hope not) or horrible timing error (hope not either). Didn't work and destroyed the last few minutes either way, I felt. {Spoiler - click to view}
The 'false ending' really grated with me. It's such a gaffe, even before previews one must have known that saying the name of the play in a climactic way, then the lighting changing and Linney moving downstage would make everyone think the play had ended. Then even if you hadn't clocked that, in preview 1, it would be the first thing out of the door. By preview 3 I would've been tearing my hair out. How is it still there?! It's not even a bad ending, it would've worked fine, if it actually was the ending. Instead it forces her to try and quell applause, which is out of character, then awkwardly finish the play. I can't fathom why it's there. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2018 22:24:32 GMT
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1,217 posts
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Post by nash16 on Oct 11, 2018 23:26:07 GMT
But it was so boring.......... (Despite lovely Laura) |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2018 6:55:29 GMT
Would that perhaps be a sign that they haven't got anything else ready to go in...?
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