590 posts
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Post by lou105 on Jul 21, 2018 19:08:16 GMT
I have to agree @cleoskryker. I wanted to like this, but it just fell flat for me. I enjoyed some of the longer speeches- maybe they were closest to the Talking Heads style. It didnt help that someone behind us laughed hysterically at every reference to bodily functions, forgetfulness, sex, just about anything really! It's not like anyone was going to be impressed that she "got" the references.
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2,052 posts
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Post by Marwood on Jul 21, 2018 21:52:58 GMT
Just finished watching this 20 minutes or so ago (would have got out sooner if not for the armada of bellends trying to shove their way out without so much as an ‘excuse me’ when they finally realised the show had come to an end).
I didn’t love it by any means - it (particularly the first act) was far too long and it seemed to take forever to decide what it was trying to be (what with the goings on with the camera, and telephone calls to a mystery person whose identity was never revealed, I got the impression AB had been watching a lot of Scooby Doo) but it seemed to have a good heart, and I left the theatre with a smile on my face.
I thought Jeff Rawle and Sacha Dhawan in particular were very good, but I’m still a bit mystified as to why Simon Williams and Gwen Taylor (in particular) signed up for this. OK so neither are superstars but apart from saying they’ve been in an Alan Bennett show there’s not much here for either to highlight on their CVs.
Three stars from me.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2018 10:34:56 GMT
Part of the review from Variety
Sums this play up for me
“But the play is too far removed from reality for its satire to sting. Bennett’s characters are stick men, straw men and ciphers, each a symbol of some British virtue or vice. “Allelujah!” is not without its moments — it can swivel from comedy to poignancy in a flash, bawdy jokes swallowed up by coughing fits — but its hospital has all the credibility of a political slogan on the side of a bus. Rather, it’s an amalgamation of social and structural ills — from overpaid, self-important execs to unpaid interns with no self-respect — that exists entirely to confirm Bennett’s case, not to reflect the true state of the NHS. You sense the playwright, at 84, has swapped research for partisan reportage and maudlin memories of a past that never was.”
This hits the nail on the head
This NHS Bennett wants
Never existed
And never will
Making the play irrelevant and lacking any credibility
We can write a play about the NHS we think we want
Or the one we are able to realistically provide
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2,052 posts
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Post by Marwood on Jul 22, 2018 13:10:56 GMT
The fact he included a scene with a load of pensioners dancing to Good Golly, Miss Molly somehow makes me think Bennett isn't striving for credibility to be honest.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2018 13:58:26 GMT
The fact he included a scene with a load of pensioners dancing to Good Golly, Miss Molly somehow makes me think Bennett isn't striving for credibility to be honest. One of the activities in some care homes for the elderly is dancing. And they often pipe in music from the 40's, 50's and 60's. That scene was a horrifying thought for me as I kept fantasising about myself in such a care home being forced to pogo to siouxie and the Banshees etc. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2018 8:43:29 GMT
Perhaps it was because I was feeling a bit tired and ill when I saw this on Friday, but I really enjoyed it. You could probably punch all sorts of holes in it, but in my slightly zombied state it washed over me extremely pleasantly - I found it funny and entertaining, I liked the break out into song and dance (I like that sort of non-realistic approach to theatre in general) and I thought it added to the humanity of the characters. There were probably too many people on stage and the end bit when the doc is addressing the audience was a bit self-indulgent - we all know what you think, Alan, this is a play not a soapbox... But in general it was a great entertaining evening out, and Deborah Findlay was fabulous.
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32 posts
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Post by oldstager on Jul 23, 2018 10:20:06 GMT
Perhaps it was because I was feeling a bit tired and ill when I saw this on Friday, but I really enjoyed it. You could probably punch all sorts of holes in it, but in my slightly zombied state it washed over me extremely pleasantly - I found it funny and entertaining, I liked the break out into song and dance (I like that sort of non-realistic approach to theatre in general) and I thought it added to the humanity of the characters. There were probably too many people on stage and the end bit when the doc is addressing the audience was a bit self-indulgent - we all know what you think, Alan, this is a play not a soapbox... But in general it was a great entertaining evening out, and Deborah Findlay was fabulous. I appreciate the wide range of reactions to this - obviously the positive ones being of the opposite opinion to mine. It is now nearly two weeks since I saw it and I am still wondering why I was so disappointed. I think it's my age! I remember clearly (indeed I was actually in it) Peter Nichols' brilliant THE NATIONAL HEALTH circa 1970. He made all the same points but with more insight and acuity. Of course it was wider ranging and didn't focus on geriatrics. And there you have it - I think a timely revival of that little masterpiece would have had more relevance than AB's typically whimsical new effort. That one also ended with a big musical number - but it was brilliantly staged, was an original song and it was the only time the cast "burst into song" so was more effective. Anyway - that's the view of an old fart who, happily, didn't recognise himself in any of Bennett's characters!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2018 14:23:54 GMT
The fact he included a scene with a load of pensioners dancing to Good Golly, Miss Molly somehow makes me think Bennett isn't striving for credibility to be honest. One of the activities in some care homes for the elderly is dancing. And they often pipe in music from the 40's, 50's and 60's. That scene was a horrifying thought for me as I kept fantasising about myself in such a care home being forced to pogo to siouxie and the Banshees etc. And youngsters should take note because one day they too will be in same care home with kindly carersl encouraging them to take a trip down memory lane by twerking to Rihanna. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2018 15:24:03 GMT
One of the activities in some care homes for the elderly is dancing. And they often pipe in music from the 40's, 50's and 60's. That scene was a horrifying thought for me as I kept fantasising about myself in such a care home being forced to pogo to siouxie and the Banshees etc. And youngsters should take note because one day they too will be in same care home with kindly carersl encouraging them to take a trip down memory lane by twerking to Rihanna. I look forward to being just as out of step with my peer group at 90 as I was at 19...! |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2018 6:38:36 GMT
I just remembered that one of the highlights of this play for me was when Bennet name checked tmesis. I thought that was abso-blooming-lutely fan-bloody-tantastic. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2018 8:55:51 GMT
Saw this yesterday evening, a refreshing journey once more into Alan Bennettland (just across the Pennines from Victoria Woodland), a place that has its own reality and where Northerners get to be themselves without fear of being referred to as ‘typical’. I actually now live in the area that Bennett writes about here (Pennines, West ‘Riding’) and have had cause to visit the local hospital recently (broke my toe, dropped a box containing an unbuilt Ikea bookcase onto it). No, it’s not what exists but this is theatre where everything is a fabrication and Bennett uses the surface to comment on the deeper malaise, that of division and loss. It also reflects the people that I know and grew up with, parents and long gone grandparents; sometimes you need to be reminded of your past and inevitable future so that you can measure your own.
Like ‘Home, I’m Darling’, which I saw the previous day, this is a lovely play for a summer evening, witty, heatffelt and warm. One extra link, my sister’s doctor at one point was Harold Shipman, so one part of the plot is even closer to home. She said he was ‘really nice’.....
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1,970 posts
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Post by sf on Jul 29, 2018 15:54:04 GMT
I've booked to see this tomorrow night, row A Stalls, and have just had an email from the Bridge Theatre saying: 'We’ve had the chance to review the sight-lines from Row A and the stage is a little higher than usual so your angle of view is a little steeper than we’d ideally like it to be. Thus we’ve taken the precaution of reducing the price of those seats to £15, and have credited you £10 per ticket to your Bridge Theatre account to use for a future booking with us. ' Thoroughly decent of the Bridge to do this, most theatres would keep quiet, or if anybody claimed, refer people to the terms & conditions and basically say 'tough' but those of you on here who have seen this already: is the stage really THAT high?
I'm seeing it from row A myself in a couple of weeks, and I've also just received one of these emails. I'm impressed - they didn't have to do that, and most theatres wouldn't have.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2018 3:08:51 GMT
Could this transfer into the west end? Some good playhouses for it
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136 posts
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Post by Lemansky on Aug 1, 2018 9:01:18 GMT
I saw this yesterday and absolutly hated it, although I can't quite articulate why. I just thought it was horribly bleak throughout and didn't find any of it funny, unlike the audience surrounding me. I did stay for the whole thing, but wished I hadn't as when I got out all the trains to get me home were either suspended or on strike so it took forever.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2018 14:14:34 GMT
I am rather bored by the "blah blah blah disparaging remark about (insert Yorkshire town)" joke format; Bennett uses it about six times in this play, and while the audience seemed to lap it up I find it tired and desperate.
The play itself is like a tick-box exercise to cover as many of the newsworthy scandals that the NHS have faced in recent times - and I thought it suffered for being so greedy and unsubtle. Having said that, I thought there was plenty to admire and appreciate - with some of the performances truly excellent (and some definitely not).
Also, I will always remember the very short scene in which a young doctor grinds his groin at a nurse in an attempt to secure a bed for a patient as one of the most incongruous and awkward moments to have to sit through. It was so short if you had blinked you could have missed it. I wish I had blinked.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2018 15:03:00 GMT
Could this transfer into the west end? Some good playhouses for it Let’s be realistic It’s highly unlikely Not even sold out at The Bridge And its already in a commercial venue Not the NT And it’s a sh*t play |
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117 posts
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Post by bramble on Aug 2, 2018 11:13:35 GMT
its actuallyNOT a s... play.Its a very entertaining evening and well worth anyones time who wants to be amused and also moved.It is by no means a great play but still one worth considering.
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5,690 posts
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Post by lynette on Aug 2, 2018 12:46:56 GMT
Wait my people. I shall give you the definitive opinion in good time. ( heat swelling my head)
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2018 13:49:27 GMT
Wait my people. I shall give you the definitive opinion in good time. ( heat swelling my head) Fantastic! Look forward to it. |
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423 posts
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Post by dlevi on Aug 3, 2018 7:09:55 GMT
By and large I'm a huge fan of Mr Bennett's, but this was mean-spirited crap.
Full of cliched characters and idle musings on the "state of the nation" with a bevy of old time songs to lull us into a sense of false comfort. The audience however was made up of people who will no doubt be in care homes within the next few years if not immediately following the performance. We were in row E in the stalls and it took a full 10 minutes to get to the lobby at the interval. The hobbling and confusion of the OAPs was rather astonishing. ( And I'm no spring chicken but the median age for this near capacity audience had to be in their late 70's or early 80's.)
I'm glad that Hytner and Bennett continue their collaboration but I hope this isn't the last one - I'll content myself for the time being with the likes of "King George" and "The History Boys" and "The Habit of Art" .
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2,743 posts
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Post by n1david on Aug 3, 2018 8:47:34 GMT
This didn't really work for me. It just felt too scattergun in its targets, as if Bennett decided he wanted to write something about ageing, and the NHS - oh, and I'll have a go at immigration policies too - without really knowing what he wanted to say about any of them. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy aspects of it, although as @baladorn mentioned above, there's a horrible tendency to get a quick laugh by just mentioning "somewhere up North", which by the end just felt like a metropolitan audience laughing at the idea that there could be a sophisticated clinic in Hull or gay clubs in Barnsley. The management consultant didn't ring true to me, and I felt that the father/son relationship was clunky and not believable. Oh and by the time we got halfway through the second half I probably outwardly groaned at yet another song and dance number... I got the impression a lot of the audience was laughing *at* the seniors which rather negates the desire for respect. In the end, to my mind Bennett chickened out of coming to any conclusions about the NHS given that the hospital's closure was attributed to the rogue nurse, and so both the locals' campaign and the actions of the management consultant were deemed irrelevant, which supported my view that he had "something to say", but didn't know exactly what And the pedant in me has to point out that given that Mrs Earnshaw lived for 6 years and 9 months after giving away "my house", her daughter would only pay 8% tax on the value of the house over £450,000. Given that the average price of detached homes in Tadcaster is only £382,657 according to Rightmove, it must have been an AWFULLY big house for her death to have ruined them. In fact, if Mrs Earnshaw lived in the most expensive house sold last year in Tadcaster, her daughter would have a tax bill of £10,400. Not insignificant, but if you've just inherited a five-bedroom house there are ways to realise some capital and I doubt you'd be ruined. Anyway, this is almost certainly too much detail but does show how my mind was wandering... |
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Post by raiseitup on Aug 4, 2018 9:28:51 GMT
This is getting a cinema screening
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3,040 posts
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Post by crowblack on Aug 5, 2018 6:14:26 GMT
Hated it.
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5,690 posts
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Post by lynette on Aug 5, 2018 18:17:37 GMT
Good work n1david. If your mind was calculating like that it must be a very dull play. I’m going Wednesday.
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152 posts
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Post by alnoor on Aug 5, 2018 20:56:27 GMT
N1david---your second spoiler is brilliant.
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