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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2018 16:18:06 GMT
There is bad Then there is awful Then there is terrible Then you have Rufus Norris Nice to have you back! |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2018 16:20:42 GMT
^ But why stage it in Edinburgh? Better to ask Rufus if he’ll work it into his schedule at the National. Put it on in the Olivier and he’ll get a sure-fire hit! It’ll be his first... A win-win situation for all concerned.
I’d certainly buy a ticket!
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Post by Phantom of London on Mar 4, 2018 0:49:40 GMT
After seeing this, this evening, this felt like a can of Coca Cola that has been laying in the sun for 2 weeks. i.e. flat and warm.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2018 9:35:09 GMT
I also saw it yesterday and agree with what everyone has said. This production was very promising but alas it failed. I've never seen Macbeth onstage before but have seen a few film versions , and still somehow got confused. For me the set did seem a bit like ' how do we uselessly fill the stage?' 'with big poles that are not really used in the show!'. I also wanted the witches to be a bit more scary and just found the running around to be very generic and a lazy way to convey madness. Kinnear and Duff were both good but not overly great in my opinion, I wanted a but more from their performances. The rest of the cast were also good but nothing extraordinary. Also I found it odd is that the first and second half had stylistically different tones as in the first half they use deodorant the bridge and big bits of scenery but in the second only a few bits of furniture was used and they used the big plastic curtain to cover half the stage.
I liked the use of sound and the trumpets, the beheddings were cleverly done, and I did like the set design if it was a bit odd. I did enjoy the show and it was a alright production but I just wanted more and it did not deliver, if you want to see some good Shakespeare in London at the moment see Julius Caesar at the bridge, I was thinking about how much I enjoyed it while watching this which tells you something.
For a while now I have been giving Norris the benefit of the doubt being artistic director and I think he is doing a good job programming everything but his actual directing is a bit meh. I have seen most of his shows there since he has become AD Andy I don't think I will rush to see anymore.
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Post by lonlad on Mar 4, 2018 10:41:49 GMT
What does this mean?  ? The mind boggles. Does the bridge smell? >> as in the first half they use deodorant the bridge |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2018 10:49:57 GMT
What does this mean? ? The mind boggles. Does the bridge smell? >> as in the first half they use deodorant the bridge It means my bloody auto correct is being stupid and can't spell. It is meant to say 'used' not 'use deodorant'. Sorry for my spelling mistakes, I can do many things but sadly spelling is not one of them. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2018 11:16:50 GMT
Interesting.
To note the RSC Macbeth
Is all but sold out at the moment
I think 2 performances have a few tickets left
I am sure tickets will pop up nearer each date
But it’s pretty impressive given the run is in rep until the autumn
And the show doesn’t start for over a week
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Post by cirque on Mar 4, 2018 12:13:08 GMT
overheard front of house saying to someone who couldnt get tickets.....its mainly schools,Macbeth is on syllabus.We do seem to cater more for schools at RSC these days.
Perhaps explains the popularity.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Mar 4, 2018 12:16:52 GMT
Interesting. To note the RSC Macbeth Is all but sold out at the moment I think 2 performances have a few tickets left I am sure tickets will pop up nearer each date But it’s pretty impressive given the run is in rep until the autumn And the show doesn’t start for over a week Ecclestone is a far bigger name in the wider world than Kinnear. Former pilots of the TARDIS tend to come with their own fan base as well. That will be contributing to ticket sales - as will the fact that Macbeth is a popular play with audiences and school parties. |
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Post by crowblack on Mar 4, 2018 12:35:32 GMT
A lot of returns up for the NT Macbeth, including £15 front ones - I've just returned a £45 for a better one at £15 (I had already booked trains)
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Post by Theo on Mar 4, 2018 12:40:16 GMT
Is this one to avoid ? I noticed quite a few seats are available to book now, as opposed to last week. I'm in the midst of planning my next visit to London and as I still have a NT credit voucher I am tempted to book ...
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Post by lynette on Mar 4, 2018 12:43:46 GMT
I long for schools or rather the exam boards to set Troilus and Cressida but they won’t because they only did Macbeth at school so they don’t know any other plays. We are stuck into Macbeth for ever when as we know each play comes into its own in an era and this is surely an era for torn allegiances and cynicism. All plays for all time, yes but nuanced. ( same with poetry syllabus, don’t get me started..)
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Post by jasper on Mar 4, 2018 13:45:22 GMT
I long for schools or rather the exam boards to set Troilus and Cressida but they won’t because they only did Macbeth at school so they don’t know any other plays. We are stuck into Macbeth for ever when as we know each play comes into its own in an era and this is surely an era for torn allegiances and cynicism. All plays for all time, yes but nuanced. ( same with poetry syllabus, don’t get me started..) Exam boards set a number of plays for teachers to choose form eg AQA sets Macbeth Romeo and Juliet The Tempest The Merchant of Venice Much Ado About Nothing Julius Caesar The choice of play is up to the teacher. However, teachers tend to choose a play that is short and will keep the limited attention span of the pupils, hence Macbeth. It also appeals to boys with its violence. They usually remember the beheadings and fights. |
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Post by martin1965 on Mar 4, 2018 15:12:02 GMT
overheard front of house saying to someone who couldnt get tickets.....its mainly schools,Macbeth is on syllabus.We do seem to cater more for schools at RSC these days. Perhaps explains the popularity. They always did, indeed it would seem idd if they ignored the syllabus. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2018 17:45:59 GMT
Don't forget teachers also choose texts where the school already has the books! They're not going to buy a whole new set if they can help it!
I'm REALLY gutted that this doesn't sound good! I'm going in May and I was very excited, and I chose this over the RSC one and it sounds as though I've made a big mistake.
I've only seen Macbeth once and never did it at school, so I don't know it well at all. I saw the Crucible production a few years ago. I don't remember anything about it other than they had a big round table covered in fruit and dead branches and skulls, and the ghosts came up through the middle of the table.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2018 21:34:05 GMT
I do so love Macbeth, remembering Sher and Walter, and more recently the RSC Jonathan Singer version with the children. Going way back Jonathan Pryce was great, but Nicol Williamson was not. And then the legendary Dench/Mckellen was truly thrilling, and the Hopkins/Rigg was good. The worst, and ye gods it was bad, was the royal exchange's concentration camp version with Threlfall and Francis Barber.....horrorific indeed. It was, especially when Ian Mckellen stomped up the aisles, exiting through the audience. I saw it when it transferred to the Young Vic. I was quite young then and I was petrified! And Judi Dench’s stifled scream during the mad scene will never be forgotten... Chilling! |
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Post by sf on Mar 4, 2018 23:02:37 GMT
I long for schools or rather the exam boards to set Troilus and Cressida but they won’t because they only did Macbeth at school so they don’t know any other plays. We are stuck into Macbeth for ever when as we know each play comes into its own in an era and this is surely an era for torn allegiances and cynicism. All plays for all time, yes but nuanced. ( same with poetry syllabus, don’t get me started..) The exam board have certainly set Troilus and Cressida before - it was one of my A-Level set texts, although that was quite a long time ago now. |
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Post by Steve on Mar 5, 2018 0:05:59 GMT
Saw this Saturday night. This is a perfectly functional Macbeth, with narrative drive, but without a defining concept to make it memorable. Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff don't have sufficient business between each other to give depth to their scenes together, but apart, each give affecting performances, as does former RSC Macbeth, Patrick O'Kane, as a deeply touching Macduff.
Some spoilers follow. . .
Norris is good at giving a play drive, but less so depth. His habit of getting very loud (rave scenes, fight scenes, etc) works extremely well in providing stark contrast for sudden silences, containing dramatic monologues, and moments of thoughtful aftermath. I suspect the enormous spinning ramp, that characters continually run up and down, also reflects Norris' sense that narrative drive, reflected by continuous movement up and down the ramp, is essential to entertaining audiences. Entertaining it is I think, but unedifying.
Unlike the Kinnear-Hytner National collaborations (Big Brother Hamlet, an Othello that demonstrated how Uniforms disguise treachery), there is little beneath the surface. Well, there is the concept that what goes around comes around, treated almost as an afterthought. This is hardly the depth of Ninagawa's elegiac overwhelming Macbeth, in which falling cherry blossoms suggested that everything in everyone's life is but a dream.
I think Norris is much influenced by popular movies, which also often are more sound and fury (Kinnear nails this speech) than soul. For instance, his witches seem like one is out of Ringu (the juddering witch), one is like Pinhead from Hellraiser (stiff and utterly still, unveiled by dissipating mist), and the third has drifted in from a David Lynch dream scene, in slow motion, and using unnatural vocal intonations, that Lynch originally created by recording actors talking backwards and then rewinding the recording. The witches are suitably freaky and frightening, but they are not original creations. Then again, what is?
In answer to a question (above), the rave scene here is indeed reminiscent of "Everyman," but noone snorts a whole tableful of coke here, so it's not a repeat. What is a repeat is the apparent use of bin bags, which here form huge black binbag stalactites from the rafters, that engulf the production. The stalactites reminded me of 80's dystopian BBC tv sci fi.
With Rory Kinnear (in strutting mode), Anne-Marie Duff (wired and tearful), and Patrick O'Kane (heartfelt and tender for his pretty chickens), what you get is an ever dynamic, sometimes disconnected, piece of entertaining sound and fury in the theatre, soon forgotten.
3 and a half stars.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2018 18:52:57 GMT
Don't forget teachers also choose texts where the school already has the books! They're not going to buy a whole new set if they can help it! I was just going to say that... ... I will never forget learning World War 2 history from a 40 year old text book printed on "War Economy" paper (the official stamp was on the front page) in 1947 either... I um... acquired? my school copy of French For Today because it was so awesomely out of date. Monsiour Bertillon travaille. Madame Bertillon s'occupe des enfants. Le chien joue dans le jardin. |
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Post by lynette on Mar 5, 2018 19:06:24 GMT
Thanks Steve. I’m thinking a whole bag of jelly babies to get me through this one.
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Post by Tibidabo on Mar 5, 2018 19:21:33 GMT
Don't forget teachers also choose texts where the school already has the books! They're not going to buy a whole new set if they can help it! I was just going to say that... Not sure which schools you are talking about but I wish I'd known about them. We had to buy every single text for both my girls from Year 7 onwards - often twice as each teacher could insist on a different edition. And I'm talking state school. (This also applied to up to date science and language text books from GCSE onwards.) |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2018 19:34:37 GMT
Don't forget teachers also choose texts where the school already has the books! They're not going to buy a whole new set if they can help it! I was just going to say that... Not sure which schools you are talking about but I wish I'd known about them. We had to buy every single text for both my girls from Year 7 onwards - often twice as each teacher could insist on a different edition. And I'm talking state school. (This also applied to up to date science and language text books from GCSE onwards.) Whoa, seriously? I've never heard of that in the UK, either in any of the schools I went to or taught in. I know schools are underfunded, but that's awful! |
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Post by Tibidabo on Mar 5, 2018 19:41:01 GMT
Whoa, seriously? I've never heard of that in the UK, either in any of the schools I went to or taught in. I know schools are underfunded, but that's awful! Oh yes! And we couldn't even get them off Ebay or Amazon Marketplace as they always arrived scribbled in annotated. And the horror suffered by those who had a different edition to everyone else and found not only were they on the wrong page for half the lesson, but the Shakespearean language wasn't exactly the same when they had to do the dreaded reading round the class! (Oh yes, they still do that!) |
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Post by lynette on Mar 5, 2018 19:45:47 GMT
I weep.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2018 8:40:33 GMT
Whoa, seriously? I've never heard of that in the UK, either in any of the schools I went to or taught in. I know schools are underfunded, but that's awful! Oh yes! And we couldn't even get them off Ebay or Amazon Marketplace as they always arrived scribbled in annotated. And the horror suffered by those who had a different edition to everyone else and found not only were they on the wrong page for half the lesson, but the Shakespearean language wasn't exactly the same when they had to do the dreaded reading round the class! (Oh yes, they still do that!) Yes and yes. I had to buy all my GCSE and A Level books for English/Drama. I still have them and dread opening them to read my notes. In School and mostly through University we had to have specific editions in order to a) have the same page references b) in University feed the meager revenue of the editor who was in our department. When I taught history we didn't ask students to supply textbooks, but mostly because all the schools I worked in produced their own 'resource books' we had a few textbooks for reserves, that were, thankfully Monkey published post-war  |
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? The mind boggles. Does the bridge smell?
