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Post by MrsCondomine on May 10, 2018 7:39:14 GMT
Hi all, I'm seeing the NT stream tonight (I did have tickets but swapped them for a voucher... naughty). Could anyone tell me where the interval comes, e.g. after an hour or so? I am seeing it with a friend who may need to leave at the interval for work reasons (rather than reasons of disgust etc.  ). Thank you all x |
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Post by dramallama on May 10, 2018 21:31:35 GMT
So, I just came back from the NTLive Broadcast of this... I didn't think it was as bad as it is made out to be by a lot of people but, nevertheless, it was pretty bad. I mean, whatever they were trying to do with it, it did not work, and there are so many things I have problems with. Anne Marie Duff was brilliant but not even her talent could save the mess this play was...
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Post by MrsCondomine on May 11, 2018 7:45:01 GMT
I saw the stream and left at the interval. I know, I know.
Stuff I liked:
Banquo was pretty good.
Ditto Fleance.
Stuff I didn't:
The GCSE drama-terrible witches (especially the one that sa-angg her lines and vibrated the whole time... wow that was something else).
Anne-Marie Duff (whom I normally adore) hit a frenzied note in her performance very early on and that left her nowhere to go. So any sense of urgency was lost.
Ditto Rory Kinnear.
Trevor Fox being wasted in the ridiculous Porter role - he is the best Trinculo I've ever seen and he deserves more.
The costumes - Macbeth's armour being quite literally cardboard. Great stuff.
Banquo's murderers, especially the woman doing a weird Paloma Faith impression.
The setting - the fact there was basically nothing to be king OF - why the hell did Macbeth want it so badly? So he could get that snazzy red suit?
Banquo being a zombie, which was funny rather than terrifying.
MacDuff couldn't act to save his life. Droning "O HORRERRRR HORRRERRR HORRRERRRRR", again funny not dramatic.
I never want to see a binbag again.
Edit That bloody cardboard box!!!
I found myself dozing off sadly, and Macbeth should do the absolute opposite.
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2018 7:53:34 GMT
Oh no, I hadn't realised Trevor Fox was the Porter, I'm not *exactly* a fan of either. Thanks for the warning I guess!
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Post by Jan on May 11, 2018 8:26:46 GMT
Oh no, I hadn't realised Trevor Fox was the Porter, I'm not *exactly* a fan of either. Thanks for the warning I guess! In amongst the general mess the way they have integrated the Porter into the play as a whole is clever. |
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Post by dramallama on May 11, 2018 8:53:03 GMT
I saw the stream and left at the interval. I know, I know. Stuff I liked: Banquo was pretty good. Ditto Fleance. Stuff I didn't: The GCSE drama-terrible witches (especially the one that sa-angg her lines and vibrated the whole time... wow that was something else). Anne-Marie Duff (whom I normally adore) hit a frenzied note in her performance very early on and that left her nowhere to go. So any sense of urgency was lost. Ditto Rory Kinnear. Trevor Fox being wasted in the ridiculous Porter role - he is the best Trinculo I've ever seen and he deserves more. The costumes - Macbeth's armour being quite literally cardboard. Great stuff. Banquo's murderers, especially the woman doing a weird Paloma Faith impression. The setting - the fact there was basically nothing to be king OF - why the hell did Macbeth want it so badly? So he could get that snazzy red suit? Banquo being a zombie, which was funny rather than terrifying. MacDuff couldn't act to save his life. Droning "O HORRERRRR HORRRERRR HORRRERRRRR", again funny not dramatic. I never want to see a binbag again. Edit That bloody cardboard box!!! I found myself dozing off sadly, and Macbeth should do the absolute opposite. I agree with most on this list (especially MacDuff's god-awful acting and the one of the witches) but I actually thought Anne Marie Duff did a decent job (considering the circumstances) but I see where you're coming from. The cardboard box... I have no idea what that was meant to do but it made my friend and me burst out laughing which is not something you'd expect from Macbeth, really. Also the techno dance party? Ridiculous. The whole soundtrack was terrible, in my opinion. I reckon they were trying to imitate the music from the Macbeth film with Michael Fassbender (which has an amazing soundtrack) and just sort of ended up with a bad version of that. The second act wasn't too bad (my friend liked it a lot more than the first one, I thought it was just as bad). It was, however, a lot shorter - still felt pretty long, though. For me, the second half just highlighted all the things it did wrong. And here's my hot take: Rufus Norris came up with this idea to set Macbeth in a post-Civil War world and then did not think it through. There are so many things that do not make sense (and yes, I'm pedantic and I know that but the first rule of any creative world-building is that you have to be consistent within the rules of the world). So Rufus said that this is basically a vision of our future after a Civil War in which government disintegrates, so do armies, private militia flourish. Okay, got that. So... why does England have a functioning army? Their army generals all walk around in proper army gear (with knifes, of course... by the way, in this future of ours - what happens to guns?) while the Scottish have only their cardboard armour held together by duct tape. I know that this is obviously because they come with a proper army in the text but if we're to believe this is a future version of Britain now (which Rufus went on and on about) then I find this very problematic (especially looking at the whole coloniser/colonised background). So yeah, spent most of the second act thinking about that and picking holes into the consistency. |
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2018 8:56:27 GMT
I saw the stream and left at the interval. I know, I know. Stuff I liked: Banquo was pretty good. Ditto Fleance. Stuff I didn't: The GCSE drama-terrible witches (especially the one that sa-angg her lines and vibrated the whole time... wow that was something else). Anne-Marie Duff (whom I normally adore) hit a frenzied note in her performance very early on and that left her nowhere to go. So any sense of urgency was lost. Ditto Rory Kinnear. Trevor Fox being wasted in the ridiculous Porter role - he is the best Trinculo I've ever seen and he deserves more. The costumes - Macbeth's armour being quite literally cardboard. Great stuff. Banquo's murderers, especially the woman doing a weird Paloma Faith impression. The setting - the fact there was basically nothing to be king OF - why the hell did Macbeth want it so badly? So he could get that snazzy red suit? Banquo being a zombie, which was funny rather than terrifying. MacDuff couldn't act to save his life. Droning "O HORRERRRR HORRRERRR HORRRERRRRR", again funny not dramatic. I never want to see a binbag again. Edit That bloody cardboard box!!! I found myself dozing off sadly, and Macbeth should do the absolute opposite. Actually, can someone please explain the box to me. Is this a thing at parties/raves these days? How does a fifty something like Norris know about such things? This production is a warning about what happens when us middle-aged folk try to be down with the kids. |
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Post by MrsCondomine on May 11, 2018 9:03:52 GMT
I saw the stream and left at the interval. I know, I know. Stuff I liked: Banquo was pretty good. Ditto Fleance. Stuff I didn't: The GCSE drama-terrible witches (especially the one that sa-angg her lines and vibrated the whole time... wow that was something else). Anne-Marie Duff (whom I normally adore) hit a frenzied note in her performance very early on and that left her nowhere to go. So any sense of urgency was lost. Ditto Rory Kinnear. Trevor Fox being wasted in the ridiculous Porter role - he is the best Trinculo I've ever seen and he deserves more. The costumes - Macbeth's armour being quite literally cardboard. Great stuff. Banquo's murderers, especially the woman doing a weird Paloma Faith impression. The setting - the fact there was basically nothing to be king OF - why the hell did Macbeth want it so badly? So he could get that snazzy red suit? Banquo being a zombie, which was funny rather than terrifying. MacDuff couldn't act to save his life. Droning "O HORRERRRR HORRRERRR HORRRERRRRR", again funny not dramatic. I never want to see a binbag again. Edit That bloody cardboard box!!! I found myself dozing off sadly, and Macbeth should do the absolute opposite. Actually, can someone please explain the box to me. Is this a thing at parties/raves these days? How does a fifty something like Norris know about such things? This production is a warning about what happens when us middle-aged folk try to be down with the kids. The only thing I could think of (and I'm in my twenties, so maybe closer to a Glasto raver type than Rufus Norris) was that maybe it's a cringey nod to "big fish little fish cardboard box"? Was hilarious though, it set off the girls sat next to me and their giggles were quite cheering. Nice to see that the electricity still worked for the stereo, Macbeth's direct debit to Scottish Power still stands then. Shame he forgot to pay the bills for the theatre at large, though (or was it a warning against the EU lighting regulations? Now THAT'S haunting!  ) |
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Post by peggs on May 11, 2018 10:36:56 GMT
So this cardboard box? For those of us who bailed before the performance, what does it do please? More than just sit there?
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Post by lynette on May 11, 2018 10:57:03 GMT
Hi, ff, welcome to the Board if no one has said it before. Your point about the electricity is a good one. We shouldn’t be thinking of things like that when we watch a show. It should all 'work' when we are seeing it. So null points for this one. I was questioning every set decision and every directorial decision the whole way through.
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Post by MrsCondomine on May 11, 2018 11:27:32 GMT
Thank you lynette  peggs - I too am dying to know whether that box comes back in the second half. Does it become a plot point? Does it have a credit in the programme? They could stick some googly eyes on it and it would out-act MacDuff... In the first half Fleance wore it as a costume(?) for the party. I don't get it. It's still haunting me. |
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Post by rockinrobin on May 11, 2018 11:37:19 GMT
Oh God. I'm going to see it tomorrow... On one hand I feel like giving it a miss but on the other I'm weirdly excited to see if it's really that bad (that's called masochism, I believe).
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Post by n1david on May 11, 2018 11:49:38 GMT
And where does the Irn Bru come from? Does Macbeth still have a stash from before the war?
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Post by MrsCondomine on May 11, 2018 12:02:48 GMT
And where does the Irn Bru come from? Does Macbeth still have a stash from before the war? I reckon it's his stockpile from before they changed the recipe. He took that very seriously. |
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Post by dramallama on May 11, 2018 13:20:22 GMT
Thank you lynette peggs - I too am dying to know whether that box comes back in the second half. Does it become a plot point? Does it have a credit in the programme? They could stick some googly eyes on it and it would out-act MacDuff... In the first half Fleance wore it as a costume(?) for the party. I don't get it. It's still haunting me. I can confirm that the box comes back in the second half. Fleance wears it (as disguise?) and then throws it off before fighting somebody (I forgot who). So it’s sort of a plot point? But it just made me giggle again. |
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Post by Jan on May 11, 2018 15:06:06 GMT
What is odd is that earlier in the year the RSC Titus Andronicus also appeared wearing a cardboard box (in the Revenge scene) which I took to be a vague - albeit puzzling- indication that he had gone mad. But yes, maybe there’s some specific reference known only by middle-aged directors we’re missing.
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Post by MrsCondomine on May 11, 2018 15:18:19 GMT
At one point a witch was crouched over a smoke machine so it looked like she was farting smoke - was that the desired effect? (If so, I think it could have been a good running gag.) HAHAHA yes it did!! Maybe she made the mistake of eating out of one of Lady Macbeth's mess-tins? Whatever was in those tins certainly seemed to upset the guests in the feast scene, they didn't touch it. I love this thread... |
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Post by peggs on May 11, 2018 21:54:15 GMT
Have to admit didn't know what I expect for my cardboard box question but it wasn't that. Did it get a mention in the cast list?
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Post by dramallama on May 12, 2018 6:32:34 GMT
Have to admit didn't know what I expect for my cardboard box question but it wasn't that. Did it get a mention in the cast list? It does not (which, let's be honest, borders on a scandal). Fleance is listed (obviously) and is the only character using/wearing the box but no mentions of box itself. But I only have the paper print out they handed out at the cinema, maybe there's a nod to it in the actual programme? Anybody able to confirm? |
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Post by foxa on May 12, 2018 9:58:26 GMT
While I had put the Fleance box business down to some random rehearsal room discovery, I am, after the above discussion, beginning to see it for its full brilliance.
Macbeth wants to be king.
Banquo and his son Fleance pose a threat to Macbeth's kingship.
The king is Duncan.
Duncan is played by the actor Stephen Boxer.
Fleance's donning of the box, which made me think of Spongebob Squarepants, has a different effect on Macbeth.
Macbeth thinks of the King (Box=Boxer).
So subliminally leads Macbeth to hire the Murderers to rid himself of Box Boy.
Quod erat demonstrandum.
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Post by lynette on May 12, 2018 14:44:13 GMT
Brilliant Dr F and by far superior to anything that might have happened in the mind of the director.
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Post by rockinrobin on May 12, 2018 17:11:42 GMT
Rory Kinnear was out this afternoon.
However, with or without him, it was the most boring "Macbeth" I have ever seen. This play is full of murders, ghosts and there's a moving forest in it. And yet, I almost fell asleep.
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Post by Marwood on May 12, 2018 17:19:15 GMT
Rory Kinnear was out this afternoon. However, with or without him, it was the most boring "Macbeth" I have ever seen. This play is full of murders, ghosts and there's a moving forest in it. And yet, I almost fell asleep. Sounds nearly as ‘good’ as the Globes version a couple of years back. |
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Post by lynette on May 12, 2018 21:06:47 GMT
O dear, hope he is ok. ( maybe needed a break)
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Post by ruperto on May 12, 2018 22:36:42 GMT
Just back from seeing this - Rory Kinnear was back on tonight.
I actually thought this was quite enjoyable - certainly better than the Macbeth at the Young Vic a couple of years back. I was impressed with Anne-Marie Duff, but then I'm a big fan! Rory Kinnear did his Rory Kinnear thing, which I quite like. But the witches really were majorly bad news.
It felt very pacy - it ended at 10pm, though the cast list gave the running time as 3 hours, so I'd be interested to know what was presumably cut between the previews and now.
Before we went, I'd filled my daughter in about the discussions on here about the cardboard box, which I've been really enjoying, so we both nudged each other and laughed when it made its appearances!
I was surprised at how warm the applause was at the end, bearing in mind how many people clearly disliked it - I even saw one or two standing ovationers! The cast looked pleased...
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