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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2018 7:02:43 GMT
If nothing else, I hope the cast have got fit during this show as a result of all that walking up and down and up and down and up and down and . . .
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Post by Snciole on May 27, 2018 16:41:05 GMT
The reviews don't seem to have ensured it sells very well though. It doesn't deserve to but it is interesting how badly Red was selling and now has full (weekend at least) houses based on reviews.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2018 18:28:19 GMT
The reviews don't seem to have ensured it sells very well though. It doesn't deserve to but it is interesting how badly Red was selling and now has full (weekend at least) houses based on reviews. Perhaps word of mouth (given that wom these days consists of Twitter, Facebook etc) is just as impactful as reviews these days. |
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2018 9:29:21 GMT
The reviews don't seem to have ensured it sells very well though. It doesn't deserve to but it is interesting how badly Red was selling and now has full (weekend at least) houses based on reviews. Oh but it does. It's one of the most excruciatingly boring things I've sat through in a long time. Even Dame Eileen Atkins to my left wasn't enough to make me like it. I wanted to take one of those dangly microphones and wrap it around Ben Chaplin's neck just to end the misery. In fact there were moments I considered wrapping one around my own neck if it would have made it stop. |
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Post by Snciole on May 28, 2018 9:40:48 GMT
I agree! My wording was terrible. It doesn't deserve to sell very well and I am baffled by the good reviews. I hope Sea Wall can make up for the losses on this production.
Much like my feelings on Quiz I think something was lost from page to stage, the subject is interesting. The production loses sight of this early on and can never claw it back.
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2018 9:46:33 GMT
I agree! My wording was terrible. It doesn't deserve to sell very well and I am baffled by the good reviews. I hope Sea Wall can make up for the losses on this production. Much like my feelings on Quiz I think something was lost from page to stage, the subject is interesting. The production loses sight of this early on and can never claw it back. I don't think it's helped by the fact that the character we're supposed to sympathise with (the singer) is just as dreadfully irritating as the producer. I couldn't have cared any less about them. Apart from the lead two, you have to wonder about the sizes of the mortgages of the rest of the cast to guess why they accepted such rotten roles in this. |
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Post by showgirl on May 28, 2018 14:18:42 GMT
I'm really surprised at the way the feeling here now seems to be so anti; obviously opinions differ but the critics seemed to like it and though I didn't think it was perfect, as I said at the time, I really enjoyed it and would happily see it again if time allowed.
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Post by noboiscout on May 29, 2018 12:26:26 GMT
I'm really surprised at the way the feeling here now seems to be so anti; obviously opinions differ but the critics seemed to like it and though I didn't think it was perfect, as I said at the time, I really enjoyed it and would happily see it again if time allowed. It is strange how the pro's and anti's for any show often appear in clumps! I have to say I really disliked this play. The female lead's accent was grating to say the least (and I am Irish myself), both lead characters were unsympathetic and the supporting cast just fumbling around in search of a plot. There must be better plays that merit a production than this? |
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Post by anita on Jun 3, 2018 9:51:48 GMT
I couldn't make out a word the young female said.
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Post by schuttep on Jun 4, 2018 13:22:32 GMT
Well I thought it was pretty good. First time in the Old Vic theatre and it's a pretty basic layout. Nothing unique about the layout of the place, but either way. I didn't love this but didn't think it was that bad either. It was entertaining enough. I did like the artist/therapist/lawyer points of view to get a message across. Although it's a pretty basic layout it isn't the usual Old Vic proscenium presentation - it's created a thrust stage. That means that (a) seats have been taken out and (b) the playing area is huge. I can see why they thought they didn't need all the seats normally used but the play was somewhat lost on that larger stage and relatively cavernous arena. it would have been better suited to a smaller venue. |
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Post by cat6 on Jun 10, 2018 16:50:11 GMT
Hi Guys, Well, its run is nearly over. I saw this play about a month ago and I'm sorry to say I didn't like it. I thought the characters, despite the playwright trying to give them dimension by having them analyzed on the run, were flat. I was in the 3rd row center, and the lady next to me fell asleep. I wanted to like the play. The premise sounded interesting. I LOVED Joe Penhall's Sunny Afternoon (of course, I'm a Kinks fan, and while everything in the play was not exactly as it happened IRL it was still an excellent piece), so I was expecting something really exciting and insightful here. The worst thing was coming away with no understanding at all about why a producer would treat an artist like a doormat. OK, the lead character was a psychopath (wasn't he?) and psychopaths are annoyingly self-centered at best. While true, that didn't, couldn't, make the best dramatic material by a long shot. He wasn't even given words that would give away, or directed to show a hidden charisma. I would not doubt that Rhys Ifans pulled out of the role after reading the script. There was nothing he (nor Ben Chaplin, who got the part after) could do with it.
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Post by joem on Jun 10, 2018 19:30:39 GMT
I'm going to go out on a limb from most people here on this one. I enjoyed it and I thought it was a good play. I particularly want to address the point of the Ben Chaplin part (Bernard). First, the guy can act and to complain about his being inexpressive is frankly to confuse the character with the actor. I think there were plenty of lines where the character showed his complete lack of empathy with others and his overweening ego, and many of these were the best lines in the play. The devil does tend to have them.
The role of the exploited artiste was less meaty but Seana Kerslake, as Cat, coped with it reasonably well, especially on the musical side - not sure if her accent wasn't more Ulster than Dublin but I'm not an expert on Irish accents. The rest of the cast were attendant lords.
I particularly enjoyed the scenes where the conversations between different sets of characters began to merge and feed off each other. Required good timing and was dramatically very effective.
For me this was an entertaining and interesting piece on exploitation, specifically within the music industry and how it is targeted particularly against women, but it was also a wider critique of the relationship between creativity and commercialism. It sounded good too. My biggest quibble was the poor sightlines, at one point the Chaplin character was being blocked by a chair with someone sat on it and by the piano so basically you could barely see him. Not the first time this has happened to me at the Old Vic though.
Last night it was full, there were no walkouts and the audience applauded enthusiastically and enjoyed quite a few laughs.
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Post by Latecomer on Jun 14, 2018 17:47:52 GMT
Hmmm....people hated this one didn't they? I took something entirely different from the play...it was all about the power games between men and women. It was about how women are often victims of men but are programmed to collude in this behaviour...we are taught to doubt ourselves and therefore end up playing the "victim" and encouraging the bad behaviour of men. These are learned behaviours, hence all the back stories....
So, I liked it. I didn't necessarily like the characters, but hey, it had something to say and it said it! Next time you see a man being a bully and a woman putting up with it, ask yourself "why?"
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Post by theplayer on Jun 16, 2018 23:21:07 GMT
Saw the final matinee performance of this. I liked it. An interesting take on power dynamics in the music industry. Funny, and also managed to not be pretentious.
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Post by ncbears on Jul 9, 2020 14:01:06 GMT
On YouTube now for a week until 14 July, 7:00 p.m. London Time.
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