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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2018 13:58:36 GMT
To get you all in the mood for 'Translations', coming to The Nash soon, they're rehearsing already. Be warned. There's a LOT of hair. Some kissing. And some hats. Oh Colin.  Other people are in in too: Colin Occupants of Interplanetary Craft |
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Post by Boob on May 23, 2018 20:20:21 GMT
First preview last night. Look forward to hearing reports. I hope, for the NT, they don't have another Olivier flop on their hands. But can't help thinking this isn't the right venue for the play...
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2018 22:17:15 GMT
They better not mess this up. Translations is my favourite play.
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Post by barrowside on May 24, 2018 0:07:50 GMT
It seems to be selling very heavily with some dates sold out. Its a wonderful play with a superb cast, so as long as the production can adapt to the demands of the Olivier it should be fine. It has however only played intimate venues like Hampstead, The Cottesloe and The Donmar in London before but it gets bigger productions at The Abbey. Its such a big play with such big ideas and themes it should hopefully work. There is plenty suggested offstage in the text such as Ballybeg village, the potato fields and the soldiers camp etc that perhaps Ian Rickson and Rae Smith will evoke these to use the big space. Would be lovely to see Mr. Friel have two London hits this summer with Aristocrats at the Donmar also.
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2018 17:46:57 GMT
I have no idea about the play, but I like lovely wee Merlin and obviously lovely Ciaran Hinds, so I'm going. I got a £15 second row ticket accidentally.
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Post by crowblack on May 24, 2018 20:27:09 GMT
Some returns up on the site now - I've just grabbed a £15 row c one for press night which is great because with a 7pm start I can scamper off for the night bus home. I had booked a date in July but it clashed with a college reunion and I was thinking I wouldn't be able to see it because there are so few matinees.
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Post by lonlad on May 24, 2018 22:37:08 GMT
STILL no reports?? C'mon people, let us know how it is ! A play of such magnitude demands our attention. When this play is done well, very little else can touch it.
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Post by siteseer on May 25, 2018 7:34:05 GMT
First time ever posting a review so be kind and take what I say with a grain of salt.
I completed my six day London trip by seeing the first preview of Translations on Tuesday.
Entering the Olivier I encountered the ugliest set I ever witnessed in this venue. Three
quarters of the stage consist of scrubby rolling fields and the front quarter comprises
the muddy pit of the hedge school. There is a staircase stage right that leads to living quarters.
Friel's writing needs intimacy and that is what is lost in such a large venue. You get no sense of
the poetry and beauty of the dialogue. The acting is a mixed bag at the moment. Some are able to
project with clarity and emotion and others seem like they are mumbling. I realize it was a first preview
and some of these issues will work themselves out in time but I fear the venue will be the biggest
obstacle. Hope I am proved wrong by other board members that are smarter and more astute than me.
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Post by Someone in a tree on May 25, 2018 7:52:54 GMT
This play has a cast of 10? And it’s staged on one of the UK’s biggest stages ? Eek.
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Post by peggs on May 25, 2018 8:35:53 GMT
Good on you for posting your first review siteseer, fortunately smartness or being astute are not board requirements or I would not be able to say 'oh is that what it meant' so regularly. Hopefully the cast will bed in, the venue more of a stumbling block. |
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Post by mrbarnaby on May 26, 2018 9:00:55 GMT
Another stinker in the Olivier?
What’s the running time please?
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Post by jason71 on May 26, 2018 9:03:24 GMT
140min plus interval
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Post by lynette on May 26, 2018 9:13:40 GMT
If they can’t do this one right then all writers both alive and dead will refuse to have their work there!
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Post by foxa on May 26, 2018 10:07:35 GMT
Thanks siteseer for your first review - very interesting! This is a play which I have read but never seen, so am really looking forward to it. But if they've messed it up - eek! The rehearsal photos look good (but of course, are intimate photos of the actors, so we don't get a sense of the set, etc.) |
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Post by kathryn on May 26, 2018 10:49:37 GMT
Saw this last night, and it’s completely fine - a very straightforward presentation of the text. I enjoyed it well enough without being blown away by it.
The production could have quite happily fitted into the Dorfman, but the packed house justifies using the larger space.
We were in the back of the circle and I didn’t have any problems understanding anyone - no mumbling.
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Post by nash16 on May 28, 2018 22:51:18 GMT
Well, for those fearing the worst, the play survives just about, in Ian Rickson's production.
It does feel like something is missing at the moment though. A drive, and power, a charge pulling us through the entire play to its (oddly abrupt) conclusion.
At the moment, a sluggish first half never really lands, although the second begins to give us the investments we so long for with the characters. It is annoying slightly that when we finally do feel onboard with everyone and events, it ends. Lights. Bows. Leaving the audience tonight wondering if a third act was missing as we left.
Rickson has added his own coda to the text, which we felt worked quite well, if a little Ivo-van-Hove-End-of-Network "Have you understood what I've been trying to say with this production?" to it.
For the Colin Morgan fans (steps back) he acquits himself well, but he isn't as great as he could be. And we don't think he'll get "there" by Wednesday's press night. There was something lacking in him, as though he cold act each thought but couldn't tie them all together. As a result, his character arc, which is quite substantial, feels a little flat, and fails to build to anything.
Dermot Crowley's Jimmy and Judith Roddy's Maire are the definite stand outs. The rest do well.
Weirdly the star of the show, for all the fears mentioned by other board members about the space, is the set and lighting. (Yep, its slightly one of those shows..). Most especially the stunning mist, fog, and eternally swirling cloud effects conjured by Rae Smith and Neil Austin's lighting.
Smith's circular tilt of a set is a vision of soil, grass, and bog, dotted with the tiny lights of neighbouring villages.
Along with THAT weather system at the back (and indeed overhead) it gives the play and it's actors something truly special to play in.
(Ignore the strange office portakabin clinging to the side Stalls left though...not needed at all...)
Unfortunately the production just doesn't rise to it, until it's too late. As we said, we wished for a third act, as then it would have ended on a dramatic and emotional high (even with the predicted horrors to come).
As it is, without a continuous momentum and building charge, it lessens the play, and, as mentioned before, Wednesday's press is too soon for it to be truly ready. A shame.
Try and catch it later in the run when the pace and action elsewhere should have caught up with the potential, especially in that exquisite design.
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Post by nash16 on May 28, 2018 22:52:39 GMT
Ps Try and sit on the right hand side of the auditorium for the best view. It's all, weirdly, facing out to that direction. The left side of the audience looked (slightly aptly) left out.
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Post by mrbarnaby on May 29, 2018 6:34:43 GMT
It seems every show in the Olivier now..
1. Has to be designed by Rae Smith and
2. Must consist of boggy earth all over the floor.
Rufus- leave now. Please. He’s killing this theatre.
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Post by Rory on May 29, 2018 7:30:37 GMT
But different directors for most of these shows (Jeremy Herrin, Yael Farber, Ian Rickson) so not all directorial decision misfires, if you view them as such, can be directed at RN.
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Post by nash16 on May 29, 2018 8:07:01 GMT
It seems every show in the Olivier now.. 1. Has to be designed by Rae Smith and 2. Must consist of boggy earth all over the floor. Rufus- leave now. Please. He’s killing this theatre. Rufus might be, but Rae certainly isn't with this one. The set really is a thing of beauty. |
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Post by partytentdown on May 29, 2018 21:21:22 GMT
I really enjoyed this tonight. I thought the set (and lighting) was spectacular. And to my uneducated brain, a really smart and surprising 'coup de theatre' touch at the very end. Definitely not a flop based on tonight's audience reaction.
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Post by audrey on May 30, 2018 9:33:52 GMT
Thought this was fine but nothing outstanding - Colin Morgan was ok. Was totally mesmerized by the back projections on the set, the swirling fog and the lighting which as nash16 says was the best thing about the whole production.
Please can someone explain the ending to me? Really couldn't understand why Friel wrote it like that - was it meant to be just rambling musings rather than anything to tie it together?
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Post by lynette on May 30, 2018 16:18:39 GMT
It seems every show in the Olivier now.. 1. Has to be designed by Rae Smith and 2. Must consist of boggy earth all over the floor. Rufus- leave now. Please. He’s killing this theatre. Irish= boggy doesn’t it? Like a nervous tick. |
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Post by kathryn on May 31, 2018 8:04:22 GMT
The set isn't boggy, though. It's turf.
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Post by zahidf on May 31, 2018 8:15:28 GMT
Seems to be 4 stars all the way with this one so far
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