3,040 posts
|
Post by crowblack on May 31, 2018 14:22:11 GMT
5 from Billington, though I disagree about his 'flawless'. Nothing's 'flawless', but here they've added a closing image that is trite and reductive, on a play and production that is multilayered and ambiguous - it felt like the sort of thing a student production would have done. I really enjoyed it - looked great from a last minute press night £15 row C seat (shame about the tall man in front - why the hell didn't the designers offset these seats? It was like being behind a pillar though luckily the actors tended to be on either side of his head). I thought the opening scene took its time to get going - the pace of the speech seemed more English than Irish (well, I say that as a 21st scouser) but once it picked up speed it was great. [/spoiler] |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on May 31, 2018 14:37:49 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. I didn’t used to think this but now I can’t wait for Norris’ 5 year term to come to an end. You need someone in this role with real vision and flair. You can make mistakes etc but his Macbeth could have been a very expensive school production. No amount of 5 star reviews will make me change my mind about this. It is too important a job and he is not ready for it. |
|
202 posts
|
Post by harry on May 31, 2018 14:41:33 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. Thanks for the advice - is this right and left as you enter from the back and are looking at the stage, or right and left as viewed from the stage (and as viewed on the "pick your own seats" plan on the website)? |
|
|
|
Post by partytentdown on May 31, 2018 14:49:20 GMT
Anyone any idea how they swap between the sets for MacB and this? I haven't seen the former, but the Translations set must be a huge job to move, store and reset.
|
|
1,217 posts
|
Post by nash16 on May 31, 2018 15:41:31 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. Thanks for the advice - is this right and left as you enter from the back and are looking at the stage, or right and left as viewed from the stage (and as viewed on the "pick your own seats" plan on the website)? Yes, that's it. As you come into the theatre, facing the stage, try and book/sit on the right side of the auditorium. (Left hand side on Pick Your Own Seats). |
|
3,040 posts
|
Post by crowblack on May 31, 2018 16:53:08 GMT
I was a bit left of centre and it was fine. There's a bit of action from a staircase on the left wall and I suppose you'd be seeing the actors' backs if you were well to the left.
|
|
29 posts
|
Post by vegas on May 31, 2018 18:41:07 GMT
That's comforting. I'm going to be on the left, just one seat off the center aisle.
|
|
943 posts
|
Post by vdcni on Jun 1, 2018 9:51:28 GMT
I enjoyed this but am a bit mystified about some of the really strong reviews - 5 stars from the Guardian for example. There are some great scenes but others that just drag. Generally the cast were all very strong but some of the characters are a lot more interesting than others, I was always engaged when Owen, Máire & Yolland were on stage but less so at other times.
I'm also not in love with the ending which felt more that the play just stopped.
|
|
1,217 posts
|
Post by nash16 on Jun 1, 2018 10:21:59 GMT
I enjoyed this but am a bit mystified about some of the really strong reviews - 5 stars from the Guardian for example. There are some great scenes but others that just drag. Generally the cast were all very strong but some of the characters are a lot more interesting than others, I was always engaged when Owen, Máire & Yolland were on stage but less so at other times. I'm also not in love with the ending which felt more that the play just stopped. Agree completely. That first half especially was very sluggish. |
|
3,040 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Jun 1, 2018 11:57:46 GMT
I found the subject matter very engaging, though it did make my mind wander from the immediate action in places. The opening scene needed speeding up, and yes - it just sort of ended. I think the director's added 'full stop' was misjudged.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2018 0:54:00 GMT
I have loved this play for so long - read it many times but never seen it so I was a bit underwhelmed by this. I imagined the first act would be more dynamic but, as others mention, it was rather slow. The second act was better. I suppose the play was more resonant and powerful in 1989 when it was written. The set design was wonderful. In this play the so-called blind casting stood out more than it would in any other play because of the theme of colonialism. I found myself thinking through Yolland’s history, which could be a whole other play in itself. I suppose the casting illuminated why Yolland had such an affinity with the Irish and was trying to learn their language, having presumably lost his own. Didn’t quite get the final image (someone please explain). I suppose you have to give this modern classic five stars, especially now that Friel is dead.
|
|
213 posts
|
Post by peelee on Jun 10, 2018 12:07:53 GMT
I didn't like the ending this production gave to Brian Friel's play. It was forced and not even accurate in the current news terms of an issue it raised visually. So it seemed a melodramatic note to close what was written by Friel in Translations as a more thoughtful piece of work.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2018 12:21:40 GMT
Can anyone put in a spolier what happens at the end?
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2018 8:29:28 GMT
Can anyone put in a spolier what happens at the end? {In tribute to the show I shall translate the spoiler into Irish . . . }
Not really.
Ciaran Hinds does his little speech at the end and then some lights come on and you see soldiers in black with guns above the stage as though they are stood on a checkpoint. Lights fade. Show ends. Off to the bar. |
|
471 posts
|
Post by mistressjojo on Jun 11, 2018 9:42:49 GMT
Can anyone put in a spolier what happens at the end? {In tribute to the show I shall translate the spoiler into Irish . . . }
Not really.
Ciaran Hinds does his little speech at the end and then some lights come on and you see soldiers in black with guns above the stage as though they are stood on a checkpoint. Lights fade. Show ends. Off to the bar. I wondered what people were talking about with the 'inaccurate ending'. I missed this completely. Ciaran Hinds mucked up his speech the night I went so was looking at him the whole time. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2018 10:12:05 GMT
{In tribute to the show I shall translate the spoiler into Irish . . . }
Not really.
Ciaran Hinds does his little speech at the end and then some lights come on and you see soldiers in black with guns above the stage as though they are stood on a checkpoint. Lights fade. Show ends. Off to the bar. I wondered what people were talking about with the 'inaccurate ending'. I missed this completely. Ciaran Hinds mucked up his speech the night I went so was looking at him the whole time. I missed it too...I saw the lights but not the other stuff so I was completely baffled. I was exhausted the night I watched this. |
|
|
|
Post by turbo25 on Jun 11, 2018 10:16:38 GMT
Baffled by the strong reviews. Admittedly I sat at the top of the circle, but this really dragged for me and I just couldn't get involved at all. Utterly lost by the ending, had no idea what was going on.
|
|
4,155 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 11, 2018 10:38:23 GMT
{In tribute to the show I shall translate the spoiler into Irish . . . }Not really.
Ciaran Hinds does his little speech at the end and then some lights come on and you see soldiers in black with guns above the stage as though they are stood on a checkpoint. Lights fade. Show ends. Off to the bar. I wondered what people were talking about with the 'inaccurate ending'. I missed this completely. Ciaran Hinds mucked up his speech the night I went so was looking at him the whole time. {Spoiler} I thought it was a big old wall - the border wall between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and perhaps a nod to the so-called 'peace walls' that separate Catholic and protestant communities in some parts of Northern Ireland. The walls all being the ultimate outcome of the Brits in Ireland - and a nod to its possible post-Brexit return. |
|
1,103 posts
|
Post by mallardo on Jun 11, 2018 11:00:23 GMT
I thought Ian Rickson's final image was powerful and profound - the play needs to go out with a bang rather than with a whimper - and it rather brilliantly captured one of the main issues of the piece, that cultural imperialism in the form of linguistic appropriation is but a way station on the road to complete political, social and military domination.
I thought the whole production was masterful, wonderfully acted and directed - easily earning five stars.
|
|
3,040 posts
|
Post by crowblack on Jun 11, 2018 11:34:59 GMT
Yes, but to make this all about one specific one was so reductive when the play seemed to give us so many - the imperialism of Latin, the Roman conquest (alluded to, I think, with a girl calling the soldiers centurions?), the Christian and later the Roman Catholic church (neither native to Ireland, but still holding power especially over women's bodies until the 21stc), the various peoples who have colonised the British isles and left their marks on the language - the word 'burn' being substituted for Irish is itself no longer a common one as London norms have replaced Celtic or Viking-influenced regional 'dialect' words, the empires that have held power of India, the spread of Enlightenment ideas and in their wake the empire of Napoleon, seen by some in this play as potentially liberating but also bound up with mass bloodshed (Robespierre's line "no one loves armed missionaries" sprang to mind), the European conquest of the Americas which included the British and Irish diaspora but which was devastating to the First Nation peoples whose place names often survive where they have not, the power of a patriarch over their children, the power of a tribe to (violently) prevent marrying out ... |
|
392 posts
|
Post by lichtie on Jun 11, 2018 11:46:44 GMT
I have to admit I got lost at the end but it's a long long time since I read Virgil... That's my excuse anyway. So I had no idea what Hinds was going on about. Even after skimming the text in the bookshop afterwards I was still a bit lost until Wikipedia came to the rescue... I didn't notice the end bit with soldiers at all!
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2018 12:26:35 GMT
I thought Ian Rickson's final image was powerful and profound - the play needs to go out with a bang rather than with a whimper - and it rather brilliantly captured one of the main issues of the piece, that cultural imperialism in the form of linguistic appropriation is but a way station on the road to complete political, social and military domination. I thought the whole production was masterful, wonderfully acted and directed - easily earning five stars. Well, when I read the play it doesn’t seem to end with a whimper. It is a very powerful piece of writing. I’m not sure that I read the play as suggesting that cultural appropriation leads to complete domination but rather that it is an act of violence in and of itself, part of the weaponry of colonialism. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2018 17:39:39 GMT
I wonder if they've tweaked the ending, as I didn't notice soldiers with guns either, just the lights coming up and revealing searchlights and barbed wire. And the non-speaking soldiers were still in period costume at the curtain call Anyway, I enjoyed this after the very slow first scene. I didn't get the ending either, if you have to look it up on wikipedia afterwards it's a problem either with the writing or direction! The set was great although did make some seems a bit odd, eg when Owen said "I've got some friends outside" and then has to leave the schoolroom and walk right over the fields and past the horizon to fetch them. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2018 18:07:40 GMT
Well. I know someone who goes weak at the knees for an Irish accent, she would have been in heaven here. They're everywhere! The set is really rather smashing, especially at the back with the swirling mist wafting about and while I enjoyed the play, I think I preferred bits of it rather than the whole thing. Colin Morgan was good and likeable especially when he was being funny (and the fan next to me was BESIDE HERSELF when he first walked on, she was jigging about like she was auditioning for Riverdance), I liked Seamus O'Hara as Manus (his big scene in the second act was really rather touching and I got a bit of that mist in my eye) and Dermot Crowley and Jimmy Jack, I loved the staging of the approach of the British soldiers over the hill and the flirting between Judith Roddy (last seen dusting herself off in flour during 'Knives in Hens') and Adetomiwa Edun as Maire and Yolland was delightfully funny too although . . . {Garden of Edun}
. . . heaven knows what happened to him in the second half. Did he die? I think he should have been one of the soldiers at the end shouting "surprise!". Strangely though, all the way through the show I though Colin Morgan's accent was the worst one and that he was struggling with it at times. Then I realised that he's actually from Northern Ireland so it must have been his real accent. Oops. All in all, it was entertaining enough but not one for the DUP annual day out though. |
|
392 posts
|
Post by lichtie on Jun 11, 2018 18:54:56 GMT
it's a long long time since I read Virgil Come to think of it, a long time since I've seen any "Thunderbirds" at all. And there is a closure here since as everyone who grew up in Edinburgh in the 60s knows, Thunderbird 3 sits right in the middle of Princes Street  |
|
