When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other (NT)

[NeilVHughes]

Had already raised my issues with this being produced in the Subsidised sector prior to the ballot results being known and have not really changed my mind.

This is comparable with Photograph 51 with Nicole Kidman, a similar A lister who wanted to produce a play she felt strongly about with the confidence to take it directly to the West End.

We will never/unlikely know the entire backstory and how the decision is made, as only a short run normal service will be resumed and the Dorfman will continue to be my preferred stage at the NT, picked up the yearbook yesterday and my fondest productions were all there, Nine Night, Barber Shop Chronicles, The Great Wave, John.......

If the play is any good, will likely be revived fairly quickly to make sure the wave of publicity can be ridden, a good play will transcend the performers and will continue to live on as in Love a favourite from last year which is now being televised and changing the cast in The Ferryman did not diminish the fact that it is a good play worth seeing whoever the talented cast are.

[gingerB]

Dec 2, 2018 1:04:55 GMT @fleetwoodfloyd said:

Excuse my ignorance here, but I do consider myself a bit of a film buff and honestly didn't realise she has that kind of obsessed following.

She's definitely respected among my circle but not regarded as one of the greats. When or how did she suddenly become the focus of such obsession?

Carol + Ocean's 8 =lesbian icon

[gingerB]

Does anyone know if tickets has to be booked by the person who won the ballot?
I won't be able to be online when tickets go on sale but the friend I'm going with to the theater can.
He has my login, can he book and pay with his card under my NT account?

[Deleted]

Dec 2, 2018 13:23:29 GMT NeilVHughes said:

If the play is any good, will likely be revived fairly quickly to make sure the wave of publicity can be ridden, a good play will transcend the performers and will continue to live on as in Love a favourite from last year which is now being televised and changing the cast in The Ferryman did not diminish the fact that it is a good play worth seeing whoever the talented cast are.

Crimp's plays do not get transfers, if you miss them you miss them. It could easily be over a decade until they get professionally produced elsewhere. It took probably his best known play 'Attempts on her Life' a decade to get to the National, for example (in a Katie Mitchell production which I loved but which left a large number of the audience nonplussed, given the absence of any plot and lack of characterisation). It's probably on the old board but the fulminating against 'In the Republic of Happiness', his most recent postdramatic play was something to behold! Again, I loved it (although the production by Dominic Cooke I found to be a bit too staid), Crimp just appeals to my own tastes.

As many of his plays are written as 'open texts' then the director/author dynamic is what makes the production. The Mitchell aesthetic combined with Crimp is a perfect match, as was the case with Mitchell's coruscating 'Cleansed' by Sarah Kane (Crimp being maybe the closest writer to Kane), which left me a gibbering wreck with its violence and 'total theatre' approach. Mitchell's theatre vocabulary (others would dismiss them as gimmicks) such as live film, hyper-naturalised performances rubbing up against anti-naturalistic elements allied to a text that allows the director to be an equal creator of the production is potentially dynamite.

Charles Spencer wrote this in the Telegraph about the Mitchell/Crimp Attempts on her Life revival 'I suspect that the reason he's never had an enduring hit after 25 years is that his writing has an off-putting coldness, and an ironic, self-advertising cleverness, that proves ultimately repellent. I fundamentally disagree but he reflects a large part of the audience, I imagine.

[lynette]

Parsley, it is fewer than however many not less than.

[NeilVHughes]

Thank you Cardinal Pirelli for your summary, have a large gap in my knowledge on Crimp, saw Dealing With Clair a few weeks ago and left unsettled with the buyer being one of the creepiest characters I have seen on the stage.

If anything like Cleansed there will be an extremely perplexed audience especially if they only booked for the actor not the writer.

I went to Cleansed to see Michelle Terry and definitely left having seen a lot more than I was expecting.

[Deleted]

Has anyone been successful in the earlier ballots yet? I've been told it's the standard end-on configuration but was wondering if anyone has the ability to see whether it's the shallow rake or deep rake configuration.

[gingerB]

Dec 3, 2018 20:17:46 GMT @theatremonkey said:

Dec 2, 2018 15:09:02 GMT gingerB said:

He has my login, can he book and pay with his card under my NT account?

Well, who is going to know who is actually at the computer?

Yes but the credit card has his name on it. It won't match the ballot winners name

[Deleted]

The FAQ says they'll ask to see photo ID and the payment card. It doesn't say that they both have to belong to the same person, and I doubt they'll check both things for every single booking, but I don't know that I'd be willing to take the gamble myself. Sure, a reasonable person could see that you bought the tickets together but we don't know how strict the higher-ups are going to be with the tout-prevention guidelines. (But I have used a parent's credit card to book tickets under my account at other theatres before and it has never yet been a problem, so I could be over-worrying. Tbh it wouldn't hurt to give the Nash a call to ask about credit card use; don't tell them that someone's got access to someone else's login details but it can't hurt to have clarification from the horse's mouth.)

[blobble84]

I got the feeling from the FAQ that photo ID and payment card is just for collection. If you have them posted then surely they're not going to ask to check your payment card as you enter the auditorium?

[l0islane]

Dec 3, 2018 20:08:01 GMT @baemax said:

Has anyone been successful in the earlier ballots yet? I've been told it's the standard end-on configuration but was wondering if anyone has the ability to see whether it's the shallow rake or deep rake configuration.

I've never tried to post a picture on here before but I'll give it a go! This is the seating plan:

(Edit. I knew it wouldn't work (or more that I'd mess it up!), here's a link to the seating plan image!) 

ibb.co/CMDjR3J

I got my tickets this morning in the first ballot, number 8 in the queue, no hassle, got the date and  price I wanted and there's still loads of tickets left for every performance.

[Being Alive]

Dec 4, 2018 0:55:55 GMT l0islane said:

Dec 3, 2018 20:08:01 GMT @baemax said:

Has anyone been successful in the earlier ballots yet? I've been told it's the standard end-on configuration but was wondering if anyone has the ability to see whether it's the shallow rake or deep rake configuration.

I've never tried to post a picture on here before but I'll give it a go! This is the seating plan:

(Edit. I knew it wouldn't work (or more that I'd mess it up!), here's a link to the seating plan image!) 

ibb.co/CMDjR3J

I got my tickets this morning in the first ballot, number 8 in the queue, no hassle, got the date and  price I wanted and there's still loads of tickets left for every performance.

Could you let me know what each colour represents in terms of ticket price? Would be good to know. Thanks

[l0islane]

Dec 4, 2018 2:20:05 GMT Being Alive said:

Dec 4, 2018 0:55:55 GMT l0islane said:

I've never tried to post a picture on here before but I'll give it a go! This is the seating plan:

(Edit. I knew it wouldn't work (or more that I'd mess it up!), here's a link to the seating plan image!) 

ibb.co/CMDjR3J

I got my tickets this morning in the first ballot, number 8 in the queue, no hassle, got the date and  price I wanted and there's still loads of tickets left for every performance.

Could you let me know what each colour represents in terms of ticket price? Would be good to know. Thanks

I think there are quite a few variations in ticket prices between first previews and the full run, but picking one random date pre-and post press night:

Previews

Red - £32

Green - £22

Purple - £20

Yellow - £15


Post previews

Red - £58

Beige - £49

Green - £29

Purple - £24

Yellow - £18

[Deleted]

Brilliant, thanks l0islane! I think this is the shallow rake layout, unless I miss my guess?

[gingerB]

Dec 4, 2018 0:55:55 GMT l0islane said:

Dec 3, 2018 20:08:01 GMT @baemax said:

Has anyone been successful in the earlier ballots yet? I've been told it's the standard end-on configuration but was wondering if anyone has the ability to see whether it's the shallow rake or deep rake configuration.

I've never tried to post a picture on here before but I'll give it a go! This is the seating plan:

(Edit. I knew it wouldn't work (or more that I'd mess it up!), here's a link to the seating plan image!) 

ibb.co/CMDjR3J

I got my tickets this morning in the first ballot, number 8 in the queue, no hassle, got the date and  price I wanted and there's still loads of tickets left for every performance.

But why so many greyed out seats already?

[Deleted]

Dec 4, 2018 12:57:08 GMT gingerB said:

Dec 4, 2018 0:55:55 GMT l0islane said:

I've never tried to post a picture on here before but I'll give it a go! This is the seating plan:

(Edit. I knew it wouldn't work (or more that I'd mess it up!), here's a link to the seating plan image!) 

ibb.co/CMDjR3J

I got my tickets this morning in the first ballot, number 8 in the queue, no hassle, got the date and  price I wanted and there's still loads of tickets left for every performance.

But why so many greyed out seats already?

Patrons and above were allowed to book

2 tickets per membership last week

I assume most members eligible

Did book their allocation
I

[gingerB]

Dec 4, 2018 13:34:53 GMT @parsley said:

Dec 4, 2018 12:57:08 GMT gingerB said:

But why so many greyed out seats already?

Patrons and above were allowed to book

2 tickets per membership last week

I assume most members eligible

Did book their allocation
I

Then that's half or more of the seats gone on that day

[Deleted]

Dec 4, 2018 15:18:05 GMT gingerB said:

Dec 4, 2018 13:34:53 GMT @parsley said:

Patrons and above were allowed to book

2 tickets per membership last week

I assume most members eligible

Did book their allocation
I

Then that's half or more of the seats gone on that day

I don’t have exact figures

But given the number of those who could have bought

And the capacity of the Dorfman

It’s possible

I do know that they were strict about the booking window

However I am also sure they keep tickets back

In case Madonna turns up to see the show

Etc

[Deleted]

I assume they're doing the old thing of holding some seats off sale per booking period. I'm sure with a ballot and a limit of 2 tickets per purchase you can largely control how many seats are bought per booking period, but it's not unfeasible that members might snap up 100% of the most popular performances if every single seat were available from the beginning. I would be more surprised if the Nash *had* put all the seats on sale for the earliest ballot winners than I would be if they're keeping a certain number off sale until the last ballot winners get a crack at things.

[l0islane]

Dec 4, 2018 16:01:15 GMT @baemax said:

I assume they're doing the old thing of holding some seats off sale per booking period. I'm sure with a ballot and a limit of 2 tickets per purchase you can largely control how many seats are bought per booking period, but it's not unfeasible that members might snap up 100% of the most popular performances if every single seat were available from the beginning. I would be more surprised if the Nash *had* put all the seats on sale for the earliest ballot winners than I would be if they're keeping a certain number off sale until the last ballot winners get a crack at things.

Yeah they’re just holding back seats. I was number 8 in the queue for booking and I checked several dates and they all had the same 4 seats available in the front row while the others were greyed out. I assume they are just making a selection available across all the price bands for each booking session.

[gingerB]

Dec 4, 2018 16:08:50 GMT l0islane said:

Dec 4, 2018 16:01:15 GMT @baemax said:

I assume they're doing the old thing of holding some seats off sale per booking period. I'm sure with a ballot and a limit of 2 tickets per purchase you can largely control how many seats are bought per booking period, but it's not unfeasible that members might snap up 100% of the most popular performances if every single seat were available from the beginning. I would be more surprised if the Nash *had* put all the seats on sale for the earliest ballot winners than I would be if they're keeping a certain number off sale until the last ballot winners get a crack at things.

Yeah they’re just holding back seats. I was number 8 in the queue for booking and I checked several dates and they all had the same 4 seats available in the front row while the others were greyed out. I assume they are just making a selection available across all the price bands for each booking session.

But I would imagine on the first ballot would be less people than the second, right?

My friend wanted to check how the NT site cope and went to the booking page as soon as it went live, waiting before 12 he has put in a queue of 177 in front although it went pretty fast.
We don't understand why everyone is put in the queue whether you want to book or not.
You should be presented with the booking option when you login. That's how it works at the BFI according to your membership level, otherwise it's a waste of time for those eligible to book who are randomly put behind others who cannot book on the queue

[showgirl]

Being placed in a queue regardless of your reason for visiting the website is one of my many unresolved issues with the NT's online system, though in fairness to them, other theatres also do this when booking opens for a new season. Some people may simply wish to book tickets for a production already on sale or check other information but are unable to do anything for the duration. If phone lines can have an automated system to filter calls, surely websites can also have a simple tab system, eg "Book Tickets For New Season" or "Access Other Areas"?

[popcultureboy]

Dec 5, 2018 4:44:15 GMT showgirl said:

Being placed in a queue regardless of your reason for visiting the website is one of my many unresolved issues with the NT's online system, though in fairness to them, other theatres also do this when booking opens for a new season. Some people may simply wish to book tickets for a production already on sale or check other information but are unable to do anything for the duration. If phone lines can have an automated system to filter calls, surely websites can also have a simple tab system, eg "Book Tickets For New Season" or "Access Other Areas"?

They have had it in the past, so it's weird they don't have it now. When Angels in America booking opened, I remember there was an option when in the queue for "not booking for AIA? Click here to visit the NT website" so it's a bit odd they haven't kept that up. 

[jadnoop]

Dec 5, 2018 8:06:38 GMT popcultureboy said:

Dec 5, 2018 4:44:15 GMT showgirl said:

Being placed in a queue regardless of your reason for visiting the website is one of my many unresolved issues with the NT's online system, though in fairness to them, other theatres also do this when booking opens for a new season. Some people may simply wish to book tickets for a production already on sale or check other information but are unable to do anything for the duration. If phone lines can have an automated system to filter calls, surely websites can also have a simple tab system, eg "Book Tickets For New Season" or "Access Other Areas"?

They have had it in the past, so it's weird they don't have it now. When Angels in America booking opened, I remember there was an option when in the queue for "not booking for AIA? Click here to visit the NT website" so it's a bit odd they haven't kept that up. 

They changed the queue-it system after AIA. Possibly in part because a bug meant that you could bypass the queueing system entirely. I suspect that part of the reason that bug existed was because of the split between the parts of the site that did and did not send you to the queue-it system.

[Jon]

Long wait but got the dates I wanted, still quite a few seats available as well