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Post by jason71 on Jun 23, 2018 17:56:07 GMT
Not seen anybody mention this production yet. Has anybody been to see it?
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Post by showgirl on Jun 23, 2018 22:19:56 GMT
I've also been wondering about this as I've continued to stick to my new resolution not to book ahead for so much in the main house. It sounds as though it could be great but also a turkey. Though having held off booking for Describe The Night, I regret not managing to see that - Sod's Law.
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137 posts
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Post by jason71 on Jun 23, 2018 23:07:10 GMT
It is quite a long show. The Hampstead BO told me that it's clocking in at two hours forty five(including interval)
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Post by lonlad on Jun 28, 2018 23:27:41 GMT
One of the worst things I have ever seen, and that is saying something. Bewilderingly unfocused and offensive and meandering and predictable and sophomoric. Arthur Darvill sings well and looks nice and that is about it. Harry Enfield looks embarrassed to be part of it, as well he might be.
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Post by dani on Jun 29, 2018 15:46:57 GMT
A friend has asked me if I'd like to go to this with her. It is playing at Hampstead Theatre, and looking around today I have seen pretty terrible reviews for it, thought WOS has awarded 4*. The general reaction has been 2*. The presence in the cast of Harry Enfield put me off, but the subject matter - IVF treatment - is of interest. Has anyone seen it? I'm wondering if it might be worth my time.
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3,558 posts
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Post by showgirl on Jun 29, 2018 16:00:49 GMT
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Jun 29, 2018 16:27:41 GMT
Merged
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Post by nash16 on Jun 29, 2018 20:29:20 GMT
Reading Barney Norris' twitter thread today it sounds like Sansom is a nightmare to work with. Maybe that's the problem with this play too?
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904 posts
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Post by lonlad on Jun 30, 2018 0:08:31 GMT
Can the H'stead afford two mainstage duds in a row? The Rajiv Joseph play did pretty dismally .....
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3,558 posts
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Post by showgirl on Jun 30, 2018 4:16:13 GMT
Plays which receive mixed reviews quite appeal to me (I know others may disagree, as would the theatre and the professionals involved) and besides, I'm often most disappointed by productions about which everyone else has raved. So I'd be interested in seeing this and deciding for myself, as I would have done with Describe The Night had I been able to fit it into my diary.
It's likely that some advance bookings will have been made both by Hampstead regulars and by others wishing to see some of the cast members, though "names" actually deter me unless it sounds like a good production regardless. So let's wait and see - I don't think we can write this one off yet.
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1,502 posts
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Post by foxa on Jun 30, 2018 13:31:16 GMT
Jemma Kennedy, the playwright of this, did some cracking work on the playwriting programme for students at the National Theatre,so I was interested in seeing her work because of that. But haven't booked yet, partly because I'd just seen a stinker downstairs there so thought I'd wait and see. I noticed too that this had the same director as 'Nightfall.'
It sounds ambitious, so sometimes that can be exciting to see, even if it doesn't come off entirely.
I do wonder a bit about the dramaturgy at the Hampstead....
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Post by NeilVHughes on Jul 1, 2018 10:33:04 GMT
Saw the first half of this yesterday, (booking / timing error) no great issue as was glad to get out.
Everything I hate about the Theatre, middle class angst with a token gay man and prole.
One good line from the token prole, a black woman with kids as we all know the poor can have children without trying, your middle class kid will grow up to have a disorder whilst in reality they are just thick.
A subject matter that deserves a better play, the drive to have children is debilitating and the desperate are seen as sitting ducks who can be manipulated with false hope for an exorbitant price by the fertility industry.
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Post by lonlad on Jul 1, 2018 12:25:04 GMT
The Hampstead dramaturg is moving over to the Bridge, just FYI -- mind you, NIGHTFALL was THREE SISTERS compared to this piece of utter garbage
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2018 14:06:16 GMT
Well. This is an absolute rambling mess. And not even a hot one. It's like the Writer just had loads (and I mean LOADS) of ideas and didn't have a clue what to do with them so just chucked them all in the play with no thought for clarity, sense or intelligence and hoped for the best. Someone somewhere should have taken a pair of scissors to it. Preferably cutting all of it.
The cast do their best God love 'em but I guess it's hard when your characters make no sense at all from one scene to the next. Arthur Wilson probably comes out of it best.
The subject IS an interesting one and while that overwhelming and desperate NEED to have a baby (and not to adopt) and the willingness to lose everything in the pursuit of that is not something that I have any real affinity for, I'm sure that it could be tackled in a more interesting way. These characters certainly didn't make me feel any sympathy for them though and the addition of a talking fallopian tube didn't help matters either.
But on the plus side Clare Perkins does give us one of the worst Australian accents I've heard in a long time to perk things up. At least I *think* it was supposed to be Australian.
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Post by Polly1 on Jul 1, 2018 15:00:12 GMT
Wait, a talking fallopian tube....?!?!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2018 15:46:11 GMT
Wait, a talking fallopian tube....?!?! Well it was certainly a lady part of some description. |
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Post by foxa on Jul 1, 2018 15:54:02 GMT
Was it doing an Australian accent?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2018 15:57:56 GMT
Was it doing an Australian accent? Not that I recall. It might have been Indian.. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2018 16:32:43 GMT
That’s it. I’m booking tickets for this. I want to see that talking womb if nothing else. They should have asked Germaine Greer to play the womb.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2018 16:34:42 GMT
That’s it. I’m booking tickets for this. I want to see that talking womb if nothing else. They should have asked Germaine Greer to play the womb. You don't see it, you just hear it. I really don't think it's worth suffering the whole play for. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2018 10:30:05 GMT
All tickets till Sunday £8, offer bookable till midday on Thursday -
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Post by dani on Jul 4, 2018 10:42:13 GMT
Am I being thick? I don't immediately see the connection between England making the last eight at the World Cup and a play about fertility.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2018 10:59:15 GMT
I don't think there is a connection so much as there is a desire to sell tickets.
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Post by dani on Jul 4, 2018 11:25:39 GMT
I don't think there is a connection so much as there is a desire to sell tickets. Precisely, and that makes the whole "to celebrate England's success" thing rather tawdry. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2018 11:35:25 GMT
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