The Habit of Art - 2018 tour

[oxfordsimon]

Starring Matthew Kelly...

Even though this is Bennett, I fear this may struggle out on the road. It is not as good a play as I thought when I first saw it at the National. It is over long, over written and can tend to the static.

There are some good moments but too many longeurs.

Because of the Oxford connection, it might do ok at the Playhouse but it will be a tough sell

[Mark]

Very fond memories of the original production in the Lyttleton with the late great Richard Griffiths. Not sure how this will tour and it seems like a relatively small scale tour.

[talkingheads]

I recently re watched the National production and it strikes me that, with the greatest respect to Matthew Kelly, so much of it was Richard Griffiths' charisma and perfect facial expressions I'm not sure about somebody else in the role.

[youngoffender]

Also with David Yelland, presumably as Britten. I remember Alex Jennings doing a great job in that role, so I certainly think both leads will need to be on top form to rival the original pairing. I'm inclined to see anyway, in the absence of a full wattage London revival any time soon.

[lynette]

V surprised this is revived, as it were. I didn’t think much of at the time despite the cast.

[profquatermass]

The best thing about the NT production was Adrian Scarborough's Humphrey Carpenter. Wasn't there some tedious guff about how marvellous the NT is from Frances De La Tour's character? Do they keep that on tour?

[learfan]

Jul 5, 2018 14:37:02 GMT youngoffender said:

Also with David Yelland, presumably as Britten. I remember Alex Jennings doing a great job in that role, so I certainly think both leads will need to be on top form to rival the original pairing. I'm inclined to see anyway, in the absence of a full wattage London revival any time soon.

Yes think the cast made the play seem better. We need Alex Jennings back on the stage here!!

[youngoffender]

I saw this in Oxford last night, and thoroughly enjoyed it. The play really stands up, I think (if it is B+ Bennett, give me that any day over the best efforts of most others), and being a decade old seems very prescient of post-Savile hysteria and allegations by 'Nick' et al. I had forgotten the 'play within a play' frame, watching a group of actors rehearsing a play about a meeting between Britten, Auden and their biographer Humphrey Carpenter, but it doesn't blunt the impact - the only problem is that the dialogue between them seems too scintillating to be the work of the rather amateur author who sits in on the whole thing. Kelly and Yelland do very well, even if the night is stolen by talking furniture. Do catch it if you can.

[showgirl]

Seeing it in Guildford next week and all the reviews I've read have been at least 4-star, so I'm hopeful. I suspect this is the play I walked out from at the NT some years ago as I found it both crude and poorly-written; if so, I hope it has matured well or that if I stick with it this time, its merits will become apparent. I do however wonder what the Guildford matinee audience will make of it but perhaps I'm doing them an injustice.

[david]

I’m off to watch this in Liverpool next month. The question I would like to ask is does Matthew Kelly make his stage entrance through the famous Stars in your Eyes double doors on stage and say those famous words “tonight Matthew I’m going to be....”?

[showgirl]

Saw the matinee in Guildford today in a packed house and was riveted. This cannot (thank goodness!) have been the play from which I escaped at the NT - unless the original production was shockingly bad, which I doubt. There were warnings at the entrances to the auditorium about a whole list of things, including "strong" language (suppose "bad" sounds too judgemental) but though worth repeating at that point, those aspects should have been mentioned at the booking stage.

A few people did not return after the interval, which surprised me; perhaps they had tired of the discussion of rent boys and their services, but there is so much more to this play than that - and this production is so well cast and performed.

[Distant Dreamer...]

I saw this a few weeks ago, not a bad revival and rather amusing but sadly this cast had none of the sparkle of the original cast.

[peelee]

Unlike others on this board who've voiced their dislike of what they attended back then, I liked this play at the National Theatre when it was on there a few years ago. As there's a new production and it's on tour, if it comes near London and I can get to a venue staging it then I'll certainly be up for seeing it again.

[david]

Watched this last night at the Liverpool Playhouse. I have to say that I really enjoyed this even though I was suffering from jet lag while watching it (Note to self - DON’T book theatre stuff if coming off a long flight a few days earlier). I thought Matthew Kelly was fantastic as Fitz/W H Auden. He certainly brought a very dry wit to the role and even when he didn’t have any lines, his facial expressions said a lot in response to other characters. David Yelland as Henry/Ben Britten I thought was a great foil to MK.

I’ll have to admit, having never seen or read the play, I ended up doing a bit of research preshow to give me a brief overview about what to expect, though by the mummerings and gasps, particularly during Act 1, I don’t think some of the audience members had expected such graphic discussions about rentboys. Certainly, I noticed a few empty seats in the stalls for Act 2, so I assumed such subject matter wasn’t to their taste. Though the way it was written and delivered I thought was done in a humorous way. It’s a shame that those who left didn’t see the entire play as it was more than than that subject matter and used to discuss Auden and Britten and their lives and successes and failings.

In Act 2 for those of us who had stayed, we had the extra bonus of having as a background a local club near the theatre playing music at possibly the highest volume setting so everyone in the theatre must have heard it. I’m surprised nobody said anything at the end of the play.

Overall, a good night out and a well produced piece of theatre and some great performances.

[orchidman]

Very average play.

I don't get why this material was being done as the play within a play. Didn't see anything in the Auden/Britten story that lent itself to that. You could do any biographical play in that fashion. Felt more like Bennett didn't have enough material and was padding it out.

[Deleted]

Touring again next spring.

18 – 21 March
Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourn

23 – 28 March
Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham

31 March – 4 April
King’s Theatre, Edinburgh

6 – 11 April
Curve, Leicester

13 – 18 April
Royal & Derngate, Northampton

27 April – 2 May
Theatre Royal Bath

4 – 9 May
Ashcroft Playhouse, Fairfield Halls, Croydon

11 – 16 May
Theatr Clwyd, Mold

18 – 23 May
Exeter Northcott Theatre

[paplazaroo]

Good one for streaming this one. Great performances all round, Mathew Kelly is excellent. I the exploration and talk of art as a habit vs inspiration which is why I think the play within a play was very clever - it highlights the fact that everyone is an artist with their own habit. I understand the feelings of discomfort when it first aired around Bennet's portrayal of pederasty, something he's often criticised for. This one seemed to be him throwing his hands up and saying guilty as charged.