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Post by Marwood on Mar 21, 2016 22:50:31 GMT
Just a few words about this - I saw this on Saturday (it's last day at the Abbey) and thought it was excellent - I won't go into too much detail about what happens, I'm going to see it again at the Royal Court next month as well and may come back for a comment then when other people here have seen it, but I thought Stephen Rea was superb in this (as were the rest of the cast), the press spiel about it being a black comedy is maybe a bit misleading - yes it is extremely funny but don't go and see this if you're expecting an easy laff-fest, it goes to some truly dark (and violent) places before it ends, I was staggered by some of what happens in the last 15 minutes or so (I'm not sure what some of the pensioners sat in the front row made of it) - but this was easily the best thing I've seen at the theatre so far this year, it more than made up for some of the less than average stuff I've seen in London this year.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2016 23:15:47 GMT
Oh dear, is it icky? I booked for this because, well, Stephen Rea - but I'm not really up for any yuckiness. (Psychological violence is perfectly fine - it's gore that's a no-no.)
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Post by Marwood on Mar 21, 2016 23:25:48 GMT
Hmmm, I don't want to give too much away, but don't go expecting something along the lines of Once or The Commitments.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2016 23:42:15 GMT
Ha - I haven't seen The Commitments but I certainly wasn't expecting Once! :-) If it's funny dark, like Hangmen, I should be fine. *crosses fingers, makes mental note to take along the smelling salts*
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Post by showgirl on Mar 22, 2016 3:52:25 GMT
I booked on the basis of the reviews from the Abbey, so hope I am prepared for it to turn very dark as it progresses - but thank you for the warning, Marwood; I'll take care not to sit in the front row!
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Post by Snciole on Mar 22, 2016 7:44:42 GMT
Oh dear, is it icky? I booked for this because, well, Stephen Rea - but I'm not really up for any yuckiness. (Psychological violence is perfectly fine - it's gore that's a no-no.) We both know Stephen Rea would make any gore still super sexy though (Somehow, I haven't thought this through). I am looking forward to this, apologies to those of you going on 16 April matinee as I may push you down the stairs to get the best seat. |
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Post by harry on Apr 17, 2016 21:43:09 GMT
Anyone seen this at the Court yet? Reviews have been basically 4 stars across the board with a 5 star in the Observer today (plus a rotten one in the Mail which makes me think it's even more likely to be good). Plus Billington wrote a piece saying it's "the most shocking, subversive and violent play in London" and puts Cleansed in the shade. I'm intrigued. Stephen Rea plus upstairs at the Court means my only chance is the Monday day seats but would be great to know if it's worth the effort of planning a Monday where I can be at a computer at 9am.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2016 22:29:17 GMT
'Puts Cleansed in the shade'? This is not sounding good to this gore-phobe!! Marwood/Snciole - we need to know just how revolting this gets...
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Post by Marwood on Apr 17, 2016 22:35:53 GMT
Erm, lets just say There Will Be Blood...
There is violence at the end but without giving everything away, it's not overly graphic, you're not likely to get splattered (unless Stephen Rea gets carried away)
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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2016 22:40:58 GMT
Torn between going (because I love Stephen Rea) and chickening out (because I hate gore). If it's all happening at the end, I might just have to close my eyes and pray I stay conscious through any sound effects... ;-)
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Post by Marwood on Apr 17, 2016 22:47:08 GMT
I thoroughly recommend going, it was one of the best things I've seen recently.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2016 7:50:28 GMT
There's one short sound effect that will make anyone cringe, and although it goes all out with the major visual effect, it's in a clean fashion. I'm happy to spoil further if anyone wants it, but I will need someone to remind me how to do the spoiler tag.
It's extremely funny, very well-performed by Stephen Rea, slightly underwritten as far as the other characters go (if I say it felt like a one-man show for Rea but with extra people, I hope that makes sense), but does go dark toward the end. Less Sarah Kane dark, more Edward Bond dark I'd say. I'd hesitate to recommend it to people unless I knew them well, but I can't fault the production. Besides everything else, it's a fascinating look at national identity, and I'm really not overstating things when I say it's very funny.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2016 7:56:21 GMT
To generate a spoiler: If you click 'reply' rather than 'post quick reply' before typing anything, another page opens up.
Then click on the sad face icon. (On my ipad, I have to click the smiley face to generate the sad face further along the row. But it might be different on a phone/desktop.)
When you click on the sad face icon, a spoiler box opens. Anything you type in that box should be hidden.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2016 8:03:40 GMT
Okay, I've gone into spoilery detail behind the tag with regards to things people on this forum are known to be sensitive about. I've tried to maintain at least a little surprise, but it is pretty spoilery with regards to action. So don't click if you want to be surprised, but do click if you really must know what happens so you can decide if you're up for it or too sensitive this time (and believe me, no one who's seen it will judge you if you decide you're too sensitive). {Spoiler - click to view}There's a neck-break, accounting for the short cringe-worthy sound effect (it's a VERY small auditorium and half the audience are right next to it when it happens), and two large puddles of blood seep through the carpet. Technically two characters get shot in the head but it's not graphic or convincing (just worth a mention if you're sensitive to gunshots), and there is an act of extreeeeeme violence besides (I know!) but although it is completely awful, it is also very tastefully done, visually at least. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2016 9:02:41 GMT
Theatre Nerd Question:
Has any previous artistic director of the Royal Court ever directed two new productions which played full runs at the same time, Upstairs and Downstairs?
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Post by harry on Apr 18, 2016 10:13:13 GMT
'Puts Cleansed in the shade'? This is not sounding good to this gore-phobe!! Marwood/Snciole - we need to know just how revolting this gets... I should make clear that "puts Cleansed in the shade" were my words is not a direct quote - he in fact said of the two plays, Cyprus Avenue "left me far more shaken and stirred" which to me sounds like he's saying it is psychologically tougher on the audience despite being less explicitly horrific but I guess it's all so subjective and impossible to judge without seeing both anyway. The article is here www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2016/apr/11/cyprus-avenue-david-ireland-belfast-play-royal-court-theatre-upstairsAnyhow these positive comments plus the reviews have persuaded me to fit this one in. Looking forward to it. |
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Post by harry on Apr 18, 2016 10:20:14 GMT
Theatre Nerd Question: Has any previous artistic director of the Royal Court ever directed two new productions which played full runs at the same time, Upstairs and Downstairs? Must be pretty unusual as logistically it could only work if one show opened offsite first giving the director time to direct the second show in the building (since they seem to open both an Upstairs and a Downstairs show at roughly the same time each time), otherwise one would finish as the other one was about to get started. I don't know if they used to programme longer runs of things in the old days, or stagger the opening dates between the two theatres in which case it would be more of a possibility. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2016 12:12:45 GMT
Thanks Baemax (and harry!). Pleased to hear it sounds like I can probably manage this one.
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Post by Snciole on Apr 18, 2016 14:11:49 GMT
Can I plug my blog post about this? viewfromthecheapseat.com/2016/04/16/cyprus-avenue-royal-court-upstairs-16-april/ I thought it was incredible and whilst there is violence I am not sure I would describe the gore as gory, just symbolic gore. The noises seemed really intense due to small space. I would recommend second row, Jean but I pushed my way to front and got full Rea loveliness. With or without Rea it is an incredible play but I can't imagine any other actor pulling off the part of Eric with such class. There was a lovely bit of Saturday, where Rea got his lines mixed up and as he was re-saying had the most, lovely kind smile and it made me love him even more. The character is an utterly vile man, racist, homophobic, sexist but Rea never plays him as a stereotype and despite being a short play I am amazed a 69 year old man can do that every evening (and matinee). My friend, who wasn't familiar with him, is now a huge fan after seeing this. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2016 19:51:58 GMT
My first trip to the theatre upstairs... Can anyone offer any advice as to when people seem to start queuing for this before the show, and what the layout of the auditorium is? (She asks with great trepidation, being a solo theatregoer and wondering how the heck she's going to fit in a loo visit without missing out on a half-decent seat.)
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2016 20:45:04 GMT
Most theatregoers at the Upstairs theatre are highly civilised and don't queue for hours, just breeze in a few minutes beforehand. It only accommodates up to eighty people so there aren't usually many poor seats. The room is completely flexible and I've no idea how it's set for Cyprus Avenue. Often, different people have different seating preferences so it's not often a problem.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2016 22:03:42 GMT
They say the door opens at 7:30, though this is flexible depending on FOH needs. I queued at 7:15 and there were only a handful of people ahead, although people who needed the lift for access did mean this number doubled by the time the doors actually opened. There always seems to be one or two really determined queue-jumpers or otherwise rude people in my experience, so if any of what I've said is likely to make you tense, don't join the queue if doing so puts you near enough to the front to see the goings on. It is a small auditorium, all the seats are fine, there's no need to panic or rush unless you're VERY particular about where you sit. (And as a solo theatre-goer, you may find the first batch of people in leave silly gaps like grown adults can't possibly sit directly next to strangers, so you could roll up thirty seconds to curtain and get a great seat just by being on your own.)
This play is traverse staging - the block on the side where you come in has an aisle (and any reserved seats will be in the front row here), the block on the far side has no aisle, both sides are equally fine for this production.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2016 13:40:43 GMT
Everyone who told me I must go to this was right: I loved it! I ended up second row on the central aisle, which was great. Though I think they made great use of the space generally - usually you find you spend more time staring at the back of someone's head than their face in these settings. So maybe the only bad seats are the ones at the far side, behind where the single stage seat is stationed. You'd miss quite a lot of Rea's facial expressions from there, I imagine. Over and above the comedy (which I loved), I thought the play had interesting things to say about identity, masculinity and healing/coming to terms with things, not only in the sense of sectarianism but more broadly. The shocking elements were shocking but not in a nauseating way. {Spoiler - click to view} I was grateful for the warning about the neck-breaking sound effect because it got a BIG gasp from the rest of the audience. Oh, and the bloke next to me laughed when Eric shot his wife, which seemed weird... Best of all was reading other people's faces when Eric killed the baby. There was a lovely young man sitting opposite - I'm guessing maybe an acting student - and he just looked so crestfallen. Almost like it was his grandad up there commiting the violence!) The temperature in the auditorium was stifling. It felt more like Cyprus than Cyprus Avenue! I have no idea how Rea managed 1h40mins in a suit. Though for selfish reasons I'm glad he did, because it just reinforced my opinion: you can all keep James Norton in his undies, I'll take Stephen Rea in a suit any day!  |
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Post by Steve on Apr 24, 2016 20:21:46 GMT
Saw this Saturday matinee, and loved it. An insightful play, with a tour de force performance by Stephen Rea. Focusing on a traumatised and disturbed Ulster Loyalist, Eric (Stephen Rea), the play utilises a flashback structure wherein Eric tells a doctor (Wunmi Mosaku) about his recent past, at which point we flash back to see that past. The structure allows us to compare what we are seeing, with Eric's account, which allows for a great deal of comedy when discrepancies occur. Unfortunately, the delineation between reality and Eric's account becomes blurred when he meets a Unionist Extremist, Slim (Chris Corrigan), whose behaviour is so bonkers that the status of what we are seeing becomes confused. Is it reality? Or is it a depiction of Eric's unreliable narration? This is a shame, because there is a clear-eyed narrative coherency in the rest of the play which matches the clear-eyed brilliance of writer, David Ireland's deconstruction of extremism, tribalism and the building blocks of identity itself. For me, the strongest passage involves Eric's description of his visit to an "Irish" Pub, how he feels like a British spy assuming an identity to enjoy the illicit pleasures of an Irish enemy. Ireland makes such a joke of the idea of even the possibility of a fixed identity during this sequence that I was convulsed with laughter. That this sequence is never even depicted visually is a remarkable testament to Rea's storytelling skills, as I can picture every last bit of the story in my head. The rest of the play isn't so funny. But it had an effect on me. Hearing the buzzword "sovereignty," in relation to the upcoming referendum, the sheer pompousness of the word seemed to echo Eric's own favourite buzzwords in this play, and hearing Boris Johnson refer to Obama's "part Kenyan" heritage also seemed to echo Eric's racism. I began to wonder if Boris Johnson might be mentally ill. An important play, topical and incisive, with one of the best performances of the year, this play deserves a transfer so more people can see it! 4 and a half stars  |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2016 22:31:41 GMT
We were at the same show, Steve! Whatever happened to those badges, eh?!
I, too, loved the O'Neills sequence. Clever how, in taking the audience into his confidence, Rea manages to invest Eric with a charm that we really shouldn't be drawn to, given his other pronouncements/behaviour.
By the way, I wondered what everyone made of the opening sequence, which had Eric sitting alone, hugely affected by what seemed to be the sound of a crowd/mob. A traumatic event from his past? A manifestation of his fracturing sense of reality? Or something else?
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