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Post by NeilVHughes on Sept 1, 2018 22:24:04 GMT
lynette obviously it was pointed out to me, on the whole it was naughty but I liked it and hope your American friends do to. Thinking about it now not sure it was Dick Emery but definitely remember the phrase from the seventies.
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Post by learfan on Sept 1, 2018 22:49:03 GMT
lynette obviously it was pointed out to me, on the whole it was naughty but I liked it and hope your American friends do to. Thinking about it now not sure it was Dick Emery but definitely remember the phrase from the seventies. Oh it was definitely Dick Emery. Lynette you shouldn't have had to be told! |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2018 0:54:08 GMT
Yes it was Dick Emery - his Mandy character's catchphrase.
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Post by lynette on Sept 2, 2018 19:09:06 GMT
Seeing this next weekend. I'll be listening out carefully now
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Post by learfan on Sept 2, 2018 19:32:58 GMT
Seeing this next weekend. I'll be listening out carefully now Will be interested to see your view on it, Ms L. |
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Post by lynette on Sept 8, 2018 22:16:03 GMT
A lovely show, no mess now and sharp and pacey. Some excellent jokes without shoving them in your face, brilliant update to the laundry basket. My American pals said it was like '70s New Jersey. I love this play because it is broad and slapstick and the jokes do carry over the centuries. Even the rude ones! I can quite believe the guys sat in the tavern and wrote it together like they do American sitcoms, honing the wordplay.
ps yes, I got the Dick Emery. O those were the days.
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Post by maggiem on Sept 13, 2018 10:43:06 GMT
I caught it last night on the cinema screening. The "Merry Wives" (Beth Cordingly and Rebecca Lacey) themselves were brilliant, and I loved all of their pretended bad, stilted delivery of the lines during the practical jokes on Falstaff.
David Troughton must be losing pounds every night in the fat suit. He said in the pre-show filmed interview that he needed 3 dressers for all the costume changes. The comb-over wig and make up made him grotesque, but very funny.
I also liked the mashup of modern and Elizabethan instruments in the music. Loved the "romantic" fanfare that was played every time Luke Newberry entered as Fenton.
Shout out to the props guys also. The inside of that wheelie bin lid looked disgusting, never mind the rest of it!
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Post by NeilVHughes on Dec 8, 2018 22:21:43 GMT
Naughty, but god did I like it.
A day filled with plentiful laughter, Burke and Hare at Jermyn St.a wonderful aperitif to the monster that is Falstaff.
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Post by showgirl on Dec 9, 2018 4:44:41 GMT
Naughty, but god did I like it. A day filled with plentiful laughter, Burke and Hare at Jermyn St.a wonderful aperitif to the monster that is Falstaff. Sounds great, NeilVHughes, and I want to see both. But hoping, and holding out for a matinee and with a deal; presumably you saw an evening performance? It sounds a bit long for me to stay awake then! |
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Post by Stephen on Dec 9, 2018 6:52:22 GMT
I'm reminded of the time I played young William Page in Sir John in Love at RCS. I had to appear in a rather large wedding dress and wear a primary school uniform (at 18) I found it embarrassing but the audiences found it hilarious!
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Post by NeilVHughes on Dec 9, 2018 7:43:48 GMT
showgirlMerry Wives was an evening performance, 2hrs 45min including interval, starts at 7:15 and therefore finishes at 10:00, staying awake unlikely to be an issue, chances are you will be woken by the laughter if not laughing yourself.
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Post by showgirl on Dec 9, 2018 9:14:32 GMT
Thank you NeilVHughes. It's not that I expect to be bored but that I'm just not an evening person & prone to nodding off however entertaining the performance, so when I do have the opportunity to plan round running times, I try to see anything over about 2 hours at a matinee and aim for 90 - mins - 2 hours for evening slots. |
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Post by Jan on Dec 18, 2018 6:59:18 GMT
Nicholas Craig commented that if comedy is a serious business then farce is absolutely tragic. A view amply confirmed by this turkey which has arrived at the Barbican just in time for Christmas. The play is thin and needs heavy direction and the director here has at least had a good idea about updating it but has failed in the execution. It's just not funny. Not only my view but that of the majority of the audience who sat in stony silence for the first hour with only a smattering of laughter at the frantic mugging that was being offered up for our entertainment. The only big laugh was for a Brexit reference. After that it warmed up a bit with 3-4 people in my row laughing more consistently. I was staggered to see that a physical comedy director had been employed because it was so amateurishly done -for example Fenton repeatedly falling over didn't raise a laugh once.
If they were aiming at a younger audience than me (very likely) then their failure was even greater - a group of youngsters in front of me, and a family with children, all left at the interval and I couldn't blame them - doubtful they'll be back for an RSC show.
I quite like David Troughton but here he demonstrates he has no aptitude for comedy at all - an unsympathetic portentous actorly performance with no rapport with the audience at all, basically the same performance he gave us with Titus Andronicus where it was at least more appropriate.
The usual boring set, a victim as ever of the RST thrust stage transfer to the Barbican.
And finally, there was something just a little bit mean spirited about the production - a middle-class theatre company inviting us to be amused by their social inferiors, inviting us to laugh AT people rather than with them - Two workers who have to take the rubbish out ? Let's make then Polish - everyone will laugh at that.
I see several reviews that say "the purists won't like this" - if by "purists" they mean people who think comedies should be funny then include me in.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2018 11:33:53 GMT
Sounds like the fact I forgot the date I'd booked for this and double booked myself is not something to worry about!
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Post by dani on Dec 18, 2018 11:41:42 GMT
And finally, there was something just a little bit mean spirited about the production - a middle-class theatre company inviting us to be amused by their social inferiors, inviting us to laugh AT people rather than with them - Two workers who have to take the rubbish out ? Let's make then Polish - everyone will laugh at that. That is the tiredest of tired tropes, as recently written about by Natasha Tripney in the Stage. www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/2018/natasha-tripney-theatre-stop-stereotyping-eastern-europeans/ |
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Post by lynette on Dec 18, 2018 21:21:28 GMT
Jan, did you read the surtitles of what the two guys were saying? They were talking about their academic thesis and so subverting the 'Polish' thing. Or simply presenting the everyday, whatever.
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Post by Jan on Dec 19, 2018 7:00:52 GMT
Jan, did you read the surtitles of what the two guys were saying? They were talking about their academic thesis and so subverting the 'Polish' thing. Or simply presenting the everyday, whatever. There weren't any surtitles. |
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Post by lynette on Dec 19, 2018 11:20:33 GMT
O, I’m talking about the Merry Wives in Stratford. Have I strayed into another one, if so, very sorry.
At Stratford there were indeed running titles along the top of the stage translating what the guys were saying and it was very funny. It was something like, 'have you finished your thesis?' And stuff like that. So showing that they were intellectually superior to the action and perhaps in a meta way, to the whole shebang!
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Post by Jan on Dec 19, 2018 13:03:51 GMT
O, I’m talking about the Merry Wives in Stratford. Have I strayed into another one, if so, very sorry. At Stratford there were indeed running titles along the top of the stage translating what the guys were saying and it was very funny. It was something like, 'have you finished your thesis?' And stuff like that. So showing that they were intellectually superior to the action and perhaps in a meta way, to the whole shebang! Same production but no surtitles at the Barbican when I saw it. Maybe others who have seen it at the Barbican can comment. |
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Post by learfan on Dec 19, 2018 13:44:23 GMT
O, I’m talking about the Merry Wives in Stratford. Have I strayed into another one, if so, very sorry. At Stratford there were indeed running titles along the top of the stage translating what the guys were saying and it was very funny. It was something like, 'have you finished your thesis?' And stuff like that. So showing that they were intellectually superior to the action and perhaps in a meta way, to the whole shebang! Pretty sure they weren't there the day i went. I really liked it regardless. |
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Post by learfan on Dec 19, 2018 13:45:11 GMT
Should have made clear, i saw it in Stratford.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2018 23:02:17 GMT
This was bad and I felt very sorry for the actors.
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Post by lynette on Dec 22, 2018 23:26:00 GMT
A mistake if they didn’t get the surtitles going in the Barbican. What woz they thinking of? To quote Sur Alan.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Jan 2, 2019 10:32:46 GMT
The Barbican has the surtitles, but right at the top of the stage (a tiny little bar appears) which is easily missed.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2019 11:34:41 GMT
The Barbican has the surtitles, but right at the top of the stage (a tiny little bar appears) which is easily missed. Possibly not visible from the front of the stalls - I've been warned about no view of surtitles for foreign language productions for the front row. |
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