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Post by lynette on Aug 10, 2018 18:25:27 GMT
I think this has been subsumed into a NT '18 thread so far so I’m starting a new thread here. Please excuse if I’m wrong and let me know.
I'm starting a thread because I see that the NT are launching a new supporters' fund raising scheme based on this production. I expect they hope to raise more money on the basis of the cast announced and Ant and Cleo always gets a decent advance press. They are opening special rehearsals for supporters and have a graded list of benefits just for this production it looks to me. So thought I would give you a heads up if you like this kind of thing.
I've always been a sucker for open rehearsals since I was a week girl and attended them at the old Birmingham Rep. I know they are always organised for the 'audience' but in fact they are usually very revealing.
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Post by nash16 on Aug 11, 2018 9:22:13 GMT
I think this has been subsumed into a NT '18 thread so far so I’m starting a new thread here. Please excuse if I’m wrong and let me know. I'm starting a thread because I see that the NT are launching a new supporters' fund raising scheme based on this production. I expect they hope to raise more money on the basis of the cast announced and Ant and Cleo always gets a decent advance press. They are opening special rehearsals for supporters and have a graded list of benefits just for this production it looks to me. So thought I would give you a heads up if you like this kind of thing. I've always been a sucker for open rehearsals since I was a week girl and attended them at the old Birmingham Rep. I know they are always organised for the 'audience' but in fact they are usually very revealing. This is so sad to hear. The funding cuts along with the admittedly so-so productions of late must be hitting the building hard. That they have to resort to a graded list of benefits to make people give them money... It's one of our biggest arts institutions, yet it's becoming like an American subscription theater with fundraising. It's so depressing. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2018 10:14:03 GMT
They report that the arts council grant is down by 24% (I presume in real terms) since 2010. Fundraising up by £1.8 million but, clearly, they know that this is an area which is needed to help plug that gap. Either that or a government that plays a different tune. I doubt that in Brexit Britain, however, that any help will go to the arts, given the devastation that it will wreak elsewhere in the economy. ‘Non essentials’ are going to be badly affected.
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Post by crowblack on Sept 15, 2018 13:11:51 GMT
Don't know if this is still a live thread, but lots of tickets up on the NT website at the mo, including a few £15 front ones for next week. I'm going in a couple of weeks so hoping something better than the one I have pops up on the date I'm in London.
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Post by Jan on Sept 15, 2018 17:35:27 GMT
They report that the arts council grant is down by 24% (I presume in real terms) since 2010. Fundraising up by £1.8 million but, clearly, they know that this is an area which is needed to help plug that gap. Either that or a government that plays a different tune. I doubt that in Brexit Britain, however, that any help will go to the arts, given the devastation that it will wreak elsewhere in the economy. ‘Non essentials’ are going to be badly affected. The series of main house flops Norris has programmed is hardly helping their finances. |
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Post by learfan on Sept 15, 2018 19:32:46 GMT
Going on 24th November. Looking forward to seeing it.
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Post by nash16 on Sept 18, 2018 23:28:57 GMT
How that period-era poster lured us in, then betrayed us haha. No surprises that Simon Godwin has done a contemporary setting. Loved looking at the programme cover to discover Antony wearing a wristwatch, and the almost hidden soldier in the background.
If the phrases "Alexandra Hilton Hotel" and "swimming pool onstage" (hello, Hytner's Much Ado...) ring alarm bells, along with a very long running time (over the 3.5hrs listed), get ready.
First preview and all that.
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Post by Cheryl on Sept 18, 2018 23:46:41 GMT
I am hoping they chop it back a bit before I go and see it again. I liked the second half but found the delivery very slow. I think Fiennes will be very good if he can cheer up a bit in the first half. I am gutted they've have removed Mardian!
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Post by barbra99 on Sept 20, 2018 7:52:33 GMT
After Othello I was dreading seeing another Shakespeare but this has restored my faith. 3 hours and 30 mins of breathtaking theatre,
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Post by theatrefan77 on Sept 20, 2018 8:13:38 GMT
Going today. Looking forward to it
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2018 9:46:33 GMT
3 hours and 30 mins of breathtaking theatre, What the what? Oh no, Ralphie, no. Just no. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2018 10:41:16 GMT
Oh lord that's long!
I'm there on Saturday after a long day of Open House events, so hopefully I won't fall asleep in this - strong pre-show coffee required I think!
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Post by Jan on Sept 20, 2018 11:10:18 GMT
Oh lord that's long! I'm there on Saturday after a long day of Open House events, so hopefully I won't fall asleep in this - strong pre-show coffee required I think! Last time NT did it it ran close to 4hrs, it’s just a long play and there’s not much to be done about it. |
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Post by lichtie on Sept 20, 2018 11:50:20 GMT
But is his finest Leonard Rossiter on display?
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Post by lynette on Sept 20, 2018 13:42:27 GMT
A whole bag of jelly babies then
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Post by oxfordsimon on Sept 20, 2018 14:08:34 GMT
More like an entire rack of Jelly Belly beans...
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Post by tmesis on Sept 22, 2018 22:12:45 GMT
Well tonight's preview is still clocking in at 3 hrs 30 but I didn't mind because it held me throughout and was excellent. At last we have a handsome Shakespeare production that imaginatively uses the full facilities of The Olivier. Fiennes and Okonedo were both terrific; Okonedo particularly good in the first half and Fiennes fantastic in the second.
Oh and she gives great asp at the end.
Tim McMullen was really good as Enobarbus.
It's great to see something decent in The Olivier at last.
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Post by lynette on Sept 22, 2018 22:16:02 GMT
Can’t wait.
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Post by learfan on Sept 22, 2018 23:07:30 GMT
Well tonight's preview is still clocking in at 3 hrs 30 but I didn't mind because it held me throughout and was excellent. At last we have a handsome Shakespeare production that imaginatively uses the full facilities of The Olivier. Fiennes and Okonedo were both terrific; Okonedo particularly good in the first half and Fiennes fantastic in the second. Oh and she gives great asp at the end. Tim McMullen was really good as Enobarbus. It's great to see something decent in The Olivier at last. Norris had better have some hits next year, he has had a bad run in the Olivier. |
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Post by learfan on Sept 22, 2018 23:07:44 GMT
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Post by andrew on Sept 23, 2018 0:04:14 GMT
I have to admit I struggled with the length, particularly following Ralph's exit from the second act. It's definitely a competent production however, and paid up members of the Olivier Drum Revolve Appreciation Society (ODRAS) will be glad to see it doing it's most impressive trick, which I won't spoil. I was pleasantly surprised to see a live cat on stage at the Pinter this afternoon, I was equally impressed at the live creature they give Sophie to play around with.
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Post by adolphus on Sept 23, 2018 1:00:40 GMT
A very decent production of a difficult play. Fiennes is particularly impressive in a role many actors feel is overshadowed by the Queen, which certainly isn't the case here. The Olivier stage is pleasingly busy throughout but I wish they had gone full classical - they almost have but the military scenes are thoroughly modern which is at odds with what we are being told in the detailed descritions of the Battle of Actium with the retreating sails etc, and the efforts of various characters to do away with themselves using knives and asps when there is so much heavy artillery to be had. There's a beautiful Egyptian sunset near the end but its too fleeting
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Post by tmesis on Sept 23, 2018 6:31:12 GMT
I have to admit I struggled with the length, particularly following Ralph's exit from the second act. It's definitely a competent production however, and paid up members of the Olivier Drum Revolve Appreciation Society (ODRAS) will be glad to see it doing it's most impressive trick, which I won't spoil. I was pleasantly surprised to see a live cat on stage at the Pinter this afternoon, I was equally impressed at the live creature they give Sophie to play around with. Yes, despite impressive asp-work, I don't think Sophie commands the last half-hour like she should, although I think she'll improve before press-night. She's at her best playing the earlier, more flirtatious, scenes. I also thought the production ran out of steam design-wise in the last hour. The first half had a lot of money chucked at it but towards the end it looked like they'd run out. Excellent, percussive score by Michael Bruce - the Nash seems to spend less on live music than it once did but this was really effective and Ralph has quite a pleasing baritone voice in the drunken scene. |
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Post by bellboard27 on Sept 23, 2018 7:51:24 GMT
I rather enjoyed this. I also felt Fiennes was better in the second half and Okonedo in the first. McMullen is very good. I was less taken, however, with Kasim’s Caesar. Overall the 3 ½ hours flew by for me.
Agree the set is impressive and great to see the drum revolve being given a good outing.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 23, 2018 8:40:15 GMT
I'm not sure whether it was any or a combination of the fact that I was already starting to develop a migraine before this started, or the thought of the length, or that I'm just not taken with either the play (first time I've seen a production, and I've never read it either, though I have read a lot of other Shakespeare) or the setting, but I'm afraid this did nothing for me.
I can appreciate that the performances were generally good (though I wasn't taken with Ralph Fiennes at all really), but I didnt think any of them were great, and the set design was pretty but I didn't think the mix of old and new worked. By the end of the 90 minute long first act I had such a headache that when I realised Act II was going to be even longer still I let the headache win and bailed on this. Maybe I should go back sometime when I'm feeling better and give it more of a chance, but I didn't see much that would make me inclined to do so unfortunately.
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