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Post by crowblack on Oct 11, 2018 13:08:11 GMT
There was a feature on the play on Woman's Hour this morning btw.
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Post by lynette on Oct 11, 2018 14:09:30 GMT
I’ve just returned my tix for this because my OH said he didn’t want to go. Stamped his foot, he did. I noticed that the tix were quite expensive. I should have learnt by now....
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Post by showgirl on Oct 11, 2018 14:22:09 GMT
I'll be returning my single idc but first I have to dispose of my Lehman Trilogy pair - priorities! (It'd be interesting to see the stats for returns at the NT, if only we had access to them.)
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Post by david on Oct 11, 2018 17:40:56 GMT
It's fascinating to look at the National's website for this now to see how many of the £15/£18 at the front stalls they hold back from the public. A lot o fthe exact same seat positions are back now for all dates. Not that many are likely to book... Thanks for the info. A quick phone call to the box office tonight and I’ve managed to swap my more expensive circle seat for one of the £15 stalls seats and got a credit note for the remaining balance. |
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Post by lynette on Oct 11, 2018 18:00:44 GMT
I'll be returning my single idc but first I have to dispose of my Lehman Trilogy pair - priorities! (It'd be interesting to see the stats for returns at the NT, if only we had access to them.) Lehman was good. Long tho’ |
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Post by learfan on Oct 11, 2018 18:15:53 GMT
I'll be returning my single idc but first I have to dispose of my Lehman Trilogy pair - priorities! (It'd be interesting to see the stats for returns at the NT, if only we had access to them.) Lehman was good. Long tho’ Afraid i didnt think so, not even SRB could save it. |
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Post by n1david on Oct 11, 2018 21:22:57 GMT
Lehman was a real marmite show, I loved it too but there were several dissenters on this board.
On the other hand, I’m not hearing a lot of positives for I’m Not Running.
Entertainingly, this week’s New Statesman podcast utterly disassembled the play in terms of how the Labour Party works and why so many things in this show couldn’t happen. Given that and the utter absence of any hint of Corbynism (I’m told), I’m out as this seems an utter irrelevance in a time of almost unprecedented political turmoil.
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Post by chameleon on Oct 11, 2018 21:47:12 GMT
Lehman was a real marmite show, I loved it too but there were several dissenters on this board. On the other hand, I’m not hearing a lot of positives for I’m Not Running. Entertainingly, this week’s New Statesman podcast utterly disassembled the play in terms of how the Labour Party works and why so many things in this show couldn’t happen. Given that and the utter absence of any hint of Corbynism (I’m told), I’m out as this seems an utter irrelevance in a time of almost unprecedented political turmoil.
Exactly - looks like it was dredged up from 2014 with no updates..
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Post by zahidf on Oct 11, 2018 22:23:45 GMT
I thought Lehman was ace
This sounds rubbish though. I'll be getting some credit!
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Post by lichtie on Oct 12, 2018 8:46:22 GMT
Thanks to all the naysayers here just binned my ticket for January and decided to go see Christmas Carol at the Old Vic instead...
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Post by learfan on Oct 12, 2018 9:21:26 GMT
Im made of sterner stuff and having booked for January. Shock horror, im actually going.
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Post by zahidf on Oct 12, 2018 15:18:34 GMT
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Post by andrew on Oct 12, 2018 17:24:59 GMT
I've got ten minutes before I'll need to leave to see this. I'm quite unsure. I agonised over whether to return the ticket and decided to not stab the Nash in the back over poor reviews, but actually going is a different matter...
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2018 17:29:10 GMT
I've got ten minutes before I'll need to leave to see this. I'm quite unsure. I agonised over whether to return the ticket and decided to not stab the Nash in the back over poor reviews, but actually going is a different matter... At least this time You didn’t ask someone else to buy the ticket Having no intention of going in the first place |
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Post by andrew on Oct 12, 2018 17:39:04 GMT
I've got ten minutes before I'll need to leave to see this. I'm quite unsure. I agonised over whether to return the ticket and decided to not stab the Nash in the back over poor reviews, but actually going is a different matter... At least this time You didn’t ask someone else to buy the ticket Having no intention of going in the first place I didn't realise this had become acrimonious, but you seem to keep mentioning it publicly here so I'm happy to respond. That isn't at all what happened, and happily I can refer to the messages on the subject, the ideal example quote from you being "Are you happy to sit in row B of the circle? If so I have a spare already- it’s £20". You did not buy me a ticket. As I said to you, my other half unbeknownst to me booked tickets and I asked if it would be difficult for you to go with someone else, and if not I would still come. You said you would return the ticket. The production was sold out so I'm sure you managed it. If you had bought a ticket for me I would of course have come, but that's not what happened. Please send me a message if you want to discuss it further, and if you really do feel you've been conned I'll happily refund you your £20. I hope that clears things up. |
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Post by crowblack on Oct 13, 2018 8:20:24 GMT
On the disappointing theatre thing, chalk another up- a very very very dark matter at the bridge, which I booked last year and was so looking forward to.
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Post by Rory on Oct 13, 2018 9:55:39 GMT
On the disappointing theatre thing, chalk another up- a very very very dark matter at the bridge, which I booked last year and was so looking forward to. Will be interested to hear your thoughts on this. Like you, I booked when it was announced and have always loved McDonagh's work, particularly The Pillowman and Hangmen but some of the Twitter comments have expressed disappointment too. |
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Post by jek on Oct 13, 2018 17:23:42 GMT
Despite the terrible reviews of this we decided not to return our tickets but to go to this afternoon's performance as planned. I remember loving The Secret Rapture back in the 1980s and Plenty and thought that there must be something in any David Hare play which would redeem it. I was wrong. This was just awful. Quite a lot of empty seats towards the rear of the stalls but also quite a lot of people seemingly finding the play hilarious (my partner and I didn't laugh once). I do feel sorry for the actors who face a long run of this - although I see that there is a big break in November when they could, at least, cut it down a bit. At this rate I don't think I'll be renewing my National Membership next year - I've seen too many duds there recently.
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Post by artea on Oct 22, 2018 6:44:00 GMT
Lehman was a real marmite show, I loved it too but there were several dissenters on this board. On the other hand, I’m not hearing a lot of positives for I’m Not Running. Entertainingly, this week’s New Statesman podcast utterly disassembled the play in terms of how the Labour Party works and why so many things in this show couldn’t happen. Given that and the utter absence of any hint of Corbynism (I’m told), I’m out as this seems an utter irrelevance in a time of almost unprecedented political turmoil. Thanks for that. The NS podcast is excellent if quite long. It's good to get long reviews from people who know their stuff rather than just a few quick notes from the generalists of the press. The whole play is demolished ever so politely (and the demolisher remains grateful to the end for his free ticket). You also learn that David Hare has said in an interview that he didn't do any research for it. So why did he write it and claim it's about the Labour Party? I agree completely with your final excellent point. |
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Post by peelee on Oct 22, 2018 13:00:42 GMT
He's written books about his research for earlier plays. So it seems an odd thing not to do now. Research helps, and amidst the information processed there is a tendency for ideas to crop up.
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Post by sf on Oct 22, 2018 15:21:25 GMT
Entertainingly, this week’s New Statesman podcast utterly disassembled the play in terms of how the Labour Party works and why so many things in this show couldn’t happen. Given that and the utter absence of any hint of Corbynism (I’m told), I’m out as this seems an utter irrelevance in a time of almost unprecedented political turmoil. Likewise, and I returned my ticket. Not something I generally do, and something I probably wouldn't have done if I lived in London, but the travel costs related to seeing it would have come to significantly more than the cost of the theatre ticket and I'd rather spend that money on something I know I'm going to enjoy than on something which looks less and less appealing the more I read about it. (And I've mostly liked Hare's work in the past, which is why I booked for it in the first place.) |
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Post by bordeaux on Oct 25, 2018 9:31:35 GMT
Just to reassure anyone who's returned their tickets: you've done the right thing. I've seen pretty much everything Hare has written since the late 80s, and this is very poor. The dialogue and characterisation are unbelievable; the play in no way relates to contemporary politics - debates within the Labour party today without mention of Brexit or Momentum? The final showdown was ridiculous - why the male's sudden attack on feminism? - and from the front row it was hard to tell whether the rest of the audience was laughing at the character or the writing, so unlikely it all was. With the exception of the off-piste Moderate Soprano the only really good writing Hare has done over the past 20 years has been based on reportage/interviews.
And I'm seeing A Very, Very, Verk Dark Matter on Saturday afternoon...worst theatre-going week ever?
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Post by david on Nov 29, 2018 23:42:31 GMT
Having watched this tonight, I really wished I hadn’t and got a credit note instead (and that’s after returning my originally more expensive ticket for a cheaper £15 one). I really do enjoy political plays (the James Graham ones have been really enjoyable to watch), but this one really was a bit of a stinker for me. Certainly, I noticed a fair few empty seats preshow and definitely a number of patrons voted with their feet at the interval.
Having watched the Red Barn play last year which I throughly enjoyed (a good story with fantastic staging) I was hoping for another good night out. Ok, reviews haven’t exactly been flattering (and that’s being polite), I thought I’d take a gamble and see it. By the end, I couldn’t care any more about the characters than I did at the start. Even during the more emotional scenes with the mother, I just couldn’t muster any sort of connection which is ultimately down to the poor quality of the writing.
The only positive I will say about this production is seeing the revolve in operation which was nice. Well I’m back at the NT for Carry on Cleo tomorrow night so I’m hoping for a better night then.
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Post by joem on Nov 30, 2018 12:00:49 GMT
I was in a £15 seat tonight and can't say it wasn't value for money at that price. Definitely a play of two halves though. The first half sets it out as a play of ideas, a consideration of the party system and what makes people get into politics and does politics really change anything. Being theatre though the playwright feels obliged not just to introduce a narrative sub-plot with characters but to flesh them out and make it into a little entertainment and as it goes into family saga it drifts away from politics.
Second half though it's playing to the gallery time. When Alex Hassell, playing Jack Gould, who has a passing resemblance to Hugh Laurie, goes into a hysterical fit in his argument with former lover turned political rival Pauline Gibson (Sian Brooke) you know the pass of serious drama has been sold. This has become Public Lives: Elyot and Amanda do Politics.
I make a distinction between politics and plays about politics, I'm not into propaganda, so I'm not bothered there isn't anything about Corbynism, Bevanism, Keir Starmer or Keir Hardie. If I were inclined to be fair to Hare I'd say what he is trying to do is deal with the general rather than the particular. Perhaps this is meant to be universal rather than topical. This isn't his finest hour but it passes the time if you don't treat it too seriously.
I didn't know lead actress Sian Brooke much, although I must have seen her years ago from her cv, but whilst her acting was very good I found her voice grating. Maybe she was suffering from a head cold or maybe it was just me.
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Post by addictedtotheatre on Dec 2, 2018 13:12:10 GMT
Gosh, this was awful. Thin characterisation, obvious plotting and no real drama. The female characters spend most of their time talking about how they relate to another man. I felt it was actually worse than 'A Very Very Very Bad Play' in that at least McDonagh was trying to create something different.
It almost makes me wish that the next announcement of David Hare's output would be 'I'm Not Writing'.
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