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Post by harrie on Apr 24, 2019 13:06:43 GMT
I feel that ‘we’d appreciate it if you didn’t’ isn’t strong enough, but it must be hard to police without an interval as others have said.
Luckily the audience’s behaviour was okay when I went!
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Post by theatrefan77 on Apr 24, 2019 13:08:56 GMT
They should enforce it. The day I went staff didn't do much to stop people from misbehaving.
The problem is that 90% of the audience don't seem to be regular theatregoers -at least that was the case the day I went-, they are Hiddleston's fans who just want to see him live and laugh hysterically at any line he delivers, even if it isn't funny.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2019 13:39:42 GMT
To be fair to the Hiddles fans though, he does deliver all of the lines (even the wife beating one) as though they are all comedy punchlines so it's no wonder that they laugh so much during the show. Or perhaps they're just laughing at how rubbish the show is so that they don't cry.
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Post by kathryn on Apr 24, 2019 13:50:21 GMT
Overexcited audiences tend to laugh at anything. It was always thus. I recall complaints that people laughed at David Tennant's Richard II saying 'let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings'. Wasn't delivered as a funny line when I saw it and I can't imagine Tennant ever intended it to be one.
I didn't think Hiddles delivered the line about hitting his wife as funny, and no-one laughed at it when I saw it.
But, again, I was with a predominantly older audience who were probably more familiar with Pinter to start with.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2019 14:05:11 GMT
Audience was OK when I saw it (Saturday matinee) although I did hear a vibrating phone at one point. And more of a shocked intake of breath than a laugh at the above line. Plus there were ushers visible in the auditorium. Appreciate a bad audience would have ruined things though.
One thing that annoyed me (also mentioned above) was the rush of people leaving during the curtain call presumably for the stage door. By the time I got out of the theatre there was a queue snaking back from the stage door to the corner of the theatre. Crazy!
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Post by dip on Apr 24, 2019 22:53:53 GMT
Haven't seen a Pinter before. Found this interesting enough. Glad I saw it, tho wouldn't have gone without the big names.
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Post by lou105 on Apr 29, 2019 21:39:02 GMT
Pleased to say I really enjoyed this, having prepared myself for bad behaviour and bafflement. I plucked up the courage to do a bit of shushing at two girls who couldn't deal with TH brooding at the back of the stage for those first minutes. After that almost all of the pauses happened, and I only heard a couple of brief phone tones. (Was I right in thinking that there were no announcements or reminders to turn off phones? Crazy).I enjoyed the exchanges between the characters and convinced myself that the mannered delivery was deliberate. I was glad that the waiter was appreciated as presumably he would have the thankless task of going on if TH called out? (Didn't buy a programme). An interesting evening for me. (And the five second rule was applied in the restaurant scene after a particularly vigorous cut)
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Post by joem on Apr 29, 2019 21:39:56 GMT
This was all right. My memory is that the original production was far superior but then my memory may well not be what it onces.
Reasonably well-behaved audience tonight. I am surprised people are surprised at inappropriate laughing in a theatre. Most Ibsen plays feature a barrel of laughs when people are discussing death/divorce/illness/violence etc. But when you look at the subject matter of sitcoms over the past 40 years we do (or used to) laugh at pretty inappropriate things on the basis that they were comedies. I don't think Pinter endorsed domestic violence, or Hiddlestone or his fans, because of that line anymore than I believe Hilary Mantel wanted to kill Thatcher.
That newish Sicilian restaurant opposite the Harold Comedy is pretty good!
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Post by vabbian on May 14, 2019 20:46:57 GMT
Saw this tonight. Stalls M18. 2.5 stars, forgettable.
Fine acting by all. 3 leads all very talented. Am willing to have Hiddleston's adopted babies. For me the problems are with the script. Nothing much happens. Was expecting some high or a very dramatic point, that never really came. I like others was plagued by people laughing all the time. At some points I thought, okay, that could genuinely be interpreted to be funny. Other times I was just like WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING?!
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Post by asfound on May 15, 2019 7:11:22 GMT
I also saw it last night and loved it. No histrionics, no melodrama - just taut, tense and sparse dialogue with a lot to unpack in terms of psychology and subtext. I came away from it quite sad given how it mirrored a few of my friends' lives and relationships. And what with all the silences and tension I thought the audience were surprisingly good given the celeb casting. Sure I had one of those "I get the joke! Hear me laugh!" eejits within my vicinity but he settled down by scene 2. Phones went off a couple of times (where was the turn your phones off announcement?) but not enough to pull me out of the play. I'd actually like to see it with more elaborate staging - the flat in Kilburn, the restaurant, the hotel in Venice etc - but I suppose the minimalism suited it.
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Post by david on May 15, 2019 22:38:05 GMT
Really enjoyed tonight’s performance. As others have said, the minimalist set I thought worked well so you could actually focus on the dialogue rather than any gimmicks (cough All about Eve cough). It was certainly challenging trying to work the chronology into how the relationship between the 3 characters unfolded over the 90 minutes.
It was fun to see TH during the play just standing at the back looking mean and moody (he does it so well). The line that TH says that has been discussed further back in this thread was met with more shock than humour by tonight’s audience.
An appreciative audience at the end with the bows, though interestingly no standing ovations, even from the Hidds fans. Generally a respectable audience tonight though we did have a few bits of bad behaviour which I’ve posted about in that thread.
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Post by Tibidabo on May 19, 2019 15:13:17 GMT
I saw this yesterday from the front of the stalls and absolutely loved it. 2 days before the show, the person I had been going with suddenly had to back out and, rather stupidly, I was bemoaning the fact at work when someone announced that she'd come with me as she'd never really been to the theatre, was at a loose end on Saturday and thought she'd give it a go. Oh my giddy aunt! Noooooo! Not only hadn't she heard of Pinter, she'd not even heard of Hiddles, so it was with some trepidation that I trundled off to row B in Panton Street, theatre virgin in tow. Well, I needn't have worried! She was absolutely blown away, as was I! She did say that for the first 10 minutes she thought the lights on stage were going to bother her - we were looking up as the stage is so high, but after 10 minutes she forgot all about it. ("Lights? What lights?" I replied!) For someone who knows very little about theatre and, more especially, Pinter, to come away loving such a minimalist production has to say a lot about the acting in my opinion. Even I found some of the pauses very long to start with - probably more down to the fact that I was worried about a) my colleague being bored and b) a phone going off - but I soon settled in to it and forgot everything else for 90 minutes. I saw no evidence of Hiddles' fans whatsoever. No laughing louder than necessary, no gasping, age of the audience the most varied I've seen at any show in ages. His timing was spot-on, hence some laughter, but there was nothing but the best behaved audience you could wish for. (After the show, in the loos, one lady was bemoaning loudly about a couple in front of her snogging throughout and someone else using their phone for most of the duration, but I definitely saw nothing from where I was.) The scene between Robert and Emma where the affair is revealed was amazing. They both produced tears - she had a tissue in her pocket that she used to wipe her eyes as she shifted scenery afterwards - and it was totally in the moment and extremely moving. A crying shame (sorry!) that no one from about 10 rows back would have been able to see this. I thought I wasn't going to like the minimalism - I certainly hated it in The Cane - but it worked well here - and I particularly liked the third person being on stage the whole time. I'm surprised they don't lose concentration, wondering what to cook for dinner or what colour to paint the bathroom or why the material on the bottom of Hiddles' trousers has gone shiny. (And I'm not talking about his turn-ups...🤭🤫) There was a masterclass from Hiddles on 'back acting.' The scene in the restaurant with Gerry, following the affair revelation had him positioned with his back to our side of the audience. His wonderful fork-attack on the prosciutto and melon from behind looked so full of angst and was a genius touch. We totally felt his pain, even though we couldn't see his face. Yes, the waiter, Eddie Arnold (he was actually Charlie Cox's understudy, not Tom's) was hilarious and it was a shame the kids didn't get a mention in the programme, even though their casting director did. Loved it. Absobloominlutely loved it! |
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Post by westendgurl on May 24, 2019 11:12:42 GMT
I saw this last night and it didn't help that I was sat in the balcony, the theatre was incredibly hot and the woman in front of me broke the only toilet up in our section so I spent 90 minutes willing my bladder not to explode but...I didn't love it. I was disappointed and if I'm honest a little bit bored. The audience were big Tom fans judging by the stampede at the end to run outside to the stage door, and I felt very awkward when they laughed about the reference to domestic violence. I thought the acting was great, it was funnier than I thought it would be and I loved the restaurant scene (and the waiter) but it was very hard to connect with the piece being so far away and I guess I was expecting to be wowed given the reviews and comments I'd heard and I wasn't. A bit of a meh from me.
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Post by MrsCondomine on May 24, 2019 11:44:24 GMT
Broke... the toilet?
H- how?
Dare I ask?
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Post by westendgurl on May 24, 2019 14:43:18 GMT
Broke... the toilet? H- how? Dare I ask? She wouldn't let us in! I think she either broke the flush or the flush was broke anyway and she did something she later regretted...We left and she stood her guard over it right up until the play started! |
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Post by NeilVHughes on May 24, 2019 21:13:09 GMT
Slightly underwhelmed, after the excellent series of one act plays this lacked the complexity, tension and absurdism.
No evidence of bad behaviour or inappropriate laughter.
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Post by couldileaveyou on Jun 27, 2019 18:42:02 GMT
17 week Broadway engagement at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre from August
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Post by jess173 on Jun 27, 2019 20:00:38 GMT
Awww man, I am so tempted to go and see this. But I‘ve just been to New York four weeks ago. Why the hell are they doing this on such a short notice? I doubt I can go back until November.
It’s awesome that they all get the chance to do it on Broadway. I hope it will be just as successful there. But Broadway is kind of unpredictable... And it will be interesting to see if the Stagedoor will be as mad as it was in London... 😆
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Post by allthatjazz on Jun 27, 2019 20:42:48 GMT
As I'll be in New York when this debuts there, I have a question for those who saw it in London - I see mentions of the set being very minimalist. Is there anything that would obstruct a front row view? (The stage height at the Jacobs is quite low, so mainly wondering if there's anything on set that should deter our group from obtaining first row seats versus a few back for this).
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Post by jess173 on Jun 27, 2019 20:58:35 GMT
As I'll be in New York when this debuts there, I have a question for those who saw it in London - I see mentions of the set being very minimalist. Is there anything that would obstruct a front row view? (The stage height at the Jacobs is quite low, so mainly wondering if there's anything on set that should deter our group from obtaining first row seats versus a few back for this). There is no set apart from two chairs and a table for a couple of scenes so nothing to obstruct the view. However, if the stage is deep you might miss the person that is not part of the action standing or sitting in the back. I saw it from row B in London and it was fine. And it’s amazing seeing their faces from up close so go for it. |
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Post by Tibidabo on Jun 27, 2019 21:27:59 GMT
so mainly wondering if there's anything on set that should deter our group from obtaining first row seats versus a few back for this Agree with jess173, but I will add that if you see it from one of the sides then occasionally one of the people sitting at the table will have their back to you when the table is positioned downstage. They do shift things around a lot, so if you do get a bad view it's not for long. I'd go for as central as you can near the front - I realised from seeing it close-up that there are definitely 'things' (no spoilers, so not saying) that would be missed further back. |
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Post by kathryn on Jun 28, 2019 6:56:57 GMT
Yes, you want to be close for this one if possible. Not that it doesn’t work from the circle - because it does - but there’s some lovely subtle stuff going on in the performances that you can see up close.
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Post by jess173 on Jun 28, 2019 14:20:30 GMT
I just checked the American Express presale...
Prices range from 89$-243$ plus fees during the week to 99$-268$ on Saturday night...
Well yeah... No.... At least that makes it easier to accept that I can’t go back to see it again... 🙈
I kind of fear that people are not willing to pay those prices for a 90 minute play without a set. Of course there will be the fans but can they fill a 1200-seater every night for 17 weeks?
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Post by londonpostie on Jun 28, 2019 17:00:31 GMT
Why not? This is a spoiler tag, please do fill it with words:
less complicated if you don't insert a carriage return |
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Post by Tibidabo on Jun 28, 2019 18:22:35 GMT
Why not? This is a spoiler tag, please do fill it with words:
less complicated if you don't insert a carriage return If you look up thread to my review you will notice that I have inserted spoilers....Yes....all...by...my little ol' self. Do I get a medal? So your patronising post really isn't necessary. |
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