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Post by sf on Jan 22, 2019 18:38:49 GMT
God luck finding a chair.
I have never not found a place to sit when I needed one.
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Post by lynette on Jan 22, 2019 21:16:06 GMT
God luck finding a chair.
I have never not found a place to sit when I needed one.
We'd better stick together then. 😁 |
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Post by Snciole on Jan 24, 2019 15:31:33 GMT
I am sorry but the South Bank/Waterloo/Strand area has lots of nice restaurants, why would audience members choose to hang around the NT Foyer? Whenever I go to the NT, which isn't often, I never struggle to find a seat before the show or during the interval. It helps they let audience members in quite early too.
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Post by duncan on Jan 24, 2019 15:35:03 GMT
I go the BFI, I got to sit next to some original artwork from Captain Pugwash last time - that was more thrilling than the production in the National!
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Post by couldileaveyou on Jan 29, 2019 18:56:50 GMT
I'm on the sofas outside the Olivier and a little mouse just popped out to say hello #awkward
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Post by sf on Jan 29, 2019 19:01:18 GMT
I'm on the sofas outside the Olivier and a little mouse just popped out to say hello #awkward
Did it at least buy a coffee and a theatre ticket before it logged on to the free wifi?
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Post by lynette on Jan 29, 2019 21:05:24 GMT
O dear. So I won’t put my open handbag on the floor then. Actually you might find me kneeling on my seat. Pity the person behind me.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 8:27:10 GMT
The above reminds me of a conversation at a staff meeting the other week, one of the gallery duty managers 'Do I need to tell you I saw a dead rat outside?' General manager: 'As long as it wasn't inside and alive, no'
(we are very close to the water so it's not THAT surprising there's a few kicking about)
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Post by Backdrifter on Jan 30, 2019 8:39:50 GMT
O dear. So I won’t put my open handbag on the floor then. Actually you might find me kneeling on my seat. Pity the person behind me. Hang on, aren't women meant to stand on a seat, clutching their skirts and going "eeeek" or "aaiieee" or something? I'm sure I read that somewhere. |
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Post by Phantom of London on Jan 30, 2019 9:07:19 GMT
All theatres have mice, they're as everywhere on the Underground too, take comfort that mice and rats wont co-exist, so where there are mice, there are no rats.
The kitchen restaurant serves delicious food, especially if you are a non-meat eater, or follow a plant based diet and it is all very good value for money.
I think the toilets in the Barbican are more dated.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 9:15:21 GMT
All theatres have mice, they're as everywhere on the Underground too, take comfort that mice and rats wont co-exist, so where there are mice, there are no rats.The kitchen restaurant serves delicious food, especially if you are a non-meat eater, or follow a plant based diet and it is all very good value for money. I think the toilets in the Barbican are more dated. That is a valid and important point. Also personally I'd rather a mouse than a pigeon. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 9:29:18 GMT
O dear. So I won’t put my open handbag on the floor then. Actually you might find me kneeling on my seat. Pity the person behind me. Hang on, aren't women meant to stand on a seat, clutching their skirts and going "eeeek" or "aaiieee" or something? I'm sure I read that somewhere. I think that's elephants. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 11:16:46 GMT
I once saw a mouse climbing the wall in the Royal Court bar, very brazenly. Also it was a comparatively smooth patch of wall, so it was pretty impressive too.
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Post by Sotongal on Jan 30, 2019 12:42:52 GMT
I guess there's an issue that when these areas were originally set up for public access, wifi and laptops didn't exist and (more) public libraries did exist so you were less likely to get people camped out all day in the space? This is a very good point. Thirty years ago you could have a meal, a snack or just a drink and could listen to some music in the foyer with or without seeing a show. Times change, obviously and people can't keep away from the Internet for long! And it is puzzling it looks tattier now four years after a refit than it did before. If, like us, you're someone who lives a long way from London and going to the NT involves a long drive or train and tube journeys, you may just want to sit/eat/drink in the NT rather than then have to go elsewhere and the recent times we've gone there it has been difficult to find a table to sit at because there are so many people with a laptop and one cup of coffee. There last week for Hadestown, at 6pm before the evening performance there was an announcement asking people not going to a show to leave so theatregoers could have seats and some went and some didn't. I guess one thing the NT could do (but probably won't) is do some sort of survey over various days to see how many hang around for hours with one drink (how much does that add to NT profits?) and don't ever see a show and how many go for a coffee and the wifi and then see a show. Do the older theatres have people in their bars all day? Are they public spaces? Maybe the NT could decide if it's a theatre which happens to have a public space attached or a public space which happens to have a theatre attached? And I wonder if Rufus Norris will hang on to the NT as it's title now, having made a statement about dropping the 'Royal' suffix as having put people off going there, now the Duchess of Sussex is its new Patron or put it back? Can't say I've heard of any other 'Royal' theatres around the country planning to drop their 'Royal', or suggesting it puts people off going. P.S. Whoever thought it was a good idea to put the NT box office by the entrance doors should obviously be forced to spend time there. The poor box office staff have to wear coats to work there in the winter. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 16:27:46 GMT
And I wonder if Rufus Norris will hang on to the NT as it's title now, having made a statement about dropping the 'Royal' suffix as having put people off going there, now the Duchess of Sussex is its new Patron or put it back? Can't say I've heard of any other 'Royal' theatres around the country planning to drop their 'Royal', or suggesting it puts people off going. Does having Meghan Markdown as the patron make the place more royal or less? |
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Post by lynette on Jan 30, 2019 19:24:18 GMT
I’ve never heard the NT referred to as the Royal NT. Just isn’t used. Royal Opera House, yes, Royal National theatre kinda not used, is it?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 19:26:57 GMT
I’ve never heard the NT referred to as the Royal NT. Just isn’t used. Royal Opera House, yes, Royal National theatre kinda not used, is it? It used to be used a lot up until the late 90s ish. Particularly referring to it in print as RNT. But no, nobody calls it that anymore. And they deliberately dropped it from their marketing in the Hytner era (if not a bit before). |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2019 19:28:44 GMT
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Post by TallPaul on Jan 30, 2019 20:16:18 GMT
Back in the day, when the Olivier Awards were broacast by the BBC, Zoe Wanamaker would always announce any National Theatre nominations as Royal National Theatre productions.
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Post by Snciole on Feb 1, 2019 10:54:39 GMT
I once saw a mouse climbing the wall in the Royal Court bar, very brazenly. Also it was a comparatively smooth patch of wall, so it was pretty impressive too. An all mouse production of Assassins Creed? |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2019 10:56:33 GMT
*hands Snciole a sizeable Arts Council grant* Make it so. |
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Post by MrsCondomine on Feb 4, 2019 16:37:52 GMT
I'm on the sofas outside the Olivier and a little mouse just popped out to say hello #awkward I've never had the good fortune to see a mouse there! I like the little ones you see on the tube tracks, although I always go on to think about how they must be deaf with all the noise and their little lungs are full of soot and for all of their short lives, they will never play in the grass in the fresh air  I also don't get the hate for pigeons - they're trying to find something to eat people! Have compassion! There are a few with feet missing in Waterloo and I always feel sorry for them. AND NOW that I've got my feelings about vermin out of the way... I love the NT's open foyer. The only time people shouldn't be welcomed into a public space if if they're causing trouble or danger - that's the ONLY time. There are some really nasty posts in this thread, and I would take them for a joke if I hadn't seen the same people comment similar things in other threads. Bless the NT and its patient, helpful staff for fostering a pleasant atmosphere to sit and have a drink, or to work for a bit, or to meet friends before a show. |
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Post by Backdrifter on Feb 4, 2019 16:58:13 GMT
I'm on the sofas outside the Olivier and a little mouse just popped out to say hello #awkward I also don't get the hate for pigeons - they're trying to find something to eat people! Have compassion! There are a few with feet missing in Waterloo and I always feel sorry for them. Have there been pigeon sightings in the NT now? I heard that the missing feet are due to their own excreta causing the appendages to rot away. I like this little 1977 oddity from Genesis, with a rather bizarre lyric. |
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Post by MrsCondomine on Feb 4, 2019 17:05:26 GMT
I also don't get the hate for pigeons - they're trying to find something to eat people! Have compassion! There are a few with feet missing in Waterloo and I always feel sorry for them. Have there been pigeon sightings in the NT now? I heard that the missing feet are due to their own excreta causing the appendages to rot away. I like this little 1977 oddity from Genesis, with a rather bizarre lyric. Not yet... they're getting closer though... following their tiny mouse comrade... You're right, oh my God. It's called "bumblefoot," apparently. Which... is an oddly sweet name for something so disgusting. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2019 17:06:37 GMT
I was once in one of the eateries under the South Bank centre and a pigeon wandered in through the door and under a table. In hindsight, yes, I *could* have warned the woman who decided to sit at that table that she'd be disturbing a pigeon, but I don't think *that* far ahead, and it was *pretty* funny when the pigeon emerged.
We domesticated pigeons, you know. The way that pigeons are is entirely our own fault; we saw a smart sociable bird and we taught it to hang around with people and now people get shirty when they go to a city and it's full of pigeons.
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