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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2016 18:18:49 GMT
ELEGY - The whole show is one big ending.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2016 12:05:54 GMT
Memo to Nick Payne: Caught the matinee of your play, Elegy, today and was loving it until we reached the final scene which was... what? Like, the biggest cop-out ever? It screams of a writer who doesn't know where the hell to take his story. I'm sure you've convinced yourself (and others) that it's really neat and clever but it's not. It's an act of authorial desperation. Especially as your premise is so damn wonderful and affecting. For sixty-five minutes I was engrossed, involved, gulping down tears, and then... I can't really talk about it here but you know what I mean, Nick. If this is the only place you can leave your characters then you should have rethought your story. There are many places you can take them - but you didn't take them anywhere. You abandoned them. Look, I'm not going to see this one, but now I am right curious as to what happened in the end...... |
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Post by mallardo on May 27, 2016 12:23:01 GMT
If I knew how to do that Spoiler box thing I'd tell you.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2016 12:25:09 GMT
Memo to Nick Payne: Caught the matinee of your play, Elegy, today and was loving it until we reached the final scene which was... what? Like, the biggest cop-out ever? It screams of a writer who doesn't know where the hell to take his story. I'm sure you've convinced yourself (and others) that it's really neat and clever but it's not. It's an act of authorial desperation. Especially as your premise is so damn wonderful and affecting. For sixty-five minutes I was engrossed, involved, gulping down tears, and then... I can't really talk about it here but you know what I mean, Nick. If this is the only place you can leave your characters then you should have rethought your story. There are many places you can take them - but you didn't take them anywhere. You abandoned them. Look, I'm not going to see this one, but now I am right curious as to what happened in the end...... {Spoiler - click to view}The last scene is an exact repeat of the first scene, staging, text, intonation, everything, it lasts for a few minutes or so. |
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2016 12:38:24 GMT
Look, I'm not going to see this one, but now I am right curious as to what happened in the end...... {Spoiler - click to view}
Thank you! |
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Post by mallardo on May 27, 2016 12:41:16 GMT
Yes, exactly as CP says. The thing is it's lazy and pointless, it provides a context we don't need.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2016 13:08:05 GMT
Oh that's interesting and well as Mallardo describes lazy/pointless.
Admittedly I'm making a snap judgement having not seen it/not going to see it but still...
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2016 13:12:27 GMT
I mean, sometimes it can work, repeating a scene later on in the play, because often you'll view it differently once you've seen more of the play with additional context, but it doesn't really work in this play because the context is already very self-apparent.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2016 15:37:52 GMT
I haven't seen it but, on past experience of similar gripes on this board, I expect there's some other reason for the final scene which you've all missed.
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Post by Ade on May 27, 2016 20:19:37 GMT
Saw this this evening and have to say the ending worked for me. Having witnessed the previous scenes it was all the more poignant to see it acted out again. That said it could easily have finished with that scene and started with something else. An enjoyable enough production - 3 stars from me.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2016 20:48:18 GMT
I haven't seen it but, on past experience of similar gripes on this board, I expect there's some other reason for the final scene which you've all missed. Or the opposite - the device of starting and ending with the same scene worked well for me, and I suspect that's because I didn't properly grasp what was happening the first time round...! |
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2016 8:08:44 GMT
Really enjoyed this and thought the ending worked well
Second time you have a totally different perspective given what you've learned about who made the decisions on the treatment
And it had to be the first scene too as you see their (presumably) final meeting then work backwards
Definitely recommended |
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Post by Polly1 on Jun 3, 2016 22:18:50 GMT
Interestingly, the ending as described above isn't specified in the script, so must have been something they put in during rehearsals. I thought it worked and the play was very thought-provoking.
Please don't jump on me as this is a genuine question - I'm wondering why he (Nick Payne) chose a homosexual couple, was he trying to make a point that has eluded me?
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Post by littlesally on Jun 3, 2016 22:49:19 GMT
Interestingly, the ending as described above isn't specified in the script, so must have been something they put in during rehearsals. I thought it worked and the play was very thought-provoking. Please don't jump on me as this is a genuine question - I'm wondering why he (Nick Payne) chose a homosexual couple, was he trying to make a point that has eluded me? I heard a radio interview with the cast and they explained that the playwright didn't want the audience to bring any gender bias to explain how each partner acts, so had a same sex couple. I too loved the play. |
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Post by Polly1 on Jun 4, 2016 7:34:00 GMT
Interestingly, the ending as described above isn't specified in the script, so must have been something they put in during rehearsals. I thought it worked and the play was very thought-provoking. Please don't jump on me as this is a genuine question - I'm wondering why he (Nick Payne) chose a homosexual couple, was he trying to make a point that has eluded me? I heard a radio interview with the cast and they explained that the playwright didn't want the audience to bring any gender bias to explain how each partner acts, so had a same sex couple. I too loved the play. Ah, ok, thanks. That makes a lot of sense. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2016 9:25:02 GMT
Would have been nice for those of us who have not seen it, if you'd use spoilers... Ah sorry, TM, just seen this - I thought it had been discussed before giving the detail openly but I see not. Sorry all - will do better in future! |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2016 18:28:00 GMT
Add me to the list of people who probably think Elegy's only saving grace is that it's short...
I didn't interrogate the story as much as the Monkey above; my main problem with it was that it didn't make me feel very much. I could respond on an entirely intellectual level - yes, a degenerative disease of the mind must be terrible, for the person afflicted and for those close to them - but as we didn't get to see Lorna before she was affected, it was hard to feel emotional about it.
Thinking about it afterwards, I realised I'd been far more moved by the weekend's final episode of Kenneth Branagh's Wallander, whose descent into the hell of dementia was played out through a screen, than I was by this, played out right in front of me.
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Post by theatreliker on Jun 11, 2016 22:01:49 GMT
Spoilers.
Saw the matinee today. I'll probably post more soon, but I've just read Matt Truman's review and did not get that the play was in reverse chronology! I thought there was a flash back maybe but not the whole thing. And the last scene (again more appreciated after reading a review) does carry more resonance but I'm not sure if it's weak rather than subtle. Nina Sosanya has a pretty thankless role playing a character similar to ones she's played before.
However there were lots I liked about it - indeed it's a very thought-provoking piece. Flynn and Wanamaker both very good as a normal couple in an extreme situation. And there are lots of interesting things at play involving language and with binary forces. It's a very interesting play. But I feel that it came together in a rather colourless, tragic, possibly redeemless way. This was the first Nick Payne play I've seen.
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Post by mallardo on Jun 12, 2016 5:49:16 GMT
Elegy in reverse chronology? It didn't play that way. As staged now it's a closed circle.
But, as Polly1 noted above, the play text does not have the current final scene in it. So that was a change inserted during the rehearsal process because, I'm guessing, a) Nick Payne couldn't come up with a satisfactory ending and/or b) the play is so damn short it needed more content.
Re Nick Payne, don't judge him on this one. His other work is so much better.
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Post by theatreliker on Jun 12, 2016 9:30:52 GMT
Elegy in reverse chronology? It didn't play that way. As staged now it's a closed circle. It didn't fully to me either. But reading Trueman's review I can sort of see that. Interesting regarding the final scene - perhaps makes it seem flimsy now. |
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Post by theatreliker on Jun 12, 2016 10:56:56 GMT
{Spoiler - click to view}
No, someone is going to have to explain it to me. So that final scene is a repetition of the first (even though they are in different positions on the stage)? Why would there be different blocking if it's an exact repeat? |
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Post by n1david on Jun 13, 2016 15:15:57 GMT
Agree strongly on both counts. Although I wasn't entirely won over by the play, just seeing Wanamaker and Flynn play together was worth the money (admittedly, I had Front Row tickets). I love Nina Sosanya, but her part in this was pretty thankless.
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