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Post by theoracle on Aug 1, 2019 22:11:08 GMT
Another show which seems to be selling out fast and has been marketed very well over the last few weeks. Been seeing more posters around and really looking forward to making my first visit to the Donmar Warehouse. What are people hoping for from this production and what do you think we can expect from this new show?
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Post by Rory on Aug 1, 2019 23:03:02 GMT
A cracking turn from Monica Dolan for a start...
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Post by showgirl on Aug 2, 2019 3:50:39 GMT
My hopes are quite low: something I can sit through this time, unlike the ghastly "An Octoroon", which remains one of my landmark disappointments of recent years. (I do know I am in a minority, hence giving the author another try.)
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Post by theoracle on Aug 2, 2019 7:58:34 GMT
Is this supposed to be a dark comedy or some sort of gothic mystery? I can’t tell from the poster
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Post by MrBunbury on Aug 2, 2019 9:16:58 GMT
My hopes are quite low: something I can sit through this time, unlike the ghastly "An Octoroon", which remains one of my landmark disappointments of recent years. (I do know I am in a minority, hence giving the author another try.) I am in the opposite field because I loved "An Octoroon". Still, maybe you can read the reviews of the US production to get a sense of what is coming. I never do that because I like keeping the surprise element though. |
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Post by showgirl on Aug 2, 2019 13:07:22 GMT
Indeed, MrBunbury, I did read all the US reviews I could find before booking, though I'm not sure how much of a guarantee they are. |
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Post by theoracle on Aug 16, 2019 8:03:23 GMT
Anyone going to the first preview tonight?
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Post by andrew on Aug 19, 2019 12:09:30 GMT
Anyone seen this yet? I'm going to have to return the ticket or swap to a different date for more money so wonder if it's worth it...
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Post by bluetoothpick on Aug 19, 2019 15:40:42 GMT
Anyone seen this yet? I'm going to have to return the ticket or swap to a different date for more money so wonder if it's worth it... Yes, saw it on Saturday night (second preview). Don't want to give too much away and am also inherently lazy so will just copy and paste the tweet we did immediately afterwards - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐(Preview) THIS IS NOT A DRILL BOOK NOW for #Appropriate at the @donmarwarehouse Come press night you'll struggle to get a ticket for love nor money! Incredibe cast, incredibe writing, incredibe set, incredibe experience! #FullReviewSoon t.co/x0YF6Pc8sjHope that at least gives you a flavour of what we thought, if not the "why" x |
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Post by crowblack on Aug 19, 2019 15:49:52 GMT
saw it on Saturday night (second preview) Oh good - I had to cancel Saturday but rescheduled for next month. Will central block circle seats be ok or should I try to swap for stalls if they come up? |
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Post by theoracle on Aug 19, 2019 18:44:09 GMT
Phew! Off to see this on Friday, front row in the stalls su super psyched. Has the stage been raised at all? It’s my first time at the Donmar so hoping for a special first visit experience aha.
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Post by lonlad on Aug 20, 2019 12:19:54 GMT
>>Incredibe cast, incredibe writing, incredibe set, incredibe experience!
"Incredibe" indeed !!
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Post by Steve on Aug 21, 2019 10:59:32 GMT
I loved this. An intriguing and fun combination of an American dysfunctional family drama, with some extra mischievous chickens thrown in to roost.
Some spoilers follow. . .
This is not at all like the experimental and meta "An Octaroon." The base play is like a conventional Tracy Letts family drama, but with a bit less melodrama and bit more compassion, as Branden Jacobs-Jenkins doesn't seem to do full-blossomed entertaining monsters. You get the feeling that for him, not even Monica Dolan's blunt and racist Toni Lafayette is irredeemable, though she tries and succeeds at being entertainingly awful.
What makes this play is a Hitchcock style MacGuffin, a mysterious book of historic racist photographs among the possessions of the deceased family patriarch, that forces each of the family members to reveal something of themselves as they interact with it. So the characters not only all have to fight with each other over the usual family matters and squabbles, but also with the meaning of the book for their own fragile identities.
The effect is like a mischievous reverse-Hamilton. Where, in Hamilton, a predominantly BAME cast celebrate a positive American history that happens to have involved a lot of white heroes, here we get the opposite: an all-white cast forced to confront a negative American history that happens to have involved a lot of white villains.
The book becomes a kind of Rorschach test for each of the characters, for the whole family, and for the audience as well. The sound of cicadas rutting in their death throes outside is at once funny and frightening, reflecting the crumbling of identities within.
The whole ensemble of actors succeed brilliantly in capturing the dramatic tension of the base family dramas, as well as the humorous mischief of the book's provocations, none better than a wonderfully hysterical and zany Edward Hogg, whose wildly unpredictable and posturing Uncle Franz is a particular delight!
And all the others actors have their moments too, with Monica Dolan and Steven Mackintosh shouldering the spine of the action, Tafline Steen injecting a relatable and quirky liberal humanity, Charles Furness and Isabella Pappas slouching around believably as insouciant youngsters, and Jaimi Barbakoff saying "doop-de-doo" with such sarcastic lightness that I couldn't stifle my laughter.
With Fred Trump having been arrested at a KKK rally in the twenties, and his son now the President of the USA, this 5 year old play about family connections to historic racism feels coincidentally topical. :0
4 stars from me.
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Post by firstwetakemanhattan on Aug 21, 2019 11:29:29 GMT
Am there tonight!
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Post by firstwetakemanhattan on Aug 21, 2019 22:32:34 GMT
Liked the first half and in particular liked the opening 10 minutes or so, great set, some nice tricks and touches, but the play itself seemed to be a bit all over the place, part ghost story, part history, part farce? Some of the attempts at scaring the audience or making them jump felt very amatuerish and drew laughs and chuckles rather than anything else. An akward five minute pause whilst the set was re arranged slightly didnt help with the flow. Acting wasnt bad at all, couldnt warm to the guy playing the returning son though, most everyone else was fine though. The ghost.spirit whatever elements just seemed there for the sake of it and were never resolved and I struggle to see what they had to do with the play really. I dont know, just seemed a bit mixed up to me anyway. Some people left at the interval around me in the stalls. Not the worst evening at all, but nothing special I didnt think.
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Post by theoracle on Aug 23, 2019 8:02:23 GMT
Anyone else going to be in tonight? Feel free to say hello to the guy in the stripy shirt in the front row of the stalls. Really excited for this now actually. It should be a fantastic evening
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Post by lookingatthestars on Aug 23, 2019 11:19:51 GMT
I have a question regarding booking, if anyone can help, thanks in advance.
It's been a while since I've booked with the Donmar. I can't remember how the sale of standing tickets at the back of the circle works. Is it a case of them being on sale the same as the seats. Or are they realised on the day. It's just as I look at the standing tickets on the booking system they seem to be unavailable. It could be that they are all just sold.
Thanks
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Post by vickyg on Aug 23, 2019 14:34:09 GMT
I have a question regarding booking, if anyone can help, thanks in advance. It's been a while since I've booked with the Donmar. I can't remember how the sale of standing tickets at the back of the circle works. Is it a case of them being on sale the same as the seats. Or are they realised on the day. It's just as I look at the standing tickets on the booking system they seem to be unavailable. It could be that they are all just sold. Thanks When I was looking the other day there were standing tickets available to buy but on the website they say they release some at 10:00am on the day of the performance. www.donmarwarehouse.com/visit/tickets/ They also say there are daily ticket releases for about a week later but I remember during some productions I have booked for this has just been once a week. |
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Post by lookingatthestars on Aug 23, 2019 19:38:55 GMT
Thanks vickyg and theatremonkey......much appreciated.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2019 19:54:39 GMT
When I was looking the other day there were standing tickets available to buy but on the website they say they release some at 10:00am on the day of the performance. www.donmarwarehouse.com/visit/tickets/ They also say there are daily ticket releases for about a week later but I remember during some productions I have booked for this has just been once a week. Yes, this is a recent change, I think - the weekly releases were the "Klaxon" tickets under the previous artistic director. As I understand it these daily release tickets are at all price bands for the same day the following week. |
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Post by theoracle on Aug 23, 2019 21:49:26 GMT
Left the Donmar today feeling incredibly satisfied by the strong theatrical qualities of Branden Jacob-Jenkins’ latest offering. As predicted, Monica Dolan was enthrallingly brilliant, putting on show 100% of her talent on display. The play is very moving in a rather twisted way and the flawed characters compels each and every one of the audience feeling a deep sense of catharsis. Highly recommended!
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Post by londonpostie on Aug 23, 2019 22:23:43 GMT
I've just booked a £10 seat for 21st September. Perhaps other dates also have seats at that price ..
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Aug 23, 2019 22:43:48 GMT
I was there last night, and honestly thought it was the hdtv’s thing I’ve seen all year.
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Post by theatrelover123 on Aug 23, 2019 22:50:05 GMT
I was there last night, and honestly thought it was the hdtv’s thing I’ve seen all year. The High Definition Television’s thing you’ve seen all year? |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2019 16:46:15 GMT
Caught the matinee today and thought it was excellent, Jacobs-Jenkins adding to the recent resurgence in American playwriting with a subversion of many of its recurrent tropes. By the end, it is much more than that, with the ghosts of the past encroaching both literally and figuratively (as per The Doctor, the enthralling production of which more anon). Does all of the audience get it? Not by my reckoning and my listening in on a comment or two afterwards. Big, big, spoilery bit hidden but the ending is very, very important. For someone to say it should have ended at another point is just unfathomable, it needs the revelations to play out and for the shocked humour to be replaced by reflection. {Massive, do not look type, Spoiler - click to view}
They said that it should stop after the young boy appears with the Ku Klux Klan hood on. I mean, what?!? That makes the racist past into a punchline with no final consequence.
The final snapshots of decay and dereliction are similarly symbolic, not mere jump scare tactics. I was interested in the real estate guy at the end also being white. Surely that’s a choice, if they hadn’t been then that final aside would be quite different in tone. Anyone got a script at hand? |
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