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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2016 11:29:55 GMT
The London run (Apr 22 - May 01) starts tomorrow. How time has flown in the year since I booked my ticket. I am still super-excited to see this, which will be my first encounter with an Ivo van Hove show. It seems a long time since an event such as this. www.barbican.org.uk/theatre/event-detail.asp?ID=17991 |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2016 12:16:55 GMT
Four hours, one interval, all in Dutch. I was so excited when I booked my ticket this time last year, now I've NO IDEA what I was thinking.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2016 12:20:17 GMT
Four hours plus interval I believe
I'm sure it will be great. Glad I booked a matinee although other issues may lead to me missing it.
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Post by Polly1 on Apr 21, 2016 13:12:13 GMT
Four hours, one interval, all in Dutch. I was so excited when I booked my ticket this time last year, now I've NO IDEA what I was thinking. My thoughts exactly! Trying to decide whether to chop my ticket in, need someone to tell me it really is unmissable before next Friday. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2016 13:21:22 GMT
My thoughts exactly! Trying to decide whether to chop my ticket in, need someone to tell me it really is unmissable before next Friday. Lyn Gardner's Guardian review would have encouraged me to book, if I hadn't already done so. I suppose that if you've seen others of his productions, especially Roman Tragedies, you might feel less urge to see more. But I haven't seen any previously and it sounds monumental, distinctive and exceptional. www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jun/21/kings-of-war-review-shakespeare-with-shock-and-awe |
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Post by Phantom of London on Apr 21, 2016 14:47:52 GMT
Is it me or is the Barbican unusually quiet this year?
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Post by Steve on Apr 25, 2016 0:07:20 GMT
Saw this this afternoon, and loved it. Barely noticed the running time of 4 hours and 40 minutes (3:30pm to 8:10pm, including one interval). Starting with Henry V, and ending with Henry VII supplanting Richard III, the play creates a compelling sense of the cycle of human warmongering (bolstered by casting Ramsey Nasr as both Henry V and Henry VII, to complete the circle of death). A warning to those sitting in the front row. It's freezing, as similarly recounted by Hamlet attendees on the old board, as they are still evidently pumping in cold air at the front to prevent people expiring with heat stroke at the back. I wished I had another jumper lol.  The chill carried over to the actors, all business in their suits, stalking around corridors behind the stage, followed by cameras, being televised on a big screen just below the surtitles. Ramsey Nasr's Henry V is particularly businesslike and calculating in his scheming to find the legal basis for his declaration of war on France. He sounded a lot like Tony Blair asking Alastair Campbell to conjure him up some reasons to go to war, only more reptilian, less warmblooded than Blair. The suggestion of this production is that war and monarchy are businesses, that require some cold blooded management to function, so when Eelco Smits' pajama-wearing crybaby of a Henry VI succeeds his PR obsessed gangster CEO of a father, it's obvious the surrounding circling sharks in suits are going to eat him alive. But it's with the rise and accession to the throne of Richard III that this production really soars, as the coldest blooded shark in the building gets to put on his fins and start consuming prey. This is the most chilling Richard III I've ever seen, and part of this is Van Hove's choice to have Richard deliver his monologues to himself in the mirror, rather than to us in the audience. This is a Richard who has no need of us, and thus sidelined, we shudder at Richard's self-obsession, and the narcissistic joy he takes at having the tools of state at his disposal, as he commits mass murder to get his way. Tellingly, in this version of Shakespeare's 5 plays, Richard is the only man to physically wear the Crown. Hans Kesting is unforgettable as Richard, workmanlike, superior, psychopathic, then childish and celebratory, as he gets to call Putin and Obama on the phone. Kesting owned every inch of the Barbican's huge stage, as Van Hove expelled everyone but him from the space, to allow him, and him alone to swell to fill it. This is a memorable, efficient and terrifying version of Shakespeare's stories, marred only slightly by the lack of the poetry of Shakespeare's native English. That the seat of power is most amenable to murderers and psychopaths is a truism that finds it's ultimate expression here. 4 and a half stars. |
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Post by alexandra on Apr 25, 2016 9:43:29 GMT
Yeah, fabulous (saw the same performance as you Steve). I particularly loved Smits as Henry VI. Richard III was my least favourite actually because it was so extreme (though I did admire the mirror idea...oh and that pie which was beyond brilliant). It was incredibly exciting, and although you're right about missing the poetry, at least being familiar with the plays meant that you could fill in the best of it. I almost didn't go as I was hungover and very tired, but I'm extremely glad I did. If anyone's hesitating, I strongly recommend that you go for it; but try to sit at least 10 rows back as we did so that you don't need to keep looking high above the stage for the surtitles - there is no advantage to being at the front, as a lot of it is shown in closeup on a big screen anyway.
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2016 4:51:38 GMT
Yes, very much worth seeing. Why can't we have a UK company which is even remotely like Tonelgroep Amsterdam, with a rep of major productions of major plays and a semi-permanent acting company? And this is a brilliant way to produce Shakespeare, making the thrilling most of the distilled elements, rather than the usual UK way of staging almost every original word and then putting all the energy into trying to make it comprehensible.
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Post by jadnoop on Dec 16, 2020 3:17:45 GMT
Pretty glad to have the chance to see this when it's live streamed in January. It'll be interesting to see how this will feel. For other theatre the streaming process has seemed to slightly remove me from the experience, but assuming this is similarly multimedia as the other van Hove productions I've seen, the streaming process may add another layer. Either way, can't wait... ita.nl/en/shows/kings-of-war/1535263/ |
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Post by altamont on Dec 16, 2020 11:48:28 GMT
Great news - having had to cancel a trip to Amsterdam specifically to see this a few years ago due to illness, very glad to have the opportunity now.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2020 10:42:33 GMT
Pretty glad to have the chance to see this when it's live streamed in January. It'll be interesting to see how this will feel. For other theatre the streaming process has seemed to slightly remove me from the experience, but assuming this is similarly multimedia as the other van Hove productions I've seen, the streaming process may add another layer. Either way, can't wait... ita.nl/en/shows/kings-of-war/1535263/From what I can recall there isn’t much use of a screen although my memory may be playing tricks on me. |
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