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Post by tw on Sept 12, 2019 10:59:03 GMT
Almeida Associate Director Rebecca Frecknall follows her Olivier Award-winning production of Summer and Smoke and Three Sisters with The Duchess of Malfi, John Webster’s electrifying revenge tragedy about rage, resistance and a deadly lust for power.
Lydia Wilson returns to the Almeida to play the Duchess, following her Olivier Award-nominated performance in King Charles III. Further cast to be announced.
2nd Dec 2019 - 18th Jan 2020
On sale dates
Bronze, Silver and Gold Friends 12pm Mon 16 Sep
Almeida Friends 10am Thu 19 Sep
General sale 10am Thu 26 Sep
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873 posts
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Post by juicy_but_terribly_drab on Sept 12, 2019 11:04:02 GMT
I know not everyone was a huge fan of her Three Sisters but I loved it and Summer and Smoke was utter perfection so I'll probably end up seeing this as well.
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Post by learfan on Sept 12, 2019 12:45:39 GMT
Not aware of Lydia Wilson even though i was a fan of Ripper St! Pleasantly surprised that the blurb doesn't say "adapted by" or "in a version by". Love the play so will book for this, hope the rest of the casting will be good.
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Post by Jan on Sept 12, 2019 13:30:08 GMT
It’s a great play, one of the very best.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Sept 12, 2019 17:25:44 GMT
It’s a great play, one of the very best. Only when done well. Getting the tonal shifts right in a revenge tragedy for a modern audience is a skill few directors can manage. It is all too easy for the final act to descend into something utterly farcical. The recent RSC production was a misfire in almost all regards - the giant carcass on the stage, the ever increasing pool of blood - just didn't give the actors room to play out the high drama. |
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Post by lynette on Sept 12, 2019 18:53:35 GMT
I agree. Having seen SRB in it I’m done. Not keen to go through it again, very harrowing play. But I admit ‘modern’ feel about it so interesting.
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Post by Fleance on Sept 12, 2019 23:05:15 GMT
I've seen three duchesses: Eleanor Bron (NT), Harriet Walter (RSC), and Eve Best (Old Vic). I think the Jamie Lloyd production with Ms. Best was the most powerful. That strangling scene!
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Post by stefy69 on Sept 13, 2019 5:24:43 GMT
It’s a great play, one of the very best. Agreed terrific play can't wait. |
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Post by Jan on Sept 13, 2019 6:07:48 GMT
I've seen three duchesses: Eleanor Bron (NT), Harriet Walter (RSC), and Eve Best (Old Vic). I think the Jamie Lloyd production with Ms. Best was the most powerful. That strangling scene! I saw those three, plus those with Gemma Arteton, Janet McTeer and Aisling O'Sullivan. I don't recall a production with SRB (not as the duchess anyway). That Eleanor Bron one was strongly cast, McKellen, Greg Hicks, Roy Kinnear, but Philip Prowse with his usual static and confusing production focusing on the scenery rather than the acting. |
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Post by bordeaux on Sept 13, 2019 6:51:32 GMT
The SRB one was with Juliet Stevenson as the Duchess; he played Bosola. Directed by Philip Franks in 1995 at the Greenwich theatre (is that still going, I wonder?), Google reminds me. Very good too, I remember. I also saw Harriet Walter at the RSC and Anastasia Hille for Cheek by Jowl, all in the early to mid 90s. Haven't seen it since, though I'd be keen to see the right production.
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Post by zahidf on Sept 13, 2019 6:57:37 GMT
Saw the old Vic version, which was... ok
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Post by learfan on Sept 13, 2019 8:20:11 GMT
The SRB one was with Juliet Stevenson as the Duchess; he played Bosola. Directed by Philip Franks in 1995 at the Greenwich theatre (is that still going, I wonder?), Google reminds me. Very good too, I remember. I also saw Harriet Walter at the RSC and Anastasia Hille for Cheek by Jowl, all in the early to mid 90s. Haven't seen it since, though I'd be keen to see the right production. Think he was Ferdinand in that production, back when Greenwich was quite a big player in the off west end sphere. |
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Post by Forrest on Sept 13, 2019 8:36:12 GMT
I haven't had the chance to see any of Frecknall's work on stage before, nor have I read the play, but having seen The Hunt and The Doctor at the Almeida, and having absolutely loved both, I am very much looking forward to this too. Got Vassa lined-up to see there before this as well, but counting on the fact that it won't spoil Almeida's 5/5 overall score for me. Starting the book tonight, it's never too early to start "preparing".  There's a free Kindle edition of it on Amazon at the moment if anyone else likes to do their reading ahead of shows too, and has not read this yet. |
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Post by crabtree on Sept 13, 2019 8:36:17 GMT
For me my favourite Duchess was at the Royal Exchange, up close and personal with Helen Mirren and Bob Hoskins and Mike Gwylem(sorry) - again the strangling scene with that beautiful speech, but poor Helen was seemingly yanked off her feet by the rope. I later went to the venice Carnivale in a costume hired from the exchange - and it turned out to be Hoskin's from Malfi.
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Post by vickyg on Sept 13, 2019 8:39:22 GMT
I've seen three duchesses: Eleanor Bron (NT), Harriet Walter (RSC), and Eve Best (Old Vic). I think the Jamie Lloyd production with Ms. Best was the most powerful. That strangling scene! My envy that you saw Eve Best knows no bounds! As far as I'm concerned she can do no wrong! I don't know this play but Summer and Smoke was beautiful so I will definitely be booking. |
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Post by bordeaux on Sept 13, 2019 11:13:36 GMT
The SRB one was with Juliet Stevenson as the Duchess; he played Bosola. Directed by Philip Franks in 1995 at the Greenwich theatre (is that still going, I wonder?), Google reminds me. Very good too, I remember. I also saw Harriet Walter at the RSC and Anastasia Hille for Cheek by Jowl, all in the early to mid 90s. Haven't seen it since, though I'd be keen to see the right production. Think he was Ferdinand in that production, back when Greenwich was quite a big player in the off west end sphere. You're right. Robert Glenister was Bosola. Thanks for pointing that out. Yes, I saw a few things at Greenwich in the 80s/90s - Fiona Shaw and Paola Dionisotti in Mary Stuart, Side by Side by Sondheim with Dawn French as the narrator, but even then I think it had lost the reputation it had had earlier: didn't Jonathan Miller do a lot of stuff there in the 70s? The other Greenwich theatre I loved and went to a few times in the 90s was above a pub. I can't remember its name but it was run by a husband and wife team (Julian Forsyth one of them?) and specialised in translations of European classics, so I saw plays by Lessing and Marivaux, for example, and had my first sighting there of the great Eddie Marsan in Wolfgang Borchert's Outside the Door. Good days. |
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Post by Fleance on Sept 13, 2019 13:25:40 GMT
I've seen three duchesses: Eleanor Bron (NT), Harriet Walter (RSC), and Eve Best (Old Vic). I think the Jamie Lloyd production with Ms. Best was the most powerful. That strangling scene! I saw those three, plus those with Gemma Arteton, Janet McTeer and Aisling O'Sullivan. I don't recall a production with SRB (not as the duchess anyway). That Eleanor Bron one was strongly cast, McKellen, Greg Hicks, Roy Kinnear, but Philip Prowse with his usual static and confusing production focusing on the scenery rather than the acting. Philip Prowse also had a great cast for his rather anemic production of The White Devil at the NT. I'd like to see more Jacobean drama presented. I remember seeing productions of The Changeling (NT); and Bussy d'Ambois (Old Vic) on the same day in the summer of 1988. |
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Post by learfan on Sept 13, 2019 16:33:09 GMT
I saw those three, plus those with Gemma Arteton, Janet McTeer and Aisling O'Sullivan. I don't recall a production with SRB (not as the duchess anyway). That Eleanor Bron one was strongly cast, McKellen, Greg Hicks, Roy Kinnear, but Philip Prowse with his usual static and confusing production focusing on the scenery rather than the acting. Philip Prowse also had a great cast for his rather anemic production of The White Devil at the NT. I'd like to see more Jacobean drama presented. I remember seeing productions of The Changeling (NT); and Bussy d'Ambois (Old Vic) on the same day in the summer of 1988. Snap! Im hoping for something in the Swan next year, the Sam Wanamaker hasnt done enough in my view |
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Post by peggs on Sept 13, 2019 20:04:26 GMT
Have just seen the Old Vic Eve Best production which I loved, I was meant to be moving house that day and abandoned it mid move to go and be terrified instead. Could be pretty claustrophobic at the Almeida in a good way.
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Post by lynette on Sept 13, 2019 20:12:03 GMT
So we are all agreed this play attracts some smashing actors. I have no recollection of the Greenwich theatre but yes it was Philip Franks who directed SRB and it was amazing and I seem to remember a special trip....
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Post by learfan on Sept 13, 2019 21:10:24 GMT
So we are all agreed this play attracts some smashing actors. I have no recollection of the Greenwich theatre but yes it was Philip Franks who directed SRB and it was amazing and I seem to remember a special trip.... It did go into the WE, maybe you saw it there? |
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Post by lynette on Sept 13, 2019 21:24:58 GMT
So we are all agreed this play attracts some smashing actors. I have no recollection of the Greenwich theatre but yes it was Philip Franks who directed SRB and it was amazing and I seem to remember a special trip.... It did go into the WE, maybe you saw it there? Maybe but for SRB in this iconic role I would have been prepared to travel south......not so much these days |
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Post by Jan on Sept 18, 2019 12:46:25 GMT
(duplicate post deleted)
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Post by Jan on Sept 18, 2019 14:01:41 GMT
Philip Prowse also had a great cast for his rather anemic production of The White Devil at the NT. Prowse directed the same play at Greenwich in the mid-1980s, it was hopelessly confused and confusing, indistinguishable black-clad actors looming up out of the fog to tell us about incomprehensible goings-on at various Italian courts. Around that time he also directed The Seagull and The Orphan (Thomas Otway) at Greenwich - he was always a style-over-substance director, only a set designer really. Jonathan Miller was at Greenwich in the mid-1970s. Despite assorted re-launches Greenwich has never really established itself as anything other than a poorly-attended local theatre, the Kingston Rose of the East. |
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Post by Fleance on Sept 18, 2019 22:18:55 GMT
A Prowse production which I did find quite powerful was The Vortex with Maria Aitken and Rupert Everett. I remember that as one of the great productions of a Coward play.
Regarding the Greenwich Theatre, I went there once (1985), to see Buddy Holly at the Regal, with David Thewlis and Pikey Butler (as Buddy Holly), with Nosmo King as one of the Crickets. I remember enjoying it and not much else about it.
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There's a free Kindle edition of it on Amazon at the moment if anyone else likes to do their reading ahead of shows too, and has not read this yet.
