Vassa - Almeida

[foxa]

Don't think there's a thread for this yet.

Saw it last night from my usual pillar seats.  It's a very strange thing.  It's played at first like an out and out farce, will multiple doors, rapid entrances and exits and acidic, OTT put-downs.  The introduction of the various characters is, at the very least, interesting.  Then it shifts and becomes something else.  The thing is, I'm not sure what it becomes or what would drive someone to want to stage it.   The person next to me was an exceptionally supportive audience member and laughing (sometimes alone) a lot at the beginning but grew quieter as it went on.  There were a few leavers at the interval.

I was curious to see what would happen - and heck there was a lot of plot - but I can't say that I got the point of it and, tonally, it seemed all over the place.

It was one of the deliberately ugly designs which some folk like more than I do.

For another point of view, someone I follow on twitter who is discerning was very positive.

Think it may be one for collectors.

[lonlad]

For whatever it's worth (which may be nothing), I have a slew of friends who went a few nights ago and ALL hated it, some with a real passion. We shall see .....

[mallardo]

Oct 17, 2019 12:20:04 GMT lonlad said:

For whatever it's worth (which may be nothing), I have a slew of friends who went a few nights ago and ALL hated it, some with a real passion. We shall see .....

I agree with your friends. It was among the worst things I have ever seen on a London stage - utterly dreadful and singularly inept.

[foxa]

Phew - you all are making me feel better. I was immune to the charms of The Doctor, which pretty much everyone else loved, so thought maybe I was going through an inability to engage with the Almeida phase or something.

I asked my husband this morning if there was anything he liked about it. Long pause. 'Not really.'

[Jan]

I like Gorky. I’ve seen a lot of his plays. But this does not sound like a promising production at all. So, what’s the running time ?

[n1david]

2h05 According to the web site

[Jan]

Oct 17, 2019 15:58:22 GMT n1david said:

2h05 According to the web site

Thanks. 2:05. Can’t go wrong.

[Fleance]

Oh dear. I'm going to the Saturday matinee. I'm totally unfamiliar with the play, so at least it will be educational!

[foxa]

They told us 2 hours when we went in. The second section, after the interval, was much shorter than the first. I wouldn't say it was boring. That wasn't the issue. But I did wonder (I know unkindly) how badly Samantha Bond was injured to pull out or if she smelt a turkey. (I know, I know, she's a pro, she wouldn't, etc.) www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/samantha-bond-withdraw-vassa-almeida_50000.html

BTW, Almeida bar staff were helpful and charming as always.

[sanddeep]

Just left at the interval of this. The cast is universally terrible, the direction amateurish (a LOT of people just standing around as others gesticulate at each other while other people leave the room for no reason only to return a minute later) and loads of misplaced swearing/insults. Most incompetent thing I've seen on the London stage. Amazing that it's at the Almeida - unless it's an elaborate joke. Probably best to take it in that spirit.
Also the audience was the smallest I've seen in my 50+ times at the Almeida - how do people already know?

[lynette]

O dear. Going on Saturday evening.

[showgirl]

Will wait until nearer my visit (November) to decide whether or not to go but in the circumstances I'm glad that as usual I risked only a £10 ticket. And I'm always short of spaces for fitting in plays so could easily re-fill the precious matinee slot I used for this - preferably with something starting 30 mins later.

[peggs]

Oct 17, 2019 21:56:26 GMT lynette said:

O dear. Going on Saturday evening.

Waiting with interest to read what you think lynette as wondering whether to give up on this.

[lynette]

Oct 18, 2019 16:16:11 GMT peggs said:

Oct 17, 2019 21:56:26 GMT lynette said:

O dear. Going on Saturday evening.

Waiting with interest to read what you think lynette as wondering whether to give up on this.

I'll watch with you in mind! 

[Forrest]

I saw this recently, but didn't hate it as much as most. It was somewhere between good and just OK.

It's an odd text to begin with: somehow, it's just... a whole lot of truly ugly characters condensed in one place, not a single one of them likeable, so there's not much to relate to. In addition, the production has a strangely detached feel to it as if the director wanted to make the staged version somehow, well, even more difficult to relate to than the text itself, as if she didn't want us to like her characters at all. Quite on the contrary, I think we were bound to be disgusted by them a little, ask ourselves what kind of horrible people these are and why are they like this. And do I/we resemble any of them at all?

Along similar lines, in terms of visual appeal, I also intensely disliked the stage design: having grown up in Eastern Europe under socialism, it was so reminiscent of the images of the (false) provincial luxury of my childhood (any high-level hotel basically had the same "look" back at home in the 80s) that it was simply devastatingly ugly to watch, everything rounded-up perfectly with the plastic flowers at the end. But, in terms of if it had achieved what the author had intended to, and created the desired atmosphere, I think it did. Whether I appreciate it or not is a whole different question.

I did, however, enjoy the performances: my impression was that they were a bit out there, kind of amateurish seeming on purpose, just like everything else is done in a similar tone. To create this almost unrealistic image of family mess and chaos, and an uncomfortable feeling of things literally falling apart and dying out, an illusion of one whole (in their own eyes) noble family vanishing, crumbling. (For instance, i thought Arthur Hughes was phenomenal as an utterly spineless, spoiled brat, blaming everything and everyone for his own lack of character and determination.) 

I would have been tempted to dismiss it, if it wasn't for the fact that I couldn't stop thinking about it the next morning. 

So yes, it is a curious one, definitely. Not something I'd tell people they had to go and see. But I somehow can't make myself to say it is bad, either, because I kind of feel that the ugliness of it is intentional. If that makes any sense at all. 

Definitely not my favourite Almeida production, though. 

[Jan]

Oct 17, 2019 20:09:22 GMT sanddeep said:

Just left at the interval of this. The cast is universally terrible, the direction amateurish (a LOT of people just standing around as others gesticulate at each other while other people leave the room for no reason only to return a minute later) and loads of misplaced swearing/insults. Most incompetent thing I've seen on the London stage. Amazing that it's at the Almeida - unless it's an elaborate joke. Probably best to take it in that spirit.
Also the audience was the smallest I've seen in my 50+ times at the Almeida - how do people already know?

That last is a question I’ve often pondered, but it is true that this happens, often at NT even before opening night.

[lynette]

They read the Board

[Deleted]

Oct 18, 2019 19:28:00 GMT Jan said:

Oct 17, 2019 20:09:22 GMT sanddeep said:

Just left at the interval of this. The cast is universally terrible, the direction amateurish (a LOT of people just standing around as others gesticulate at each other while other people leave the room for no reason only to return a minute later) and loads of misplaced swearing/insults. Most incompetent thing I've seen on the London stage. Amazing that it's at the Almeida - unless it's an elaborate joke. Probably best to take it in that spirit.
Also the audience was the smallest I've seen in my 50+ times at the Almeida - how do people already know?

That last is a question I’ve often pondered, but it is true that this happens, often at NT even before opening night.

Yes, this is interesting. Given the cast, and Mike Bartlett writing, there seems no reason this shouldn't sell in advance as well as anything else at the Almeida.

[lynette]

Just back. It wasn’t that bad, sanddeep. It didn't make my limbs ache which something truly terrible does. But it wasn’t very good. It was played as a very black farce. It showed us a dysfunctional family but it ain’t no Succession! The writing was poor in places and the doors, in and out, go , go go etc was tedious. Most of the cast seemed uncomfortable to me. The best was Amber James who was tbh looking like she was auditioning for a proper play, ‘please someone spot me, I can actually act. ‘ She was trying to do something with the material. She is a very promising young actress and I hope this doesn’t put her back. It all had an amateur air about it.
Some did leave at the interval. The interval comes over an hour in and then after there is only half an hour so you might as well hang around for the end which was promising, like the beginning of a really good tv drama, the head of the house just dead and three women left, what will they do etc? Maybe he should have written a play from that point and ignored all the Gorky. The setting was odd, a clash between turn of the century pre Russian Revolution in costume and 30s styling and decor. The doors were ridiculous. I’m amazed nobody mentioned it in rehearsals. Some friends who we met there by coincidence actually liked it at all very much so there you are. But having seen Hansard and Lungs last week I think I know good drama when I see it and this wasn’t it.

[tmesis]

This is truly dire. A lot of totally unlikeable characters who I couldn't give a toss about - the resulting effect being I couldn't care enough to follow the quite complex plot so the whole thing quite literally went over my head.

The acting style was very strange to me. I think it could have worked better if they'd hyped the thing up more than they did and gone for a totally exaggerated, more satirical approach. As it was, I agree with others that it felt a bit am-dram.

The Doctor was really good but on the whole I think The Almeida is going through a bad period; really for the past 2 years I've only enjoyed about 50% of their output.

[lynette]




SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler - click to view}
Trigger warning I think might be be required. Hanging woman ends first act, an attempt at drama and could be disturbing if you doing know it is coming

[Fleance]

Oct 19, 2019 21:30:46 GMT lynette said:

The best was Amber James who was tbh looking like she was auditioning for a proper play, ‘please someone spot me, I can actually act. ‘ She was trying to do something with the material. She is a very promising young actress and I hope this doesn’t put her back. It all had an amateur air about it.

Funny, I thought she was the weakest of the lot.

[oxfordsimon]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler - click to view}
There is a warning about it on the Almeida page

Oct 19, 2019 21:53:39 GMT lynette said:




SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler - click to view}
Trigger warning I think might be be required. Hanging woman ends first act, an attempt at drama and could be disturbing if you doing know it is coming

[samuelwhiskers]

Oct 19, 2019 21:32:34 GMT tmesis said:

I think The Almeida is going through a bad period; really for the past 2 years I've only enjoyed about 50% of their output.

Agree, though their programming for 2020 looks extremely exciting.

[Rory]

Oct 20, 2019 3:41:21 GMT samuelwhiskers said:

Oct 19, 2019 21:32:34 GMT tmesis said:

I think The Almeida is going through a bad period; really for the past 2 years I've only enjoyed about 50% of their output.

Agree, though their programming for 2020 looks extremely exciting.

Any clues as to what might be coming up?!