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Post by Forrest on Oct 21, 2020 13:06:30 GMT
Did anyone go to see Inua Ellams' An Evening with an Immigrant?
I went recently and perhaps I was slightly influenced by the fact that it was my first real theatre night out in months, or the fact that it's a topic I am very interested in, or both, but I absolutely adored it. It got a standing ovation at the end, so I definitely wasn't alone.
It's basically Inua telling the story of his childhood and moving to England (and Ireland and back to England), through lots of anecdotes and moments of poetry, but it's actually much nicer than I make it sound. I highly recommend it!
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Post by david on Oct 21, 2020 18:35:41 GMT
As my final pair of Talking Heads this evening (Nights in the Garden of Spain & Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet), what a great pair of monologues to end on. Two fantastic performances from both actresses, though it was Maxine Peake (who I am a big fan of) that was the highlight for me. Alan Bennett’s fantastic writing and her performance was for me was a winning combination. A well deserved standing ovation at the end for both performances.
Having seen 6 of the monologues in the Talking Heads season, they have all been a pleasure to watch (and how the monologues have been paired up I thought worked really well) and it’s great news that some of them are getting a life outside of London to a wider audience in the coming weeks.
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Post by londonpostie on Oct 21, 2020 21:35:20 GMT
They were enjoyable vignettes, some more so than others. I wasn't sure what the 3rd dimension of a live performance added to these BBC works, but then Maxine Peak strode on stage and blew my socks off. It was by far the most physical performance, and carried a little visual humour with it.
That one apart, I had the sense all the directors made the same choices.
From the front row, the great thing for me was seeing six wonderful actors from 8'-10' away, on a low stage. It was literally like watching them from an armchair in your living room  |
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Post by david on Oct 22, 2020 21:07:59 GMT
I was at the opening night of Nine Lives tonight. Overall I thought it was ok as a monologue with a nice blend of humour and more serious elements with a really engaging performance from Zodwa Nyoni though at 60 minutes it just felt too short to deal with issues that the writing covered (homophobia and issues that asylum seekers currently face) and I really wanted to delve more deeply into the characters back story and outcome (which for me didn’t really happen).
The staging for this is basically non existent. You just get Zodwa with a suitcase full of props to help tell the story. The screens used in the Talking Heads are still on stage but not employed here. I think a few projections as a backdrop to help set the different locations would of been beneficial.
At around 60 minutes it does zip along nicely and I didn’t get bored but walking back to catch the Tube back to my hotel I just felt that I wanted more from this production than what I got.
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Post by vickyg on Oct 23, 2020 8:29:28 GMT
I hadn't seen the updated BBC versions of the talking heads and last watched the originals decades ago at school but I watched Nights in the Gardens of Spain and the beginning of Miss Fozzard last night and was really surprised at how different the performances were on screen as opposed to in the theatre. I was also impressed at how Tamsin Greig managed to be just as, if not more, quietly emotional in a large theatre compared to being completely alone on screen. It was funnier in the theatre too and much sadder on tv. I'm only a little bit of the way Miss Fozzard but so far the performance is completely different even down to the accent and much more subdued.
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Post by couldileaveyou on Oct 23, 2020 11:51:43 GMT
Dear all, I'm trying to sell a single stalls ticket for the matinee on October 31st. The show will feature "Playing Sandwiches" wth Lucian Msamati and "Lady of Letters" with Imelda Staunton. More info here in the Noticeboard. Thank you! |
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Post by NeilVHughes on Oct 23, 2020 21:39:23 GMT
I really wanted to delve more deeply into the characters back story and outcome For me this was the core of the piece, an immigrant is perceived as an alien with their humanity removed and whilst in the approval process has neither a past they could return to or a firm future to look forward to, just an existence in stasis made up of endless days of not belonging and the powerlessness this entails. There was enough to understand why he had to leave whilst the narrative showed the decision to seek asylum leads to ‘nationless’, unable to go back and no foundation to go forward, claiming asylum is not the easy option it is often portrayed. |
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Post by peggs on Oct 23, 2020 22:37:39 GMT
Did anyone go to see Inua Ellams' An Evening with an Immigrant? I went recently and perhaps I was slightly influenced by the fact that it was my first real theatre night out in months, or the fact that it's a topic I am very interested in, or both, but I absolutely adored it. It got a standing ovation at the end, so I definitely wasn't alone. It's basically Inua telling the story of his childhood and moving to England (and Ireland and back to England), through lots of anecdotes and moments of poetry, but it's actually much nicer than I make it sound. I highly recommend it! I didn't see this but have seen a few interviews etc recently where's he's told this and he's just grand isn't he. |
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Post by Forrest on Oct 24, 2020 22:08:20 GMT
He is! I read about An Evening with an Immigrant after I'd seen The Barber Shop Chronicles as part of NT at Home, which was an absolute theatre-crush for me (I think I watched it like 3 times in 2 days - it literally haunted me) and I've wanted to see it since, so I was thrilled to see that the Bridge decided to bring it back! It definitely did not disappoint. He really has a particular talent for storytelling, which manages to be both light and humorous, clever and insightful, and it is such an honest telling of his story that it's easy to find something to connect with. (I also recently attended the launch of his new book of poetry over Zoom and very much enjoyed it, even though I'm not really a big fan of poetry in general. My favourite part of the evening, though, was when Ellams noted, after Sule Rimi had read a poem, that he is working on a new play with a part specifically for Sule. That is something to look forward to!) |
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Post by peggs on Oct 24, 2020 22:24:24 GMT
(I also recently attended the launch of his new book of poetry over Zoom and very much enjoyed it, even though I'm not really a big fan of poetry in general. My favourite part of the evening, though, was when Ellams noted, after Sule Rimi had read a poem, that he is working on a new play with a part specifically for Sule. That is something to look forward to!) I was on that too! I saw an interview from the hay festival with back back in the early lock down days and so have kept an eye out since. Barbershop Chronicles was amazing (watched as you when they streamed) would have been amazing to be in that space live, then similarly while not being wild about poetry went and had a little bob around with that music interspersed poetry. |
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Post by Forrest on Oct 24, 2020 23:21:17 GMT
I was at the opening night of Nine Lives tonight. Overall I thought it was ok as a monologue with a nice blend of humour and more serious elements with a really engaging performance from Zodwa Nyoni though at 60 minutes it just felt too short to deal with issues that the writing covered (homophobia and issues that asylum seekers currently face) and I really wanted to delve more deeply into the characters back story and outcome (which for me didn’t really happen). The staging for this is basically non existent. You just get Zodwa with a suitcase full of props to help tell the story. The screens used in the Talking Heads are still on stage but not employed here. I think a few projections as a backdrop to help set the different locations would of been beneficial. At around 60 minutes it does zip along nicely and I didn’t get bored but walking back to catch the Tube back to my hotel I just felt that I wanted more from this production than what I got. I agree with this - I left the Bridge rather disappointed tonight too. While I had no issue with the lack of any actual staging (it's simpler during this strange period of mixed monologues, and cheaper for them I guess, and thus fine by me), I felt let down by the text: it was somewhat superficial and just somehow... hollow. I expected to see (and feel) a genuine human story, and it actually felt quite generic and calculated in a catch all/trying-hard-to-be-likeable kind of way (i.e. in the kind of way that Hollywood films based on a tragic true story often are, to make it more palatable to a wider audience, e.g. in some moments it felt like it was trying too hard to be funny, drifting into unnecessary details of random sub-stories just for laughs, at other times it felt too banal). I didn't feel like it gave me enough to go on to actually care much for the character: he felt overwhelmingly like a shell filled with bits and pieces of that what is (I presume) meant to be the opposite to the negative expectations and stereotypes about asylum seekers/immigrants, rather than like a real, complex human being - we never really scratched deeper underneath the surface. I also didn't much appreciate the author's decision to directly employ the some of us voice, rather than just a singular, personal one: it somehow made the already thin character seem even thinner and less important . (Perhaps it made it less clear whose story it is?) I also prefer it when authors give me something to think about rather than just tell me everything directly, plus some of it felt really cliche and unnecessary. By wanting to provide as many counterarguments against common prejudice as possible, Nyoni effectively alienated me as an audience member from her character (and quite ironically so, given the subject matter of the play). I thought the actor was OK (it's Lladel Bryant, btw, not the author), but he didn't have too much to work with from my perspective. The whole thing fades particularly in comparison to An Evening with an Immigrant which so effortlessly manages to be everything that this seems to want to be but isn't: a genuine, heartfelt story about the alienating reality of being the other. TL;DR: I didn't like this all that much, and the more I think about it the more I am wondering why Bridge chose to stage it because I really don't think it's a particularly good text. (I might be tired and too critical, though. Perhaps I should have slept on this before saying anything...) |
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Post by londonpostie on Oct 25, 2020 13:28:10 GMT
to be honest I think the monologue concept can struggle as a theatrical concept unless the material is quite excellent. Maggie Smith did well with A German Life and Andrew Scott did the 30' Sea Wall but some of these 3-dimensioned Alan Bennett jobs do perhaps better belong on BBC2. Having said that, it's work for people who need it, audiences are getting out, it's all a sign of progress and this is what can be done for now. Don't know what's in the pipeline but I'd actually like to see angrier work, as well. The whole year has been a catastrophe - part nature, part inflicted, part self-inflicted - and I can only take so many stories from 50-something ladies from Yorkshire. I have Beat the Devil at The Bridge this week, so that might get the juices flowing  |
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Post by Forrest on Oct 25, 2020 18:12:28 GMT
londonpostie, I couldn't agree more: there's not much that even the best actor can do to disguise a mediocre monologue, and sadly, for me, this belongs to that category. Then again, it's work for those who need it right now, and it's a chance to go back to the theatre for the rest of us, so I'm happy it's there. I am also really impressed by everything the Bridge has done to get the audiences back and, much like you, am looking forward to finding out what they will put on next. Also, looking forward to reading your thoughts on Beat the Devil! (I haven't seen it, sadly couldn't get a solo ticket for any of the dates available.)
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Post by londonpostie on Oct 25, 2020 19:48:22 GMT
@forrest I'm definitely ready for Ralph Fiennes to be angry!  |
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Post by Dr Tom on Nov 4, 2020 15:15:06 GMT
I did catch two more monologues last Friday.
Nine Lives was watchable enough and well-performed, but I unfulfilled by the end. Perhaps that was the point behind it?
Beat The Devil. Very little about coronavirus, mostly a political piece. It is almost a snapshot of when it was written which feels dated even a few months on.
More empty seats for Beat The Devil than Nine Lives, which surprised me. Several premium blocks near the front.
The Bridge Theatre remains a model of how to operate under Covid-19 conditions.
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