4,153 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jan 26, 2016 8:07:11 GMT
I've just realised that my ticket for tonight should have been posted to me and hasn't turned up. Check you've got your tickets, folks.
|
|
546 posts
|
Post by drmaplewood on Jan 26, 2016 9:15:09 GMT
Was also there last night, started 5 mins late and 2nd intervall was 5 minutes longer than planned so probably 2 hrs 50 at the moment (though could be trimmed, and the intervals does make it feel like a long evening).
Saw the Almeida production in 2010 and hated it so much I told myself it would take something special to re-visit it again but very glad I did as it was much more enjoyable.
|
|
|
|
Post by DebbieDoesDouglas(Hodge) on Jan 26, 2016 10:35:42 GMT
Was also there last night, started 5 mins late and 2nd intervall was 5 minutes longer than planned so probably 2 hrs 50 at the moment (though could be trimmed, and the intervals does make it feel like a long evening). Saw the Almeida production in 2010 and hated it so much I told myself it would take something special to re-visit it again but very glad I did as it was much more enjoyable. Where u row e in stalls?!  ! |
|
546 posts
|
Post by drmaplewood on Jan 26, 2016 11:20:26 GMT
No alas, back in Row W (and sat in front of who I assume was the stage manager, furiously taking notes)
|
|
526 posts
|
Post by danielwhit on Jan 26, 2016 22:50:04 GMT
Definitely the best out of the inaugural Warchus season so far. Tonight whizzed along. Two intervals didn't drag either, despite how used I am to the one or two act format.
Much better than the horrendously clunky Hairy Ape, by every measure.
Tonight finished at 10.15 with no noticeable delays.
|
|
4,153 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jan 27, 2016 9:38:46 GMT
I'm afraid from the back of the very hot dress circle and behind a pillar this didn't do much for me. Being very tired didn't help, I'm sure - it felt like a long evening and I just didn't connect to it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2016 13:02:04 GMT
Sorry to be a pain but can anyone give me a vague idea how they've staggered the intervals, and roughly how long they last? (Planning my loo break!) Thanks!
|
|
|
|
Post by DebbieDoesDouglas(Hodge) on Jan 27, 2016 13:04:06 GMT
2 intervals at (approximately) 20 mins each came at about 50 mins into both acts
|
|
516 posts
|
Post by theatreliker on Jan 27, 2016 13:32:13 GMT
I'm afraid from the back of the very hot dress circle and behind a pillar this didn't do much for me. Being very tired didn't help, I'm sure - it felt like a long evening and I just didn't connect to it. We all having theatre going experiences like that.... Gatz. |
|
1,502 posts
|
Post by foxa on Jan 27, 2016 17:52:20 GMT
Just picked up my tix and was told it was likely I wouldn't be able to see anything! Only alternative was 60 pound tix. So I guess we'll treat it as a radio play but can't see us lasting 3 hours.
|
|
516 posts
|
Post by theatreliker on Jan 27, 2016 18:02:39 GMT
Just picked up my tix and was told it was likely I wouldn't be able to see anything! Only alternative was 60 pound tix. So I guess we'll treat it as a radio play but can't see us lasting 3 hours. Is there a pillar in front of you? In the upper circle when I go to see it next week. |
|
1,502 posts
|
Post by foxa on Jan 27, 2016 18:08:25 GMT
Baylis circle bench seats p18 and x23. Only 10 pounds but obviously really bad. I must have been mad.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2016 18:44:50 GMT
Should the Old Vic, in good conscience, be selling seats at all where they know you can't see anything? (I appreciate they might not have known before rehearsals/previews started, but surely once they realised, offering refunds/alternative tickets should have been the approach?)
|
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on Jan 27, 2016 21:14:55 GMT
Sat in X6 Baylis circle bench seats...was fine. Missed nothing with a bit of leaning. 2 intervals helped with the slightly uncomfortable seat. Ralph and co were ace...wouldn't have missed it!
|
|
1,502 posts
|
Post by foxa on Jan 27, 2016 21:22:36 GMT
We didn't make it past the first interval, I'm afraid. The box office person was exaggerating, you could see though you had to peer through bars sometimes and some bits were blocked by people and sometimes when Ralph was sat down we missed him, but if we'd been enthralled by the play we would have stayed. We could hear everything. Ralph was in good voice. I don't think we were in the mood to watch a mid-life crisis play. However we justified leaving by saying it was the same length as some of Caryl Churchill's recent plays, so we probably got our money's worth.
|
|
1,502 posts
|
Post by foxa on Jan 27, 2016 21:42:22 GMT
Also we had a great meal across the street at Wahaca, complete with hibiscus margaritas, so overall an evening well spent.
|
|
703 posts
|
Post by theatremiss on Jan 27, 2016 22:34:56 GMT
10th Feb for me. Can't wait
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2016 0:00:10 GMT
In fairness, this probably isn't the ideal play to see when you had less than 6 hours' sleep the night before. It needs a lot of concentration. By the time I'd waited at the incredibly slow traffic lights and was heading back in to Waterloo, I think I'd made some kind of sense of it, but I feel this is one that might repay second viewing for me.
I didn't really feel like I connected with it. As foxa says, Ralph's voice is very strong (finally, an actor who can deliver multiple lines of dialogue with his back to the audience and still have every word resonate!), and my, what a beautiful voice it is. So much so that at times I was just listening to the lilt and not taking in the meaning! I get the sense that his Solness will be great, but it's not quite there yet (absolutely fair enough because these are previews after all). Since several others have said they love him already, I'll explain why in case you think I'm mad!
I loved the hand-holding with the wife, and the agonised twist of his body, in the emotional scenes. But in places there he came across a little too stagey for my liking. I also found it hard to feel any sympathy for Solness because his logic seemed so twisted. (I know this may be part of his (possible) madness and a reaction to his wife's hardship, but the full force of that didn't come across to me as he always seemed so suddenly to flip back into his unpleasant persona; it felt like that was his true persona.)
Add to this the fact that Hilda is unlikable and irritating from the word go, and that the ending comes marching inexorably towards you waving a big flag marked 'obvious'... and it's hard to care, really.
But as I say, I think this does have plenty of potential, so I may well make a return visit if time and finances allow!
Aside from the play - what was the deal with FOH telling everyone sternly that they wouldn't get back in after the intervals unless they had their ticket to show? As far as I could see they didn't bother to check anyway!
|
|
1,502 posts
|
Post by foxa on Jan 28, 2016 9:35:49 GMT
I wondered if there was some security anxiety - as we entered the auditorium we were exhorted to keep our bags with us at all times (but not told to turn our phones off and at least three phones went off during the first act, twice from the same woman in the circle.)
I was frustrated that I couldn't engage with it more - maybe there is a reason I've never bothered to see the play before (and I suppose I still haven't since we left after the first act.) I agree completely with jean about the staginess of it - I could feel Fiennes timing a pause or lowering his voice, not because it made any particular sense for the character but because it would get a dutiful laugh from the audience. I wasn't sure how much the David Hare adaptation of the script was responsible for the stilted awkwardness of it. The music was a bit unhelpful too. At one point I thought yet another phone was going off, this time with a particularly odd ringtone, but then realised that was the background music thought appropriate for a reminiscence about when Hilda had first met Solness. Also, I forgot to mention that James Dreyfus was off last night too, which perhaps didn't add to the merriment of the experience.
But undoubtedly others will like this and it was pretty packed last night.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2016 9:48:14 GMT
Well.
For a start the only play I ever want to see Sarah Snook (Hilde) in again is 'Titus Andronicus' so they can cut her arms off. She waved them about so much that she started off irritating and then move to increasingly distracting before being plainly unwatchable. She was awful. Actually, she went flying past the line marked 'awful' during rehearsals I think. She was no match whatsoever for Gemma Arterton in the Almeida version a few years ago.
As for Leonard Rossiter, he was very good - a bit hammy in parts but it's a part that suits him very well. Martin Hutson very good as Ragnar but Linda Emond as Aline was the standout for me. It can be a bit of a moany, thankless part but she was very touching.
Lovely set and the end is great.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2016 13:44:16 GMT
Ryan, I am having an uber-stressful day but your post has just made me laugh out loud. Thank you for that!!
I actually hadn't noticed Hilda's arms being a problem; I think I was too distracted by her slightly odd voice. (At times she seemed to be aiming for clipped Nordic tones, at others she just seemed to dissolve into deep-voiced Englishness). Mind you, I was impressed by how she coped with the unintentionally sharp slap she took on the back while tussling with Fiennes. A guy did that to me once while treating me as 'one of the lads' and it quite knocked the breath out of me - I certainly couldn't have delivered a line straight afterwards! Poor Ralph - trying to be a gent backfired a bit there...
foxa - we were told to move bags in etc, but I'm guessing that's because Fiennes and co were tramping past us towards the end. Audience noise seemed fine where I was, but I saw someone loudly telling FOH at the first interval that they wouldn't be back as the people near them were eating crisps and chatting. I guess there must have been noise from somewhere close by me though, because as the lights went up on Act 2, a guy along my row hissed: "Put a sock in it!" I'm assuming he was having a go at an audience member and not the recorded singer doing the ethereal-sounding music...
|
|
2,389 posts
|
Post by peggs on Jan 29, 2016 0:12:46 GMT
The main problem I have with theatre is that it doesn't half attract an audience, I don't know if I am getting increasingly impatient or just had an irritating audience though I rather seem to moan a lot about them. Phones going off on repeat, people eating crisps (crisps?!), endless opening of fizzing drink bottles so you get the hiss, those my neighbour can hear my whispering but obviously no one else can, ahhh!
Ryan the women next to me threatened to slap Sarah Snook if there was any more arm waving and hair flipping so it wasn't just you. I'm not sure how I felt about this, RF I'd agree with those who really liked this, always watchable and moving from anger to grief via various other stations seemingly with ease. Linda Emond with not huge lines but I agree with Ryan v good, touching. Not sure about Sarah Snook, partly I wanted her to look younger as that would seemed to have fitted with her youthful impatience with weakness but couldn't agree with lady in toilet queue who said she was just too tall but then perhaps me wanting her look younger is as peaky and unreasonable. I didn't like the character so that probably influenced me. James Drefus still off. Liked the set, is that why the two intervals to change it round? Can't quite work out what I thought of the play as a whole, suspect I need to ponder it a bit and read some more insightful people than me. But for £10 preview really rather good and yes it was nice to be able to hear everything.
Do they usual just do one quick curtain call?
Oh and still doing the you must have your ticket or being given a new ticket to get back in, are people really trying to blag their way in part way through or is it a new security measure as suggested, I suppose usually it would be easier as anything to wander in after the interval when probably no bag checks or anything were taking place.
|
|
|
|
Post by vickster51 on Jan 29, 2016 17:35:34 GMT
So having done so well for all the others I missed the PwC preview sale for this and on looking now am stunned at how expenside this place is now. Most of the stalls are £90-£140! That's even more than I've paid in the past for bigger shows under Mr. Spacey's tenure.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2016 22:15:44 GMT
Left at the first interval
What a pile of sh*t
One of the worst audiences I have seen for a long time also
|
|
19,651 posts
|
Post by BurlyBeaR on Jan 29, 2016 22:27:57 GMT
Parsley, welcome. We've been expecting you.
|
|
!
