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Post by joem on Oct 7, 2018 20:07:50 GMT
So you have to be black to write/direct/perform work about black people. Is that where we are now? Our attempts to redress the balance of white/ethnic presence in the arts has led to this division. It is similar to the kind of thinking that says Shakespeare must have been a lawyer or gone abroad or suffered from insomnia ...or stabbed someone because he wrote so well about such things. As he did about being black, being Jewish and being a woman. Of course personal experience and cultural environment feed into and inspire a writer/director/performer but it should not define the same and yet now it seems it is only acceptable if it does. It is more or less where we are now and it's going that way with gender. I am appalled whenever and wherever there is discrimination against anyone for colour, creed, gender etc but what is often happening now is that discrimination is being perpetrated in the name of fairness and disguised as something positive. Helping someone is positive, penalising someone is not. History cannot be rewritten and historical wrongs cannot be corrected by creating new victims. Opportunities have to be created, equal opportunities. To discriminate against someone for the colour of their skin cannot be condoned whatever that colour might be. To say that someone deserves to be punished for what someone of their own colour did 200 years ago is simply racist. If I am only allowed to act/write/direct and be involved creatively in productions which fit my racial profile (apartheid scientists would have loved this) then should I also spend my money only on productions which fit my profile? And will at some point a future government legislate to ensure that we do not transgress by crossing racial divides? |
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Post by zahidf on Oct 7, 2018 22:01:39 GMT
Without getting too much into it, there are systematic and historical discriminations against people of colour and women in arts (and other areas of life).
Too try and remedy that, 'positive discrimination ' is one tool of many. If it's an 'person of colour ' story, I think it's a fair question to ask why a person of colour is not involved on the creative team. If they have a good answer to that, that's fine, but I think that's it's wrong to equate asking that question to the actual and historical roadblocks to people of colour and women in the industry.
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Post by meister on Apr 17, 2019 16:25:46 GMT
Anyone going to the first preview tonight? Interested to hear thoughts...
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Post by Snciole on Apr 18, 2019 7:57:30 GMT
I am off to see it tonight. Running time is 3 hours for some reason so I am already dreading it but thanks Young Patrons Membership for the promise of two free drinks later.
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Post by nash16 on Apr 18, 2019 8:57:56 GMT
Anyone going to the first preview tonight? Interested to hear thoughts... It's long. 3.5hrs last night. Out just after 11pm. |
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Post by Jon on Apr 18, 2019 11:17:11 GMT
I had an inkling it would be long, the BBC adaptation was 3 hours as well
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Post by Snciole on Apr 18, 2019 22:20:36 GMT
And maybe it should have stayed a BBC adaptation. I had a lovely time, mainly due to the performances but at over 3 hours, a poor use of the Olivier as a set (though 3 stars alone for revolve use) but this felt more like Norris showing someone somewhere that he is a bit of sick of theatre and would like to do more screen work.
I think in light of a white creative cast the relentless racial insults (Yes, Britain wasn't friendly. What is literally new) is hard work For the audience. This has been advertised and aimed at Afro-Caribbean audiences but there is clear issues about stories being for audiences or about the audience and this treaded the fine line.
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Post by catcat100 on Apr 23, 2019 22:57:25 GMT
Well this was quite the treat tonight.
I went into the theatre quite tired and ready to fall asleep and the kids running around at the start didn't do anything to improve things.
But, it slowly brings you in, as the story line expands, you get more and more drawn in to the characters until you get to the end and there's tears down your cheeks and your giving a standing ovation.
The beauty of it is that it is just telling a story, yes it has issues of racism, Windrush, war, PTSD in it but it doesn't try to comment on them, it just tells the story. Its not trying to get you to have an opinion on any of it.
Its quite a basic set but doesn't feel lost in the expanse of the Olivier stage. The huge backdrop with video across all of it kind of encloses the stage and brings it all together. The revolve is used in quite a clever way to separate scenes.
The acting from all is excellent, don't think any of them put a foot wrong. Always good when the acting ensures that you really believe in the characters.
It came in at around 3 1/4 hours tonight but don't let that put you off. Its a slow burner but once it gets started it just builds and builds up to the great finale and said tears and clapping.
Definitely in the running for play of the year so far. 5 out of 5.
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Post by wannabedirector on Apr 25, 2019 22:46:52 GMT
Well this was quite the treat tonight. I went into the theatre quite tired and ready to fall asleep and the kids running around at the start didn't do anything to improve things. But, it slowly brings you in, as the story line expands, you get more and more drawn in to the characters until you get to the end and there's tears down your cheeks and your giving a standing ovation. The beauty of it is that it is just telling a story, yes it has issues of racism, Windrush, war, PTSD in it but it doesn't try to comment on them, it just tells the story. Its not trying to get you to have an opinion on any of it. Its quite a basic set but doesn't feel lost in the expanse of the Olivier stage. The huge backdrop with video across all of it kind of encloses the stage and brings it all together. The revolve is used in quite a clever way to separate scenes. The acting from all is excellent, don't think any of them put a foot wrong. Always good when the acting ensures that you really believe in the characters. It came in at around 3 1/4 hours tonight but don't let that put you off. Its a slow burner but once it gets started it just builds and builds up to the great finale and said tears and clapping. Definitely in the running for play of the year so far. 5 out of 5. Saw this tonight and I think this just sums it up. I think it’s an astonishing piece of theatre and might just be my best new play I’ve seen this year, easily the best new play I’ve seen since Sweat. I don’t know if it struck such a cord with me because my grandparents were of that Windrush generation, but either way I would highly recommend. |
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Post by Jon on Apr 28, 2019 2:20:51 GMT
It's certainly drawing a more diverse crowd than your average NT shows. I really liked it and it is such an engrossing story that I hadn't noticed it was over 3 hours long. I was unsure about the narration, it used in in Act 1 by three of the characters but then only once by a different character in Act 2 but it didn't distract from the piece.
Quite liked the use of projections as well.
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Post by Steve on Apr 30, 2019 16:48:23 GMT
This is a fantastically moving (and amusing) five star drama, with three beautifully defined and relatable protagonists. In my opinion, it is the best thing Rufus Norris has directed at the National, both before and after his tenure as AD, and shows what he can do with good material. (The close of the first half is breathtaking, for example). This is the most marvelous tribute to Andrea Levy, who passed away this year, and I feel the vast majority who see this will feel it is one of the highlights of their year. It is certainly one of mine. Some spoilers follow. . . Adaptor, Helen Edmundson makes the inspired choice of centering the drama on the two female protagonists, who she gives soliloquies, a choice that finds and exploits the symmetry in the novel between the experiences of those two female protagonists, as well as allowing us a more humorous and intimate connection to those characters than we ever got in the tv adaptation of the source material a decade ago. In Leah Harvey and Aisling Loftus, Norris finds two enormously engaging and delightful performances to give life to these vibrant and witty and honest women; Harvey evincing the charismatic dignity she showed as The Globe's Emilia, as Hortense, but also an endearing reticence, and Loftus every bit her match as the quirky, funny, acts-before-she-thinks Queenie. For me, though, remarkably, it is Gershwyn Eustache Jnr as Gilbert who is the biggest revelation and the icing on this show's cake. Always compelling in dramatic roles I've seen, over the years, here Eustache Jnr is a shining star, prideful yet compassionate, larger-than-life yet acutely-aware, oozing charisma, tender yet funny as they come. These three perfectly realised characters breathe life into Levy's dramatic, moving, human, important story to such a degree that this for me is play of the year. 5 stars.  |
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Post by barelyathletic on May 2, 2019 13:14:49 GMT
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Post by lonlad on May 4, 2019 10:49:35 GMT
Saw this last night: simply glorious and ASTOUNDINGLY well directed by Norris and beautifully served by his design team -- the sound work especially is of the highest level. The standing ovation at the end was long and intense and the audience wanted the cast to return for a third bow, which, alas, the company didn't do. Brilliant acting all round (David Fielder breaks your heart) and agree that Gershwyn Eustache Jnr is wonderful --and must have the best name ever ! (Aisling Loftus a knockout as well.)
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Post by amybenson on May 8, 2019 11:59:15 GMT
A number of £15 tickets were released today.
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Post by Marcus on May 15, 2019 7:02:06 GMT
Saw this last night - a really captivating and fascinating story. We did have a show stop early on in Act 1 - the trap door on the right hand side of the revolve refused to spring up.
This was during the scene in the farm with the large fake pig - so the actors left the stage leaving the carcass hanging during the small interlude!
Rest of the show the trap was unused so people just walked on or off stage to that spot (made a much more hilarious death for one character!).
I found this initially slightly slow but then become really gripped by the tales of these characters from such vastly different cultures. Did have a slight GCSE crowd behind me who treated the show like a soap opera - gasping, screaming and commenting on characters. Whilst I appreciated their engagement it was slightly distracting.
Great night at the theatre though - time whizzed by. Also amazing to see such a diverse audience too!
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Post by david on May 15, 2019 17:12:34 GMT
Having watched this at today’s matinee, this truly is a 5* production without question and a privilege to have been in the audience. What Rufus Norris along with the cast and production crew has produced is something very special indeed and while I was was watching this I would like to think that Andrea Levy is smiling down from the stars at this piece of theatre and how they have translated her book for the stage. This production is up there with recent NT productions like Ant and Cleo and Angels in America for top quality Nash theatre. When they get a production right (like this) it hits the bullseye both in casting and the staging, both of which are faultless in my opinion. This production definitely is my number 1 play this year and quite honestly, it’s going to take something really special to shift it from that spot.
I’m glad that the Windrush generation story gets to be told to the public and the issues they faced coming to the UK. It was a brutal and honest (with plenty of great humour thrown in for good measure) for account of that generation which shocked many audience members in the language used at times. Many tears were shed during the 3 hours but what a lot of us came away with is that that generation took a giant leap of faith in travelling half way around the world to try and build a new and better life for themselves and their families with so little personal possessions and where met with both kindness as well as racism and bigotry from the British. It’s situations like this that actually makes you feel ashamed that human beings can treat others like this and since the Windrush generation arrived how such attitudes and beliefs are still prevalent in modern society.
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Post by n1david on May 16, 2019 8:56:25 GMT
Saw this last night and another positive vote for me. I felt safe in the hands of the creative team here (on and off stage), very quickly I settled in and thought "these people know what they're doing" and could just enjoy the great story telling and acting. Such a contrast to recent NT productions where I have frequently been taken out of my comfort zone, not because I was being tested but because I thought that these people were self-consciously "doing theatre". So it is long but doesn't feel like it, it's warm without being sickly, it's sharp without being spiky, it was a very good night at the theatre. Rufus Norris sitting a few seats along from us (mid stalls) taking notes.
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Post by zahidf on May 18, 2019 22:10:16 GMT
Saw this today: add me to the people who loved it. The 3.15 hours flew by, and the acting was wonderful. Very much a 5 star production and one of the best things I've seen at the national in ages
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Post by Dr Tom on May 24, 2019 8:46:30 GMT
Liked it, not as in love as many other reviewers, but this is decent, as seen last night for the middle of the Circle. It is long and starts very slow. Think the first half hour could easily be trimmed. I'm not familiar with the source material, so I found the time jumps a bit confusing, particularly one which I presume was meant to be set a few years after the end, but which appeared during act one. I could hear all sorts of similar confusion from other people leaving, things like: {Spoiler - click to view}
saying the baby was Gilbert's, which makes no sense as he only arrived in the country six months earlier I assumed it was written to allow for a sequel, as there were so many plot lines that weren't closed off. There is a certain charm to this and an emotional edge (or perhaps, based on the continual laughter from a lady a few seats away from me, it's just a comedy about those funny people). It was full at the start. A few people did leave at the interval, but I'm glad I stayed to the end, even though it was getting late. Can't imagine it's one I'd ever want to see again, but I'm tempted now to read the novel to get the full story. |
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Post by foxa on May 24, 2019 10:22:16 GMT
I'm seeing this next Friday. The novel is good!
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Post by joem on May 24, 2019 23:16:43 GMT
Having now read the novel, seen the tv adaptation and the play I can safely say that, in my view, the novel is the best version of this. Which is not surprising given this is how it was originally written by Andrea Levy.
Notwithstanding, this is a fine effort which does well to compensate for the difficulties in time and space involved in bringing a novel with such a wide-ranging narrative to the stage. The Olivier is perhaps not the best stage for this because it rather dwarfs the intimate moments, and there are many. On the other hand the huge cast of nearly forty actors would simply not fit into many other stages. Although this may be an adaptation it makes for epic theatre and the size of the stage serves to emphasise this.
The moral of this adaptation is that a good story will always succeed, whatever format you might use. The cast is very good here and there are plenty of witty lines, not least for Gershwyn Eustace Jr who relishes in them in his role of the angry but relentlessly cheerful Gilbert. At the end of the day the humour masks a more depressing message than might be apparent on the surface, somewhat akin to the ending of Forster's "A Passage to India", but then you remember this is history and the (fictional) events depicted, whilst painting an accurate picture of the ignorance and racism which the Windrush generation met, are in the past. And then you look around at a very mixed audience laughing together and audibly deploring the disgusting racist insults (totally necessary in the play) and you know that progress has been made.
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Post by NeilVHughes on May 25, 2019 17:26:31 GMT
A slow burner as it builds to a truly emotional conclusion, the time flew past and the ending came too soon.
Would have quite happily stayed for another 3 hours to experience Michaels story.
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Post by tmesis on May 28, 2019 7:31:06 GMT
Well, to use tmesis (sorry!) this is sen-bloody-sational.
I knew nothing of the novel (or the BBC series) but now I can't wait to read it. The adaptation is long at 3hrs 10 and with a first act of 1hr 40 but the time just flies by. You get completely drawn into the storytelling and the adaptation is very clear - I didn't feel the first act dragged at all.
At its heart are four cracking performances: Andrew Rothnay as Bernard, who is initially hilarious in his buttoned-up-ness but then chilling in his intolerance; Aisling Loftus is fantastic in her solid practicality, with a more sympathetic attitude to the 'coloureds' as she calls them; Leah Harvey has the largest part as the haughty Hortense; with Gershwyn Eustache Jnr, I think I'm a little in love, so appealingly did he play the character's optimistic stoicism in the face of hostility.
The production is wonderfully realised. The 'curse of the Olivier' seems finally to be lifted with this. The set is relatively simple but it moves from one disparate location to another with fantastically fluid and elegant transitions, underpinned with very subtle use of music.
This is definitely the best production from Norris I have seen - he's had a really duff run and you have to go back to London Road in 2011 for his last decent effort - and shows what a wonderful director he is with the right material.
This tops everything else I've seen this year.
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Post by kathryn on Jun 12, 2019 8:50:36 GMT
Well, finally saw this last night, and there's not much more to say, is there? You are all right - it's wonderful!
Proving once again that if a production is good then 3+ hours flies by!
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Post by ampersand on Jun 12, 2019 11:35:43 GMT
Me and my mam have booked to see the NT Live broadcast of this. High expectations!
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