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Post by kate8 on Apr 22, 2023 7:34:51 GMT
My thoughts about last night’s performance:
If you know and like Hamlet then this is interesting for all the scenes about that play and how to perform it, what motivates Hamlet, how different actors approach the part, etc. That’s enough to make it worth seeing.
It’s funny and entertaining in a gossipy way, seeing the portrayals of rehearsal and interaction between the actor-characters.
It’s difficult to portray charismatic ‘great’ actors on stage, so a play which is partly about that charisma, and what makes a great actor, is a big ask. Good though the cast is, I don’t think anyone would claim Gatiss and Flynn are as celebrated as Gielgud and Burton were in their day, so, for me, a lot of the Shakespeare dialogue fell a bit flat, when it should be spellbinding.
Gatiss did a very good Gielgud, but Flynn was a bit lacking, in particular his voice just isn’t beautiful. He did a reasonable impression of Burton’s intonation and accent and physicality, but that wasn’t enough - it felt too much on the surface, and the voice just got irritating. Tuppence Middleton was good as Taylor, and she and Gatiss do much more than impersonations, but their characters don’t have to perform so much Shakespeare, so maybe have an easier job in that respect.
It’s a large cast but most have little to do - reflecting the Burton Hamlet where some big names took small roles in order to work with Gielgud and Burton. Gielgud at one point says (can’t remember if he’s quoting someone else?) that Shakespeare should have condensed Laertes, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern into a single character. So I assume it was deliberate to make the three actors quite alike - I didn’t manage to work out which was which by sight.
I quite liked the structure - rehearsal scenes interspersed with scenes with Elizabeth - cast parties, her and Burton at home, etc. In between the bigger scenes, actors try out scenes from the play, often with key phrases projected onto the arch. That created really neat transitions between the scenes.
The problem with the rehearsal room design is a long table where half of the actors have their backs to us, but mostly non-speakers. Otherwise I loved the design with its simple colour-coded rooms, mood indicated by a few elegant props. There’s a nice moment with Burton being gloomy at home where the flowers from last night’s cast party are now wilting in their vases. And there are some gorgeous tableaux starts/ends to some scenes.
It was too long and a bit plodding at times, but then it was the first preview. I’d give it three stars - an entertaining evening, a bit disappointing given the team involved, but I’m sure it will be cut and much tightened by press night. I’m tempted to book again for the end of the run.
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Post by thistimetomorrow on Apr 22, 2023 22:39:39 GMT
I quite liked it. I'm unfamiliar with Hamlet (never read it, never seen it, obviously have heard of the 'To Be or Not To Be' speech, but that's about it) so some of the digging deep into the scenes/motivations/characterisations went straight over my head. I think I would have enjoyed it more or maybe gotten into the play more quickly if I had a bit more background on Hamlet. I still found the material quite engaging (probably helped by the non Shakespeare scenes in between), but my favourite parts were the actual human conflict scenes between Gielgud and Burton. On the other hand, Gielgud/Burton/Taylor are very much not my era (again not seen any films they've been in) so I don't have any actual image or sound of them in my mind that would make me think the actors are trying to do impersonations. Very much agree with the above poster that I would love to see Mark Gatiss do more Shakespeare, this was my first time seeing him on stage and I thought he was fantastic. |
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Post by Jon on Apr 23, 2023 1:11:32 GMT
I'm a real sucker for films, TV and theatre that shows the story behind something successful so The Motive and The Cue is up my street.
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Post by standingo on Apr 23, 2023 15:06:15 GMT
Spoiler request
How mature/explicit is this play? Was thinking of bringing a preteen.
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Post by thistimetomorrow on Apr 23, 2023 15:42:46 GMT
How mature/explicit is this play? Was thinking of bringing a preteen. I don't think very? There's 1 or 2 kissing scenes, a fade to black suggestion of a sex scene, brief sex talk in a scene with a male prostitute and some general swearing. |
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Post by londonpostie on Apr 23, 2023 16:47:00 GMT
Sounds intriguing. From what I've read on here so far, it has reminded me of this insightful, gossipy ( 6:20 ) delight from the early 1960s:
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Post by mrnutz on Apr 24, 2023 10:57:33 GMT
I saw this on Friday night at what turned out to be the first preview - not that you could tell!
This is a play that rewards knowledge of the source material - Hamlet, and specifically the Gielgud / Burton production. Sadly, I had little knowledge of either of these things so some of the parts others were finding so amusing went over my head.
However, the two leads are excellent - Johnny Flynn in particular commands the stage with his presence - and rarely leaves it.
The first half was a little long and slow for my tastes, but the ending is a real coup de théâtre.
I’m tempted to return near the end of the run (having brushed up on my Hamlet) to see how this has developed.
4/5
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Post by mrnutz on Apr 24, 2023 10:58:12 GMT
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Apr 24, 2023 17:41:26 GMT
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Post by couldileaveyou on Apr 28, 2023 2:51:17 GMT
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Post by Jon on Apr 29, 2023 22:44:38 GMT
Saw this tonight and it's a real treat for those who love theatre with many in jokes but also witnessing in the rehearsal room despite tempers flaring and egos clashing that magic can happen once it all clicks into place.
Johnny Flynn as Richard Burton is very good and you can see despite being of an arse at times, why Burton was one of the greatest actors of his generation but I think Mark Gatiss as John Gielgud pips him slightly but the two of them together are dynamic. Tuppence Middleton is good as Elizabeth Taylor as well.
Judging by how busy it was, I think it will have a further life beyond the National. Maybe it could go into the Gielgud after Old Friends or perhaps the Haymarket?
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Post by Steve on Apr 29, 2023 23:29:27 GMT
Saw this tonight and LOVED it. Basically, I agree with what Rumbledoll and Kate8 said, above. In particular, Mark Gatiss is really phenomenal, and moving, as Gielgud, in my opinion. Some spoilers follow. . . I've seen quite a few Burton - Taylor movies (the best one by far is "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" though I'm quite fond of the trashy airport movie, "The VIPs," on account of the fact Maggie Smith's character is so sweet in it lol), but before this week I was unaware you could even watch a recording of Burton's Hamlet, let alone do so on YouTube. I watched it earlier this week and felt that Hume Cronyn's Polonius was easily the best performance in it. Burton's voice is one-of-a-kind incredible, wiry, muscular and electric, and a couple of his monologues were heartfelt, but by and large, he just turned his electric voice intensity up from 100 to a 1000 volts, whenever he thought the audience needed a jolt, with little obvious evidence of genuine feeling behind it, or so I felt, anyway. And that sense, I got, of an insecure actor, struggling to give a great performance, is partly what the show is about, at least as far as Johnny Flynn's Burton is concerned. And Burton, rightly or wrongly, blames his director, Mark Gatiss's Gielgud for not giving him more help. Flynn has a hell of a challenge here, having first to capture the allure of that electric voice (he does) and then on top of that, having to depict Burton's alpha male outward affect, while simultaneously showing us his inner fragility. This is after all, the polar opposite of what we have seen from previous Flynn characters, like in "The Heretic" and "Hangmen, where he has played beta seeming outward characters with inner balls of steel (God, I loved his passive aggressive sh*t with the peanuts in "Hangmen " lol). Well, Flynn is 90 percent there with his fragile alpha persona, at this stage of previews, and can only get better from here. Tuppence Middleton's Elizabeth Taylor character is very much there to reveal Burton's inner fragility to the audience, and she nails it. But the absolute heart of this show is Gatiss's Sir John Gielgud, who is a magnificent and moving portrait of the man. At one point, Gielgud, frustrated by Burton's shouty macho posturing tells him his Hamlet would obviously have killed Claudius right from the start, and advises him to build his character more slowly. That slow build is what Gatiss perfects in his portrayal of Gielgud. I was reminded very much of Gatiss's performance as Charles I in Hampstead Theatre's "55 Days," a man out of time, and Gatiss shows Gielgud to be similarly vulnerable, a kind of doomed and deposed king of a theatre whose priorities are changing out from under him. Gatiss shows the humour of the man, the fear, the dignity and the decency, the heart, the vulnerability, the aging, the indecisiveness, the shadow and the pride of his former greatness, as well as an aloofness rooted more in loneliness than condescension. For a play which press has all been about Burton and Taylor, I found it ironic yet oddly affecting that it's not the new that carries most of the heart and pathos, but the old. In small roles, Janie Dee and Aysha Kala and Luke Norris are very impressive. Jack Thorne has probably hobbled his play from having momentous and massively dramatic confrontations, that would have raised the play's entertainment value, out of fealty to the truth. But if it's never as thrilling as "Virginia Woolf," it's nonetheless compelling and amusing and, in Gatiss's portrayal of Gielgud, it's very moving. 4 stars from me at this preview stage. I hope to go again.  |
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Post by theatremiss on Apr 29, 2023 23:53:39 GMT
Looks like a few of us were there tonight then. Sorry if any of you had your toes trampled on as I had to dash with 12 mins to make my train home.
It was an interesting piece in as much as you got to see behind the lives of these actors. I thought Gatiss is superb and it came across that he had a somewhat sad life and I felt rather emotional aover it. Flynn is OK as Burton but I defy anyone to match the timbre and dulcet tones of Burton’s voice.
I wonder if there are any forum members that may have seen Burton in NY as Hamlet
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Post by lou105 on Apr 30, 2023 10:53:07 GMT
Also there last night and really enjoyed it. The end of act one was really moving and Mark Gatiss was a joy in general. I'm not steeped in the timbre of the "real" voices of the characters so I wasn't analysing that, but was glad to have a reasonable knowledge of Hamlet and an outline understanding of the personalities involved. Sure I'm not the only one who thought Gertrude was familiar and was surprised to find it was Janie Dee! Whilst you could argue that a NT crowd would be likely to get the references, that also makes the production vulnerable to negative opinion, so it was lovely to hear a genuine warm reception, with cheers from the moment the curtain calls started. This isn't going to appeal to everyone but, if you think you might like it, I think you will! Personally standingo I'd have been uneasy at times with a preteen watching this, but I also don't think they'd get much from it, so it maybe depends on why you were thinking of taking them! |
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Post by standingo on Apr 30, 2023 14:12:57 GMT
Thank you lou105. Can you elaborate?
I will probably heed your advice and hope this is filmed for NTLive, and catch up with it in the future.
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Post by lou105 on Apr 30, 2023 14:48:14 GMT
Thank you lou105. Can you elaborate? I will probably heed your advice and hope this is filmed for NTLive, and catch up with it in the future. I'm probably on the conservative side about things I would take a child/young teen to watch, so I wouldn't presume to judge for anyone else. As another poster said, the more adult content is discussed or implied rather than graphically portrayed. Are you happy to let a number of f***s (sometimes just as swear words, sometimes used as a verb), and a couple of c***s go over their heads? Would it bother you that they heard a sex worker list what they were willing to offer? As I mentioned, I really enjoyed the play, and I dont think any of it is gratuitous, in fact it's part of the poignant emotional tone of the piece. But for me, anyone under 14 or so is unlikely to engage with either the artistic or the personal struggles, and would at best be politely bored. |
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Post by Jon on Apr 30, 2023 15:17:39 GMT
Thank you lou105. Can you elaborate? I will probably heed your advice and hope this is filmed for NTLive, and catch up with it in the future. I'm probably on the conservative side about things I would take a child/young teen to watch, so I wouldn't presume to judge for anyone else. As another poster said, the more adult content is discussed or implied rather than graphically portrayed. Are you happy to let a number of f***s (sometimes just as swear words, sometimes used as a verb), and a couple of c***s go over their heads? Would it bother you that they heard a sex worker list what they were willing to offer? As I mentioned, I really enjoyed the play, and I dont think any of it is gratuitous, in fact it's part of the poignant emotional tone of the piece. But for me, anyone under 14 or so is unlikely to engage with either the artistic or the personal struggles, and would at best be politely bored. I agree, it's a great play but it's not for kids. |
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Post by theatremiss on Apr 30, 2023 20:49:11 GMT
Oh a totally weird note. Have I been the only one who wished Johnny Flynn shoes were rubber soled? The constant clicking as he walked back and forth across the stage was beyond irritating.
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Post by artea on Apr 30, 2023 23:13:20 GMT
Gielgud Burton Broadway Hamlet.
There's also from memory a 90 min Gielgud adaptation of hamlet. Plus another burton/Gielgud collaboration in I think Christopher Fry, now sadly out of fashion but very poetic and very very literate.
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Post by theoracle on May 1, 2023 23:27:03 GMT
Oh my goodness, what a show! Everything is fitted so nicely and one can’t help but feel nostalgic for a time when Theatre was very much a staple in society where greats like Richard Burton and John Gielgud tread the boards. Much praise must go to Jack Thorne for writing such a witty and poignant piece of drama which is brought to life by Sam Mendes’ vision. The final scene gave me goosebumps certainly but the build up to that moment, each rehearsal gives an amazing glimpse into a bygone era which I can only wish would come back. Can’t rate this highly enough and hope to see it again, an if not, then stream it. This show very much epitomises why the National Theatre still matters and why we need to continue supporting it.
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Post by Jon on May 1, 2023 23:52:02 GMT
They've marked down both performances on the 5th July as filmed performances so I'm guessing it'll be for NT Live or NT at Home at a later date.
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Post by profquatermass on May 2, 2023 8:17:50 GMT
Not really a spoiler to say that at the end there is a projection on the curtain telling how the production fared and what happened to the leading performers. I don't think I've ever seen that before at the theatre - can anyone think of other examples?
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Post by frankubelik on May 2, 2023 8:52:44 GMT
Hugely enjoyable and very "Theatrical"; the two leading men do a superb job but I found the interpretation of Miss Taylor rather jarring. Very warmly received by a largely partisan audience. Nice to see the National back to top-quality productions.
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Post by Being Alive on May 2, 2023 11:47:33 GMT
They've marked down both performances on the 5th July as filmed performances so I'm guessing it'll be for NT Live or NT at Home at a later date. Doesn't necessarily mean this - the NT record everything for archive purposes. It feels like a possible NT at Home future release but i'd be shocked to see it go out on NT Live |
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Post by Jon on May 2, 2023 12:37:03 GMT
They've marked down both performances on the 5th July as filmed performances so I'm guessing it'll be for NT Live or NT at Home at a later date. Doesn't necessarily mean this - the NT record everything for archive purposes. It feels like a possible NT at Home future release but i'd be shocked to see it go out on NT Live Didn't The Lehman Trilogy get a NT Live? That was also co-produced by Neal Street although that didn't broadcast until near the end of the Piccadilly run. |
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