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Post by mattnyc on Mar 15, 2023 4:41:54 GMT
How long are each of the acts?
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174 posts
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Post by dillan on Mar 15, 2023 9:05:04 GMT
How long are each of the acts? Act 1: 1 hour, 50 minutes Interval: 20 minutes Act 2: 1 hour, 40 minutes |
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19,659 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Mar 15, 2023 9:06:05 GMT
Poll added, let us know what your ratings are.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2023 11:34:38 GMT
I hope to catch a return during my business trip to London at month's end as having seeing this in Dutch, I would really like to experience it in English.
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Post by theatregoer22 on Mar 15, 2023 18:13:07 GMT
I hope to catch a return during my business trip to London at month's end as having seeing this in Dutch, I would really like to experience it in English. Today Tix has a lottery which appears to be open from 25 March. |
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1,254 posts
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Post by theatrelover123 on Mar 15, 2023 18:19:40 GMT
How long are each of the acts? Act 1: 1 hour, 50 minutes Interval: 20 minutes Act 2: 1 hour, 40 minutes That’s 3 hours 50 mins!  |
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1,254 posts
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Post by theatrelover123 on Mar 15, 2023 18:45:38 GMT
Act 1: 1 hour, 50 minutes Interval: 20 minutes Act 2: 1 hour, 40 minutes That’s 3 hours 50 mins! Here tonight. Note they give out says 1 hours 50 for Act 1, 20 min interval and 1 hours 30 for Act 2. |
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174 posts
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Post by dillan on Mar 15, 2023 19:13:19 GMT
Oops, yes I meant 1 hour, 30 minutes 😂
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1,254 posts
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Post by theatrelover123 on Mar 15, 2023 20:55:58 GMT
That’s 3 hours 50 mins! Here tonight. Note they give out says 1 hours 50 for Act 1, 20 min interval and 1 hours 30 for Act 2. First half about an hour 42 mins. Went by quickly |
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1,254 posts
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Post by theatrelover123 on Mar 15, 2023 23:04:00 GMT
Here tonight. Note they give out says 1 hours 50 for Act 1, 20 min interval and 1 hours 30 for Act 2. First half about an hour 42 mins. Went by quickly Second half about an hour 35. |
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Post by A.Ham on Mar 16, 2023 7:44:51 GMT
Anyone would think we all want it to be over and done with as quickly as possible going by these posts! There’s always Six or My Son’s A Queer…
What are those who’ve seen it in Richmond making of it, other than the run time?
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1,502 posts
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Post by foxa on Mar 16, 2023 9:07:27 GMT
Was there last night. Think it will be a real marmite production. It is quite faithful to the book, so if you loved that, then there is a fair chance you will be impressed with this. But most of the lighter sections of the book (say about the characters' careers or the evocation of place) have been stripped out and the focus is totally on the abuse/trauma of Jude. Aside from the film projections (which I liked and probably spent too long staring at) and (I assume) JB's art - I couldn't see this area from my seat - the set is utilitarian/minimalist/brutal.There is a sense that van Hove really wants to press your face into the ugliness of what happens to Jude. As has been said above, take the TWs seriously.
James Norton's commitment is total - I can't imagine doing that performance night after night. It's hard to say too much about the other performances. One actor had to play a lot of BAD men. Zubin Varla works very hard as Howard. The rest spent long periods half-lit looking sad. It was a relief whenever Malcolm talked about architecture.
There were some walkouts both during the show and at the interval (we lost the people both in front and behind us - honest we didn't do anything!)
But then there was a huge standing ovation at the end.
My theatre companion and I really didn't like it and afterwards were sort of laughing about all the deadly repetition in it. It opens with clunky exposition; there's a very unrewarding social worker character who comments on and awkwardly joins in some scenes; and if you hear a character say '1' you know you are in for a loooonnnggg sequence of counting/repeated actions.
True fans of the actors in this piece, lovers of the book or Ivo van Hove completists should see it, but I couldn't recommend it.
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Post by stevemar on Mar 16, 2023 11:25:45 GMT
Thanks Foxa and dillon for your early reviews.
I am seeing it this weekend, so will be sure to report back.
I would expect Ivo Van Hove’s production to be pretty marmite. Bare set, possible camera work, TV or projections, smoke, loud music (?), but also tremendously committed performances. I’m not as sold on his productions generally though as sometimes something can get lost in how characters interact with each other.
Certainly the cast is great, and I’ve really enjoyed James Norton (in Bug, less so Belleville) and Luke Thompson (in Oresteia and Hamlet), so this is what made it a must see for me. I haven’t read the book.
Was the performance still “preview-y”? I would normally have avoided early performances but the lure of easy access and slightly cheaper tickets to Richmond persuaded me.
Btw, you don’t have to answer Foxa but was yours the 2 star rating? I guess I’m curious as the early ratings stand out and its good to know what the poster of a rating thought before the other reviews and ratings come in.
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Post by dillan on Mar 16, 2023 12:12:40 GMT
It didn't seem "preview-y" to me, the show already seems in good shape. Richmond Theatre had some audio issues (mics being a tiny bit delayed for some lines and weird background noises from time to time) which was a little bit annoying.
I'm seeing it at Harold Pinter at the end of April so can report any changes.
And yep - as foxa said, they did miss out a few things about the characters which I read on Wikipedia later, which would've been good to know but isn't massively necessary. I also quite liked the social worker coming into the scenes as a narrative explaining the situation, haha.
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Post by jamb0r on Mar 16, 2023 15:07:21 GMT
Was also there last night. First thing I'll say is do NOT go to this show on an empty stomach
{Spoiler - click to view}
Entering the theatre to the smell of cooking bacon and the onstage kitchen being used to full effect throughout most of the show was torture! I hope the people next to me didn't hear my stomach growling!
Overall I would say this is 4 stars for me. The performances were excellent, highlight for me was Luke Thompson as Willem. They hit all of the points in the story pretty much exactly as I would have expected them to, and the parts they had to cut weren't really missed. I loved the sound design and having a small group of musicians wasn't something I was expecting, but added so much to the general feeling of unease and horror. There were a few weird noises happening throughout which sounded like the whining you hear sometimes when automated parts of set are moving, but nothing was moving so I am not sure if they were intentional? The star I knocked off is mainly down to some of the directing choices - this is very much a Van Hove production and I've never been the biggest fan of his work. Some of these weird choices have already been mentioned in this thread. If you aren't sat in the front stalls a lot of the stuff happening on stage can only be seen if you are sitting at the extreme sides of a row - for example i was sat house right (not in a restricted view seat) and I couldn't see at all anything that JB or Malcolm were doing on stage left, or any of the projections that were on that side. Heard a lot of people saying what a weird directing choice the ending was {Spoiler - click to view}
Waited for the whole show for that giant box above the stage to do something and then at the end it just made a lot of noise, lowered then went back up again? Surely they could have got Jude off stage in another way to be just as effective. I'm really glad I'd listened to the audiobook in advance, some of the character switching could be a bit confusing if not familiar with the story. I'm also going again tonight and will be sat on the end of the front row of the on stage seats (because I am a nightmare for FOMO with these sorts of things). Slightly dreading it - the people sat on stage are VERY visibly lit, and getting to and from the seats looked like a military operation. Also noticed they were making those sat on stage put their phones in those locked pouches. |
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1,828 posts
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Post by Dave B on Mar 16, 2023 15:14:02 GMT
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Post by A.Ham on Mar 16, 2023 15:15:05 GMT
Thank you jamb0r - great to hear so much about it. I remember seeing Van Hove’s All About Eve and the set was similar, with part of the set and the action taking place in the wings on either side of the stage - making a full view rather challenging from many seats at the Noel Coward.
I’ll be very interested to hear about your on-stage experience as that’s where I’m sat when I see it at the Pinter at the end of April (centre front row - eeek). It sounds like black jeans and a black tee might be a good idea so I’m as inconspicuous as possible!
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Post by matty on Mar 16, 2023 16:29:55 GMT
Thanks for the heads up. Going tonight and can now try and plan a back-up route home |
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zak
Auditioning
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Post by zak on Mar 16, 2023 18:14:37 GMT
I went last night too.
Running at three hours and forty minutes, this stage version of Hanya Yanagihara's best seller is certainly asking too much from the audience. Belgian theatre star director Ivo Van Hove has adapted the story as a play and I am afraid it didn't work at all for me, reaffirming my scepticism about stage adaptations of novels. One wonders why directors are so fond of them.They rarely work, as novels and plays are two very different beasts, each with its own time-scale constraints and conventions. it is almost impossible to cram the information contained in a novel into the structure of a stage play and Van Hove has been no exception: it fails. I have not read the novel, but I understand it is a seven hundred page door-stopper. Is it possible to fit all those pages into a play? The answer for me is no, it is not.
The action stretches through a sizeable length of time in the lives of four characters, four young New York professionals, four stereotypes: an artist, a lawyer, an actor...well, you know it all. We have seen them before many times in many novels and plays. There is nothing wrong with working with types. To a large extent, it is what writers must do, particularly playwrights: to turn individuals into "everymen" so readers or audiences identify with fictional characters. It is what you do with these types that matters.
The problem with Van Hove's adaptation is that the director has had to make very tough decisions in order to trim the river of vicissitudes that is the novel, packing all that into a manageable stage play, and one suspects a lot of the novel's strength has been lost in the process.
The play has basically concentrated on the character of Jude, one of the "boys in the band", so to speak, played with great skill by celebrity "du jour" James Norton, including a much talked about in the press full nudity. Jude is a seriously damaged man as a result of the horrific sexual abuse he suffered until he hit fifteen. The rest of the four characters soon all but disappear from the scene, except kind-hearted Willem, who helps Jude overcome his traumas through friendship and love.
Although stealing the reader from a comfortable happy ending, I understand that there is a redemptive element in the novel that, sadly, is lacking in the play, leaving us unhappy after the four hour smorgasbord of misery, and somewhat puzzled as to the fate and the point of the other characters, which is a huge fault, I think.
The story has a strong -and for me very controversial- message about the seemingly irreversible damages caused by child abuse, but one wonders why Van Hove bothered with it at all, as the novel no doubt can make a better point of that than his staging, which somewhat cheats us of any redemption-through-friendship present in Yanagihara's plot.
Ultimately, the play, and I suspect that the novel too, has little to add to what we already know about child trauma in wealthy Western societies, and it felt to me as yet another piece of American Hollywood sensationalist drivel, not much different from seventies titillating, best-selling "exposés" such as "Go Ask Alice" or "Born Innocent". Having said that, like those old stories, I suppose that "A Little Life" does its job giving visual form to the chilling consequences of abuse, and that is its point: theatre as journalism.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2023 21:53:16 GMT
Ultimately, the play, and I suspect that the novel too, has little to add to what we already know about child trauma in wealthy Western societies, and it felt to me as yet another piece of American Hollywood sensationalist drivel, not much different from seventies titillating, best-selling "exposés" such as "Go Ask Alice" or "Born Innocent". In my opinion you suspect wrong, nor is the point of the novel to add to what we know about child trauma. |
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Post by matty on Mar 16, 2023 23:46:39 GMT
Saw this tonight and having recently finished the book,it was clear where the cuts had been made. While it was a shame to not see more of the other character's lives, I think it was right to mainly focus on Jude.
The whole cast was great, but I have no idea how James Norton is going to do that role every night for the rest of the run, he was fantastic.
I didn't understand why the screens were just running film on a loop and at times some of the music felt a bit too loud and distracting. That being said, having the live band there did really add to the piece. Some of the sound effects also felt too loud at times, especially when they were in Andy's surgery.
It was a hard watch at times, but I expected that and overall felt this was a good adaption of the novel.
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1,828 posts
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Post by Dave B on Mar 17, 2023 0:35:15 GMT
There were a few weird noises happening throughout which sounded like the whining you hear sometimes when automated parts of set are moving, but nothing was moving so I am not sure if they were intentional? Yes! Surely intentional as it only happens (at least this evening) when Jude is receiving medical assistance from Andy. So I'm assuming it is meant for mood/atmosphere/disorientation, but it really bugged me. Job done I guess. |
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Post by jamb0r on Mar 17, 2023 8:24:19 GMT
Well my experience of being on stage last night almost pushed this to being 5 stars for me - it was an incredible experience. Anyone who has on stage seats - you’re in for a treat!
Getting to the seats was a bit like a military operation. We received an email the day before with a VERY long list of rules that had to be followed. We had to get there very early and line up in our row groups outside and have our phones locked in those Yondr pouches. Getting on stage was fascinating for any theatre nerd, having to walk through lots of the technical areas of backstage which I loved.
The actual action takes place literally inches from you. I was sat on the end of the front row on stage right which was £25 and had an incredible view with the cast regularly brushing my leg to get on and off stage. However a LOT of the more traumatic events happened within arms reach of where I was sat, so definitely not for the squeamish. Most scenes are played very well for those on stage with the actors mainly facing side on. I would say there was maybe 3 or 4 scenes totalling about 20 minutes where the actors were standing with their backs totally to us, but it really wasn’t that much of a problem.
These seats are a huge bargain - I would say the £25 ones had just as good a view as the £35 ones. I’d definitely recommend the seat I was in (which was AA14 in Richmond, not sure if they’ll have the same numbers elsewhere).
Now that I’ve seen this twice, there were a couple of flubbed lines from Norton last night, and one of the blood effects didn’t work at all later in the play, but everything still felt pretty polished and not preview-y at all.
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Post by clarefh on Mar 17, 2023 8:54:32 GMT
New to this board but really enjoying reading all the reviews.
I saw this last night - was very front row A ( unusual for me) but I felt really added to my experience. Only 4 seats each side of the string quartet, meant we were lit the whole play and so close it felt almost like we were almost in it ( I even got sprayed with blood at some point). I’m not sure if I’d have got the same intense experience further back.
I actually struggled with the play itself - I wonder if it’s because I haven’t read the book but the characters were very shallowly drawn other than Jude. So despite some great acting it was hard to feel the connection to them or the connection between them for me. This in turn meant there was very little redemption or lightness in the play. I also felt other than his trauma we had no really feeling for why all the characters were so obsessed with Jude. There is one point where the characters list Jude’s qualities, but we haven’t really seen or felt any of this.
Having said that I found James Norton’s performance very moving and intense, he has an ability to show such vulnerability in the tiniest of moments and a stillness to his acting. I’m still thinking about certain moments this morning.
Also found it an interesting dilemma with some of the very graphic moments - do I turn away, which feels like the easy option, or force myself to watch - which in turn felt voyeuristic.
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Post by emmy on Mar 17, 2023 9:00:46 GMT
Well my experience of being on stage last night almost pushed this to being 5 stars for me - it was an incredible experience. Anyone who has on stage seats - you’re in for a treat! Getting to the seats was a bit like a military operation. We received an email the day before with a VERY long list of rules that had to be followed. What time did you have to get there for the on stage seats? I booked for an evening when I’m going to quite a long matinée, so would be good to know in advance whether I need to try and move that. Thanks for your report and glad you enjoyed. Generally, would people recommend reading the book beforehand? Or is it best to go in knowing nothing? And I don’t want to read this thread too much before going, but could someone please spoil if there are guns or gunshots in this? Thanks! |
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