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Post by londonpostie on Nov 21, 2022 11:25:23 GMT
The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary! - Jermyn Street
Due warning, as it might not be apparent from the promo, it is a Farce.
I was feeling unwell - something I'd eaten - and so left at the interval, which I may have done anyway. I can generally cope with the old-fashioned Brian Rix-type Farce, but this wasn't for me. Personal taste, of course. Jennifer Kirby seems a terrific actor. Perhaps I should have spotted it:
Silly but not particularly funny.
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1,828 posts
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Post by Dave B on Nov 24, 2022 17:24:51 GMT
The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary! - Jermyn Street
Well, I certainly enjoyed this more than londonpostie. It is a farce and there are too many cock(erel) jokes but I still thought it a lovely evening. The four cast members are all great, Kirby playing it fairly straight in contrast to the zany of the other three. I liked fourth wall breaking most of the time and I thought it worked really well here and it did the ending justice - a fine line between the comedy and the intent of the original novel. The small space of JST left me feeling like I had watched four friends having fun and putting on a show that I laughed at throughout. I didn't laugh as much as some but c'est la vie. I basically left with the warm and fuzzies so I can overlook the bits of a farce that just weren't for me. 4 stars. |
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Post by oedipus on Dec 5, 2022 22:59:33 GMT
With a cast of four assuming a multiplicity of parts, and zipping through an established classic, I guess I had expected “Madame Bovary” to be an all-out farce like The 39 Steps. And it seems that way at the beginning, only to cleverly subvert expectations as the evening progresses. It’s a fine line to walk—between tragedy and slapstick—and the cast pretty much pulls it off: the (ill-fated) love scenes between Madame and her star-crossed lovers were all the more heart-breaking because sandwiched between complete lunacy. Definitely a worthwhile evening of theater, and a bit under-the-radar in this busy holiday season of pantomimes and the like!
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181 posts
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Post by bee on Dec 7, 2022 7:29:35 GMT
I saw this last weekend. Like everyone else I was surprised by the extent to which it was a serious performance of the story.
It reminded me of a bit of The Watsons, with a real story interspersed with 3rd/4th wall breaking. Occasionally the abrupt switches of tone were a little jarring, but on the whole it worked. There were a fair number of laugh out loud moments and the serious drama was performed really well - Jennifer Kirby in particular really stood out in those parts.
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