81 posts
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Post by addictedtotheatre on Jun 10, 2017 11:06:35 GMT
In rehearsal.
Actor to Director: 'Won't all this constant wailing get on people's nerves?'
Director: 'It'll be fine'
Audience: starts wailing in their heads after 30 minutes
Actor to Director: 'Won't my speaking in a foreign language distance my character from the audience?'
Director: 'It'll be fine'
Audience: these surtitles are really making it hard to follow.
Actor to Director: 'Why, if I'm wearing historical costume have I been given an uzi machine gun?'
Director: 'It'll be fine'
Audience: 'Well, that's a jarring inconsistency'
Actor to Director: 'Shouldn't I be dancing with veils to seduce Herod, rather than tugging on some curtains?'
Director: 'It'll be fine'
Audience: Snigger
And so on. Lesson: writers should not be allowed to direct their own work as they have no distance to re-interpret for the audience.
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1,103 posts
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Post by mallardo on Jun 10, 2017 11:10:04 GMT
Three of the four points you ridicule were, to me, things that actually worked in the production.
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1,502 posts
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Post by foxa on Jun 10, 2017 11:50:16 GMT
I returned my tickets for this - and good thing too as we are suffering a serious of catastrophes including a mysterious 3 feet of water appearing in our basement. I am, at this moment, waiting for a company called 'Man Tank' to help us.
Returned the tickets in person, box office was pleasant and efficient and issued credit note. Next to me a woman was returning four expensive tickets for 'Common.'
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1,502 posts
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Post by foxa on Jun 10, 2017 11:59:40 GMT
Ha. The water is still slowly rising.
And because we are the way we are, we were trying to figure out what play this was like. I thought Beckett's Happy Days where Winnie is submerged, finally up to the neck, in sand. Husband thinks there is a play where people keep looking out the window at rising water. And I'm like, no, that Ionesco's Rhinoceros - but it was Rhinoceroses not water and so on....Oh to have so much useless knowledge but no idea how to deal with something practical like this.
Also very surprised not to have a reaction from anyone about 'Man Tank.'
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1,120 posts
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Jun 10, 2017 12:21:37 GMT
Presumably it's a company that transforms leaks into convenient tanks of water to keep recalcitrant men in?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2017 13:19:45 GMT
The Sandi Toksvig play involved flooding (with water, not rhinos or sand  ), as did the Steve Waters double bill The Contingency Plan. I'm sure there must be loads of others. |
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1,345 posts
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Post by tmesis on Jun 10, 2017 15:03:04 GMT
Oh my god will the wailing never stop? (It didn't)
Will we have that low sustained bass note that's such a cliche to add spurious tension ALL the way through? (we did)
Will it ever show a spark of dramatic tension? (no)
Was it one of the longest 1hr 45mins of my life? (undoubtably)
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2,743 posts
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Post by n1david on Jun 10, 2017 22:18:39 GMT
Returned the tickets in person, box office was pleasant and efficient and issued credit note. Next to me a woman was returning four expensive tickets for 'Common.' Off topic for this thread, but I returned my tickets for Common in person today... and the person next to me was doing the same... |
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5,688 posts
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Post by lynette on Jun 10, 2017 22:32:26 GMT
I posted my Common tix back! They must be flooded with returns.
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1,064 posts
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Post by bellboard27 on Jun 12, 2017 20:45:17 GMT
Went tonight. Theatre about 2/3 full. I liked some of the staging but this is dreadful.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2017 19:34:21 GMT
I was really wanting to see this before the reviews, and didn't catch the live screening. Can anyone tell me if its worth seeing the encore because I'm still quite wanting to see it. Would it be a complete waste of time and money?
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330 posts
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Post by RedRose on Jun 25, 2017 9:24:15 GMT
I was really wanting to see this before the reviews, and didn't catch the live screening. Can anyone tell me if its worth seeing the encore because I'm still quite wanting to see it. Would it be a complete waste of time and money? YES! |
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1,103 posts
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Post by mallardo on Jun 25, 2017 10:59:57 GMT
I was really wanting to see this before the reviews, and didn't catch the live screening. Can anyone tell me if its worth seeing the encore because I'm still quite wanting to see it. Would it be a complete waste of time and money?
It depends on what interested you about it in the first place. If you're a fan of Wilde's play then forget it - it's not that. It is an attempt to give context (and content) to what is really just a fragment of a story. The attempt is not successful - as the reviews above can attest - but one can find value in it. If you know Yael Farber's work you would expect some stunning stage images and they are there. And the story Ms Farber has concocted is not entirely bogus.
It's chief problem, for me, is that it takes itself so very seriously that it ends up as arch and portentous. Having said that, you will not have seen anything like it before - both a good and a bad thing. But you'll have to decide.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2017 13:09:02 GMT
If you've read this entire thread up until this point and still haven't been completely turned off the idea, then you may as well go.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2017 14:08:58 GMT
Thanks everyone. Think I'm gonna go and maybe just get a drink (or two) before I see it.
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751 posts
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Post by horton on Jun 27, 2017 14:29:00 GMT
Well add me to the small list of people who found this production absorbing.
True, it's not a comfortable Alan Bennett comedy of manners or cozy star vehicle for a slumming-it movie star, but what this play offers is a challenging, thought-provoking piece of theatre. Farber's use of ancient rite and ritual, impressive physicality and provocative visual juxtaposition make for the kind of drama Peter Hall could pull off in his prime. The sequence leading to the Baptist's death was genuinely one of the most thrilling things I've seen in quite some time.
For those people who said that it was hard to follow, or that the sound was alienating, or that it wasn't like Wilde, that sounds to me like they think all drama is meant to be comfortable and easy. "Oh no he's speaking in a foreign language"- that's really a complaint? "Oh no, there aren't seven veils"- go and see Wilde's play as he invented that dance!
I've been very critical of a lot of work at the National under Norris, but this production is a work of art by a visionary theatre practitioner.
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219 posts
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Post by PalelyLaura on Jun 28, 2017 11:16:59 GMT
I have to admit, I liked this much more than I had expected to. I do like Yael Farber, mind.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2017 20:22:05 GMT
Maybe I'm just not a very good theatre critic, but I just got back from the encore screening and found it utterly encapsulating. I couldn't look away from the screen, and my mother was the same. Particularly the last half hour from Iokanaan's cistern scene onwards was some of the most effective theatre I've seen all year. Standouts were Isabella Nefar who was able to convey such unimaginable pain and isolation without words and Olwen Fourere, who kept the pace and built in intensity to a dramatic and powerful conclusion. Women Of Song also sustained an engaging atmosphere throughout, very talented. Personally I didn't find the script to be too lacking and was able to follow it quite easily. In my opinion, this production has been judged far too harshly but I am only one.
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449 posts
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Post by SageStageMgr on Jul 11, 2017 21:22:19 GMT
Ah Salomé, what a woman, what a part...
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Post by lonlad on Jul 11, 2017 22:39:35 GMT
If you have to see it at all, which I don't advise, the show is best watched and not heard. The script is thunderously awful.
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), as did the Steve Waters double bill The Contingency Plan. I'm sure there must be loads of others.
