1,064 posts
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Post by bellboard27 on Dec 2, 2016 17:24:17 GMT
I think he's making these up. The only one I have ever experienced is number 7. Maybe he was trying to stop writers before they put pen to paper! |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2016 17:39:45 GMT
To be honest, I've seen some lousy plays where 1 and 10 would have actually pepped things up no end.
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433 posts
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Post by DuchessConstance on Dec 2, 2016 17:49:59 GMT
I've seen far too many of 9.
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5,688 posts
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Post by lynette on Dec 2, 2016 21:12:25 GMT
3 was used by the Sheen Hamlet and really got my goat and 7 by the Stoppard play about the pop star and was rubbish. So actually quite a good list.
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617 posts
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Post by loureviews on Dec 2, 2016 23:39:24 GMT
Anything with The Agatha Christie Company.
Evening At The Talk House wasn't exactly bad ...
I'd also echo votes for Shopping and Fkg and Fiona Shaw in Mother Courage.
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4,020 posts
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Post by Dawnstar on Dec 3, 2016 0:15:45 GMT
I can think of a couple of examples of 4, one per singer. By the interval of Over The Rainbow I just wanted Garland to carry out her repeated threat of killing herself & put herself & the audience out of their misery!
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Post by Jan on Dec 3, 2016 10:10:22 GMT
3 was used by the Sheen Hamlet and really got my goat No it wasn't. For a start it wasn't a site specific production. Also, you showed your ticket, found your seat, sat down and watched it. You weren't invited to participate in any way. The route in through the backstage area was optional and taken up by a small minority of the audience and even so no participation or intimidation at all was involved. You might as well say that in the current Donmar productions you are invited to participate as women prisoners, you just aren't , you are in an entirely conventional audience. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2016 13:21:51 GMT
If we are sticking to the original idea, plays not productions, then, having gone down memory lane by looking through my list of what I've seen over the years How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel I remember finding dull and simplistic (seen 1998 at the Donmar). Musically nothing beats Paradise Found at the Menier in 2010, which managed to be banal and cheap looking and a complete Hal Prince misfire. Aim high and fail and I'm okay, aim low and the opposite (any Ben Elton play coming into that category).
On Billington's list, 6 and 7 are fine and 8 (Plays in which a run-down, travelling circus becomes a metaphor for cultural decay) has a lot of potential.
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1 posts
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Post by nicnotnicky on Dec 3, 2016 13:36:42 GMT
I know it was mostly loved, but I really couldn't bear Hangmen and didn't make it back after the interval. I appreciate it was set in a period when there was no problem saying things we now consider racist/sexist, but it just really felt to me as if the author was throwing that sort of stuff in excessively just to be daring/jarring/whatever. Yeah, yeah, we get the point, now stop with the gratuitous lines.
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5,688 posts
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Post by lynette on Dec 3, 2016 18:49:40 GMT
3 was used by the Sheen Hamlet and really got my goat No it wasn't. For a start it wasn't a site specific production. Also, you showed your ticket, found your seat, sat down and watched it. You weren't invited to participate in any way. The route in through the backstage area was optional and taken up by a small minority of the audience and even so no participation or intimidation at all was involved. You might as well say that in the current Donmar productions you are invited to participate as women prisoners, you just aren't , you are in an entirely conventional audience. We had to meet in a place opposite, be shepherded through a narrow corridor with prison type stuff, ask permission to go to the loo beforehand, and yes, we had tix and seat numbers but all in all it was what 3 is suggesting. Maybe you like that kind of thing. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2016 19:15:20 GMT
Yes, the "site specific" stuff for the original Domnar Henry IV production was very annoying - usual entrance boarded up, "prison warders" guarding it, loos in the Donmar not available for use pre-show etc. Not "immersive" but giving more thought to the director's "concept" than the needs of the audience.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2016 19:46:41 GMT
Billington's 3 feels VERY aimed at Punchdrunk's It Felt Like A Kiss.
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Post by profquatermass on Dec 3, 2016 20:35:47 GMT
I guess this is more of an Unpopular Opinion but I found Jerusalem a complete and utter bore
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Post by Jan on Dec 4, 2016 8:46:16 GMT
No it wasn't. For a start it wasn't a site specific production. Also, you showed your ticket, found your seat, sat down and watched it. You weren't invited to participate in any way. The route in through the backstage area was optional and taken up by a small minority of the audience and even so no participation or intimidation at all was involved. You might as well say that in the current Donmar productions you are invited to participate as women prisoners, you just aren't , you are in an entirely conventional audience. We had to meet in a place opposite, be shepherded through a narrow corridor with prison type stuff, ask permission to go to the loo beforehand, and yes, we had tix and seat numbers but all in all it was what 3 is suggesting. Maybe you like that kind of thing. No I hate that kind of thing. There wasn't any of it in the Sheen Hamlet, your description of it doesn't match my experience of it at all. Like I said the vast majority of the audience just went in in the normal way. Maybe they changed it. |
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4,153 posts
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Post by kathryn on Dec 4, 2016 11:09:43 GMT
For Sheen Hamlet you could choose to go in the normal way or through the back. You were taken around the corner and walked through the back of the 'asylum', there were a few actors scattered about, including a pair fencing. But you weren't really pretending not to be theatre-goers, it was more of a scene-setting exercise.
It was the Donmar Henry IV where you had to meet in the club opposite and be herded over and were shouted at as if you were actually visiting a prison. It was annoying - though at least it meant the 'turn your phones OFF' message got repeated.
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5,688 posts
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Post by lynette on Dec 4, 2016 17:10:27 GMT
I'm sorry my loathing of the Sheen Hamlet has left me confused. Yes, the Donmar was as Kathryn says. And the Hamlet was just awful. Sorry, Jan to cause you to examine your memories of it.
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Post by Jan on Dec 5, 2016 7:53:26 GMT
I'm sorry my loathing of the Sheen Hamlet has left me confused. Yes, the Donmar was as Kathryn says. And the Hamlet was just awful. Sorry, Jan to cause you to examine your memories of it. I'm sure I would have remembered if some mere actor had told me I had to ask permission to go to the toilet. Billington's loathing of participation probably dates from the famous production he described at BAC where the audience were issued with raincoats and he had buckets of water chucked over him. I might have relaxed my ban on audience participation to attend that event. |
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4,153 posts
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Post by kathryn on Dec 5, 2016 9:07:23 GMT
I actually really enjoyed the Sheen Hamlet.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2016 9:34:23 GMT
Me too, though I can see how it was thoroughly divisive. I thought the asylum conceit made the whole thing flow much more naturally when various characters started going (or exhibiting signs of going) mad, and Vinette Robinson is still my best Ophelia to date.
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Post by Boob on Dec 5, 2016 16:50:51 GMT
Was just thinking about the Grandage season, which reminded me of PETER AND ALICE. I'd obviously been desperate to forget it...
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Post by Jan on Dec 6, 2016 6:51:26 GMT
I actually really enjoyed the Sheen Hamlet. I thought it was one of the greatest productions I have ever seen and easily the best Hamlet of the 20 or so I've seen. So I sprang to its defence, but of course I can see why it would quite validly divide the critics. |
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Post by crabtree on Dec 6, 2016 8:36:33 GMT
And I rather adored Peter and Alice and am hoping to direct it myself soon.
I did direct a Sherlock Holmes play, whose exact name escapes me, but I would suggest that that was the worst play ever written...simply nothing happened, at least on stage. Dire.
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91 posts
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Post by gazzaw13 on Dec 6, 2016 9:46:15 GMT
So pleased to read that I'm not the only person who hated Jerusalem. I left at the interval because I was so bored. Other worst plays include:
Roots (Donmar) OMG was that dull
The Cut (Donmar)
Filumena (Almeida)
Malcolm and the Eunuchs(Ewen McGregor)
A Number (Gambon and Craig) - at least it was short
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92 posts
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Post by chameleon on Dec 6, 2016 10:15:36 GMT
The Cut (Donmar)..
The Faith Machine (Royal Court)
The Gods Weep (Hampstead)
The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas (Royal Court)
The Mistress Contract (Royal Court)
Wild (Hampstead)
How to Hold your Breath (Royal Court)
Remember This (NT)
If You Won't Let Us Dream We Won't Let You Sleep (Royal Court)
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Post by Mr Snow on Dec 6, 2016 12:36:13 GMT
So pleased to find I’m not alone. Sometimes I wander out of Theatres feeling like I’m mad while polite voices all around say “Challenging” and “Wasn’t she marvellous.” I want to shout out “Well I was challenged to stay awake and only if you think her character today should be just like the part she plays on TV”.
To think they had the audacity to charge money for this. Thank you Phantom
Nov 30, 2016 15:37:11 GMT Phantom of London said:
Those ones that cannot get expunged from your memory, I mean you grimace everytime you think of it, for me:
Million Dollar Quartet
Oh Dreah! Addicted you are correct.
Dec 1, 2016 3:54:32 GMT addictedtotheatre said:
Shopping and F***ing - not challenging, just ridiculous and vile (it didn't help that very early in the show a piece of 'fake' vomit landed on my head).
At last. Eldermillan don’t be afraid to say it like it was.
Dec 1, 2016 17:45:18 GMT eldermillan said:
This is gonna be unpopular, but I hated War Horse. I wanted to shoot myself in the theatre and end that nightmare.
And the one that mystified me most
People, Places and Things.
I’d rather watch reality TV, at least their naffness is part of the fun.
Back to my darkened room….
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