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Post by crabtree on Oct 14, 2017 22:25:01 GMT
Did anyone see Our Town at the Royal exchange - just finished tonight but oh that play has been waiting all these decades for that space. even more than usual, they blurred the line between cast and audience, and it's meta-theatricality judged so perfectly. Absolutely heartbreaking with the 'dead' beautifully realised. Shame it was the last night as I would take everyone to go and see it again, and say 'please don't think of things in literal terms - theatre is metaphor, and so strong for that.'
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2017 23:37:01 GMT
I saw it a few days ago and liked it very much. Definitely paying its dues to the David Cromer staging presented at the Almeida a few years ago but with its own flavour added. The inclusion of BSL for Mrs Soames which then radiated through the choir was excellently done and very moving. Another point I really liked was how the funeral showed the humans in double quick time in comparison to the dead.
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Post by crabtree on Oct 15, 2017 10:08:18 GMT
and the shoes, the beautiful removal of the shoes for the dead. I'm not sure if that is Thornton Wilder or not but it was hugely moving. Why should they need shoes, they're not going anywhere.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2017 10:28:26 GMT
It isn't Wilder but it's a nice use of the (widely understood?) symbolism of bare feet equating with death. I think the idea is that a bare foot represents a soul without a corporeal body.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2017 10:53:38 GMT
A sole without hosiery.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2017 11:52:03 GMT
I saw it on Wednesday and I loved it too - have been thinking about it a lot since.
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Post by crabtree on Oct 15, 2017 11:59:07 GMT
I've been quite vocal about the Exchange's stripped back approach of late, not really enjoying Persuasion or streetcar, and as we know from many recent productions in London such as View from the Bridge, it can work when done intelligently and it can be beautiful, but I thought Our Town worked so well. This production of Our town worked so well, so many great ideas, but the play must have seemed extraordinary when it was first performed. It is still very bold. I think I mentioned that I was involved with the other Wilder the exchange did 40 years ago, and that production was extraordinarily inventive. The cemetery scene in Our town was beautifully done. Hmm, where is Carousel in the timeline here; before or after?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2017 12:08:14 GMT
I loved Persuasion!
Carousel is after; check out Allegro, also by R&H, which has even greater similarities to Our Town (birth to death, small town life etc.)
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