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Post by Jan on Oct 3, 2016 17:34:13 GMT
I saw Peter Bowles in this play and he was wrong in a different way. I only saw a clip of that on TV, in what way, Jan? He was just a bit too good on stage as Archie doing his act, weak on the desperation. Partly I think it was audience expectations of him, smooth upper-middle-class sophisticated sitcom star, audience automatically liked him. On Greg Hicks, I am a big fan of his. He is a very austere and uncompromising actor. He is very unusual in that he can play entirely unsympathetic characters without wanting the audience to like him at all - some actors like Simon Russell-Beale can play unsympathetic characters but unconsciously are a bit twinkly and get the audience on their side, some actors like Jack Lemon actively want to be liked by the audience. Not Hicks. Coriolanus is his perfect part and his best parts are variations on that. He also, probably related, has no gift at all for comedy based on the very few occasions he has tried it. The thought that he could play Archie Rice who at one point in the past was at least a moderately successful light entertainer is startling. |
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Post by couldileaveyou on Oct 3, 2016 18:54:37 GMT
I saw the matinee on Saturday and it felt somehow like a poor man's death of salesman
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Post by zak97 on Oct 8, 2016 17:45:54 GMT
Saw this afternoon and really enjoyed it. From the creative side, really liked the set and lighting. And for the play, I wasn't familiar with it and found it engaging and enjoyable, very thought provoking. For the acting, the girl who played Jean I think has bundles of talent, and Mr Branagh was on form. For me though Greeta and Gawn were the stars this afternoon. I thought Gawn was charming and the audience really liked his humour. I saw Greeta in The Glass Menagerie last year and enjoyed it, but I feel she excelled here. She captured the emotional essence of what I thought her character should be. Not the best play I've seen all year, No Man's Land and Nell Gwynn top that, but very close - 4.75 stars.
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Post by bee on Oct 8, 2016 19:44:12 GMT
Slightly off-topic but who is the sexy voiced man who does the turn of your mobile announcement at Garrick and used to do NT Live trailers... It sounded to me like John Shrapnel, a familiar actor from TV and movies (I had to look his name up though). I also saw this this afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed it. The play itself hasn't aged well but I thought Branagh was just brilliant. The rest of the cast were good as well, but it's a real shame that John Hurt couldn't do the Billy Rice role. Gawn Grainger was fine but it was hard to stop thinking about how Hurt would have handled the part. |
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Post by Jan on Oct 9, 2016 9:34:36 GMT
Slightly off-topic but who is the sexy voiced man who does the turn of your mobile announcement at Garrick and used to do NT Live trailers... It sounded to me like John Shrapnel, a familiar actor from TV and movies (I had to look his name up though). I also saw this this afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed it. The play itself hasn't aged well but I thought Branagh was just brilliant. The rest of the cast were good as well, but it's a real shame that John Hurt couldn't do the Billy Rice role. Gawn Grainger was fine but it was hard to stop thinking about how Hurt would have handled the part. John Shrapnel is also a considerable stage actor who has worked extensively with the NT and RSC and elsewhere. I last saw him in "A Number" @ Young Vic with his son Lex. |
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Post by bordeaux on Oct 9, 2016 10:12:53 GMT
It sounded to me like John Shrapnel, a familiar actor from TV and movies (I had to look his name up though). I also saw this this afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed it. The play itself hasn't aged well but I thought Branagh was just brilliant. The rest of the cast were good as well, but it's a real shame that John Hurt couldn't do the Billy Rice role. Gawn Grainger was fine but it was hard to stop thinking about how Hurt would have handled the part. John Shrapnel is also a considerable stage actor who has worked extensively with the NT and RSC and elsewhere. I last saw him in "A Number" @ Young Vic with his son Lex. One of his earliest roles was as the academic who gets into an argument with the footballers in the Czech hotel and is duped by Peter Barkworth in Stoppard's wonderful late 70s TV play 'Professional Foul', which has bizarrely never been released on DVD.
I also remember him as a wonderful Angelo at the Barbican in Nick Hytner's Measure for Measure (1989?), Julius Caesar in Deborah Warner's production (with SRB as Cassio and Anton Lesser as Brutus - three amazing voices there) and a very good Lear at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol a few years ago. And, if you're a real fan, he played a chilling Soviet cultural commissar Zhdanov in Tony Palmer's superb film of the life of Shostakovich, Testimony, with Ben Kingsley playing Shostakovich and Bradford playing Moscow. Thoroughly recommended.
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Post by martin1965 on Oct 9, 2016 10:53:46 GMT
It sounded to me like John Shrapnel, a familiar actor from TV and movies (I had to look his name up though). I also saw this this afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed it. The play itself hasn't aged well but I thought Branagh was just brilliant. The rest of the cast were good as well, but it's a real shame that John Hurt couldn't do the Billy Rice role. Gawn Grainger was fine but it was hard to stop thinking about how Hurt would have handled the part. John Shrapnel is also a considerable stage actor who has worked extensively with the NT and RSC and elsewhere. I last saw him in "A Number" @ Young Vic with his son Lex. I saw that too. He has an amazing voice, sadly i didnt catch his Lear at Bristol😕 |
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Post by David J on Oct 9, 2016 11:13:52 GMT
He and Lex were also part of Michael Boyds Histories ensemble.
I never forget Johns rugged John Talbot and Lex's fiery Hotspur
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Post by Snciole on Oct 9, 2016 16:33:47 GMT
I had no idea it was John Shrapnel! I would have gone to his play at the Young Vic if had!
When I win the lottery I will employ him to read me bedtime stories. Many thanks for confirming!
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Post by Jan on Oct 9, 2016 16:43:02 GMT
John Shrapnel is also a considerable stage actor who has worked extensively with the NT and RSC and elsewhere. I last saw him in "A Number" @ Young Vic with his son Lex. Julius Caesar in Deborah Warner's production (with SRB as Cassio and Anton Lesser as Brutus - three amazing voices there)
I also saw him with Anton Lesser in the latter's Hamlet directed by Jonathan Miller in 1982. |
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Post by bee on Oct 9, 2016 17:43:48 GMT
I've actually just looked at my programme from yesterday again and it turns out he was in Winters Tale and Harlequinade earlier in the season, neither of which I saw sadly.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2016 19:04:11 GMT
He and Lex were also part of Michael Boyds Histories ensemble. I never forget Johns rugged John Talbot and Lex's fiery Hotspur Except Keith Bartlett was Talbot.  |
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Post by stefy69 on Oct 13, 2016 6:46:30 GMT
Was very amused at "The Dresser" on Saturday afternoon. Watching the audience come in before the show, one person entered clutching a very familiar oblong box. Obviously popped into the Garrick en-route to buy a now (in)famous snowglobe. They aren't even seeing a KB show before buying one, now, I guess. I suspect the Garrick snowglobe is going to be this Christmas' must have present !!!  |
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Post by ctas on Oct 27, 2016 22:41:43 GMT
Got two mid stalls tickets for £15 each thanks to todaytix's random offer earlier this week and saw this tonight at the filmed performance. I found it interesting but didn't think it quite hit all the marks. Lots to think about though and I'll be intrigued to see another production.
Bought a snow globe too. At £20 that's a stupid buy but at £5 it's a fun novelty. Just wish it didn't have the Branagh logo on!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 27, 2016 23:44:25 GMT
Saw the broadcast tonight and really enjoyed it. It was all very interesting and enjoyable. The cast were all good but I esspecilay liked Greta Scacchi. The thing that struck me the most was the way it was filmed as it was just from one camera and showed the whole stage mainly with a bit of zooming in and out. No close ups as the closest the camera went was still showing their full bodies.It was a bit like watching it in the theatre and is a nice change from what they normally do. It was also visually very appealing. The thing I enjoyed the most were all the songs probably because I like the vaudeville music hall style and themes and musicals in general.Over all it was good and one of the ones I have enjoyed more in the season.
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Post by theatremadness on Oct 27, 2016 23:55:28 GMT
Well this was not for me. Deadly boring from start to finish, pretty dull, bland and uninspiring performances from the entire cast, even dear Kenneth who tried so hard. Oh how hard he tried to wring every bit of comedy out of his performance, even when there was none to be wrung. Don't know if it was the play, as I've not seen it before, or if it was the production. Although I did feel the play itself had absolutely nothing very important to say, or at least it certainly wasn't said in a very interesting way in the production, maybe that was a problem. Having said that, I was sat there wishing that I could've been watching Robert Lindsay instead.
If I was the type of person who could leave at the interval without any guilt, I'd have left without any hesitation. As a matter of fact, one couple did. And another left halfway through Act 1.
Was filmed tonight for cinema broadcast, too. One camera, suspended above the front stalls so the entire thing was filmed in one continuous shot; the first time this has been done, we were told. And probably the last.
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Post by londonmzfitz on Nov 13, 2016 0:09:23 GMT
The Entertainer?
Trades
Description
Act
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