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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2016 2:05:36 GMT
A Good Night Out in the UK from 1940 to 1999
Three simultaneous plays! Firstly, a touching theatrical biography of political party leader David Sutch. Secondly, a shamanic evocation of many highlights of British popular comedy of the period. And thirdly, a unique presentation of our prime ministerial leaders seen through these two prisms of Screaming Lord Sutch and the historic comedy.
This show has drawn an eager popular audience by word of mouth over its run, and they're warm and up for it from the moment they enter the Drum theatre. The rustle of crisps and sweetie wrappings and the casual chatter amongst friends seem an integral part of the show. It's in the spirit of Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, John McGrath's 7:84, Mike Bradwell's Bush Theatre and John E McGrath's National Theatre Wales. It's both genuinely popular and rigorously serious. The show could work just as well in any British theatre capable of attracting a popular audience, such as th'Octagon in Bolton, the New Vic near Stoke, Hull Truck, the Lyric Hammersmith or a National Theatre Wales workers' institute or club. A broad British popular audience would love it in the West End, but the present extortionate ticket pricing there would kill it dead. I can't think of any other London theatre which would suit it as this play would be polluted by the presence of today's metropolitan theatregoing coteries and the general absence of a popular audience.
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Post by n1david on Feb 27, 2016 8:36:09 GMT
Stratford East?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2016 10:16:54 GMT
Perhaps, but the play works better the more that you immediately recognise of the British popular comedy references (and prime ministers), and so it's not equally accessible to a diverse audience and Theatre Royal Stratford East might reasonably steer clear of it. |
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Post by n1david on Apr 12, 2016 8:48:51 GMT
Soho Theatre May 14 - June 18, according to Mark Shenton.
Trying for a double bill with this as a matinee ahead of The View from Islington North....
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Post by Squire Sullen on Apr 12, 2016 11:18:13 GMT
Soho Theatre May 14 - June 18, according to Mark Shenton. Trying for a double bill with this as a matinee ahead of The View from Islington North.... Thanks for the heads up, filled a spare Tuesday evening slot with something I wanted to see, and ticks off a new theatre for me. Not sure why tickets are £15 for 'Under 25s' and £10 for 'Under 26s' though. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2016 11:58:12 GMT
Anyone able to shed some light on why it's starting at 7pm at Soho - it's only about two hours, I thought?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2016 13:10:40 GMT
Soho always have slightly odd times, I suspect because they have three performance spaces and like to use the crap out of them. It could be the case that they have a late-night comedy performance on after Monster Raving Loony, or maybe they just want to stagger the start times with their other spaces (you do NOT want three performance-spaces worth of people trying to congregate in that foyer while the staff futilely beg them to PLEASE wait in the bar until their performance is called!).
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2016 13:26:34 GMT
Soho always have slightly odd times, I suspect because they have three performance spaces and like to use the crap out of them. It could be the case that they have a late-night comedy performance on after Monster Raving Loony, or maybe they just want to stagger the start times with their other spaces (you do NOT want three performance-spaces worth of people trying to congregate in that foyer while the staff futilely beg them to PLEASE wait in the bar until their performance is called!). Ah, course, that makes sense. Seems safe to book for a work night then - nice early finish! (Assuming I can get there by 7pm anyway) |
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Post by showgirl on Apr 12, 2016 18:48:55 GMT
A 7 pm evening start works for me as it's less time hanging around waiting for the performance to start after whatever matinee I've seen, but conversely, the matinee for this play is annoyingly early at 2.30 pm. I want to combine it with a play slightly out-of-town but though they are both shortish, whichever way round I work it, simply seeing the two plays will consume the whole day - grr! (Plus I am slightly worried by the mention, in reviews from the Plymouth opening, of audience participation, so will have to try to sit where I'm beyond reach....)
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Post by foxa on May 19, 2016 21:22:38 GMT
I missed this discussion above about the 7 p.m. start and showed up right at 7 to collect my tickets for what I thought was a 7.30 show (unhelpfully there was no time at all listed on the confirmation email) and meet my SO, so for the first time in my life pretty much was actually a bit late in for this. Which wasn't a good thing. Instead of being slipped into one of a number of empty seats we were stuck up on the side on a high backless bench. Don't know what happened before we got in, but most of the audience was wearing little paper hats and had paper bags - but not up on the benches of punishment.
I booked for this because I've liked James Graham's other work and have always wondered about Lord Sutch and what his story was, but this was a really disappointing evening. It felt like a university revue - lots of clever ideas: 'Let's tell his life by referencing every important comedy from the 1950s to the late 1990s (via panto, Punch & Judy, 'Allo Allo and 'That Was the Week That Was') but little substance. Possibly if you'd had a comic genius at the centre of it, a Rik Mayall say, possibly it could have worked, but this was largely tedious. However I enjoyed it a bit more when I got my nerve up to slip into one of the empty seats so at least I could lean back, so maybe my discomfort was causing me to be particularly unimpressed. Two walk outs that I noticed.
It's one hour forty straight through. Don't sit in the front row if you don't want someone singing right in your face.
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Post by Squire Sullen on May 28, 2016 21:19:32 GMT
Agree with the mighty Foxa on this one - I booked having liked Privacy and having a passing interest in the life of Screaming Lord Sutch, but left disappointed. It just never really got off the ground and was very disjointed. It took me a fair while to get what was actually being attempted here, basically telling Lord Sutch's story through inserting him and his family into dozens of sitcoms, and when I did finally understand what Graham's intention was, I was past caring and couldn't see why he had chosen to format his show like this.
Admittedly I did enjoy it a bit more once the comedies being used became more familiar, but overall this is really lacking.
The biggest laugh of the night for me came from Joanna Brooks' Sandi Toksvig impression.
I imagine there is a good play to be made from the life of Lord Sutch, this just isn't it.
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Post by showgirl on May 28, 2016 22:13:25 GMT
There was a full house and a really buzzing, party-like atmosphere at the performance I attended (this evening, so a Saturday night), though I imagine it would be less lively with fewer people and perhaps at a matinee. I also thought the whole cast were impressively versatile and hard-working. I admired and largely enjoyed this despite it being reminiscent of panto, which I loathe, and containing many references to popular British comedies of the past, some of which probably eluded me. Although only c. 1 hour 45 minutes long, it was too much for me in one sitting as those cramped benches become progressively more uncomfortable with time and I was fidgeting after the first hour, but I'm glad I saw this and, entertaining as it is, it's almost worth seeing simply for the curiosity value, because it is so different and unusual.
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Post by joem on May 28, 2016 22:21:56 GMT
I was also there tonight.
An interesting piece which doesn't wholly come off. It is very clever, telling the story of Lord Sutch through the medium of popular British comedies but ultimately fails to be a satisfactory biographical play as it tries to hard to fit the life into the sketches.
But it is hugely entertaining and the cast go through a variety of roles with great gusto.
It isn't always the smooth and surefire hits which make the most interesting evenings. Graham is, for me, cementing a solid reputation for himself as one of our most original living playwrights.
Screaming Lord Sutch was a great man. If he'd ever been elected Prime Minister we wouldn't be in the fine mess we're in, Stanley.
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Post by n1david on May 29, 2016 7:32:59 GMT
Gosh there were a lot of us there last night!
Agree with the comments above that this is very disjointed and overlong (towards the end I kept thinking "not another sitcom") but on the whole I really enjoyed this. It is so overwhelmingly silly and the cast work so damned hard that I was won over by it. It needs the party atmosphere in the audience and I suspect that a Saturday night helped this along.
A really brave experiment in playing with the form, your enjoyment will probably depend in part on your age and cultural background (down to throwaway lines like "and this is me") but I thought it a really fun night even if it didn't all quite hang together in the end.
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