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Post by lynette on Feb 9, 2019 23:02:10 GMT
Sorry I didn’t take a programme but all the cast v competent. This play is set in modern day Denmark and is about two men who experienced the wartime Nazi occupation coming together to hack away at their experiences. David Bamber always worth a look though here he had a difficult role as a somewhat stereotyped elderly Jewish gentleman littering his speech with Yiddish words but he had some good laugh out loud lines. At the interval we were full of questions which we were happy to discuss with Neil from the Board who was sitting right next to me. The second half sparked much better, resolved some of the questions and actually had a few good moments. Perhaps this play is too ambitious using as it does one big story, the Danish evacuation of the Jews in 1943 and then both marital and parental relationships mixed in and terrible guilt, hidden for forty years. So some lines were a bit clunky and repetitive and the plot devices were signalled heavily. And there was a passage about immigrants that didn’t hit the mark and could have been sorted more subtlely. Or just left out. Sometimes writers must trust the audience to 'get it' and also trust the actors to get it across without plonk, plonk in yer face out of character speeches.
The Park keeps coming up with plays worth seeing and has a very interesting season this spring and summer. And again, let me recommend the Cottage cafe next door.
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3,558 posts
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Post by showgirl on Feb 10, 2019 5:14:48 GMT
Thank you, lynette, for starting a thread as although yesterday's performances were the last (and this after the run was extended by a week), the play was clearly very popular so may have a longer life.
I confess to seeing it earlier in the last week but not starting a thread myself, partly because my wifi connection has been so dire lately that it keeps dropping in mid-use, but also partly because I was sure that others here would have seen this so if I just kept waiting long enaough...
So anyway: I hadn't booked ahead for this as technically I wasn't going to be fit to attend at any point during the run due to my op and even when the run was extended, I was pushing it, but the reviews read as though it was enjoyable and worth seeing, so I sneaked out. And I think that regardless of its flaws, this is a play which audiences like - and I do think there is sometimes a distinction to be made between critical approval/structural merit and sheer enjoyment/entertainment. There were far too many convenient coincidences in the plot yet I found it well-acted by the cast of 4, with a surprising amount of humour, given the serious subject. At the performance I saw, the whole audience definitely seemed engaged and enthusiastic so with the above reservations, I'd recommend it if it returns or transfers.
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1,861 posts
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Post by NeilVHughes on Feb 10, 2019 8:09:36 GMT
Prior to the interval the play throws up so many questions it is difficult to make out the relationships as on the surface you are unable to see how these people would ever be in the same room together let alone acquaintances and the use of the daughter to give voice to our questions came over quite clunky at times. These unresolved questions provided an opportunity to have a spirited discussion with lynette during the interval who continues to be good company as we now seem to regularly bump into each other. Post interval the play resolves much better than anticipated and builds into a piece about truth and faith, both evolve over time and in essence are the same, the historian gets a new perspective of the truth and with the closing line this new truth does not invalidate the miracle only now it is in another form made even more miraculous as the perceived devil could have been God’s conduit. As stated earlier the transposition to current events is entirely unnecessary and if this gets another life should really be cut, audiences on the whole are able to extrapolate without a writers megaphone. An engaging production in good company, in essence good evening’s theatre.
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