1,861 posts
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Post by NeilVHughes on Sept 13, 2019 15:50:56 GMT
Review summary
★★★★ "An ingenious revival... the play acquires a whole new dimension." Financial Times
★★★★ "Features a career-defining performance from Anjana Vasan." The Guardian
★★★★ "O’Riordan and Gupta’s innovative re-working of one of theatre’s most performed plays feels as thrilling as it is politically astute." Evening Standard
★★★★ "A fierce postcolonial take on the Ibsen classic and a big, galvanising start to the O’Riordan reign." Time Out
★★★★ "This is a strong beginning for O’Riordan and the new regime at the Lyric." iNews
★★★★ "A dramatically satisfying, textually revelatory production, anchored by Vasan’s luminous performance." The Stage
★★★★ "Supremely smart. The production is both faithful to Ibsen and revelatory in its rethinking." WhatsOnStage
★★★★ "A joyful celebration of diverse talents." The Arts Desk
★★★★ "With the simple change in setting to A Doll's House, Gupta examines Ibsen's exploration of what it means to own someone through a colonial lens." Broadway World
Seeing the play tonight and really looking forward to it.
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Post by learfan on Sept 13, 2019 16:35:56 GMT
Going on 5 October, sounds interesting. Booked for the Ghosts Indian adaptation at the Tricycle in November too.
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1,861 posts
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Post by NeilVHughes on Sept 13, 2019 22:08:32 GMT
A setting that amplifies the situation Nora/Niru finds herself in.
Anjana Vasan Is magnificent in the central role, a masterful journey from childishness through desperation to the final realisation of the fallacy of her life. Seen her in many productions over the last few years and with this production she joins the top table of excellent young actresses we currently have.
Ignoring the trend of the re-interpretation of classic plays to within an inch of their lives, in this production the characters and genders remain mainly as per the playwright intended, here the lens through which we experience the play is more than sufficient to breathe new life.
Well worth a trip out West.
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Post by londonpostie on Oct 1, 2019 20:17:11 GMT
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Post by NeilVHughes on Oct 1, 2019 20:24:40 GMT
impressive, as you say londonpostie would love to see more of this type of material in the future. Will be interesting to see if they do the same for Solaris or whether specific to this play as it one of the classics. |
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Post by learfan on Oct 1, 2019 21:17:54 GMT
Going Saturday
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Post by Jan on Oct 3, 2019 6:40:46 GMT
I thought this was OK. The Indian colonial setting didn't add much for me (a stronger emphasis on class was one thing) but it worked fine (though the position of the blackmailer was a bit unconvincing in this setting). Acting OK, a bit over-hyped in the reviews I thought. Ibsen himself was the best thing about it as usual. One thing I did notice for the first time, Mrs Linde's (renamed here) advice that not retrieving the letter was the best thing to do based on her religious/moral belief that the truth is always best prefigures the even more disastrous advice offered by Gregers Werle in The Wild Duck - idealism is a dangerous thing.
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Post by londonpostie on Oct 3, 2019 7:56:50 GMT
I found something new in that colonial laws were generally worded to ensure white men would not fall within their scope. It's probably random for most people but this mirrors my thoughts on how law has been made, particularly in the US but also the UK, to ensure outrageous, irresponsible greed in the finance industries is not punished in a criminal sense.
It was interesting to think that state reliance on tax income from the City of London may be seen as facilitating colonialism of one group in society by another - one group acting with legal impunity at the cost to another.
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Post by Jan on Oct 3, 2019 8:17:41 GMT
I found something new in that colonial laws were generally worded to ensure white men would not fall within their scope. It's probably random for most people but this mirrors my thoughts on how law has been made, particularly in the US but also the UK, to ensure outrageous, irresponsible greed in the finance industries is not punished in a criminal sense. It was interesting to think that state reliance on tax income from the City of London may be seen as facilitating colonialism of one group in society by another - one group acting with legal impunity at the cost to another. Yes some of that extraneous information was interesting. |
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Post by Jan on Oct 3, 2019 11:36:57 GMT
Oh, and just one more point, the very end was a bit of a cop out. In the text Ibsen specifies in a stage direction that the door slams shut - the implication is it’s all over, she’s gone. Here leaving the door ajar, hinting at a possible route for a future return, is softening it a bit.
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Post by learfan on Oct 5, 2019 16:18:37 GMT
Just out from the matinee. Thought it really good, Anjana Vasan was very impressive. The setting worked i felt. Interesting cross section of an audience. Lot more Asians in, which is obviously good. A party of well heeled American women clearly on some sort of cultural tour, unfortunately one their number directly behind me started snoring in tje second half! Rufus Norris was in and i saw Simon Stephens and Tanika Gupta as i walked down the stairs. Bodes well for the new regime at the Lyric.
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Post by Dr Tom on May 20, 2020 22:09:04 GMT
Just watched this tonight and managed to get in before the stream gets taken down at midnight. I've not seen any versions of this play before, so nothing to compare it with, but it held my attention and I thought the India setting and the obvious power dynamics worked perfectly. Pity I missed this at the Lyric, as I think it would have been even better in person.
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