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Post by tmesis on Mar 7, 2020 17:54:19 GMT
I'm seeing this in a fortnight but for those who are hesitating at the Wagnerian length the NT have helpfully put a detailed running time of all the constituent parts on their site.
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116 posts
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Post by alexandra on Mar 7, 2020 19:06:30 GMT
I'm seeing this in a fortnight but for those who are hesitating at the Wagnerian length the NT have helpfully put a detailed running time of all the constituent parts on their site. If you are hesitating, stop. We are half way through and it’s magnificent. |
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1,861 posts
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Post by NeilVHughes on Mar 7, 2020 19:10:36 GMT
Good to hear alexandra , seeing it tomorrow, what are the surtitles like from the first few rows of the stalls? |
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Post by justinj on Mar 7, 2020 22:44:34 GMT
Absolutely fantastic. Perfectly paced so doesn’t feel anywhere near 7 hours and doesn’t drag at all.
Get yourself a ticket.
Was in row C and subtitles were fine, although they did glitch a couple of times.
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116 posts
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Post by alexandra on Mar 8, 2020 0:11:57 GMT
Good to hear alexandra , seeing it tomorrow, what are the surtitles like from the first few rows of the stalls? The surtitles are a little way upstage so easy to see from the front rows. There is an obstruction down stage left though, which restricts the view from low numbered seats a little. But it’s a satisfying treat, and a visual feast (like all his work), which kept the audience silent and engrossed for 7 hours. |
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1,970 posts
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Post by sf on Mar 8, 2020 0:51:44 GMT
Going next week. I've been kicking myself for years for missing it the first time around; particularly interested to see it now, having recently been in Hiroshima myself.
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Post by perfectspy on Mar 8, 2020 11:19:41 GMT
What’s the surtitles like from the circle seats?
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Post by QueerTheatre on Mar 8, 2020 13:55:57 GMT
Good to hear alexandra , seeing it tomorrow, what are the surtitles like from the first few rows of the stalls? I'm here today in the first few rows too! |
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527 posts
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Post by vabbian on Mar 8, 2020 15:00:15 GMT
I was there yesterday. It is indeed fantastic, doesn't feel like 7 hours at all. Full standing ovation at the end.
5 stars.
I am sure there are many deep, academic things to say about this production, but I won't articulate them here. It is the kind of play you could watch over and over and keep discovering something new (in part due to its length). But the play is detailed in a GOOD way, not in the superfluous artsy fartsy way that many modern directors do (and make you roll your eyes at).
Somehow the play manages to blend the nuclear bombs and opera and AIDs and the Holocaust and much more, and it works!
Make sure to bring food or know where to dash off to nearby as the main interval is only 45mins.
Seemed to be quite a few empty seats yesterday, and I see there are a lot online. If you are on the fence about booking, make sure to snap tickets up as methinks once the reviews are out, those tickets will be gone.
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1,861 posts
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Post by NeilVHughes on Mar 8, 2020 22:41:59 GMT
Most Excellent.
A sublime day of Theatre. The atrocities of the 20th Century beautifully portrayed as the streams of human fortitude flowed through the bonds of friends and family.
7 hours and 50 years flew by in an instant.
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Post by intoanewlife on Mar 11, 2020 13:05:08 GMT
How will this be from the back of the Circle?
There's still quite a few £30 tickets for Friday I'm eyeing up.
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Post by asfound on Mar 15, 2020 8:16:18 GMT
Well if this ends up being the last play I see for a while at least it was something of an event, but I found it pretty hard to get into. Partly my own fault, I forgot how terrible the rake is on the first few rows at the Lyttelton and couldn't see the middle section of the stage for a lot of it. And then it wouldn't be a farewell London theatre experience without idiots being distracting, so of course on two sides of me I had the joy of WAGs (or HABs or whatever) being dragged along who had no idea what they were in for and needed reassurance and things explained to them every five minutes. Then there was the guy somewhere behind me repeating random Japanese words to impress his SO that he once went on a gap yar. Great. Next, I don't know if it was just a bad day at the office but it seemed a bit underrehearsed, two stand out moments being a video projection displaying the "select input" screen during what was supposed to be a moving scene and later one of the actresses forgetting her wig and spoiling a pivotal reveal. Finally, I thought all the pauses and intermissions were a bit overkill and immersion breaking, but I suppose they needed some of them for scene changes. I think short breaks for the scene changes would have sufficed, it's not like 45 minutes is enough to get dinner anyway.
But all that aside it was well worth the time spent. There were moments that made people gasp and others had people in tears. The staging was intricate and magical, it was the most epically cinematic thing I've seen on stage and the full standing ovation well deserved. I don't think it was perfect, I think some of the characters could have been fleshed out a bit more, and the links between them explored in more depth. I'm still a little unsure what tied Jana to the main family other than being "a friend", which made it feel a bit implausible, and the AIDs thing came out of nowhere a bit. But since there are some great £20 seats still available, I might be tempted to give it another shot if the NT is still open in a week.
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Post by fossil on Mar 15, 2020 11:38:59 GMT
I am sorry you did not have a better experience asfound. I was at yesterdays performance and found this to be outstanding theatrical experience. I had a stalls row D seat but was lucky enough to relocate to some empty seats and ended up centre row H and this obviously made all the difference.
I did find this to be a somewhat uneven production. At times some of the scenes just seemed a little clumsy and not too well written (the free programme credits thirteen people with the text). Other scenes were very moving with beautiful movement and stunning visual effects. Scenes in other languages were mostly not a problem as they used surtitles above the centre stage which were clear and not too high. However there was one scene which used a simultaneous translator on stage and I found this difficult to follow - for me this became a bit of a jumble of voices.
And, yes, the glitches were unnecessary and annoying.
This was one of those productions where the good bits more than made up for the weaker moments. I would gladly see this again - but only from an equally good seat.
At the interval I went up to the Olivier stalls level to eat my sandwich and watched and listened to the first ten minutes or so of "The Visit" on the monitors. Not really fair to judge a play on the first few minutes but the I am not tempted to see any more. The dialogue did seem somewhat unnatural and obvious.
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1,120 posts
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Mar 15, 2020 22:31:13 GMT
Jana is the poet/singer in the bathroom in the NY scene. In the original production she’s actually the main character. The script and indeed the whole story appears to be substantially changed.
(I only know because someone told me; if not I would have assumed she was a random friend when she popped up in Amsterdam.)
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1,083 posts
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Post by andrew on Mar 16, 2020 21:46:51 GMT
At the interval I went up to the Olivier stalls level to eat my sandwich and watched and listened to the first ten minutes or so of "The Visit" on the monitors. Not really fair to judge a play on the first few minutes but the I am not tempted to see any more. The dialogue did seem somewhat unnatural and obvious. The opening scene is dreadful, the rest of isn't so bad in my opinion. EDIT: Which isn't to say I loved it, just that it was fine and the opening scene wasn't representative overall |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2020 22:41:26 GMT
Rest of run cancelled
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