83 posts
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Post by G on Dec 11, 2021 23:16:12 GMT
Back at the Hampstead Theatre with Tamsin Greig as Peggy Ramsay, 10 Dec 2021 - 29 Jan 2022. www.hampsteadtheatre.com/whats-on/2021/peggy-for-you/This was so much fun. Tamsin Greig was great in it. Keeps a snappy pace for the whole duration, with non-stop zingers. Glad to see virtually the full audience wearing a mask during the performance, which the Hampstead Theatre manages to enforce more successfully than most venues. |
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Post by mkb on Dec 18, 2021 18:26:03 GMT
A day in advance of today's matinée, an email from the Hampstead offered to move us back from our front-row centre seats owing to increased stage height. They were not kidding! The stage has been raised about 80cm. Row A is severely restricted and even row B is below stage level despite the generous rake. I am so glad I took up the offer.
While the stage has been framed by a red, rectangular, false proscenium, there is no obvious reason for the increased height. It seems to be a case of a set designer not giving a damn as to whether the paying audience can actually see the stage, an increasingly common issue.
I knew nothing of play agent Margaret Ramsey. In fact, it was only glancing at the programme in the interval that I discovered she was not fictional. I am not sure Tamsin Grieg has quite nailed this extraordinary personality, but she makes a good fist of it. Trevor Fox as client writer Henry is superb.
The play leaves open whether Peggy is a monster, an unstoppable, occasionally destructive, force of nature, or a pragmatic master (mistress?) of her trade with time for everyone. As portrayed, I leaned towards the kinder interpretation, and warmed to her. You can imagine that being in her company was never dull.
The star of the show here is the script. The dialogue is peppered with witty observations and cynical asides that had me chortling throughout. However, the final line, delivered by Peggy, is heart-breaking to anyone who loves theatre.
This production is a bit rough round the edges, but it is marvellously entertaining.
Four stars.
Act 1: 14:34-15:45
Act 2: 16:06-16:57
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3,565 posts
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Post by showgirl on Dec 18, 2021 20:15:37 GMT
Great to read this and Libby Purves also gave it a rave review today. I did think of trying to move my booking forward to replace the cancelled matinee of Trouble In Mind today, but decided that the strike on the Jubilee Line would make travel too complicated.
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Post by mkb on Dec 19, 2021 12:04:48 GMT
I forgot to mention there was one appalling moment, when Henry tells a joke, an audience member shouted out the punchline. Trevor Fox made light of it and handled it well. Sorry to go all Daily Mail, but lifetime bans for people like that please.
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1,828 posts
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Post by Dave B on Dec 21, 2021 12:52:39 GMT
We went last night, theatre seemed maybe 3/4 full. 10 minutes late starting, I think to let a group of latecomers in who proceeded to badly behave but it looked like FoH just gave up after repeatedly talking to them.
Anyways it was a fun enough evening. Tamsin Greig was quality, the script is fun. Pretty constant laughs throughout so what looks to be our final show of the year, it was grand.
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83 posts
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Post by G on Jan 22, 2022 14:59:50 GMT
The Hampstead Theatre is being evacuated 'due to unforeseen circumstances' and people are being cleared out to in front of the Swiss Cottage library to make space for the fire brigade (I was here to see Folk which did not get to curtain up; Peggy for You must have had started for a few minutes only before the clearout).
Not sure what's going on? Thankfully it does not look like the theatre is going up in smoke but it sounded serious.
Edit: we're being readmitted now. Still not sure if the fire brigade came or what happened!
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Post by l0islane on Jan 23, 2022 0:10:42 GMT
The Hampstead Theatre is being evacuated 'due to unforeseen circumstances' and people are being cleared out to in front of the Swiss Cottage library to make space for the fire brigade (I was here to see Folk which did not get to curtain up; Peggy for You must have had started for a few minutes only before the clearout). Not sure what's going on? Thankfully it does not look like the theatre is going up in smoke but it sounded serious. Edit: we're being readmitted now. Still not sure if the fire brigade came or what happened! I was at the evacuated performance of Peggy for You, rather strange to be standing around in the park with the cast in full costume for half an hour! 😄 One of the staff told us that someone pressed the wrong button in the lift and set off the alarm, the fire brigade came and checked that everything was OK and then we were let back in. The play was enjoyable and I'll watch Tamsin Greig in anything but avoid the left hand slip seats, in almost every scene one character would be out of view so we were constantly watching one side of a conversation. It just seemed totally unnecessary, they could have just pushed the sofa over a bit and we'd have been able to see everything! |
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Post by dlevi on Jan 28, 2022 22:46:48 GMT
Saw this last night ( I got a last minute return) and while the play is minor, Ms Grieg is just terrific - funny, tough, caring and just the slightest trace of vulnerability. Supporting cast was solid and the theatre posters on the walls were fascinating as well. I agree with 10islane the staging on the extreme left is really inexcusable.
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Post by tmesis on Jan 29, 2022 19:15:10 GMT
I really enjoyed this. Tamsin was fantastic as Ramsay and also Josh Finan was perfect as the aspiring playwright.
It's a really entertaining, funny play the like of which we infrequently see at Hampstead/Almeida/Donmar et al these days.
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Post by imstillhere on Jan 29, 2022 19:45:57 GMT
The play feels very dated and dusty. Tamsin Greig has charisma and shines but even she cannot save this. Lame jokes, lack of dramatic action, too gentle, nothing revelatory and nothing particularly interesting to say.
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Post by showgirl on Jan 30, 2022 5:41:46 GMT
Having seen the last matinee yesterday I tend to agree that whilst the production was fine, the play itself isn't that good. I'd seent the original verson 20-odd years ago so couldn't possibly recall it but on second viewing it seemed very episodic and a bit lacking in pace and direction.
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Post by Forrest on Jan 30, 2022 7:00:51 GMT
The play feels very dated and dusty. Tamsin Greig has charisma and shines but even she cannot save this. Lame jokes, lack of dramatic action, too gentle, nothing revelatory and nothing particularly interesting to say. I have to agree with this: a stellar cast, but it didn't do anything for me, and I felt like it was going nowhere. I laughed, but forgot why the moment I left the theatre. I also thought that it dragged on a little. Definitely not seeing any more versions of this, even if someone - for some odd reason - was ever to decide to resurrect it. |
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Post by cavocado on Jan 30, 2022 11:20:58 GMT
I saw it a week or two ago and thought it was entertaining enough, but forgettable. TG was wonderful, and I enjoyed the 'what is a play' musings, and my own musings about how things have changed in the intervening years.
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