A Night at the Theatre

[gurnemanz]

Our daughter saw it early in the run and immediately booked to go again. We have tickets for July.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Our daughter saw it early in the run and immediately booked to go again. We have tickets for July.

I’m waiting to pounce on returns for the final matinée…assuming there’s no rail strike - it’ll be four hours on train , 2 .5 hours in theatre , 4 hours on train.

[Serial_Apologist]

But he’s portraying Burton’s portrayal. Flynn doing his own Hamlet would be something to witness.

Ah... but that wouldn't have been "authentic"!

[Historian]

It’s sold out with the odd return.

Ah, too slow, as so often with really fine performances. Thank you.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Finally go to see The Motive and The Cue this week. Very good but I was suprised at how much of the text from Johnny Flynn was unintelligible. Even allowing for sequences where he’s acting drunk or gabbling just to annoy Mark Gatiss’s (superb ) Gielgud about a third was difficult to make out. Had to buy a script that night - only to find that it was in some places different from the performance. All the other principals were crystal clear.
Excellent play but a bit of a slur on Richard Burton. His 1964 New York Hamlet is still on YouTube and even allowing for the poor recorded sound which appears to have been compressed his diction is absolutely excellent.
He was one hell of an actor …”We shall not look upon his like etc.”
The play is being live streamed on April the 3rd .

[Belgrove]

Another chance to see The Motive and the Cue, this time at the cinema curtesy of the NT Live broadcasts. It’s every bit as good as I remember. If interested, check your local cinema to see if it’s on in the coming weeks. Quite apart from being an absorbing drama, it’s a penetrating analysis of Hamlet itself.

[gurnemanz]

Finally go to see The Motive and The Cue this week. Very good but I was suprised at how much of the text from Johnny Flynn was unintelligible ...

Quite a big 'but', I would have thought. I quite often don't catch everything actors are saying. This may be my septuagenarian ears, but when this doesn't apply to all the actors it seems fair to put it down to voice projection, diction and enunciation. The recent resignation of acting coach, Patsy Rodenburg, might confirm this:

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/mar/03/without-craft-an-actor-is-a-liability-how-row-over-teaching-standards-is-causing-a-rift-in-uk-theatre-industry

[Old Grumpy]

Afternoon at the theatre:

Stephen Joseph Theatre's production of Brassed Off. A hard hitting look at the legacy of pit closures and the power of "Banding" as a force for good in the community.
Members of the the cast were both great actors and competent musicians in their own right, ably aided by "session" banders for the ensemble items.


https://sjt.uk.com/events/brassed-off


Last night in Scarborough but they're off to Bolton next:

https://octagonbolton.co.uk/events/brassed-off

[LMcD]

I quite often don't catch everything actors are saying. This may be my septuagenarian ears, but when this doesn't apply to all the actors it seems fair to put it down to voice projection, diction and enunciation.

When it comes to films, I find that the need for subtitles decreases the further one goes back in time.

[Belgrove]

A highly effective production of A Doll’s House is playing at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. No need to update it to the present, the costumes and clever set place it in the time of its writing - and yet Ibsen remains among the most contemporary of playwrights. Nora is a modern woman, trapped in a marriage by a controlling husband and social pressures. The fear of bankruptcy and the disgrace that follows is a common theme in Ibsen’s work, and it is the primary motor in this play. Nora’s act of love and kindness through borrowing from a dodgy character places her and her family in legal and moral jeopardy, but the crisis that ensues ultimately liberates her from the doll’s house in which she exists. I assume it’s a set exam text since there were a lot of teenagers in groups in the audience, many of whom gasped in disbelief at some of Thorvald’s actions towards his wife. Good that live theatre can provoke such a response. Hopefully a strong production such as this will instil in them a lifelong love of theatre.

[Belgrove]

Sadly I missed the recent production of Oedipus with Mark Strong and Lesley Manville, but like buses, another one comes along, this time at the Old Vic with Rami Malek and Indira Varma. Instead of a chorus, there’s a dance troupe who punctuate the action with rave-style moves to a driving percussive accompaniment. It doesn’t entirely fit with the drama but it’s a visceral and exhilarating spectacle nevertheless. That Oedipus is an outsider in Thebes is all too evident by Malek’s slow American drawling delivery, which is rather stilted and mannered, he’s almost like an alien who has beamed down. Varma is more convincing as Jocasta, who spurns the superstitious solutions to Thebes’ plight as offered by her all too ambitious brother Creon. No set, just lighting, which is spectacular, from the searing orange of the drought producing sun, through to charcoals sliced through with silver spotlights - it’s very striking and effective. Ella Hickson’s adaptation of Sophocles is in prose rather than verse, efficient at conveying the story’s nub rather than being a text of beauty. So it’s not an unmitigated success, but worth a visit provided you’re not a purist of Greek tragedy’s conventions. On until the end of March.

[french frank]

Thanks Belgrove. It's almost as good as being there!

Sadly I missed the recent production of Oedipus with Mark Strong and Lesley Manville, but like buses, another one comes along, this time at the Old Vic with Rami Malek and Indira Varma. Instead of a chorus, there’s a dance troupe who punctuate the action with rave-style moves to a driving percussive accompaniment. It doesn’t entirely fit with the drama but it’s a visceral and exhilarating spectacle nevertheless. That Oedipus is an outsider in Thebes is all too evident by Malek’s slow American drawling delivery, which is rather stilted and mannered, he’s almost like an alien who has beamed down. Varma is more convincing as Jocasta, who spurns the superstitious solutions to Thebes’ plight as offered by her all too ambitious brother Creon. No set, just lighting, which is spectacular, from the searing orange of the drought producing sun, through to charcoals sliced through with silver spotlights - it’s very striking and effective. Ella Hickson’s adaptation of Sophocles is in prose rather than verse, efficient at conveying the story’s nub rather than being a text of beauty. So it’s not an unmitigated success, but worth a visit provided you’re not a purist of Greek tragedy’s conventions. On until the end of March.