|
Post by Honoured Guest on Aug 2, 2017 10:29:32 GMT
They lost me in London when they left the Barbican, but I'd go wherever if only they transferred the "right" productions. So many of their new plays had great reviews but none has yet had a life beyond Stratford. Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again by Alice Birch had full runs this time last year at Shoreditch Town Hall and the Edinburgh Fringe. Queen Anne is a new play. It's running at the Theatre Royal Haymarket for three months, doncha know. A few years ago, Written on the Wind by David Edgar transferred to the Duchess.
|
|
|
Post by Honoured Guest on Aug 11, 2017 4:05:16 GMT
On this play, I never go to the rotten old Haymarket to see anything, even though I could have got a top price ticket for this for £5. Well, I felt I underpaid, with a 50% discount on central, non-premium stalls. But I wouldn't have attended at the standard, undiscounted price. The theatre decor is ridiculously over the top - Gold, Gold, Gold - but is otherwise ideal for this production, staged quite far forward in a semi-circle so, I should imagine, all visible from everywhere in the house. The play is quite different from what I'd normally see, and also unlike virtually everything else ever put on anywhere outside Stratford-upon-Avon, and it is interesting and entertaining to see it. It doesn't seem to press any specific contemporary analogies most of the time, which is very unusual and I guess is why some people here have considered it dull. Most of the dialogue sounds to be in verse, which I guess is why some people here have considered it stilted. Personally, I found the play and the production to be sufficiently robust to stand up in isolation and not to be part of a greater RSC season of plays. An ignored period of history, and a rare study of women in power.
|
|
Xanderl
Member
Not always very high value in terms of ticket yield or donations
|
Post by Xanderl on Aug 14, 2017 7:46:30 GMT
TodayTix has a 24 hour offer for £15 tickets for any performance this month. Just had a look and was offered top price stalls for £15 for a Saturday performance. £10 off of course with one of the many £10 referral codes, I've heard SEZCE is a good one
|
|
892 posts
|
Post by vdcni on Aug 24, 2017 7:06:33 GMT
Saw this last night with the top price stalls for £15 offer.
Thought it was mainly a solid production but never really more than that. I know the history quite well so the first act was just a pretty straight forward historical narrative. It perked up a bit in the second act when it felt that the playwright actually had something to say. Up to that point you might have well just read a book about the period.
Good performances from the leads though no one really stood out from the rest of the cast and though I saw the point of the first song the rest of the musical bits dragged - cut them out and the whole thing would have been a lot tighter.
|
|
150 posts
|
Post by bee on Sept 3, 2017 7:55:47 GMT
I saw this last night. It's a bit dry at first with the actors explaining things to each other so the audience gets filled in on the history behind the story, but once the story kicks in it moves along quite briskly. I liked that you're never really sure who you should be rooting for - Anne and Sarah are both admirable and infuriating at various times.
The staging is excellent and the acting is first rate. On the whole a very satisfying night out.
|
|
3,920 posts
|
Post by Dawnstar on Sept 3, 2017 15:19:04 GMT
Solid, a little stolid at times That looks rather like the descriptions of Queen Anne herself in the latter part of her reign!
|
|
1,103 posts
|
Post by mallardo on Sept 10, 2017 10:02:54 GMT
I'm not sure why this play and production have been so little regarded and so quickly dismissed by some. It's certainly not easy to write an historical biography about a figure as sedentary and as little known as Queen Anne but, for me, Helen Edmundson has done a masterful job. She has found the key to the character and to her milieu and has shaped it all into a fine and fascinating piece.
Really, I enjoyed everything about it. I thought the songs and parodies both funny and necessary - they are central to the plot - and the journeys undertaken by the two leading characters both surprising and dramatically robust. Emma Cunniffe and Romola Garai are both superb as is the rest of the cast with James Garnon's Harley and Hywel Morgan's Prince George particularly standing out.
I have not always been a fan of director Natalie Abrahami's work but she does very well here. Her production is full of wit and nuance and pace. What could have been a dutiful slog through Anne's life was anything but. Strong production, strong performances, strong play.
|
|
1,119 posts
|
Post by martin1965 on Sept 10, 2017 13:41:34 GMT
I'm not sure why this play and production have been so little regarded and so quickly dismissed by some. It's certainly not easy to write an historical biography about a figure as sedentary and as little known as Queen Anne but, for me, Helen Edmundson has done a masterful job. She has found the key to the character and to her milieu and has shaped it all into a fine and fascinating piece. Really, I enjoyed everything about it. I thought the songs and parodies both funny and necessary - they are central to the plot - and the journeys undertaken by the two leading characters both surprising and dramatically robust. Emma Cunniffe and Romola Garai are both superb as is the rest of the cast with James Garnon's Harley and Hywel Morgan's Prince George particularly standing out. I have not always been a fan of director Natalie Abrahami's work but she does very well here. Her production is full of wit and nuance and pace. What could have been a dutiful slog through Anne's life was anything but. Strong production, strong performances, strong play. Well it was certainly a slog when i saw it in Stratford, still frankly amazed its in the WE!
|
|
|
Post by Honoured Guest on Sept 10, 2017 18:26:27 GMT
Well it was certainly a slog when i saw it in Stratford, still frankly amazed its in the WE! Repeating a personal opinion ad nauseam doesn't make it any more of a universal truth.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2017 18:29:26 GMT
I really enjoyed it in Stratford. It was one of my highlights of the year.
|
|
884 posts
|
Post by lonlad on Sept 10, 2017 23:40:35 GMT
Turgid, laboured, and (Garai aside) badly acted - other than that, it was great! Oh, and the design is hideous as well - brackish and uninviting.
|
|
10 posts
|
Post by thesortinghat on Sept 11, 2017 11:44:01 GMT
The play was interesting, but I found it so badly acted by some that it was hard to concentrate at times.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2017 15:16:59 GMT
Some nice frocks though. Lots of material to swish about in.
|
|
10 posts
|
Post by thesortinghat on Sept 12, 2017 7:39:46 GMT
Some nice frocks though. Lots of material to swish about in. I did like the swishing!
|
|
87 posts
|
Post by greenswan on Sept 20, 2017 6:25:15 GMT
This is really not up to scratch. Some of the actors seem like they've given up and are just phoning it in.
There's not that many great historical roles with women in powerful positions, so I'm annoyed they wasted the material on this play. It is also way too long - just not good enough for the length. There's really much better things on at the moment.
|
|