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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2017 12:13:39 GMT
O hell. Sounds like the kind of thing I hate. They won't get me to stand at the end, honeybunch. But I have always wanted to see this play having missed it previously. Please lead a sit down revolt Lynette! If I go to this I'm in the circle so feel quite safe sitting reading this and being amused at a non conforming audience. I don't want to alarm you but a section of the circle does get called into action at one point...
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Post by peggs on Apr 27, 2017 12:15:44 GMT
Please lead a sit down revolt Lynette! If I go to this I'm in the circle so feel quite safe sitting reading this and being amused at a non conforming audience. I don't want to alarm you but a section of the circle does get called into action at one point... Oh heck! Well that's my comeuppance for being smug for being at a safe distance
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Post by wickedgrin on Apr 27, 2017 12:45:49 GMT
Oh lord......I'm front side circle next week!
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Post by Latecomer on Apr 27, 2017 13:11:00 GMT
Lenny Henry was excellent in Fences at Oxford Playhouse a couple of years ago...I think people are bring a bit unfair!
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Apr 27, 2017 20:06:36 GMT
I happen to adore audience participation and am gutted that my front row circle seat for this Monday seems to involve only a little of it. (Should any forumers happen to have a A-C stalls ticket and a horror of audience participation I'd be happy to swap and pay the difference - wouldn't have to be for Monday. Otherwise I might phone and see if there's any chance of picking up an extra stalls seat.)
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Post by lynette on Apr 27, 2017 22:25:31 GMT
Might this be one occasion when I don't complain at not being in the front row. 🙄
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Post by peggs on Apr 28, 2017 11:40:01 GMT
Lynette I will promise to be a fully participating audience member if you'll do the reverse and give them a Lynette stare and decline.
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Post by lynette on Apr 28, 2017 14:39:10 GMT
13 th May, the 'death stare' ! Of course I might get all carried away like....😜
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Post by Latecomer on Apr 28, 2017 15:02:06 GMT
13 th May, the 'death stare' ! Of course I might get all carried away like....😜 Oeer! The same day as me and Peggs are due to go...we are at matinee...no longer in the front row, taking your seats Lynette, but up in the 3rd row of the circle! Are you matinee too?!
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Post by lynette on Apr 28, 2017 18:06:15 GMT
Evening. Sadly we shall not meet unless you go shopping and then come back for a drink. I will be in the bar area upstairs from half an hour before the show.... 🙄🙄
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Post by Latecomer on Apr 28, 2017 18:11:28 GMT
Evening. Sadly we shall not meet unless you go shopping and then come back for a drink. I will be in the bar area upstairs from half an hour before the show.... 🙄🙄 So near and yet so far! Sadly have to rush home and see patient long suffering husband....can't answer for Peggs...she is deciding whether to come or not...I am sure you would have swung it Lynette! One day...one day!
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Post by peggs on Apr 28, 2017 18:53:17 GMT
Darn it, risk of participating way more than planned in play versus meeting the fabled lynette, there would have been no contest.
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Post by Steve on Apr 29, 2017 11:14:11 GMT
I thought this was loads of fun, the audience participation and the Donald trump references being the raison d'etre of the production. Some spoilers follow. . . Yes, this is not as good as the 5 star Henry Goodman production, which was superlative in every way, but mostly for the growth in Goodman's Ui/Hitler over the course of the play from a kind of cuddly Mickey Mouse mumbling caricature to an utterly frightening monster. Here Lenny Henry's Ui is a thug from start to finish, so the whole thing is a lot less surprising and scary, nor does it have an equivalent coup de theatre at the end, which capped the Goodman show by suddenly producing Nazi-redolent symbols everywhere. What this show does have is oodles of goodwill, where the super-friendly actors use excellent judgement about which audience members they dare invite into the performance. I generally hate audience participation, but Lucy Ellinson was utterly open and lovely, at the beginning, about asking me to raise my hand, and cheer for her words during the show, and she didn't molest anyone who looked closed off to it. Generally I was shielded from the fear of sitting in the front row of the stalls, my band B side stalls seat having been moved round to the back of the stage, with a row of chairs in front of me, to create an in-the-round show, in which everybody feels involved. The wooden chairs at the back are a lot less comfortable than the usual pews though. There were tables there with appropriately Brechtian Dogsborough cafe "menus," which helpfully contained an explanation of which scenes correlated to which historical events, and which play characters were which historical characters. Ellinson was Giri who was Goring. Anyway, Lenny Henry's sheer height and bulk lend him great gangster gravitas, and he, and all the actors had great fun with their roles, skilfully juggling between playing cod gangsters and being themselves talking to us. My favourite performers were Ellinson as Giri, Giles Terrera as Rohm, Justine Mitchell as many characters, who all excelled effortlessly at this duality, and I loved Michael Pennington as Dogsborough, the soul of the show, the one person who seemed truly frail and vulnerable, lending the show a poignancy that it otherwise lacked. The Trump references came thick and fast, from his "I have great words," to his border wall plan, and Henry pulled it all off wonderfully. While it may be obvious, I think it's all worth saying again and again, as the lies Trump tells will never stop either. What this production loses in being frightening, it gains in being friendly. 4 stars
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Post by David J on Apr 29, 2017 11:27:06 GMT
When do tickets for young people get released
I signed up to receive emails but haven't heard anything
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Post by andrew on May 1, 2017 22:32:29 GMT
Nothing wrong with this. It's good fun, at times is good theatre and for anyone afraid of participation, literally the entire audience is on your side, just have a go.
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Post by Sotongal on May 3, 2017 15:03:59 GMT
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Post by wickedgrin on May 5, 2017 14:19:20 GMT
The front row circle seats are very restricted in my opinion as the new gallery safety rail/shelf is very thick and severely restricts the view unless you lean forward the whole time as most of my row did yesterday.
This production really wasn't for me. I had many issues with it. Lenny Henry has made a very successful career as a comedian and however he "acts" you cannot get past the fact it is Lenny Henry. Not helped by the decision to get him up to the circle to address the audience before the start of the show to appeal for their help with the audience participation later. Although this was done in costume as Arturo Ui he was very Lenny Henry in cajoling and politely persuading the audience to engage. This may have been Brechtian?
Also the play is advertised as Arturo Ui by Brecht in a new adaptation by Bruce Norris, I would have said it is a new play based on Brecht - it is hardly a translation. Donald Trump is an easy target - beyond parody really. A huge amount of bad language especially in the first 15 minutes or so which I felt to be totally unnecessary and gratuitous. I am no prude. Several people did walk out from the circle!
I felt the whole production was very like watching a college end of term show with everyone "acting" and showing off, something students might put on at the Edinburgh Fringe thinking it was very daring.
Perhaps after seeing Richard Wilson in 40 Years on in Chichester recently I was a grumpy old man and not in the mood....and of course don't get me started on the audience participation.
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Post by wickedgrin on May 5, 2017 16:28:47 GMT
They have changed the whole circle. I was in the usual left side circle as you enter the auditorium from the back. Seat A38. The shelf is about 15 cms wide I reckon. Everyone around the front row of the circle was leaning forward.
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Post by alexandra on May 6, 2017 8:20:02 GMT
I was front row of the circle and the shelf wasn't a problem at all. But I agree with wickedgrin about the production. And I feel bad for saying that, because everyone worked so, so hard. The Donmar tweeted proudly yesterday about people refusing to side with Ui at the end, but that's all a muddle and pretty meaningless - we had an actor telling us to stand up not to show support for Ui or because we'd be kneecapped if we didn't, but because the show would go on and on if we didn't, which was highly persuasive. It didn't have the shock and awe of the Goodman production, and the phenomenal line at the end about the bitch being on heat again had gone. Entertaining, but swamped with shenanigans.
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Post by mallardo on May 6, 2017 8:52:09 GMT
"Swamped with shenanigans"... wonderful. I'm going to steal that one from you, Alexandra. After a decent interval, of course.
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Xanderl
Member
Not always very high value in terms of ticket yield or donations
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Post by Xanderl on May 6, 2017 9:33:23 GMT
Just returned a £10 circle seat for today's matinee if anyone fancies it!
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Post by Honoured Guest on May 6, 2017 9:47:15 GMT
Well, I'm sure this is as least as good as our school production of this play, in which I gave my Young Dogsborough. On the last night, I bravely went on with my arm in a sling, as a result of an injury incurred to my wrist in a teat pipette fight during Chemistry that afternoon. Almost forty years on, I still have the three-inch scar on my wrist where the broken end of Alex Simpson's pipette scooped a channel of skin from the surface of my wrist. The gangster's henchman who intimidated Young Dogsborough was played by John Wood (no, not that John Wood, Jan) and his performance grew more gleefully and manically violent as the run progressed. Our production was graced with an outstanding performance as Arturo Ui by Phil Jolowicz, for whom the production was created.
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Post by wickedgrin on May 6, 2017 9:49:17 GMT
Your school production was probably better!
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Post by zahidf on May 9, 2017 9:43:33 GMT
I enjoyed this. It was funny and flew by. I also thought Lenny henry was really good in the lead, he managed to portray the sinister aspect of the character very well
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Post by lynette on May 13, 2017 22:06:37 GMT
Wickedgrin I think I agree with you. Lenny Henry's basic lack of diction and modulation shown up by his fellows in this. I loved the scene with the actor and how he adjusted sitting in his chair but no I didn't think he had depth of evil, layers...and it wasn't funny. We laughed at the audience person in the trial ok but come on. And the end was cheap.
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Post by addictedtotheatre on May 20, 2017 10:21:05 GMT
Hated this. The script was so obvious, right down to the banner saying 'Make Our Country Great Again', and there was nothing for the audience to make any inferences themselves, it was just laid out for them. Toothless and dull. Agree about the level of swearing - it just drains the words of any power.
Meanwhile some of the performances were so broad that they would be better suited to a less intimate venue (such as the O2 Arena).
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Post by Latecomer on May 21, 2017 13:57:36 GMT
Firmly in the "hated this" camp. "Shoud've listened to Parsley" I don't need to have stuff spelled out for me I don't need limp pathetic audience participation that does not add anything Why the excessive strong swearing that added nothing?I don't mind swearing atall, but here it just seemed to jar. Point of the play lost? Here it seemed to be "do what you are told or you will be shot" right from the start to finish.....no development? The end was annoying as I was just thinking...why the long speech, we get it, now can we leave this car crash of a play and I may be able to catch my train? I quite liked the snatches of singing. And the audience seemed to really enjoy it...sometimes I despair!
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Post by foxa on May 21, 2017 18:09:42 GMT
And I was in the 'rather liked this' camp. It had its longueurs, particularly in the first half, but then I found myself very engaged in the second half. We enjoyed the strong, characterful cast - I thought all the women were good and really all the men as well - Giles Terera had a terrific scene in the second half, thought the trial, including audience participation worked well, enjoyed the singing, use of the space was interesting.....Lenny Henry wasn't, probably, entirely right (my husband kept saying, 'I wish I'd seen Leonard Rossiter in this role, he was meant to have been amazing' - which will mean nothing to anyone on the forum under 50 or so) but yeah, we thought it was diverting and thought-provoking (husband offered a lecture on the way home dissecting the bits of the play that resembled Richard III and the bits straight from history - a la Hitler's night of the long knives, apparently.)
Compared to Woyzeck which I saw two days prior it was a work of genius - in reality, probably 3 and a half stars.
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Post by peggs on May 21, 2017 19:21:03 GMT
Right well I liked the theatre in the round as from the 3rd row of the circle it meant you had a better view as more stuff went on in the central area and the acting faced all directions. There were some nice singing voices amongst the cast. And the cauliflowers looked pretty fresh otherwise................
Oh dear, what started off quite fun quickly wore me down, it was so broad and there are only so many times i wanted to be smacked in the fact about the modern parallels, subtle this wasn't. The audience interaction when it was pre start etc was fine but the actual audience members taking part were just uncomfortable and awkward and please stop! Disappointed that didn't find Lenny Henry remotely scary, bit of an issue, it was all just too shouty, too sweary. By the end I was willing it to both end and was really irritated and probably just as well for everyone that i was safely trapped upstairs as the thoughts going through my head as they challenged the audience to vote were none too polite.
I quite liked moaning about it all the way back to the station afterwards!
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Post by bingomatic on May 22, 2017 6:33:54 GMT
Given the alternate layout of the Donmar and the terrible idea of audience participation, can anyone share thoughts on Stalls/C 39-40 ? I'm hoping they are going to be remote enough from the action that we're not presented with some lumbering idiot inanely shouting at us and trying to get us involved.
Should we be prepared for the worst?
Spoilers regarding audience participation welcome! Actual audience participation not!
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