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Post by Honoured Guest on Aug 5, 2017 12:46:45 GMT
Of course I agree there's life for an actor outside London, they'd all leave immediately if they got a job in Hollywood. Where they'd moan about life in Los Angeles. Anyway, this thread has inspired me to have another look at what the RSC is up to and I've booked this morning to see Queen Anne at Theatre Royal Haymarket next week and Kingdom Come at The Other Place next month. Thanks for the prompt, folks.
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Post by martin1965 on Aug 5, 2017 17:56:20 GMT
Of course I agree there's life for an actor outside London, they'd all leave immediately if they got a job in Hollywood. Where they'd moan about life in Los Angeles. Anyway, this thread has inspired me to have another look at what the RSC is up to and I've booked this morning to see Queen Anne at Theatre Royal Haymarket next week and Kingdom Come at The Other Place next month. Thanks for the prompt, folks. Dont come running to me! I saw QA in the Swan and it was dull dull dull. I couldnt believe when i saw it was transferring!
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Post by Honoured Guest on Aug 5, 2017 18:07:13 GMT
Well, it was popular popular popular in the Swan and I've enjoyed several other plays written by Helen Edmundson and other productions directed by Natalie Abrahami. And I'm already in the locality of the theatre, with no need for special travel, and there are very good tickets at half price, so I'm willing to go in with a good heart.
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Post by lynette on Aug 5, 2017 18:43:59 GMT
Well, it was popular popular popular in the Swan and I've enjoyed several other plays written by Helen Edmundson and other productions directed by Natalie Abrahami. And I'm already in the locality of the theatre, with no need for special travel, and there are very good tickets at half price, so I'm willing to go in with a good heart. In the locality, eh? Drinkies sometime?
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Post by lynette on Aug 5, 2017 18:46:30 GMT
Of course I agree there's life for an actor outside London, they'd all leave immediately if they got a job in Hollywood. Where they'd moan about life in Los Angeles. Anyway, this thread has inspired me to have another look at what the RSC is up to and I've booked this morning to see Queen Anne at Theatre Royal Haymarket next week and Kingdom Come at The Other Place next month. Thanks for the prompt, folks. That Kingdom Come looks really interesting. Sadly I will be out of the country( airport security allowing) for its short run. The two shorties we saw earlier were really good especially the one called Myth.
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Aug 5, 2017 19:52:47 GMT
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Post by martin1965 on Aug 5, 2017 19:52:47 GMT
Well, it was popular popular popular in the Swan and I've enjoyed several other plays written by Helen Edmundson and other productions directed by Natalie Abrahami. And I'm already in the locality of the theatre, with no need for special travel, and there are very good tickets at half price, so I'm willing to go in with a good heart. Dont say i didnt warn you. Rover would have been a better bet for a transfer imo.
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Post by Honoured Guest on Aug 5, 2017 21:53:37 GMT
Dont say i didnt warn you. Rover would have been a better bet for a transfer imo. Ha, I saw The Rover, The Two Noble Kinsmen and The Seven Acts of Mercy in the Swan and, for different reasons, none of them was to my taste. I thought that The Rover was treated far too light-heartedly as a charming romp and it paled in comparison with Ned Bennett's production of a new play based on The Rover which was totally in-yer-face and exuberant with the sexual humiliations, attempted rapes, lusts, etc., etc..
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Post by Honoured Guest on Aug 5, 2017 22:00:02 GMT
That Kingdom Come looks really interesting. Sadly I will be out of the country( airport security allowing) for its short run. The two shorties we saw earlier were really good especially the one called Myth. Regrettably, I missed the Myth double bill - trying to reduce my theatre-going, but I'm lapsing back into it again now. But I enjoyed last year's double bill and the two double bills a couple of years before. Kingdom Come at first sounded as if it might be too historical to interest me, but I've now been swayed to see it by the RSC's confidence in presenting it, and the hope that it will be theatrically exciting.
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Post by Honoured Guest on Aug 5, 2017 22:05:28 GMT
In the locality, eh? Drinkies sometime? Alas, not based in the locality - just there for one afternoon and have decided to stay on to see Queen Anne in the evening before going home again.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Aug 6, 2017 18:28:26 GMT
Dont say i didnt warn you. Rover would have been a better bet for a transfer imo. Ha, I saw The Rover, The Two Noble Kinsmen and The Seven Acts of Mercy in the Swan and, for different reasons, none of them was to my taste. I thought that The Rover was treated far too light-heartedly as a charming romp and it paled in comparison with Ned Bennett's production of a new play based on The Rover which was totally in-yer-face and exuberant with the sexual humiliations, attempted rapes, lusts, etc., etc.. 100% agree. Tonally it was all over the place. I saw Vice Versa the other week which was another patented RSC historical romp. Fun and impeccably well done, but the script was like someone had chucked the entire Carry On canon into a random word generator.
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Post by loureviews on Aug 7, 2017 9:46:06 GMT
Sher's Falstaff would have been much better suited to Merry Wives than it was to the Henry IVs. Either that or I'm projecting because it was so bad I'd like to have seen him tipped in the river... I thought he was a fantastic Falstaff, but whatever floats your boat.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2017 10:15:30 GMT
Sher's Falstaff would have been much better suited to Merry Wives than it was to the Henry IVs. Either that or I'm projecting because it was so bad I'd like to have seen him tipped in the river... I thought he was a fantastic Falstaff, but whatever floats your boat. Roger Allam. I've seen at least 10 Falstaffs across the various plays and none of the others have held a candle to Roger Allam's.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2017 10:16:37 GMT
I thought he was a fantastic Falstaff, but whatever floats your boat. Roger Allam. I've seen at least 10 Falstaffs across the various plays and none of the others have held a candle to Roger Allam's. Seconded. (Admittedly I haven't seen nearly so many but I find it very difficult to imagine anyone coming close)
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Aug 7, 2017 10:26:27 GMT
I saw Simon Russell Beale do a bit of Falstaff on stage and he was so wonderful. Wish I could have seen Roger Allam!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2017 10:30:55 GMT
I wanted nothing more than to see Simon Russell Beale's Falstaff, and I was so excited when he was cast in Hollow Crown, but it just didn't work for me. I want to offer some really clever analysis as to why that might have been (SRB's better at stage acting, Richard Eyre's direction was lacking, Falstaff is such a theatrical character that TV will always serve him poorly, whatever), but I honestly think it's because I'd already seen Roger Allam smash it out of the park. I might have to make a new rule for myself not to bother seeing any productions of a Shakespeare play once I've seen Roger Allam do it, because I found SRB a disappointing Prospero in the wake of Roger Allam's portrayal as well. And I love Simon Russell Beale, I promise!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2017 10:35:11 GMT
As above I have similar feelings- I LOVE me some SRB but his Falstaff, while very very far from bad didn't do it on film for me. I cite combination of Allam and film not communicating it properly.
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Post by Jan on Aug 7, 2017 13:41:03 GMT
I'd already seen Roger Allam smash it out of the park. Robert Stephens also slam dunked it.
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Post by Honoured Guest on Aug 7, 2017 13:45:43 GMT
Michael Gambon improvised it.
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Post by Jan on Aug 7, 2017 16:40:26 GMT
Michael Gambon improvised it. He wasn't much good, which was surprising. The part is very rarely done well. McKellen was wise to turn it down when Doran offered it to him, even though it meant we had to suffer Sher deploying one of his funny voices instead. John Woodvine was very good years ago.
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Aug 7, 2017 17:07:14 GMT
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Post by martin1965 on Aug 7, 2017 17:07:14 GMT
I'd already seen Roger Allam smash it out of the park. Robert Stephens also slam dunked it. Agreed! He is still the best Falstaff ive seen, tho i missed Allam.
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Aug 7, 2017 17:12:06 GMT
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Post by martin1965 on Aug 7, 2017 17:12:06 GMT
Michael Gambon improvised it. He wasn't much good, which was surprising. The part is very rarely done well. McKellen was wise to turn it down when Doran offered it to him, even though it meant we had to suffer Sher deploying one of his funny voices instead. John Woodvine was very good years ago. It was odd wasnt it? The part ought to have suited him. SRB was oddly subfued on telly few years back. Albert Finney would surely have been b good.
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Post by Jan on Aug 7, 2017 18:18:00 GMT
He wasn't much good, which was surprising. The part is very rarely done well. McKellen was wise to turn it down when Doran offered it to him, even though it meant we had to suffer Sher deploying one of his funny voices instead. John Woodvine was very good years ago. It was odd wasnt it? The part ought to have suited him. SRB was oddly subfued on telly few years back. Albert Finney would surely have been b good. Finney yes. I thought SRB would be perfect for it as he plays disappointment better than anyone, but in a way he is too refined and not plausible as a debauched drunk, whereas Stephens was the real thing. There have been several really bad attempts at it, David Warner and Joss Ackland to name only two.
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Post by Honoured Guest on Aug 7, 2017 18:36:31 GMT
In cinema, what about Orson Welles and the guy in My Own Private Idaho?
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Post by martin1965 on Aug 7, 2017 19:24:28 GMT
In cinema, what about Orson Welles and the guy in My Own Private Idaho? It will always be Welles. Chimes at Midnight is a superb film. The triumph of the second half of his career😊
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Post by crabtree on Aug 7, 2017 22:11:12 GMT
Simon Callow of course did the musical of Merry Wives, though not Simon Cowell as the mother and daughter next to me were expecting. They walked out in a huff. Simon Cowell as Falstaff, now there's a thought, with Amanda and Alesha as the wives, and David Walliams as Mistress quickly. Perfect.
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Post by peggs on Aug 7, 2017 22:51:42 GMT
It was odd wasnt it? The part ought to have suited him. SRB was oddly subfued on telly few years back. Albert Finney would surely have been b good. I thought SRB would be perfect for it as he plays disappointment better than anyone, but in a way he is too refined and not plausible as a debauched drunk, whereas Stephens was the real thing. Perhaps that is it, I was excited and then it didn't quite work for me either. Have seen the dvd of Roger Allam which gave an indication of how good it would have been live, Michael Gambon was my first and I anticipate being blown away and wasn't quite. Not an easy part to nail me think.
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Post by Jan on Aug 8, 2017 9:04:12 GMT
Welles' "Chimes at Midnight" excellent of course. It is a good adaptation/reduction of the plays too, someone should try staging that script.
Falstaff in Merry Wives is an even more thankless task I think, I've never seen it done well, Barrie Rutter entirely charmless for example.
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Aug 8, 2017 10:44:15 GMT
Barry Stanton in the Bogdanov cycle back in the late eighties was very good, I seem to remember. As for Merry Wives on its own, Christopher Benjamin's at the Globe was the best I've seen, I think, Leslie Phillips was pretty good too, even as it was difficult to separate him from his persona.
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Post by Honoured Guest on Aug 8, 2017 10:49:32 GMT
Barry Stanton in the Bogdanov cycle back in the late eighties was very good, I seem to remember. My memories are failing - I thought that was John Woodvine, but I wasn't sure. Joss Ackland was Falstaff in Trevor Nunn's RSC Henry IV part I and II which opened the Barbican Theatre, with Gerard Murphy as Hal. It was my first Henry IV and very believable and touching I thought.
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Post by Jan on Aug 8, 2017 10:53:59 GMT
Barry Stanton in the Bogdanov cycle back in the late eighties was very good, I seem to remember. My memories are failing - I thought that was John Woodvine, but I wasn't sure. Woodvine first when it was the initial Henry IV & V three play cycle, replaced by Stanton when it was expanded to the whole history cycle. I saw Woodvine.
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