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Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2017 11:33:46 GMT
Well. I don't think I've ever seen 'The Lady From The Sea' before and now that I have, I think I'd have preferred one with wigs and corsets rather than the one in the carribeano here.
There is a rather lovely tropical fish tank on the stage, sadly no fish though as far as I could see. Which is probably for the best seeing as everyone at some point seems to stick their feet in it which couldn't be good for them. Ellida is a bit annoying though isn't she? I didn't understand why the rest of them didn't just take her to the beach and push her in themselves. It would have saved us all a lot of bother. I don't think it was helped by the fact that Nikki Amuka-Bird only seemed to have read the script that morning. I think she'd probably annoyed the wardrobe person at some point too which would explain why she was given such dreadful outfits to wear.
On the plus side, Jonny Holden as Lynstrand gives the performance of the show as the pretentious wannabe artist and his scenes with Ellie Bamber as Hilde are a delight. I'd have preferred the show to have been about them to be honest. Tom McKay as Arnholm is also simply lovely. His declaration of love is incredibly sweetly played and he has a touch of the young Aden Gillett about him methinks.
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Post by Steve on Nov 23, 2017 14:44:14 GMT
There is a rather lovely tropical fish tank on the stage, sadly no fish though as far as I could see. Nikki Amuka-Bird only seemed to have read the script that morning. I think she'd probably annoyed the wardrobe person at some point too which would explain why she was given such dreadful outfits to wear. On the plus side, Jonny Holden as Lynstrand gives the performance of the show as the pretentious wannabe artist and his scenes with Ellie Bamber as Hilde are a delight. I'd have preferred the show to have been about them to be honest. Tom McKay as Arnholm is also simply lovely. His declaration of love is incredibly sweetly played and he has a touch of the young Aden Gillett about him methinks. Agree with the above. The fish tank annoyed me particularly, as it seemed to want to be a metaphor for the freedom of the sea, and the mysteriousness and turbulence of identity, with people getting freer when they jumped in, and less free when they jumped out, but which, literally being a FISH TANK, represents the opposite of freedom! Even the idea of such a rigid quotidian object, as a fish tank, standing in for Ibsen's unclassifiable unknowable roiling turbulence of the self and sea, seemed ridiculous full stop. There was one good thing about that fish tank, which was the shadows of rippling water it cast on the walls, the suggestive mystery of shimmering colours transforming the patchy white paint of the set into something wonderful. That was one redeeming feature. Nikki Amuka Bird's performance is like that fish tank. She has always been good at playing the rigid boxiness of modern civilisation, a cold fish affecting warmth. But asked to project a wild dynamic inner core, as Ibsen asks, she can't get close. Like the fish tank, she's too self-contained. I agree with Ryan that Jonny Holden and Tom McKay nailed their parts. I also loved Finbar Lynch's solid warm decency, trying to be tether Amuka Bird's would-be wild bird, an [Amuka] Bird unfortunately already too tame. Ellie Bamber, by contrast, was wild. Her flighty Hilde Wangel could easily slide straight into Ibsen's sequel, for her character, "The Masterbuilder," and really soar! I'd see that! For me, this was a restrained and contained: 3 stars.
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Post by samuelwhiskers on Nov 23, 2017 16:14:54 GMT
I don't know if I'm being really thick or what, but why was it such a big deal that Ellida's husband had taken her away from the sea and that she was going crazy with longing for the sea, when they were clearly still living within sight and easy walking distance of the sea?
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Post by Jan on Nov 23, 2017 17:37:25 GMT
I don't know if I'm being really thick or what, but why was it such a big deal that Ellida's husband had taken her away from the sea and that she was going crazy with longing for the sea, when they were clearly still living within sight and easy walking distance of the sea? .. and the daughters were going to a party on the Hollywood star's yacht.
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Post by nialld on Nov 23, 2017 18:49:31 GMT
Surprised to see positive comments for Bamber - I honestly thought she gave one of the worst performances I've ever seen in theatre!
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Post by dlevi on Dec 1, 2017 8:01:57 GMT
I have a special fondness for this play having seen both Vanessa Redgrave and Natasha Richardson in it over the years. But what I saw yesterday was just plain bad. Elinor Cook's version of the play is bizarre. Why move the setting to Jamaica and keep the Norwegian names? And why of why, keep the language stilted and unnatural so that it sounds like a direct translation? The design is, and I rarely say this, is downright stupid. It doesn't illuminate the play, it doesn't evoke any period or time or place, in fact - it doesn't do anything. It could just as easily be the setting for the opening scene of 12th Night or the musical Titanic. What a botch! Nikki Annuka Bird is a good actress but lacks the appropriate mystery and other-worldliness for the part and the supporting cast around her are not up to her level. One simply wonders what inspired this production? Was it for Nikki? Was it a passion project for Kwame? or was it a funding initiative for the Donmar to involve minority creatives ? No matter what it was, it was bad. The Donmar has been through a bad period of late, I'm more hopeful about it's next three productions but right now it's in danger of entering Royal Court territory in terms of play selection and irrelevancy.
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Post by Jan on Dec 1, 2017 13:06:07 GMT
Nikki AB is just miscast. She exudes good humour and common sense whereas the part requires someone a bit neurotic and unstable. This can happen to even very good actors occasionally, Simon Russell-Beale’s frankly comical Macbeth springs to mind.
The stupid fish tank set actually did remind me of a Twelfth Night - that RSC one at the Roundhouse a few years ago had something similar I think.
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