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Post by lynette on Oct 19, 2019 11:24:54 GMT
I paid the same for seats in the stalls not restricted at all.
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Post by crowblack on Oct 19, 2019 13:41:07 GMT
I paid the same for seats in the stalls not restricted at all. I got a stalls restricted (pillar) for my brother which was £35. He's 6" taller than me though, hence my liking the front row circle. I'm 5'5" so unless I'm behind someone tiny, unraked stalls are usually restricted by heads.
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Post by Sotongal on Jan 11, 2020 19:00:56 GMT
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Post by Sotongal on Jan 13, 2020 16:38:33 GMT
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Post by sherriebythesea on Jan 13, 2020 19:41:56 GMT
I was going to book for my mid February London visit. Now I'm wondering if I should wait and do day seats.
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Post by zahidf on Jan 14, 2020 9:17:58 GMT
Rush tickets on todaytix for this
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Post by Jan on Jan 14, 2020 10:27:19 GMT
Depends where the day tickets are located, for the effort of turning up at the box office at 10:00 they’d need to be stalls for me, with the TodayTix option you can see where they are and decide whether to go ahead.
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Post by theatreliker on Jan 15, 2020 9:36:35 GMT
Any word on approx. run time?
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Post by Dave B on Jan 15, 2020 9:45:51 GMT
Any word on approx. run time?
We got out just after 10 last night.
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Post by Dave B on Jan 15, 2020 10:23:41 GMT
So we went last night. It's very funny, the set is beautiful and the cast are quite excellent - there was quite an ovation at the end.
The two acts feel different, there's more comedy in the first and more pathos in the second. It feels, in particular on reflection this morning, a bit unbalanced.
We spent most of the journey home talking about the cast and their performances rather than any aspects of the play/adaption itself.
__
On a side note, I saw the final performance of Translations with Ciarán Hinds in the NT less than a month ago. I suppose it's a normal part of an actors life but having finished one play, learnt and rehearsed another, then be back on the West End in under four weeks including over the holiday period, I find that impressive!
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Post by RedRose on Jan 15, 2020 11:20:09 GMT
Depends where the day tickets are located, for the effort of turning up at the box office at 10:00 they’d need to be stalls for me, Looking like stalls front row, A. the Rushticket I was offered today was C20
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Post by RedRose on Jan 15, 2020 13:58:21 GMT
Was that with Todaytix? Normally, they split row A with the theatre, then get anything else they want to sell. Yes it was. Don't know if tickets of row A were on sale before. It was probably the last that was offered.
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Post by Steve on Jan 16, 2020 13:03:52 GMT
Saw it last night and loved it. It's topical, despite not being set in the now, on account of it's marvelous central double act: a hilariously acerbic Vanya in Toby Jones, an everyman Victor Meldrew moaning about ever receding horizons, and a desperately romantic environmental visionary of an Astrov in Richard Armitage, a grown-up melancholy Greta Thunberg who has finally realised noone will ever listen to him in his own time, but who dreams of us, in 100 years, benefitting from the trees he planted. Some spoilers follow. . . Conor McPherson means this version/translation to be funny. He uses words like "whang" and "banana," that when spoken by the right actor with just the right amount of acid spin will make an audience laugh. In Toby Jones, the production has one of the few actors who are equally nimble with comedy and drama. Like Mark Rylance or Andrew Scott, he is able to read a line with Rowan Atkinson's comedic timing and verbal precision, yet then effortlessly elide into horrendously sad and real emotional places. And McPherson does mean us to relate personally to the main characters, rather than analyse their plight from afar, which is why he incorporates a monologue each for the principals. In Vanya's monologue, he means us to connect to our own present economic uncertainties, and in Astrov's to our own decaying environment. Thinking about Australia's struggling environment and wildlife, I never felt such a deep connection to Astrov's romanticism about trees! Very frequently, Astrov is portrayed as the ultimate alpha male (I recall William Houston bleeding testosterone from his ears at the Print Room, or Tobias Menzies puffing his chest at the Almeida) in order to foreground Vanya's beta-male tragedy. Not here. Here, Armitage is subdued, too lovably lost in his romantic vision to puff his chest. At one critical moment, he punctures his own virility with a raspberry. And Toby Jones' Vanya is actually as alpha-male assertive as I have ever seen a Vanya, an ever joking Meldrew or Blackadder, effortlessly piercing the inananites of everyone around him to the evident amusement of the audience, including myself. This rebalancing of the alpha-beta roles of Vanya and Astrov does serve to weaken the dramatic impact of Vanya's personal tragedy, as does the rebalancing of the ostensible villain of the piece, Professor Serebryakov, played by Ciaran Hinds. Most often, Serebryakov is presented as more verbose, more pedantic and more overbearing than the worst Poloniuses. But not here. Hinds is the most reasonable "villain" imaginable, and he even gets us to laugh WITH him at one point, when he justifiably closes down the irritating rabbiting on of Vanya's mother. I loved Hinds in this, as he did something noone has done for me before: he made me feel the family patriarch's point of view, especially his perfectly reasonable assertion that people should simply SAY what they want, and not sit suffering in silence for years, and then moan about it. For the above reasons, this version does not play out like some great tragedy of one weak man one hundred years ago. Instead, it feels like the tale of all of US now, struggling with fast paced change, waning economics and a decaying environment. We are all the characters, we want what they want, we fall like they fall. This version is not as dramatically acute as a typical Uncle Vanya, but it's more US, and it's more NOW, and it's got a lot of laughs to cheer us all up too, thanks to Toby Jones, and a fantastic ensemble all around him. 4 and a half stars.
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Post by Forrest on Jan 16, 2020 19:39:33 GMT
Steve, I have not seen this yet (going later in January) but after your comment I don't think there is any way for me not to love it. 🖤 (Although whether I will love it as much as the comment is questionable.)
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Post by lynette on Jan 16, 2020 20:55:35 GMT
Thanks Steve. I Will be checking up on your comments after Saturday night - we are usually on the same page.
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Post by NeilVHughes on Jan 18, 2020 10:05:58 GMT
Result, TodayTix Rush Ticket, Stalls A9 for today’s matinee.
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Post by NeilVHughes on Jan 18, 2020 20:45:57 GMT
Most excellent. In the first two acts all the humour is extracted with Toby able to wring out every laugh from the text. Initially it felt like watching a different play as the often bitter and broken portrayal of Vanya is blown away which on reflection brilliantly emphasises the influence of the bewitching Yelena with the Vanya we know emerging following the proposal from Serebryakov. The humour makes the ending even more heartbreaking as Sonya and Vanya slip back into their nihilistic and dour existences. Can see this being one of the must sees of the year and tickets potentially becoming hard to get, the TodayTix Rush tickets are excellent value as the stage is not too high and the view is only impaired occasionally by a table which would be the same for the first 3 or 4 rows, this is more than compensated by a majority of the intimate scenes taking place front and centre just a few feet away. With Steve 4½ Stars from me.
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Post by lynette on Jan 18, 2020 23:36:41 GMT
What he said. Most excellent.
I found it interesting that they kept the back wall of the stage au natural so that actors exited though a real door at the back with a modern signage. Fab lighting all through and sound effects to the minimum which is good.
Nice for me : when the old guys says you should have seen Nana when she was young, well I did. I saw Anna Calder Marshal in her youth at the Birmingham Rep where she did loads of stuff. Cracking voice on her.
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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 Jan 19, 2020 7:54:26 GMT
Was also at the matinee yesterday. Agree it's excellent. Regarding the back of the set Lynette mentioned - I found the modern emergency exit sign distracting in such an otherwise highly detailed set - surprised they didn't extend the side wall across this.
Couple of (I think?) unplanned incidents - when Ciaran Hinds rang his bell, the clapper flew off towards the side of the stage. Didn't look like this was supposed to happen from his reaction. Shortly after this, Richard Armitage seemed to wander on stage at the wrong time - he came on from stage left, sat at the back for a bit then got back off stage at some point (didn't notice when). Then he entered properly a few minutes later.
Lots of signs saying "no food in the auditorium" and ushers being very pro-active making sure people had their phones off before curtain up.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 19, 2020 12:33:32 GMT
when Ciaran Hinds rang his bell, the clapper flew off towards the side of the stage No, that's deliberate! I was surprised by the emergency door - health and safety because of the candles, and maybe painting it would compromise its fire resistance? I saw this on Friday evening and really enjoyed it. Toby Jones is superb, and all the cast are good. Maybe it could do with speeding up in places - I sensed a bit of audience fatigue towards the end, and no ovation on the night I went, which surprised me, but the audiences tend to skew older/richer there than the cheaper venues I'm used to so maybe that's how it is here. A lot of laughter too though. I saw it from the front of the circle (the restricted view seat) and it looked gorgeous - it's a really handsome production (production stills have been added to their website, if you're interested). I wish they could film this for TV.
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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 Jan 19, 2020 12:44:35 GMT
when Ciaran Hinds rang his bell, the clapper flew off towards the side of the stage No, that's deliberate! I was surprised by the emergency door - health and safety because of the candles, and maybe painting it would compromise its fire resistance? Interesting, thanks! Regarding the door, appreciate the sign has to be there, but I was thinking along the lines of a fake door running diagonally from the end of the wall at the side, so the actors exit through that and then have space to exit through the real door. If that makes sense! I sat in one of the pillar seats in row O which was fine for £20 but did require a bit of head ducking to see the action at some points. Given the choice, I would go for seats on the right hand side of the auditorium (as you face the stage) so you can see the bits that happen outside the windows at the other side of the stage.
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Post by lynette on Jan 19, 2020 13:11:03 GMT
Yep clapper flew off. Symbolic of both attempt at control and loss of it.
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Post by theatrelover123 on Jan 19, 2020 13:57:05 GMT
No, that's deliberate! I was surprised by the emergency door - health and safety because of the candles, and maybe painting it would compromise its fire resistance? Interesting, thanks! Regarding the door, appreciate the sign has to be there, but I was thinking along the lines of a fake door running diagonally from the end of the wall at the side, so the actors exit through that and then have space to exit through the real door. If that makes sense! I sat in one of the pillar seats in row O which was fine for £20 but did require a bit of head ducking to see the action at some points. Given the choice, I would go for seats on the right hand side of the auditorium (as you face the stage) so you can see the bits that happen outside the windows at the other side of the stage. Stage left?
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Post by crowblack on Jan 19, 2020 15:02:07 GMT
Regarding the door, appreciate the sign has to be there, but I was thinking along the lines of a fake door running diagonally from the end of the wall at the side, so the actors exit through that and then have space to exit through the real door. If that makes sense! I wondered if it was an audience safety precaution? It's an old theatre and a production using candle flames so maybe in an emergency it's an identifiable escape route they might need to quickly flag up? Also, post Bataclan it's not just fires they have to think of, as the bag searches attest (I had my bags searched 4 times going into venues on Friday).
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Post by dlevi on Jan 19, 2020 15:15:21 GMT
I was at Yesterday's matinee as well and thought the production was rather wonderful. Mr McPherson's adaptation is both contemporary and respectful. I agree with the previous poster who said the play is very much set in the NOW. And the costumes while basically in period also contain elements which are clearly contemporary which leads me to the exit door on the back wall. I think it falls into the overall concept of keeping the production balanced between period and contemporary. It's Mr Rickson and Ms Smith's nod to always acknowledging the fact that we're watching a play. I think it works marvelously. Like like last year's Rosmersohlm production I think this is a classy old-fashioned West End hit.
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Post by harry on Jan 19, 2020 17:09:40 GMT
I’m pretty certain the door at the back is actually just part of the set design, rather than a genuine unaltered regular emergency exit. The door stage left also has fire door emergency exit signage on it and is definitely not a real permanent wall or door, and the red utilitarian electric lights run all the way around the set interspersed with the candelabra. I think, like so much else in the production, it’s to highlight the anytime/everytime nature of the story and setting.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 20, 2020 9:50:24 GMT
it’s to highlight the anytime/everytime nature of the story and setting. But who has a fire door like that in a domestic/country house? There's an extinguisher too - last time I noticed one of them on stage was The Ferryman, which also used naked flame in a 'busy' set (lots of paper on stage in Vanya) in a Victorian (hard to exit) theatre. Post Grenfell maybe they are more cautious about covering doors with flammable materials, even supposedly 'safe' ones, and it's a very deep set (last things I saw there were shallower so it was probably hidden).
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Post by crowblack on Jan 20, 2020 9:56:48 GMT
Btw, I'm from the North and haven't been aware of people using the rather ugly expression "wang/wanging on". Now I'm suddenly noticing it all over my (very arts/theatre/writer) Twitter timeline. When did it replace "banging on/going on"? Wang was a rarely used word for cock when I was younger.
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Post by crowblack on Jan 20, 2020 17:27:45 GMT
More seriously, it was slang for that down south too, when I were a lad. I think that's where I heard it (that, or London-set sitcoms). Maybe it's just one of those things where a word used here in an unexpected context makes it stick and you suddenly start noticing it, though "banging on about it" is the expression I'm more used to.
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Post by learfan on Jan 20, 2020 17:40:16 GMT
Wang was a rarely used word for cock when I was younger Which made the late, great, Richard Whiteley's bid to be Mayor of Wetwang even more worrying... More seriously, it was slang for that down south too, when I were a lad. Not the south im from, never heard of the word.
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