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Post by sweets7 on Jan 24, 2020 18:41:10 GMT
Bought tickets for this for my Mums Birthday. As I thought it was something she would like. I really hope it is good. What have people heard so far?
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Post by Jon on Jan 24, 2020 19:22:12 GMT
Bought tickets for this for my Mums Birthday. As I thought it was something she would like. I really hope it is good. What have people heard so far? Doesn't open until tomorrow so no opinions just yet.
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180 posts
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Post by sweets7 on Jan 24, 2020 19:51:26 GMT
Bought tickets for this for my Mums Birthday. As I thought it was something she would like. I really hope it is good. What have people heard so far? Doesn't open until tomorrow so no opinions just yet. I have my fingers crossed to hear tomorrow night. It seems in theory something she would lap up but also I am.aware it is right up my street and I would probably take myself to see it alone to focus. So I really hope she enjoys it so I don't feel it was forced on her.
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Post by lynette on Jan 24, 2020 22:11:20 GMT
Who is going this week? Please post.
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Post by Dave B on Jan 25, 2020 0:11:28 GMT
Who is going this week? Please post. We are going Tuesday night - cheap seats!
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Post by zahidf on Jan 25, 2020 9:30:30 GMT
Rush tickets now available
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Post by edi on Jan 25, 2020 10:31:20 GMT
Anyone tried the rush this morning? What seats were offered?
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Post by lynette on Jan 25, 2020 19:22:02 GMT
Who is going this week? Please post. We are going Tuesday night - cheap seats! Great. I will be v interested in your comments
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Post by couldileaveyou on Jan 25, 2020 20:04:14 GMT
Anyone tried the rush this morning? What seats were offered? I gave a look and was offered a seat in row D of the Grand Circle, but hopefully better seats are also available.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 25, 2020 23:03:54 GMT
I had two friends in the audience tonight. They loved it. Moving and funny. Huge cast well deployed.
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Post by youngoffender on Jan 25, 2020 23:41:06 GMT
Saw the first performance tonight thanks to TodayTix rush (Row D of Grand Circle). A very polished show, just a couple of line stumbles, running 2 hours 45 mins (interval comes early).
First impressions. Stoppard has lost none of his erudition or ambition, using the lives of an extended family in Vienna over more than half a century (1899 to 1955) to explore the complexity of Jewish identity, and the competing attractions of assimilation and ethnic/cultural solidarity. The first hour in particular is rich and involving, tracing the disillusionment of Adrian Scarborough’s patriarch that Viennese high society will ever truly accept him, or that the 20th century will be any less dangerous for Jews than the previous one.
The play lost some grip on me after the break, though. With a cast of 25-30, it feels overpopulated and lacking an emotional centre as it works through the decades. You need the family tree in the programme to keep track of who everyone is. Tellingly, the audience mistook the end of the 1938 scene as the end of the show, but there’s another 20 mins to go. Without any really knockout scenes or a compelling dramatic arc, it could have ended anywhere.
A solid 3.5 stars from me. Half a star extra for a great gag involving mistaken identity and a cigar cutter.
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Post by nash16 on Jan 26, 2020 14:16:52 GMT
Saw the first performance tonight thanks to TodayTix rush (Row D of Grand Circle). A very polished show, just a couple of line stumbles, running 2 hours 45 mins (interval comes early). First impressions. Stoppard has lost none of his erudition or ambition, using the lives of an extended family in Vienna over more than half a century (1899 to 1955) to explore the complexity of Jewish identity, and the competing attractions of assimilation and ethnic/cultural solidarity. The first hour in particular is rich and involving, tracing the disillusionment of Adrian Scarborough’s patriarch that Viennese high society will ever truly accept him, or that the 20th century will be any less dangerous for Jews than the previous one. The play lost some grip on me after the break, though. With a cast of 25-30, it feels overpopulated and lacking an emotional centre as it works through the decades. You need the family tree in the programme to keep track of who everyone is. Tellingly, the audience mistook the end of the 1938 scene as the end of the show, but there’s another 20 mins to go. Without any really knockout scenes or a compelling dramatic arc, it could have ended anywhere. A solid 3.5 stars from me. Half a star extra for a great gag involving mistaken identity and a cigar cutter. Think I was sat next to you, youngoffender. Great view from Today Tix seats, although a shame they haven’t offered front row stalls for this. But maybe this is a blessing as it’s quite furniture heavy haha. Agree with above. The first half is a great swirl of history and family, with only a small side order of Stoppardian diversions into mathematical theorem (it’s like he can’t help himself; however, they may reflect something far more important than my brain has connected yet, eg. Cats cradle knots reflecting Jewish movement/identity shifts, etc). Names take a while to attach to people, purely because there are so many on the stage, but we get there eventually. An early interval (just 56mins in) makes way for a longer second half which does have its moments, but the energy of the first half sort of pales away. We begin to lose or see less of the initial characters (owing to the time jumps) and are quickly presented with offspring/newcomers, so, beyond a painting of Faye Castelow, we don’t really have anything or anyone to truly latch onto and invest in. The final act was the most disappointing for me as, although meant to be moving with a recounting of who had been lost, and denials of faith and family, the almost 3-hander ending was too reliant of exposition. Several characters having emotional breakdowns felt too “acted” and placed. Maybe they’ll let go more as it goes on. Or maybe Stoppard will add a bit more so that they’re not made to hurry on to the next revelation/guilt so quickly. There was sniffling around us, so some people were obviously moved, but I’d have preferred a narrative drive to be the source of that, rather than naming the dead. The acting was excellent all round, with only some suffering a first night stiffness in delivery. The much talked about children’s cast don’t do much beyond run about and pull each other’s hair. Biggest laugh came from the aforementioned “cigar cutter” joke. You can probably guess what that’s about... It also gifts a lot of ageing-up acting, especially for Faye Castelow and Adrian Scarborough (who both had to do the same thing when they started together in Time and the Conways at the NT years ago. Faye, of course, just did it again as HMQ in The Audience. She just feel trapped as “actress who can do ageing”) so there are wigs and old-man walks ahoy. Lovers of Luke Thallon get him shirtless and with his feet on show. And playing two characters. But the ambition of the piece can’t be denied, and it fits nicely into the generational family drama genre, and joins the many other plays that have been written about the Jewish experience. I’m just not100% sure it’s saying anything new about it. It does say something that the most moving moment for me was seeing all the characters enter onstage at the very start, complete with soaring Adam Cork score, and just stand there. If I’m honest it never really hit the emotional heights after that for me. But definitely worth seeing as it’s so timely. Just don’t go expecting a revelatory or revolutionary new play.
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Post by youngoffender on Jan 26, 2020 18:00:31 GMT
Think I was sat next to you, youngoffender. Great view from Today Tix seats, although a shame they haven’t offered front row stalls for this. I shall know to say hello next time! My view from that row would have been fine without the guy leaning forward right in front of me. Even the front of the balcony at the Wyndham's is OK, as it's not really a separate level. As you say, Stoppard always seems to have to get a theorem spliced in somewhere. With the example of the cat's cradle in a box, I wondered if this was an allusion to (Viennese) physicist Schroedinger and his dead/alive feline - the timing would be about right, if that was the 1938 scene. But I can't work out the significance. Agreed about the final section, it just doesn't work and I was left completely unmoved. Not sure if they will do any tweaking/cutting like they might at the National - but they do at least need to find a way to stop the audience trying to clap the show to an end after 1938. Listening to the visiting American and the Jewish couple to my left at the end, I sensed they weren't blown away either.
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Post by lynette on Jan 27, 2020 13:37:39 GMT
Thanks for all these comments above! I’ll be sure not to clap at the wrong place. I hope they do tweak as it would be a shame to just miss being a good play by a slight overindulgence as it were...
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Post by harry on Jan 27, 2020 19:48:46 GMT
How interesting. I was there too, but felt quite differently about the end and I was one of the many people sobbing away for the final 15mins. Very difficult to talk about what I thought was so effective and affecting without what some might think of a spoilers so I’ll tag the rest. {Spoiler - click to view} I think the difficulty of the play is that it presents such a large number of characters and familial connections that it’s surely impossible for anyone to stay on top of it. Particularly when the time jumps are of such a long period, and e.g. characters who meet for the first time in one scene have apparently married, had children (I think) and divorced by the time we meet the extended family again. I am certain I missed swathes of apparently significant detail. And I think if you watch the play trying to follow it as a family saga you will find the speed and quantity of information given in the first 3 acts overwhelming. But my hunch is that is not what Stoppard wants us to take from the experience.
What I found so clever and moving was that we are put in the shoes of the Leopold/Leonard character in the final act. Snatches of a half-remembered family history that suddenly take on a huge significance after nobody is there to remember it properly anymore (mirroring the grandmothers speech about forgetting the people photo albums in the opening act). It feels absolutely essential that the last act is a much smaller, more pensive affair. Of the twenty-odd people we’ve met across the years these are the only three who have any hope of passing this broken story forward. The complete decimation of a people seen through the lens of a single vibrant extended family full of people we know, half-know, sort of remember, and the tragedy of the fact they will soon be just names on a piece of paper (this fact underlined by the extraordinary final tableau) is what I think we are supposed to take away - it’s like he’s saying “you spent the whole time trying to keep up with the marriages, infidelities, sibling rivalries, births, illness, and what does that matter now?”
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Post by lynette on Jan 27, 2020 20:14:17 GMT
Harry, thanks for this. V interesting and what looks like very clever chap our Stoppard.
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Post by jek on Jan 28, 2020 9:58:33 GMT
My partner, who works near Wyndham's, saw Sir Tom outside the theatre yesterday having a smoke.
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Post by mrbarnaby on Jan 28, 2020 19:30:12 GMT
My partner, who works near Wyndham's, saw Sir Tom outside the theatre yesterday having a smoke. Wow. I think the message board will be rocked by this revelation.
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Post by theatrelover123 on Jan 28, 2020 19:33:31 GMT
My partner, who works near Wyndham's, saw Sir Tom outside the theatre yesterday having a smoke. Wow. I think the message board will be rocked by this revelation. Parsley? Have You Come Back To Us?
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Post by Jan on Jan 28, 2020 20:00:37 GMT
My partner, who works near Wyndham's, saw Sir Tom outside the theatre yesterday having a smoke. Wow. I think the message board will be rocked by this revelation. Fairly recently I saw him in the audience at a cosmology lecture and after he took the same tube as me but got off at Ladbroke Grove. Is that more noteworthy ?
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Post by jek on Jan 28, 2020 22:26:00 GMT
I had quite forgotten how rude this board could be. Sometimes, like I suspect other board users, I'm sitting by myself and just trying to strike up a conversation. Something about Czech culture and smoking perhaps. Or whether at 82 there might be a case for sorting out somewhere out of the rain for someone to smoke. I'm not one to go off in a huff (in my mid 50's I'm past that) but I certainly feel quite upset at this. This board can be so helpful in its advice and opinions about productions but is clearly a place to be avoided if, like me, you are feeling a bit fragile.
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Post by Latecomer on Jan 28, 2020 22:30:32 GMT
I had quite forgotten how rude this board could be. Sometimes, like I suspect other board users, I'm sitting by myself and just trying to strike up a conversation. Something about Czech culture and smoking perhaps. Or whether at 82 there might be a case for sorting out somewhere out of the rain for someone to smoke. I'm not one to go off in a huff (in my mid 50's I'm past that) but I certainly feel quite upset at this. This board can be so helpful in its advice and opinions about productions but is clearly a place to be avoided if, like me, you are feeling a bit fragile. Sending a bit of board love. Ienjoyed the chat, jek, and enjoyed hearing that you saw him...I saw him once and it brought it back to me. X
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Post by justfran on Jan 28, 2020 22:41:37 GMT
I agree jek but try not to take other people’s snarky comments to heart. I think as with social media, some people think they can say what they like or be rude because it’s “not real” to someone’s face. Anyway, I love reading this board for the reviews and opinions. Don’t post often myself in the Plays section as I don’t get to see as many as I’d like but always interesting to pop in here for a read.
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Post by justfran on Jan 28, 2020 22:43:44 GMT
Just to add - there’s an interesting interview with Ed Stoppard on The Guardian website under the culture section.
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Post by Dave B on Jan 28, 2020 23:20:00 GMT
We saw it this evening. I'd agree with comments above about the second half not quite keeping up with the first. I thought the first did a better job of setting up that generation of the family and then the second half didn't manage to do as good a job for some of the subsequent generations. My better half took the opposite view and thought the second half stronger... so what do I know? I suspect a change this evening with regards to the transition from 1938 to 1955 that people have mentioned above. As soon as the 1938 piece finishes, there's a loud piece of music (louder than anything else throughout the play) which accompanies more photos from around that time projected onto the curtain. I didn't hear a single clap. Biggest laugh was indeed the mistaken identity but also quite a ripple of laughter as Leo goes through his list of things to be proud about towards the end. {Spoiler - click to view}I did find the ending with the naming of the dead quite moving. I would have prefered a little less exposition but at the same time, it was bluntly effective.
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Post by joem on Jan 28, 2020 23:59:48 GMT
Well, if nothing else this proves the commercial theatre can still put on a big production of a new play with a huge cast. Well done Sonia Friedman Productions for matching commercial ambition with the vision to see that serious drama can have a significant audience too.
Glad to say Tom Stoppard continues to write well and meaningfully. This is not an old man's play, perhaps the smoking is keeping his mind sharp. This sits well within his oeuvre and is certainly much more accessible than his previous work, the intellectually ambitious but dramatically unengaging "The Hard Problem".
This is an autobiographical work, the names have been changed as have some of the circumstances, but the heart of the story is the story of what happened to Tom Stoppard and his family.
Set in Vienna in five different time periods from 1899 to 1955 the extended Merz and Jakobovicz families are well-to-do, cultured, successful middle-class Austrians. But they are also Jewish, even if some of them are baptised, they intermarry with other religions and lead a pretty secular lifestyle. This assimilation is not enough to protect them from the anti-Semitism which increases after the First World War, from the casual prejudice which might have existed in the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the full-blown exterminations which result from Austria's (fairly willing) assimilation into Nazi Germany. The detail of how this family suffers is best seen in action.
It is indeed odd for the second half of a performance to be longer than the first half these days. Tonight the audience was not confused by the ending and it is indeed difficult to keep up with who all the many characters introduced in the early 1899/1900 sections are, let alone how they age, but this is not really that important. It is the sense of family that matters, of the whole rather than the parts.
Slick production, good acting and direction. Not a lot wrong with this.
Apparently Tom Stoppard only found out about his Jewish family in his fifties so this play feels like a catharsis on the playwright's part but also a personal statement of bearing witness, pertinent directly this week (International Holocaust Remembrance Day) but also a living issue in the recent and current politics of this country.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jan 29, 2020 9:33:54 GMT
I had quite forgotten how rude this board could be. Sometimes, like I suspect other board users, I'm sitting by myself and just trying to strike up a conversation. Something about Czech culture and smoking perhaps. Or whether at 82 there might be a case for sorting out somewhere out of the rain for someone to smoke. I'm not one to go off in a huff (in my mid 50's I'm past that) but I certainly feel quite upset at this. This board can be so helpful in its advice and opinions about productions but is clearly a place to be avoided if, like me, you are feeling a bit fragile. We do have an ignore function. Unfortunately I have used it on two members Hugs
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Post by lynette on Jan 29, 2020 10:46:07 GMT
I had quite forgotten how rude this board could be. Sometimes, like I suspect other board users, I'm sitting by myself and just trying to strike up a conversation. Something about Czech culture and smoking perhaps. Or whether at 82 there might be a case for sorting out somewhere out of the rain for someone to smoke. I'm not one to go off in a huff (in my mid 50's I'm past that) but I certainly feel quite upset at this. This board can be so helpful in its advice and opinions about productions but is clearly a place to be avoided if, like me, you are feeling a bit fragile. I know what you mean about just wanting to strike up a conversation, make contact. Please keep the faith. Tbh it tends to annoy me when I see older people smoking! How dare they be so healthy. That kind of thing. I don’t think smoking is anything to do with being Czech as Stoppard has lived most of his life well away from his place of birth. Are you seeing the play?
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Post by jek on Jan 29, 2020 11:43:14 GMT
Thank you lynette. I know what you mean about smoking. My dad died at exactly the age I am now (56) of smoking related heart disease. As a then teenager I did, of course, think he was properly old! I am hoping to see the play - in precis it reminds me of something that Stephen Poliakoff would write for TV. Funnily enough my music student daughter phoned me earlier in the week to ask if I knew the play Every Good Boy Deserves Favour as she had been asked to play the trumpet in a student production (unfortunately she can't as the dates don't work). It set me reminiscing about the fantastic National Theatre production of it with Toby Jones ten years ago. On the theme of Austria under Nazi rule I really enjoyed the film A Hidden Life at the weekend. I've never seen a Terence Malick film before and am told that this one is unusual in terms of having a clear, chronological plot. It is certainly very beautiful.
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Post by siteseer on Jan 29, 2020 13:22:21 GMT
Many thanks to all for the informative reviews so far. Looking for seat advice for a March visit. Need an aisle seat in the stalls and my options are row A stage left or either aisle seat in Row L. Thank you in advance.
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