13 posts
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Post by saints on Apr 30, 2022 21:31:56 GMT
Hello, Looking forward to seeing this soon. I hear the front row has some restriction in this production and some seats have been removed from the seating plan.
Has anyone sat in the front row? It's usually great value but does the stage design might make it less comfortable? Thanks!
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Post by Steve on Apr 30, 2022 22:48:33 GMT
I was in the second row, actually Row C where I was sitting, as Row A was visible underneath the stage lol.
The view there was fantastic, with very little need to look up vertiginously, and no obstacles to seeing the characters.
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Post by theoracle on May 1, 2022 22:54:17 GMT
I didn’t love this as much as I imagined but I still enjoyed it as a nice Friday night after work treat. Nicola Walker is on fire as already mentioned and great to see such a strong Welsh cast on the NT stage. I can’t help but feel the set could’ve been more imaginative though and the characters could’ve been explored more vividly. The story is easy to follow though and the sound of the singing was gorgeous
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Post by cherokee on May 2, 2022 16:11:43 GMT
I quite enjoyed the play. Nicola Walker gives a solid central performance, and the Welsh choir sounded beautiful. But my God, did I find the framing device irritating! Poor Gareth David Lloyd is reduced to wandering around, issuing stage directions. "There's a knock on the door"; "She enters, carrying a vase." I found myself wanting to scream: "I know!! I can see it in front of me!!" Thankfully it peters out in Act 2, but there's still far too much of it. Although the point when the playwright stops the action and tries out a different version made me cringe. It really feels like they didn't have enough confidence in the original play to just stage it without a pointless framing device.
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Post by kt12 on May 5, 2022 11:04:21 GMT
I quite enjoyed the play. Nicola Walker gives a solid central performance, and the Welsh choir sounded beautiful. But my God, did I find the framing device irritating! Poor Gareth David Lloyd is reduced to wandering around, issuing stage directions. "There's a knock on the door"; "She enters, carrying a vase." I found myself wanting to scream: "I know!! I can see it in front of me!!" Thankfully it peters out in Act 2, but there's still far too much of it. Although the point when the playwright stops the action and tries out a different version made me cringe. It really feels like they didn't have enough confidence in the original play to just stage it without a pointless framing device. This seems to be standard fare these days : a director who wants to be noticed adds a 'framing device' . All the reviews talk about that - so the director- not the play, or the cast- are central to the critical response. Under Milk Wood at the same theatre suffered the same fate. Just do the play!
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Post by pochard on May 5, 2022 14:37:10 GMT
I quite enjoyed the play. Nicola Walker gives a solid central performance, and the Welsh choir sounded beautiful. But my God, did I find the framing device irritating! Poor Gareth David Lloyd is reduced to wandering around, issuing stage directions. "There's a knock on the door"; "She enters, carrying a vase." I found myself wanting to scream: "I know!! I can see it in front of me!!" Thankfully it peters out in Act 2, but there's still far too much of it. Although the point when the playwright stops the action and tries out a different version made me cringe. It really feels like they didn't have enough confidence in the original play to just stage it without a pointless framing device. Oh I SO agree about the framing device. I thought it was ok at the start - I imagine they were worried about it being a bit old school, and making it an obviously autobiographical piece takes that tension away, but I genuinely thought/hoped it would stop after the first 15 minutes or so. It really should have done. Still, it's worth it to see Nicola Walker. I think she should just be given a part in everything - tv/radio/theatre!
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Post by Mark on May 7, 2022 17:37:57 GMT
Saw it this afternoon and really enjoyed. Yes the framing devices is laboured a bit but it does work for the most part. National Theatre back doing what it does best.
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Post by joem on May 12, 2022 22:43:10 GMT
An enjoyable play, I feared it would drift into The Corn Is Green In My Valley but the singing was dignified and tasteful and the semi-autobiographical plot is not especially exciting but decent enough. A great performance by Nicola Walker, hope we see a lot more of her in the theatre in years to come.
I always suspected Emlyn Williams a bit of windbaggery - and there are certainly elements of this here, in the convenient inventions to the real story and how it fits into accepted genres - but it's a well-written play with plenty of good lines and business to keep the audience interested.
As to the framing device, a little at the beginning might have been fine but it does go on pointlessly. It doesn't make it modern, it just makes it annoyingly intrusive - half the time the guy is just walking around like a ballerina in a modern ballet pointing pointedly (but pointlessly) and adding mock gravitas. I went to see a play by Emlyn Williams, warts and all, if Dominic Cooke wants to write a play I might consider going to it but I'd rather he wrote his own rather than tinkered with someone else's writing.
Great to see the National full and with a hit on its hands! It sure needed it! It does make me wonder with all this talk about "old chestnuts"... maybe audiences prefer to watch some of these rather than productions which will be forgotten even before the final night is over?
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Post by Jon on May 13, 2022 11:47:27 GMT
The old chestnuts debate is interesting, I think there needs to be a balance between the revivals of classics and new plays because how can theatre thrive and evolve if we just stick to tried and tested.
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Post by joem on May 13, 2022 12:19:11 GMT
Forgot to mention - due to illness there were three casualties in the cast last night - the role of Bessy Watty was played by Megan Grech and the roles of Mrs Watty and Miss Ronberry were read, respectively, by Rebecca Todd and Helena Wilson ("borrowed" from the cast of the Jack Absolute Files).
Has to be said they all coped admirably, a bit like when you are watching puppets you ended up not seeing the script or making it part of the scenery. Well done you three and well done the National for coping. The shows must go on!!!
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Post by edi on May 13, 2022 16:59:53 GMT
I really didn't enjoy the 'framing' last night, it just distracted and annoyed me.
However the covers were excellent. Seriously I hardly noticed that they were reading at all. Well acted.
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Post by kathryn on May 13, 2022 20:39:30 GMT
The old chestnuts debate is interesting, I think there needs to be a balance between the revivals of classics and new plays because how can theatre thrive and evolve if we just stick to tried and tested. Honestly, we picked this to see (using up credit vouchers) because it was a revival and not a new play. I just don’t trust the Nash with new plays at the moment. Almost all of the new plays I’ve seen there recently seem to have needed another draft before being staged.
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Post by Jon on May 13, 2022 21:49:21 GMT
Honestly, we picked this to see (using up credit vouchers) because it was a revival and not a new play. I just don’t trust the Nash with new plays at the moment. Almost all of the new plays I’ve seen there recently seem to have needed another draft before being staged. The Ocean at the End of the Lane was a smash hit and that was a new play so it's not true that all new plays at the National are duds. It can't just be revivals that they stage.
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Post by kathryn on May 14, 2022 8:31:57 GMT
Yes, but I saw that at the Nash years ago now - pre-pandemic, in 2019.
Small Island was also very good.
But I’ve seen so many more duds or average new plays than really good ones, it’s made me wary.
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Post by andrew on May 15, 2022 10:14:43 GMT
I really enjoyed this at the Saturday matinee, despite a one hour show stop and being booted out of the theatre. I thought this was a bit mishandled by the Nash, I couldn't see what was going on but from the stalls I could clearly hear commotion from the circle for about 15 minutes before the stage manager walked on mid-scene and halted the play. If there's a medical issue in the middle of the audience, don't try and soldier on for quarter of an hour, just pause the play, it was very distracting for the audience and presumably quite distressing for the front of house staff and even the paramedics who arrived before the show had been stopped. When we were being turfed out for an impromptu interval another patron felt very unwell and also had an ambulance phoned for her. Two casualties in the space of half an hour.
I really took exception to a pair of gentlemen in their 50s having a go at an usher for the fact that after we'd eventually finished the first act, we were daring to have an interval instead of just soldiering through into the latter half of the play. I get that being 45 minutes delayed may impact a pre-booked train or dinner reservation, but you're old enough to firstly know that during the interval usually a lot of stuff happens (in this case, an entire house being built on stage) with the crew and actors that can't simply be skipped, and also that bitterly complaining to a young lady about a medical delay is fruitless and mean. Go to the box office if you can't stay for act 2, get your money back or another date, and move on.
Anyway. It's a great play I loved it, especially the Welsh choir. I didn't hate the new changes but they were a bit intrusive and needed to be toned down in the first 2 scenes. I have a question for the esteemed community here though, what was the idea in the framing device petering out as the play progresses? We went from a black box set, to a set where you can see behind the scenes, to a properly framed and realistic theatrical set piece, all the while getting less and less of the read-out stage directions. Is this Davies coming to terms with his memories, is it him building more artifice and unreality to his past as he goes on? I wasn't sure.
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Post by MoreLife on May 17, 2022 9:13:09 GMT
Anyway. It's a great play I loved it, especially the Welsh choir. I didn't hate the new changes but they were a bit intrusive and needed to be toned down in the first 2 scenes. I have a question for the esteemed community here though, what was the idea in the framing device petering out as the play progresses? We went from a black box set, to a set where you can see behind the scenes, to a properly framed and realistic theatrical set piece, all the while getting less and less of the read-out stage directions. Is this Davies coming to terms with his memories, is it him building more artifice and unreality to his past as he goes on? I wasn't sure. My - very own, and therefore quite possibly flawed - interpretation is that we get to see the space inhabited by the characters evolve from a Brechtian set-up to the fully detailed set piece of Act 2 at the same time as we see Morgan evolve from reserved kid - whose existence is basically confined to the village, school and mine - into a brilliant young man, whose agile mind, gift for eloquence and thirst for knowledge open up his world and enable him to let other people, thoughts, and feelings in. To me it felt that the more Morgan grew and learned to express his ideas, the more the world he inhabited could actually be seen for what it was.
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Post by cavocado on May 17, 2022 10:47:56 GMT
I'd been reading about Emlyn Williams beforehand, and that he had a breakdown while at Oxford and started writing as (what we'd now call) therapy. So I saw the framing device in terms of EW's development as a writer and mental recovery of sorts.
At the start when the EW character runs out of the party in his dinner suit, presumably at Oxford, he is very distressed, and has the male voice choir inhabiting his head, like he's struggling to reconcile those two aspects of himself - intellectual Oxford man and working class Welsh boy. When the main play starts it is transparently artificial - no props, no scenery, actors often looking a baffled by what they are being told to do, EW often stopping and changing or re-starting the play, and his contributions get more intrusive for a while.
To me the arc of the EW character effected the changes to the play (the addition of props, not reading out the stage directions, a realistic set). It gradually becomes more seamlessly fictional rather than a work-in-progress exercise in autobiography and learning to write, so EW as a character becomes less intrusive, because it's no longer 'just' his own story/therapy.
Having said that, I did find the stage directions really intrusive and annoying after about half an hour!
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Post by gazzaw13 on May 18, 2022 17:51:47 GMT
I really dislike the writer framing device in general and in particular in this play. It shows a lack of faith in the original source and has become overdone in recent years. One of the joys of theatre is engaging with the characters onstage and losing oneself in the experience. Why take away that joy through distanciation?
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Post by Dave B on May 19, 2022 22:40:49 GMT
We were there this evening. Our usual A £20 seats were moved a row back by phone call about half nine this morning. A bit late in the day and annoying as I didn't realise the front row was still in place and I'm too tall for B to be comfortable, I would have said no and asked for a different option had I realised. Other than that, it was fine. I think I'm in the minority in that I liked the framing device, I like it even more reading cavocado's post above about therapy etc. I'd also agree with comments further back about Nicola Walker often feeling like she was in a different play, felt like she didn't get much to do other than be stern and then stern some more. Very full this evening so at least it is doing well for the NT.
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Post by mkb on May 20, 2022 13:47:19 GMT
I had the call this morning to "upgrade" our dead-centre, front-row, plenty-of-legroom seats to row E, well off centre, tomorrow afternoon. Not best pleased. And why leave it so late?
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Post by showgirl on May 20, 2022 14:37:54 GMT
I had the call this morning to "upgrade" our dead-centre, front-row, plenty-of-legroom seats to row E, well off centre, tomorrow afternoon. Not best pleased. And why leave it so late? But surely you can decline this kind "offer"?
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Post by mkb on May 20, 2022 14:51:35 GMT
I had the call this morning to "upgrade" our dead-centre, front-row, plenty-of-legroom seats to row E, well off centre, tomorrow afternoon. Not best pleased. And why leave it so late? But surely you can decline this kind "offer"? I didn't realise I had a choice. Are the original seats still being used then?
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Post by Dave B on May 20, 2022 14:57:52 GMT
But surely you can decline this kind "offer"? I didn't realise I had a choice. Are the original seats still being used then? There are 5 seats left on each side of Row A and in use. The rest are entirely covered by the addition to the stage.
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Post by Mark on May 20, 2022 14:58:19 GMT
But surely you can decline this kind "offer"? I didn't realise I had a choice. Are the original seats still being used then? The stage extends over the front row so those seats aren’t in use.
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Post by theatremiss on May 20, 2022 16:19:22 GMT
I sat in Stalls B15 which was in effect front row. The only original front row seats are the numbers 4-5 in row A.
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Post by mkb on May 20, 2022 17:42:32 GMT
So they've known about this since at least 7 April then. I presume they've been storing up returns so that they didn't have to move everyone affected to the back of the circle. I guess I'm lucky to still get a good close-up view.
As per the recent Young Vic discussion, I struggle to understand why theatre contracts with the director and set designer can't specify the date by which they must let the theatre know of any unavailable or restricted-view seats, with no changes allowed after that date. Smacks of ineffectual management to me.
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Post by showgirl on May 21, 2022 4:08:40 GMT
It is both ridiculously and inconsiderately late to contact those who've booked. The suspicion must be that the NT was waiting to see how sales went and which seats were still available as they have to move people to more expensive ones but suppose those people particularly wanted to be close to the stage, or to have the extra legroom you'd normally have in the very front row?
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Post by mkb on May 21, 2022 19:59:36 GMT
Oh dear! Reading through this thread and looking at reviews post-show is deeply depressing. If this production is what constitutes good entertainment, I might as well give up on theatre with immediate effect.
That today's matinée received a partial standing ovation and enthusiastic applause, I struggle to compute. I found the whole thing utterly dreadful and sailing perilously close to one-star land
Every major directorial decision was astonishingly ill-judged: the framing device was tiresome after a couple of minutes, never mind the whole damn play; the open set of Act 1; the anachronistic, modern acting/speaking style of Walker; having 30-something actors playing teenage miners and 16-year-old Bessie -- are the nation's drama schools as bare as the first-act stage?; the fourth-wall breaking by Walker; costume/make-up for the miners reminiscent of Mary Poppins' chimney sweeps with full-on black-face ludicrously meant to signify coal dust; caricature Cockneys; caricature squire; caricature maiden. I could go on...
The actual "Educating Rita" story would not be uninteresting were the behaviour and dialogue of characters not so unbelievable and unrealistic at every turn.
Perhaps the nod to Disney chimney sweeps is apposite, since the lead here is less a rounded character than a practically perfect feminist.
I would reserve the worst of my scorn for the set designer who seems to hold the audience in callous disregard. The partial removal of the front row seating was entirely gratuitous, serving only to provide a platform for a short prelude to Act 2 in front of the safety iron that then opened painfully slowly. It would have been far less clunky had that scene been staged in front of a quickly opening curtain further back. Both acts are performed on platforms needlessly raised 15 inches, impairing the sightlines of those in the front four rows. Act 2 takes place in a box that is 60% of the stage width with side walls perpendicular to the stage front, meaning that front corner seats have a severely restricted view.
A very disappointing afternoon, quite surprisingly.
Two stars.
Act 1: 14:16-15:39 Act 2: 16:02-16:57
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Post by samuelwhiskers on May 21, 2022 21:20:22 GMT
So they've known about this since at least 7 April then. I presume they've been storing up returns so that they didn't have to move everyone affected to the back of the circle. I guess I'm lucky to still get a good close-up view. As per the recent Young Vic discussion, I struggle to understand why theatre contracts with the director and set designer can't specify the date by which they must let the theatre know of any unavailable or restricted-view seats, with no changes allowed after that date. Smacks of ineffectual management to me. It’s often because they just can’t give directors and designers the budget or the time they need to have access to the space with the budget for the design elements. If there was enough time and enough money then it wouldn’t be a problem, but it’s just not possible to completely predict how a show will handle the move from the rehearsal room to the venue. The space you’ve done all your rehearsals and blocking in might be a completely different size and shape to the stage, and rehearsal time is sometimes barely enough to get the performances together. The Barbican Hamlet set had to be changed last minute causing all kinds of problems because the venue just couldn’t install it till so close to first preview.
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Post by mkb on May 21, 2022 21:33:04 GMT
So they've known about this since at least 7 April then. I presume they've been storing up returns so that they didn't have to move everyone affected to the back of the circle. I guess I'm lucky to still get a good close-up view. As per the recent Young Vic discussion, I struggle to understand why theatre contracts with the director and set designer can't specify the date by which they must let the theatre know of any unavailable or restricted-view seats, with no changes allowed after that date. Smacks of ineffectual management to me. It’s often because they just can’t give directors and designers the budget or the time they need to have access to the space with the budget for the design elements. If there was enough time and enough money then it wouldn’t be a problem, but it’s just not possible to completely predict how a show will handle the move from the rehearsal room to the venue. The space you’ve done all your rehearsals and blocking in might be a completely different size and shape to the stage, and rehearsal time is sometimes barely enough to get the performances together. The Barbican Hamlet set had to be changed last minute causing all kinds of problems because the venue just couldn’t install it till so close to first preview. Don't they use 3-D computer modelling so they can see exactly how the set will fit and what it will look like from any seat?
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