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Post by tributary on Dec 14, 2017 21:51:46 GMT
Always wondered whether big American stars go home during the middle of runs over here, especially when they're playing in rep. Playing in rep??!! Network had three performances straight after the press night and then none at all for four and a half weeks. It's technically in the rep, but it's not playing. Yeah, it’s basically not a rep any more. They’re individual companies with zero crossover and as with all the other hits of the fast-sinking Norris NT, they’re basically star vehicles (Angels, Follies, Red Barn, Network) that do a straight run, a hiatus, and then another straight run. Surely soon they’ll abolish the rep altogether and just become a West End house. Their pricing is already at that level.
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Post by tributary on Dec 14, 2017 20:32:34 GMT
These are new waters both at OOJ and everywhere, we hope and in a good way, it's not going to always be a smooth ride and I expect some 'art' will be 'sacrificed' along the way. But I'll take a handful of that for a greater good emerging somewhere down the line personally. If only this sort of artistic censorship - and yes, that is precisely what this is - had ever led to a greater good emerging. It doesn’t. I agree with the people who find this decision both weak and worrying. I don’t think the RC mean badly, but it’s another sign of the times, where adherence to the party line counts more than the quality of the work on stage.
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Post by tributary on Dec 4, 2017 23:00:53 GMT
I was there, guest of a friend. Garfield’s speech was insincere and pompous. I didn’t realise we had a mind reader on the board! You may think he is pompous, but you can’t possibly know how sincere his speech was unless you have some special power. No, you’re quite right. Particularly when posting on a theatre message board, I should have remembered that tone, facial expression, commitment, conviction and words chosen mean nothing, and can’t ever be used to judge sincerity.
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Post by tributary on Nov 1, 2017 20:21:09 GMT
Attending the Wooster Group/RSC production of 'Troilus and Cressida' a few years ago at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, two of us longed for the interval to come. I think it must be the worst thing I've ever seen; a disgrace to everyone involved in it. The thought of a wonderful documentary like 'Town Bloody Hall' — see excerpts on YouTube — getting the theatrical treatment is questionable, but the possibility of it being staged by the Wooster Group doesn't bear thinking about. My name is Jan. I saw the Wooster Group/RSC Troilus & Cressida. I’m sick of Cheek by Jowl turning up at the Barbican with stuff in French or Russian or even English. They are so old fashioned and stale - not a new idea in 30 years - and a fatal lack of ambition which means they daren’t even use the main stage. I thought with the return of the RSC the Barbican might have ditched their residency but apparently not. I think the Barbican put CbJ and the RSC in there precisely to be dead and stale so as to provide contrast to all the European stuff.
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Post by tributary on Nov 1, 2017 10:02:04 GMT
I have a friend in the St George cast and they were worked to the bone in previews and rehearsals which were conducted in high panic mode because despite having programmed it noone had any confidence that the play was ready. I thought the play was full of promise and I'm a big fan of Lyndsey Turner's - but the Norris NT has worked its inverse Midas touch on talented people yet again. People on here will wail but the good shows are the exceptions now and it wasn't like that under Hytner.
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Post by tributary on Oct 1, 2017 0:02:13 GMT
£100 says SRB will be in it.
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Post by tributary on Sept 26, 2017 19:20:40 GMT
I don't think they're extreme positions. There's certainly been a lot of negative press in the broadsheets about the Norris regime, and the feeling in the industry is hardly that it's a golden age.
It's not to do with whether my feelings contrast with anyone else's, either. I was trying to find a way of measuring the success of a regime against a previous one, and to take a look at the shows in that regime felt like a fair way of doing it. I'm very happy to look at some other rules too if you have better ideas. It is, after all, just a forum.
As to favouring past over current, I don't think you've understood; I've only noted shows from the period in which Hytner had been in post for as long as Norris currently has.
And as for the successes that have been pointed out, I have addressed that - compared to Hytner, very few of those Norris successes have garnered the kind of recognition, either in awards or in outbound transfers to other venues. They're successes, sure, but just not of the same size and scale.
I'd say the same thing about the artists you mention above, that very few of them on your list (many great ones though there are) have an actual relationship with the building beyond just doing one show there and then not returning. Hence my trying to measure it as in my last post.
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Post by tributary on Sept 14, 2017 21:58:42 GMT
I'll just leave my regular post in threads about Rufus Norris being a disaster pointing out that Angels was a sell-out, and Follies, Mosquitoes and Oslo are largely sold out, and Network is largely sold out. Not sure that Hytner or other predecessors did better than that in any given period. In response to the predicted response saying he wasn't responsible for all these - you can't blame him for everything that doesn't work, and refuse to give him credit for anything that does work. That's not true. Oslo isn't selling well at all - I was there last night and it was visibly less than half full.
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Post by tributary on Sept 13, 2017 23:23:34 GMT
The only critical successes since he took over have been in US accents. Follies, The Flick, The Red Barn, Ma Rainey.
The flops are obvious and numerous and the revivals have been lacklustre.
I've said on here before he is failing to attract the best talent to him. Both the Featherstone Court and the Goold Almeida are embarrassing comparisons to the mess the NT currently is. Speculation in Goold's interview in the Standard today about him taking over post Norris vacating the seat.
So how long before he goes?
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RSC 2018
Sept 13, 2017 23:19:17 GMT
via mobile
Post by tributary on Sept 13, 2017 23:19:17 GMT
Agree, oxfordsimon.
And really, Lynette, re LLL and LLW? Is that how you like your Shakespeare? Hammy, shouted, camped up just to the tipping point into panto, stripped of darkness and danger, and dressed up like a chocolate box.
I thought, in case it isn't clear, that they were unforgivably conservative and boring. The night I saw it at the Haymarket, the school party in front of me were so bored they started throwing crisps at each other.
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Post by tributary on Aug 30, 2017 7:34:19 GMT
For sher it will be.
That is what the S in RSC now stands for, after all.
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Post by tributary on Aug 23, 2017 18:58:20 GMT
SRB is far better in comedy than in drama. His best recent performance by some margin was Hytner's London Assurance. I didn't rate his Hamlet at all though his poison toad Richard 3rd was rather good. I could imagine him being rather operatic as Richard II.
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Post by tributary on Aug 12, 2017 18:19:27 GMT
Anthony Sher as Cleopatra. Henry V with Anthony Sher. Salome with Anthony Sher. Revivals of recent hits Henry IV 1 and 2, and King Lear. Twelfth Night. And a new one-man show based on the Sonnets, set in South Africa, with a very exciting leading man indeed.... Coming soon!
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Post by tributary on Aug 7, 2017 11:42:51 GMT
Could this thread be retitled Rufus Norris? Just spent ages trying to find it!
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Post by tributary on Aug 5, 2017 22:30:56 GMT
An African setting in a Stratford production can only be generic. There's no point setting it in the Congo or Zimbabwe or wherever because few would have enough familiarity with the specific context. Also, respectfully, this is nonsense. They wouldn't dare do, for e.g., a generic Chinese setting. They could quite easily have committed to the African idea, done some research and replaced the usual RSC generalities with some detailed cultural ideas. And got rid of the Jamaican gravedigger!
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Post by tributary on Aug 5, 2017 22:28:21 GMT
It's not a fresh take I wanted, honestly, just some emotional truthfulness so the story was fully transmitted. Instead you get silly RSC honking and bellowing and booming. Spend your money on seeing the Almeida one in the Harold Pinter Theater instead.
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Post by tributary on Aug 4, 2017 23:48:04 GMT
Yes, you can't imagine Hytner doing that. But then I can't imagine him presiding over this unholy mess either.
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77 posts
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RSC 2018
Aug 3, 2017 10:46:03 GMT
via mobile
Post by tributary on Aug 3, 2017 10:46:03 GMT
Agree. Only to do that needs great directors of today to grow the talent. They don't have that either.
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Post by tributary on Aug 3, 2017 9:08:37 GMT
This isn't worth parting with your cash for. Looks great, but entirely empty in acting terms. You can feel it would work quite well if only the cast could get it to lift off, but sadly it is never in danger of happening. 2*.
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Post by tributary on Jul 31, 2017 15:32:01 GMT
Well, that explains him!
Doesn't say much for all the other names. Where's the talent?
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Post by tributary on Jul 31, 2017 0:13:49 GMT
I've ranted about the NT on many occasions. Not heard about Norris being afraid of the talent before. I guess it is difficult to work there for many reasons. Yes. Nunn was a one-man show not entirely through choice, he offered associate director status to lots of directors and they all turned him down, many didn't like the two big stages. That's why if you have someone good like Howard Davies who actually likes working there you should keep them. When does Norris' contract end ? Of course it is possible that Norris has invited a better set of associates who have turned him down. Anyone know anything?
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