This year at the theatre....

[belboid]

A place to list all the exciting productions urbanites are going to see (as there is retty much zero point starting a thread for any specific production, as the chances of more than two urbs going to see the same thing are miniscule...)

I'm off to see Congreave's The Way of the World tonight, my first ever restoration comedy, I think. Looks fun and kinda fruity, a bargain for a fiver.

I've also got a ticket for MIchael Frayn's Democracy in a fortnight. Which is annoying cos I didnt realise when I booked it, that I'd already got tix for All Tomorrows Parties the same weekend. I'll have to try to see if I can swap it for a Copenhagen ticket.

There's not much else on locally up to summer. I may get a ticket for Pinter's Betrayal, if only cos its got my old mucker John Simm in it

 

[QueenOfGoths]

Mainly planning on seeing amateur stuff at the moment - productions of "The Memory of Water", "The Producers" and, maybe, "Oklahoma" are upcoming.

Wouldn't mind seeing Lindsay Duncan in "Hay Fever" as I do like the play and could do with getting a few Coward tips as I am currently rehearsing "Private Lives".

 

[belboid]

I haven't had to do any amateur prods yet, may go to a production of Much Ado About Nothing later this year, if our mates in it. I hope he isn't really, as I saw a really good production of it a couple of years back, and there's no way this one would be anything like as good, but I'd still have to make wonderfully positive noises about it.

 

[redsquirrel]

Just saw Henry V and The Winters Tale by Propellor this last week.
Henry V was fantastic, Winters Tale not quite as good, though I think that's more to do with the play than the adaptation.

Planning to go see Stoppard's Arcadia later this month.

 

[belboid]

Their Winters Tale got good reviews when it was here a couple of weeks ago, I'd have gone to see Henry V, but, for the only dates on the tour, they didn't do it.

Are you in Perth at the moment, then?

 

[QueenOfGoths]

Just saw Henry V and The Winters Tale by Propellor this last week.
Henry V was fantastic, Winters Tale not quite as good, though I think that's more to do with the play than the adaptation.

Planning to go see Stoppard's Arcadia later this month.

I was in a production of "The Winter's Tale" last year. It isn't an easy play and though I enjoyed being in it I am not sure I would like to watch it. As a performer it gives you incredible choices, especially if you are Leontes or, to a lesser extent, Polixines but as a viewer reconciling the story as a whole is difficult.

Did they have 'sheep' in some of the Bohemia scenes like they did last time they staged it ?

 

[redsquirrel]

Yep in Perth.

Don't get me wrong Winters Tale was good, the acting was top notch and the setting imaginative. I just don't think the play is up there with Shakespeares best work, the first and second half just don't seem to sit that well together and some of the plot points are pretty contrived.

Yes to the Sheep . They were great.

 

[QueenOfGoths]

Yep in Perth.

Don't get me wrong Winters Tale was good, the acting was top notch and the setting imaginative. I just don't think the play is up there with Shakespeares best work, the first and second half just don't seem to sit that well together and some of the plot points are pretty contrived.

Yes to the Sheep . They were great.

I agree with you, working on the play did make me appreciate it more but I never reconciled the first and second half - you go from the gloom and doom of Sicilia to the happy freedom of Bohemia and, hey, it's all okay at the end 'cos she is still alive and forgives him even though he kind of caused the death of her son, daughter (as far as they know) and herself!

 

[redsquirrel]

Yeah that sums up my feeling precisely.

 

[purenarcotic]

Am off to see 'Oliver!' the musical and 'Wasted' (Kate Tempest's debut play) in March. Am looking forward to both very much, have not been to the theatre in far too long.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Saw the road show of Mamma Mia a couple weeks ago. Loved the boys chorus dancing is speedos and swim fins.

I'll probably see Little Shop of Horrors on stage at the University this weekend.

I wanted to make it to a Steampunk version of The Fantastics, but I just didn't get there. Its a shame too, because the box office wasn't sold out and let tickets go right for half price.

 

[belboid]

Well, Way of the World was very enjoyable. Just have to go with it and accept that no one will really follow the plot. A slightly odd pretence at setting it in something like modern day, but I think everyone just ignored that after the initial 'wtf?'

 

[clicker]

Went to see Romeo and Juliet at the small back studio theatre attached to Broadway theatre in Lewisham/Catford.....very intimate, love going to watch anything there, very impressed with production, took two 12 year olds who understood it all, and it was true to the play, and they haven't done shakespeare at school yet....but the acting made the language accesible....and romeo was a bit of a lush apparently, black tight jeans and leather jacket.....the Montagues and capulets led by two sharp suited dads....the cast in the foyer to say goodbye as the audience left the theatre....very good night had by all.

 

[Shirl]

I went to our local small theatre last night to see Round and Round the Garden. I have a season ticket and go 5 times a year regardless of what's on.

 

[belboid]

It seems my ticket for Democracy might be going spare if anyone wants it....

 

[stethoscope]

With being ill not seen anything so far this year, but there's a new production of Sweeney Todd at the Adelphi just opened with Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton, so going to get to that in the next few weeks hopefully

 

[Reno]

I went to see Master Class with Tyne Daly as Maria Callas last Wednesday, because a friend had a spare ticket. She was great, the play itself wasn't. Weird audience, quite a few people chatting and a woman in front of me checking her iphone, which was distracting. I've had to tell the weirdo couple (he wore fur coat) next to me to stop talking. Jeffrey Archer was in the audience.

 

[redsquirrel]

quite a few people chatting and a woman in front of me checking her iphone, which was distracting. I've had to tell the weirdo couple (he wore fur coat) next to me to stop talking.

Anyone talking during a performance should be taken outside and shot. What absolute cunts. It's deserving of a death sentence to talk at the cinema but during a play!

 

[Reno]

Yes, it was weird and it wasn't just the people next to me talking. I mostly go the places like The Young Vic, Menier Chocolate Factory or the Donmar (for one thing they are cheaper) where people seem to be more respectful than in more mainstream West End Theatres where they seem to behave like audiences do at a multiplex now.

 

[redsquirrel]

Went to see Blackbird last night, mixed feelings. The two actors in it were both good and at certain points it hit you really hard. Overall however, I can't help feeling a bit dissatisfied with it and I'm not entirely sure why.

Anybody else seen a version of it?

 

[Shirl]

I've just been to our local theatre to see Spider's Web by Agatha Christie
I think the play itself wasn't that good and unfortunately the best performance came from the prompter

The next play will be California Suite and I'm hoping for better things

 

[Lea]

I saw singing in the rain at the palace theatre which was very charming and faithful to the film. They added a couple of numbers which weren't in the film though.

Thinking of going to watch titus andronicus in cantonese at the globe but not sure if it's going to be too difficult to understand.

 

[redsquirrel]

Planning to go see Stoppard's Arcadia later this month.

Saw this couple of weeks ago, absolutely fantastic. I was a bit nervous going as the performances of company putting it on have been a bit hit and miss in my experience but this time they got it right.

 

[Lea]

Watched The Sunshine Boys at the Savoy Theatre last night starring Danny Devito. Lots of funny moments and Devito definitely had the best lines.

Going to watch Aesop's Fables at the Hackney Empire on Saturday.

 

[belboid]

bloody hell, how irritating. mrs b has generously agreed that we will go to a mate in an am-dram Much Ado About Nothing.

A quite enjoyable play, when well done, but this company always seems to get dreadful women - and not even many of them. And when has she agreed for us to go? 7.45 on Friday

 

[gamma globulins]

Saw Collaborators last week - very good, though the 3rd act lacks proper punch.

 

[articul8]

Hmm..am dram is best avoided, but hard when mates are involved..

I went to see Antigone at the NT at the weekend. The production made much more of Creon than Antigone really - but Tiresias' prophecy was chilling and addressed to the audience as though we would reap the consequences of the war on terror (Christopher Ecclestone having channeled the spirit of the Campbell diaries for Creon the tyrant).

Anyway was worth seeing.

 

[killer b]

my sister in law is in that. creon's mrs.

 

[belboid]

off to see the NT's Frankenstein tomorrow, tho in a cinema streaming screening thing - should that go in here or in the cinema thread??

 

[spanglechick]

we saw Antigone last week and Collaborators on friday (both at the national).

Antigone did not move me. I thought Ecclestone was surprisingly lacking in depth: i know one shouldn't exactly root for a tragic protagonist, but i was willing the death and turmoil to get done so that he'd stop shouting. A colleague who saw it said he thinks the fault was in the translation. maybe.

Then Collaborators was ace. Really thrillingly engaging - gorgeous set design, everyone performing at top energy. Simon Russell Beale was just gorgeous to watch - every gesture, every expression calculated to wrongfoot and delight us in the first two acts (the sweetest, most avuncular Joe Stalin you've never imagined), to set up the horror of the third. And yes - the third act should've had a bit more emotional punch, but by then I was sold anyway. Best thing i've seen at the theatre for years.