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This year at the theatre....

I saw The Secret River at The National over the weekend.

It's set at the beginning of the 19th Century and shows the conflict between the English settlers and indigenous people of Australia. The outcome is what you might expect but the story-telling is excellent and surprisingly moving towards the end. It's only got a very short run at The National (until 7th September!) but I'd recommend it.
 
I have just sat down at Home to watch Malory Towers.

I think there are two, maybe three, other men here.
 
redsquirrel said:
Off to see that tomorrow.
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I would recommend getting there early and having a drink first. We were rushed and I wasn't relaxed enough at the start, so wasn't quite convinced by the opening and first song.

That said, I don't remember the books well enough. There's a lot of the first one in there. mrsb and sisterb recognised everyone (kind of) immediately and got straight into it. And once I'd got into the groove it was bloody fantastic. Brilliant staging (except for the bit where the projector cut out and we had 30 seconds of the apple logo) as you'd expect from Emma Rice. The songs were solid if not spectacular - everyone can really sing though. It's very 'girl power,' but were the books really that much about post-war trauma??!!

Well worth seeing. Even if you are a bloke (there really were a very small number of men there, and only one boy, who looked like he was hating it).

Do stay in the foyer toward the end of the interval - you'll get an amusing little treat.
 
Last night aws a trip to Nottingham to see Alex Kingston in An Enemy of the People.

As you might expect, she is very, very good. Totally convincing as the somewhat manic and highly egotistaical doctor. Malcolm Sinclair is quite brilliant as her brother, the Mayor. It's a modernish version with a new script by Rebecca (Ida/Colette/Disobdience) Lenkiewicz. Unfortunately, modernising the script creates a host of problems - why does she need the newspaper so much? Why is running away to America an answer? Why is their absolutely no democracy in this village?

They might all be ignorable if it weren't for the failure to sort the major problem, which is that the fourth and final act is (and always has been) just reactionary shite. Arthur Miller cut most of the eugenics from his version, but they're still in here. I'm not really sure what could be done with that to make it work, but something definitely needs doing.
 
Leafster said:
I went to see Jack Thorne's adaptation of A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic on Tuesday.

Rhys Ifans is a great Scrooge and the stage setting in the middle of the auditorium with hundreds of suspended lanterns provides a great atmosphere. Free warm mince pies (or satsumas) handed out by "Victorian street-sellers" and having snow dumped on us (twice!), along with handbells and singing added to the Christmas feel.

If you can get cheap tickets (ours were just a fiver with a discount code) it's well worth a look.
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I'm bumping this as it's back at the Old Vic with Paterson Joseph playing Scrooge.

A Christmas Carol | The Old Vic
 
Went to see The Lady Vanishes at the Fairfield Halls on Friday- I enjoyed it.

Speaking of which the Fairfield spent £43m refurbishing and it was closed for 4 years.
It's still well scruffy indoors, torn seats, scratched paintwork. I cannot see where the money went at all
 
Roots by 1927 at HOME.
1927 are a great little company that project scenes onto a screen and then act in front of them. At the beginning year I saw then do their play The Animals and Children Took to the Streets again and it was just as good as the first time. Unlike that Roots is not a single story but a collection of short pieces inspired by folktales. All the pieces are really dark but also funny and often rather moving. I think they finished at HOME now but if you get the chance to see them I definitely recommend doing so.
 
Uncle Vanya. I really enjoyed it, bit mainstream but that made it very accessible which I thought was good. Found the set a bit chintzy if I had one criticism. Toby Jones was amazing as were all the actors. We were on the balcony which was terrifyingly high.
 
Ghost Stories at The Ambassadors theatre. I don't do horror films and had deliberately not read any reviews. Thoroughly enjoyed it despite the jumps...and it does make you jump. It's also funny in parts (not many parts). Small , excellent cast and imaginative set. The audience is asked to keep the secrets safe. Only 90 minutes and no interval, which works well.
 
Thanks for that, Winot

I saw a touring production of that with Rufus Hound and Jodie Prenger and liked it, so I'd be interested to see how that compared to this one.
 
belboid said:
Wild is on the Guardian site will Wednesday night - Watch the Snowden-inspired thriller Wild by Mike Bartlett – video
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I quite enjoyed that, although the sound seems very hollow, as if recorded in an empty room. The Woman is a bit annoying at first, but makes sense i the end. Some of the themes of the surveillance state are obviously sharp at the moment, although the general insights into that and tech aren't particularly insightful four years on. It is a bit disconcerting that the main character, who not only has a life story almost exactly that of Edward Snowden, but is made up to look like Edward Snowden, gets called Andrew by The Woman and The Man, because that is meant to be his name. Just call him bloody Edward. All seemed like a reasonable evenings entertainment until the ending, which is just... let's just say very theatrically impressive.
 
Winot said:
National Theatre are streaming some plays for free from this Thursday:

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Watched that two guvnors thing this evening.
Absolutely dreadfully awful. It's exactly the kind of thing that made me think I hated the theatre - until relatively recently when I started to go and see some proper stuff.
It looks like they are putting out some more serious stuff over the next few weeks - thursday evenings sorted until we are released to the outside world again.
 
I should have been at the theatre last night with my MIL seeing the WNO's production of The Marriage of Figaro.
It would have been my first opera and I was really looking forward to it :(
 
teuchter said:
Watched that two guvnors thing this evening.
Absolutely dreadfully awful. It's exactly the kind of thing that made me think I hated the theatre - until relatively recently when I started to go and see some proper stuff.
It looks like they are putting out some more serious stuff over the next few weeks - thursday evenings sorted until we are released to the outside world again.
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We're still saving that. We'll see....

Memoirs of an Asian Football Casual is on the Leicester Curve website, and is very good indeed. Redirect Notice
 
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