One Touch Theatre

[Nocturnal Submission]

Have you come across this WOM: https://finboroughtheatre.co.uk/production/1979/

[WOM]

Have you come across this WOM: https://finboroughtheatre.co.uk/production/1979/

Hah. No. But I'll watch for it. A one act play about Joe Clark (affectionately called Joe Who? for decades)...who'd a thunk it.

Thanks for pointing it out.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Hah. No. But I'll watch for it. A one act play about Joe Clark (affectionately called Joe Who? for decades)...who'd a thunk it.

Thanks for pointing it out.

It's on stage at quite a handy venue for Mrs. NS & me and she's quite keen, so we might pop along, though I'm not hugely keen on these "intimate" venues.

[via vicaria]

Went to see Unfortunate at the Southwark Playhouse, which is a musical about Ursula the Sea Witch from The Little Mermaid. So, so stupid, but very fun. Just definitely don't take the kids.

[Snake Plissken]

Went to see Hamilton in Manchester last night. I don't think that it quite lived up to the hype, though I feel that is more a product of the hype than the show itself. I think the sound mix wasn't quite on point, so some of the dialogue went by too fast.

But that's my only gripe, as the performances were spectacular and some of the songs were - and I am no expert, but I'll try to use a technical term - downright fucking brilliant.

[Benjm]

I went to see This Might Not Be It at the Bush Theatre the other day. it is largely a two hander about a pair of NHS admin workers, following a fairly standard grizzled veteran and young idealist clash but develop respect and learn from each other trajectory. The production design, in the smaller Studio, was very well done and captured the bland, somewhat unloved feel of public sector office spaces very well. NHS workers in the crowd tended to give themselves away by noticing the fax machine and pointing it out, and it was used for a laugh line during the play.

Performances were strong and the actors recovered well after the show had to be halted for quarter of an hour due to disruption in the audience. This consisted of an audience member on the front row continually taking off and putting back on multiple layers of clothing, including thigh length red vinyl boots. The rest of the clothing was mostly winter thermals. The staging was in the round and this was directly opposite me so quite distracting. At first I thought that the person had just miscalculated what would be comfortable indoors but as it continued something more seemed to be going on. In truth, the ushers could have intervened before the hour mark by which point the individual was halfway inside a bright green and yellow dinosaur onesie complete with two foot tail.

[Nefertiti2]

that sounds... extraordinary.

[Benjm]

It was very strange, to the extent that we were beginning to wonder whether it was some kind of performance art piece.

[The Mighty Trin]

Astonishing. We need more information on Dinosaur Onesie Person - I guess they caused a scene when asked to leave. How did people around them react? And was it the actors who made the call to walk off?

I've got to the point where I dread to go to the theatre or cinema because of ignorant people talking, people being drunk or mobile phones going off.

[WOM]

There was an old eccentric guy in Toronto in the '80s / '90s who'd go to theatre 7 nights a week and do mildly disruptive things, more out of a sense of mischief than performance art. At one play, there was a scene where a watermelon unexpectedly comes rolling out from offstage - maybe from a kitchen - and he'd turn up at each performance and yell 'here comes the watermelon' right before it happened. People found him amusing / aggravating in equal measure, as I recall.

[Hot Pepsi]

I'm going to see Urinetown Thursday. I saw the high school kids do it a few years ago. This is the university version.

[elguapo4]

There was an old eccentric guy in Toronto in the '80s / '90s who'd go to theatre 7 nights a week and do mildly disruptive things, more out of a sense of mischief than performance art. At one play, there was a scene where a watermelon unexpectedly comes rolling out from offstage - maybe from a kitchen - and he'd turn up at each performance and yell 'here comes the watermelon' right before it happened. People found him amusing / aggravating in equal measure, as I recall.

Sounds like a unfunny prat to me, like all hecklers.

[Benjm]

Astonishing. We need more information on Dinosaur Onesie Person - I guess they caused a scene when asked to leave. How did people around them react? And was it the actors who made the call to walk off?

I've got to the point where I dread to go to the theatre or cinema because of ignorant people talking, people being drunk or mobile phones going off.

It went off largely as you suggest, TMT. The people sitting either side of DOP didn't noticeably protest for quite a while, perhaps confused as to what was happening (as we were on the other side of the room), then one of them must have alerted an usher who was sitting a couple of seats along. When the usher leaned over to have a word with DOP, it all got a bit Jurassic with the latter loudly saying, "You can't ask me to stop. That's discrimination!" The actors had paused uncertainly when the usher got involved but when DOP got vocal one of them said, "I can't do this," and they went off. I was impressed that they had managed to carry on as long as they did; the distraction was only about six feet away from them and the colour popping from the boots and dinosaur costume only made it more conspicuous.

I haven't come across anything quite like that before. One time I was at the Young Vic and a drunk guy next to me got thrown out for heckling Vanessa Kirby during a performance of The Three Sisters. I was mugging like Robert De Niro in his sixth gross out comedy of the year to convey that he was nothing to do with me. As a regular matinee goer, medical emergencies aren't uncommon. We go in there knowing there's a chance that we'll lose people but those are the risks of the job.

[Ray de Galles]

My wife and I went to see 'The Motive And The Cue' last night. It's the story of John Gielgud directing Richard Burton in 'Hamlet' on Broadway in the sixties (which was a record-breaking run of the play at the time, perhaps it still is). Mark Gatiss plays Gielgud, Johnny Flynn is Burton with Tuppence Middleton as Elizabeth Taylor. It's a new play by Jack Thorne directed by Sam Mendes and has transferred from a very successful run at the National Theatre to the lovely Noel Coward Theatre in the West End (where Gielgud himself played Hamlet).

It's no surprise given the list of names involved (set designer Es Devlin deserves a mention too) that it's absolutely fantastic. I don't think one actually need to have seen Hamlet to enjoy it as it is as much about acting, theatre itself, celebrity and the relationships between the three main characters and with the wider cast as anything else. Initially, Gatiss seems to be running away with the play as his Gielgud is instantly easy to identify with and scabrously funny while Flynn's Burton takes a little time to settle in to, probably because the performance is such a good impersonation (in the best sense of the word) of a conflicted, confrontational character.

The second act restores the balance though and is one of my favorite experiences ever in the theatre. Both characters reveal intensely moving backgrounds and Middleton provides an excellent foil to each of them. The final moments are a bravura piece of theatre that finish it all off wonderfully. There are a lot of theatrical and cinematic Easter Eggs strewn through the script but, again, it all works very well even if you don't pick up on them (there are a few I've discovered since the show reading about it).

[RobW]

Bought myself a ticket to see Steve Coogan in Dr. Strangelove later this year. One assumes he is playing the same roles as Peter Sellars did in the film. Paid £60, and will be my second visit to the theatre this year following My Neighbour Totoro in two weeks.

[Benjm]

I went to see Till The Stars Come Down in the small Dorfman theatre at the National last week. It is set in Mansfield around an English bride's wedding to a Pole, with tensions arising within her family and towards the newcomer marrying into it. It is very well done, with lots of funny one liners before an effective gear shift towards tragedy, a great cast, including familiar faces from TV dramas like Happy Valley and Sherwood, and simple but effective staging in the round. The play seems to deliberately nod to Chekhov, with a story of three sisters marooned in a backwater and a sense of lives drifting until moments of crisis are eventually reached.

The show has been very well reviewed, the run is sold out and I expect it will transfer across the river to the West End. It is very enjoyable but, possibly as a result of recently watching American Fiction, I did find it a bit route one in some aspects; women are tough and funny, men are angry and withdrawn, two brothers haven't spoken since the strike. These felt like very familiar elements. Television may have covered this ground more extensively than theatre in recent years but the stage doesn't exist in a vacuum. Other stories could be available. Adding to the buzz, there were quite a few actors in the audience, including Danny Dyer and Katherine Parkinson, but also other recognisable faces that I couldn't quite put names to.

Ray de Galles, I'm glad that you enjoyed The Motive and the Cue. I saw it at the National last year and thought that it was excellent. Some of the moments I particularly remember were when Johnny Flynn was just sitting on stage, not really doing anything but somehow conveying the sense of desolation that is sometimes visible in photos of Burton.

[slackster]

Shows how often I get to the NT these days: Benjm initially threw me mentioning the Dorfman space, which I only ever knew as the Cottesloe Theatre (who was some no-mark posho administrator, so no real harm done - though I prefer my venues not to be named after stinking rich benefactors).

[Benjm]

Poor old Cottesloe got demoted to a meeting room. There are bits of the NT complex styled Clore, Duffield and (still, AFAIK) Sackler on the, erm, philanthropist front, as well as the more time burnished John Lyon's charity. Whether the two bigger theatres have kept their original names on principle or just because the right offer hasn't come in is an ongoing question, I suppose.

[Benjm]

I went to see Opening Night, a new musical at the Gielgud Theatre, the other day. The performance was only the second preview, so may not quite have been the finished article, although it is worth noting that West End pricing doesn't really reflect the idea of previews having a work-in-progress aspect any more; stalls seats were gojng for just shy of £200 a couple of days beforehand. I was in the top balcony and my financial commitment was a lot, lot less.

The show has been adapted and directed by Ivo Van Hove from a John Cassavetes film about a troubled theatre production in New York that is being filmed for a documentary. He has previously adapted the film as a non-musical play so it must be something of a passion project. The songs are by Rufus Wainwright, who is apparently another big fan of the source material. It is possibly their bad luck to be floating a theatre-about-theatre yarn while the excellent The Motive and the Cue is running and inviting comparisons.

The set is a realistic and detailed rendition of a rehearsal room and theatre backstage areas; other locations are suggested more sketchily. The documentary conceit is followed through with a large screen on stage and smaller ones around the auditorium showing the footage that is being captured. This must present a challenge for the cast as stage and screen acting are generally accepted as having different registers and they are effectively having to cut from one to the other. The cast is headed by Sheridan Smith, as the troubled female lead in the play. She is very good and there aren't any weak links among the performers.

For me, the show was an interesting failure. There were glitches and flab that can be worked on before the run proper, but the overall concept was fuzzy and cluttered and the human drama didn't really cut through the pile up of being a play about a film about a play with the added artifice of being a musical. Sheridan Smith's presence should ensure reasonable crowds for the shortish run but it isn't a crowd pleaser like her Shirley Valentine revival last year and doesn't really come off as a more experimental piece.

[Benjm]

Two theatre visits for me in the last few days. As I haven't got anything now lined up for at least three weeks, I'm wondering whether some subconscious urge to mirror the feast and famine distribution of the modern club football calendar is at work in my booking strategy.

First up was The Human Body by Lucy Kirkwood at the Donmar Warehouse on Thursday. This is about a female GP and Labour councillor in 1948 Shropshire, juggling medical duties and political ambitions as the NHS is birthed. Her husband is a damaged war veteran and she is drawn to a seemingly cynical Hollywood actor who has returned to the area for mysterious reasons (somehow this seemed less implausible in action than written down afterwards). Keeley Hawes was excellent as the main character and Jack Davenport good value as the caddish actor. A compact but strong supporting cast, including Siobhan Redmond, took on multiple roles each and this wasn't too confusing. The stage was sparely dressed with cool colour tones dominant and a large screen overhead relayed black and white images of the doctor and actor's meetings, as if to lend a cinematic enchantment to them. Spoiler: Keeley Hawes is extremely photogenic.

There was a lot going on here but it didn't feel too cluttered, even if some of the themes were more sketchily covered than others. The performances anchored the play as a human drama so it didn't feel overly schematic. There were also some deft jokes. Although the characters gently mock Brief Encounter, a similar dilemma plays out. Overall, a very entertaining couple of hours.

Saturday took me to Canada Water for Ralph Fiennes in Macbeth. This mixed retail/leisure/building site location doesn't quite evoke the epic and beautiful land whose name it bears. The play is running in a pop-up venue in a warehouse/events space. The temporary auditorium turned out to have good acoustics and sightlines although it by definition being most people's first visit led to some confusion as they negotiated the slightly irregular seating conformation. Luckily I had checked the plan before setting out. Legroom was at the Loftus Road end of the scale but an end of row seat defused that issue.

The production takes a fairly standard approach of modern dress/militaria on a dark, dystopian vibed set. We were directed past an installation of a burning car wreck and assorted rubble on the way in, which was jolly enough. Ralph Fiennes was very good. He is quite stagey in some ways, and most definitely Declaims The Verse, but balances that with touches of humour. Indira Varma was indisposed and Rebecca Sproggs stepped up as Lady Macbeth, bringing a brightness to the role that was quite a refreshing change from the usual cold/sinister approach. There was strong support from the company. The action was well choreographed and the pace maintained so that the play worked as a thriller. A very slick and enjoyable staging without being especially revelatory.

[The Mighty Trin]

We saw Hadestown at the Lyric last Wednesday and it was absolutely fantastic. As I'd bought the tickets as a Christmas present I'd splashed out so we were in row G as opposed to our usual Upper Circle tickets, but by the end people either side of us were in tears and the entire audience were captivated. I thought Hades, Persephone, Hermes and the Fates were particularly strong, but Zachary James as Hades stole the show. Well worth a watch if you can get tickets.

[Benjm]

Hadestown was warmly received by the OTF Theatre massive* on its limited run at the National in 2018, TMT (on page 7 or so of the thread). Like Groundhog Day, its subsequent progress and return seems to have been complicated and delayed by Covid and possibly other factors. I'm very tempted to try to catch it again now.

* - we use the Books crowd classification system here. Two posters = one massive.

[The Mighty Trin]

We went to see Opening Night last night, our tickets having originally purchased for a performance some time in June, but the run won“t now last that long. Myself and Miss TMT both really enjoyed it, as did the lovely couple from Hampshire next to us, and we all agreed that Sheridan Smith was superb amongst a very strong cast. Benjm watched it four posts ago back in March and since then things have moved on and not in a good way. As he said, not a crowd pleaser, but challenging enough for little old me, and glitch-free. A shame that the theatre was half empty and that some people couldn't be arsed to come back after the interval. It deserved better. Still a million times better than my experience of going to watch The Lion King when they somehow oversold stalls seats. Hakuna fucking matata.

[Benjm]

The Opening Night story has been a classic example of the dishonesty and spite of the tabloids. They have been piling in on it ever since the first previews showed that the show might not be a sure fire hit, but all framed in terms of Sheridan Smith being "fragile", "troubled", etc. Typically, a piece headlined something like "Fresh Blow For Sheridan Smith" will reveal in the fifth paragraph that her performance has been universally praised, even by critics and audience members who didn't care at all for the play.

In safer bet news, I went to see Guys and Dolls at the Bridge Theatre yesterday. It was very enjoyable and the cast, costumes and staging were all excellent. We were in the standing area on the floor and at times it did feel a bit like being in the studio audience for Top of the Pops, with ushers (dressed as NY police officers) herding us around to avoid stage, scenery and performers as they moved into place and out again. I'm not sure if it was because of this, or just that it is a light hearted show, but while enjoying the spectacle I never really suspended my disbelief and got involved in it as a drama. It was definitely worth £15 through the day ticket/clearing sites though.

I've been a bit lazy with posting on the thread and the following shows have finished their runs since I saw them, so recommendations wouldn't be of any practical use now, but all were very accomplished and testament to how high the standard of theatre generally is in London: Nachtland at the Young Vic, Faith Healer at the Lyric Hammersmith and The Divine Mrs S at the Hampstead Theatre (actually finishes tomorrow).

[The Mighty Trin]

We were standing for Guys and Dolls too! Excellent hot dogs and a corker of a show.