(no subject)
Dear National Theatre,
I'm not surprised you're experiencing high traffic on the day your Advanced Booking starts and you REALLY shouldn't be either but if you could get rid of that annoying little message suggesting we phone I'd be awfully grateful because, unless you're lying to me, Advanced Booking by phone doesn't start till Monday!
You're going to sell out of Terry Pratchett and Stephen Sondheim platform tickets aren't you? And then you'll make not only me but quite possibly my mum cry as well!
Not all that much love right now,
Me.
*sighs*
I feel like there should be a service somewhere for all websites that involve booking things to be able to buy in temporary capacity for the first day things go on sale. Hattrick, National Theatre, the Donmar... the RSC went down when David Tennant was in Hamlet and I'm QUITE sure there are many others.
Though speaking of theatre tickets anyone who wants to see Legally Blonde and isn't currently coming with everyone else on the 12th of December you should totally buy your tickets THIS weekend because £5 from every ticket goes to Children in Need!
Also you should watch CiN because they're going to be on somewhere between 10 and 11 I think. Also Priscilla Queen of the Desert cast! And Larkrise to Candleford! And new Doctor Who! Plus all the usuals *quite loves CiN night*
And now, because apparently this sentence amused people (and I really did love the play!)
Last night I very much enjoyed Ben Whishaw's Cock at the Royal Court...
:P
Well I did! Though properly I suppose I should say "the Royal Court's Cock", which is slightly disturbing as a thought, or "Mike Bartlett's Cock", but I know so little about the playwright that feels worse to say.
It was in the Jerwood Upstairs at the RC so teeny tiny audience, 90 people they said though despite being sold out as a run there were actually spaces weirdly. It's set up in a circle, three tiers of "seats" (boxes with cushions on) around a green circle on the floor with entrances at two sides of the circle. It really was tiny, you were never more than 5 metres away from any of the actors really.
And there was no... I was going tos ay acting but that's not at all fair. There was no "miming" as the play text puts it. No set, no props and no miming. So the actors moved around and spoke and sometimes held hands or occasionally kissed but even when their words suggested pouring wine or hitting someone they didn't actually do those things.
Which all sounds terribly pretentious but actually after the first 5 minutes you just (I just) focussed on the words and the emotions and it worked really well.
Ben Whishaw was John who was in a long term gay relationship but then fell in love with a woman and then spent the WHOLE PLAY dithering about who he loved, who he wanted to be with and generally being a total idiot who I wanted to shake except except he also had a couple of brilliant speeches about not knowing who he was and about how when he came out his whole world seemed to change but he didn't and so I sort of did feel oddly sympathetic to his confusion and angst. He was still pretty awful to the otehrs though.
The other three characters had no names. M is his boyfriend, played by Andrew Scott, W is the woman, played by Katherine Parkinson, and F is the boyfriend's father, played by Paul Jesson.
The father was spectacularly genial and pompous and quite sure John was just having a little blip and he was also really completely awful to W and, as she pointed out, had an awful attitude towards women and was somewhat hypocritical about faithfulness. Paul Jesson's very good though, I believe he cared about M and was there to help you just couldn't help wishing him away as I think the others all did.
W was... okay so I like Katherine Parkinson LOTS and really she was incredibly good but the character worried me. I actually haven't been able to stop going over this in my head. I wanted her to leave, to go away and leave John and M alone and stop getting involved because really she was the interloper but then again John promised her a future and told her he loved her and there was a connection between them and I sort of feel dreadful I was somewhat blaming the woman :-S interestingly when I was reading the play on the way home I nopticed a line that had been cut in which she tries to SAY that even though she isn't almost crying she's every bit as devestated as M by the situation (they have a dinner party, all three of them plus F, so John can decide... it's not good) and I sort of wish it had stayed because it's true that she seemed calmer so I felt less need to be sympathetic to her.
But Ben Whishaw and Katherine Parkinson were rather fantastic together and their sex scene was so strange but kind of beautiful and funny and right. The circled each other getting ever closer till they were standing touching foreheads and swaying slightly and holding hands as they had all the dialogue and moans of a sex scene without doing anything but... well it did work brilliantly and you did see it in your head.
Oh and then, lastly but by no means least, there was Andrew Scott's M who was... well at the start he seemed to be putting John down a lot and being mean and rushing ahead and not understanding what John said but the thing was every time it came down to it he was so clearly in love. I'd expected to find it hard to look away from Ben Whishaw because he's a bit mesmerising but actually Andrew Scott kept stelaing my attention by these little looks he was given and the way his hands really were trembling and the way he worried at his bottom lip. It was a wonderful portrayal of someone in love but desperate to... hide it? or repress it or just protect himself because he knew what was happening.
WOW I have rambled quite a lot here. But it was great, all four performances were great and the play was really interesting in its views on being gay or straight and the difference between a new relationship and an old, comfy domestic one (I love you because you bring me toast in bed and are scared of clingfilm said John at one point and I somewhat melted inside)
It is sold out but if you're ever able to be near Sloane Square then I'd suggest having a go at getting returns because it's a great play and I think a lot of you would love it.
I'm not surprised you're experiencing high traffic on the day your Advanced Booking starts and you REALLY shouldn't be either but if you could get rid of that annoying little message suggesting we phone I'd be awfully grateful because, unless you're lying to me, Advanced Booking by phone doesn't start till Monday!
You're going to sell out of Terry Pratchett and Stephen Sondheim platform tickets aren't you? And then you'll make not only me but quite possibly my mum cry as well!
Not all that much love right now,
Me.
*sighs*
I feel like there should be a service somewhere for all websites that involve booking things to be able to buy in temporary capacity for the first day things go on sale. Hattrick, National Theatre, the Donmar... the RSC went down when David Tennant was in Hamlet and I'm QUITE sure there are many others.
Though speaking of theatre tickets anyone who wants to see Legally Blonde and isn't currently coming with everyone else on the 12th of December you should totally buy your tickets THIS weekend because £5 from every ticket goes to Children in Need!
Also you should watch CiN because they're going to be on somewhere between 10 and 11 I think. Also Priscilla Queen of the Desert cast! And Larkrise to Candleford! And new Doctor Who! Plus all the usuals *quite loves CiN night*
And now, because apparently this sentence amused people (and I really did love the play!)
Last night I very much enjoyed Ben Whishaw's Cock at the Royal Court...
:P
Well I did! Though properly I suppose I should say "the Royal Court's Cock", which is slightly disturbing as a thought, or "Mike Bartlett's Cock", but I know so little about the playwright that feels worse to say.
It was in the Jerwood Upstairs at the RC so teeny tiny audience, 90 people they said though despite being sold out as a run there were actually spaces weirdly. It's set up in a circle, three tiers of "seats" (boxes with cushions on) around a green circle on the floor with entrances at two sides of the circle. It really was tiny, you were never more than 5 metres away from any of the actors really.
And there was no... I was going tos ay acting but that's not at all fair. There was no "miming" as the play text puts it. No set, no props and no miming. So the actors moved around and spoke and sometimes held hands or occasionally kissed but even when their words suggested pouring wine or hitting someone they didn't actually do those things.
Which all sounds terribly pretentious but actually after the first 5 minutes you just (I just) focussed on the words and the emotions and it worked really well.
Ben Whishaw was John who was in a long term gay relationship but then fell in love with a woman and then spent the WHOLE PLAY dithering about who he loved, who he wanted to be with and generally being a total idiot who I wanted to shake except except he also had a couple of brilliant speeches about not knowing who he was and about how when he came out his whole world seemed to change but he didn't and so I sort of did feel oddly sympathetic to his confusion and angst. He was still pretty awful to the otehrs though.
The other three characters had no names. M is his boyfriend, played by Andrew Scott, W is the woman, played by Katherine Parkinson, and F is the boyfriend's father, played by Paul Jesson.
The father was spectacularly genial and pompous and quite sure John was just having a little blip and he was also really completely awful to W and, as she pointed out, had an awful attitude towards women and was somewhat hypocritical about faithfulness. Paul Jesson's very good though, I believe he cared about M and was there to help you just couldn't help wishing him away as I think the others all did.
W was... okay so I like Katherine Parkinson LOTS and really she was incredibly good but the character worried me. I actually haven't been able to stop going over this in my head. I wanted her to leave, to go away and leave John and M alone and stop getting involved because really she was the interloper but then again John promised her a future and told her he loved her and there was a connection between them and I sort of feel dreadful I was somewhat blaming the woman :-S interestingly when I was reading the play on the way home I nopticed a line that had been cut in which she tries to SAY that even though she isn't almost crying she's every bit as devestated as M by the situation (they have a dinner party, all three of them plus F, so John can decide... it's not good) and I sort of wish it had stayed because it's true that she seemed calmer so I felt less need to be sympathetic to her.
But Ben Whishaw and Katherine Parkinson were rather fantastic together and their sex scene was so strange but kind of beautiful and funny and right. The circled each other getting ever closer till they were standing touching foreheads and swaying slightly and holding hands as they had all the dialogue and moans of a sex scene without doing anything but... well it did work brilliantly and you did see it in your head.
Oh and then, lastly but by no means least, there was Andrew Scott's M who was... well at the start he seemed to be putting John down a lot and being mean and rushing ahead and not understanding what John said but the thing was every time it came down to it he was so clearly in love. I'd expected to find it hard to look away from Ben Whishaw because he's a bit mesmerising but actually Andrew Scott kept stelaing my attention by these little looks he was given and the way his hands really were trembling and the way he worried at his bottom lip. It was a wonderful portrayal of someone in love but desperate to... hide it? or repress it or just protect himself because he knew what was happening.
WOW I have rambled quite a lot here. But it was great, all four performances were great and the play was really interesting in its views on being gay or straight and the difference between a new relationship and an old, comfy domestic one (I love you because you bring me toast in bed and are scared of clingfilm said John at one point and I somewhat melted inside)
It is sold out but if you're ever able to be near Sloane Square then I'd suggest having a go at getting returns because it's a great play and I think a lot of you would love it.