Everyone should go and see this play, a magnificent, moving and funny story.
Written by Jez Butterworth, directed by Sam Mendes and starring Paddy Considine
I saw it at The Royal Court but it's transferring to the West End. All info here.
Showing posts with label theatre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theatre. Show all posts
Thursday, 8 June 2017
Tuesday, 13 August 2013
Theatre binge
A few years ago, I started going to the theatre a fair bit. It was part encouraged by discovering how to work the entry pass system - the first time I investigated the website, I found it too hard to decipher. The entry pass system sold cheap tickets to the theatre to those under 26, I started rounding up a few friends and soon we were booking for all sorts of things. Danny Boyle's Frankenstein, Grief and The Last of the Haussmans - all at The National plus front row tickets for The Old Vic where we saw Kevin Spacey as Richard III. Incredible.
I'm no longer under 26, but I've kept abreast of theatre goings on and regularly score affordable tickets to great plays. As you generally have to book the tickets a few months in advance, I often find myself with 3 shows in 2 weeks - this happened a few weeks back when I saw The Book of Mormon musical (alas no cheap tickets for this one), A Season in the Congo and Othello at The National.
The Book of Mormon was extremely sharp, so effortlessly sharp that you didn't notice how expertly written the show was. It was very funny and I'd recommend but I couldn't help but think £75 for a ticket meant it was hard for it to compete against best play I've seen all year (Chimerica), tickets for which were £16. However, I do think you often put more weight on plays that deal with serious issues - not that Book of Mormon doesn't mention these, but it's done in a South Park way and not that Chimerica isn't funny, it is whilst blowing your mind about the world's power and money.
Next up was Chiwetel Ejiofor in A Season in the Congo who plays Patrice Lumumba. Backstory fro The Telegraph: The play deals with the civil war that erupted out of Congo’s first stuttering weeks of independence from Belgium in 1960. Lumumba, who had risen from eloquent beer salesman to the country’s first prime minister of the new regime, attempted to introduce socialist ideas to Congo, but his efforts ended in military conflict and his own murder. In January 1961 he was shot by his Congolese enemies, or possibly by the Belgians supporting them, and later dismembered and dissolved in acid. The CIA and the British have been rumoured to have been involved in his assassination.
The play was directed by Joe Wright (who everyone loves and tends to work with Keira Knightley, ok, maybe just twice), I did think the stage direction was great - the use of puppets, and toy soldiers cascading onto the audience to mark the paratroopers entering the country. I thought Chiwetel was great too.
To round up my theatre binge, was Othello played by Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear as Iago. It was set in modern times but used Shakespeare's language obviously. I'd never seen Othello before, and thought it was a really good production.
Chimerica still stands though.
I'm no longer under 26, but I've kept abreast of theatre goings on and regularly score affordable tickets to great plays. As you generally have to book the tickets a few months in advance, I often find myself with 3 shows in 2 weeks - this happened a few weeks back when I saw The Book of Mormon musical (alas no cheap tickets for this one), A Season in the Congo and Othello at The National.
The Book of Mormon was extremely sharp, so effortlessly sharp that you didn't notice how expertly written the show was. It was very funny and I'd recommend but I couldn't help but think £75 for a ticket meant it was hard for it to compete against best play I've seen all year (Chimerica), tickets for which were £16. However, I do think you often put more weight on plays that deal with serious issues - not that Book of Mormon doesn't mention these, but it's done in a South Park way and not that Chimerica isn't funny, it is whilst blowing your mind about the world's power and money.
Next up was Chiwetel Ejiofor in A Season in the Congo who plays Patrice Lumumba. Backstory fro The Telegraph: The play deals with the civil war that erupted out of Congo’s first stuttering weeks of independence from Belgium in 1960. Lumumba, who had risen from eloquent beer salesman to the country’s first prime minister of the new regime, attempted to introduce socialist ideas to Congo, but his efforts ended in military conflict and his own murder. In January 1961 he was shot by his Congolese enemies, or possibly by the Belgians supporting them, and later dismembered and dissolved in acid. The CIA and the British have been rumoured to have been involved in his assassination.
The play was directed by Joe Wright (who everyone loves and tends to work with Keira Knightley, ok, maybe just twice), I did think the stage direction was great - the use of puppets, and toy soldiers cascading onto the audience to mark the paratroopers entering the country. I thought Chiwetel was great too.
To round up my theatre binge, was Othello played by Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear as Iago. It was set in modern times but used Shakespeare's language obviously. I'd never seen Othello before, and thought it was a really good production.
Chimerica still stands though.
Monday, 8 July 2013
Kirkwood
It has become another theatre filled time, so off we went to see Chimerica last week, I think I booked on the strength of the Time Out review - 5 stars aren't that frequent - and the plot sounded interesting. I then recalled I had seen another of Lucy Kirkwood's plays at the Royal Court, NSFW, which I thought was very good.
It was my first time at The Almeida Theatre and I was blown away by Chimerica - the plot's main strand is a photographer searching for the Tank Man of Tiananmen Square - in the play, he has taken that iconic shot in 1989.
And he now wants to know if the Tank Man is still alive and who he is, as we follow his trail around America, other strands are weaved into the play: growth, censorship, protest, politics.
Like NSFW, it deals with moral issues very well, remembering there are many grey areas, whilst also been very sharp - it is getting transferred to the West End and I thoroughly recommended. Think I will keep an eye out for her next play as well.
It was my first time at The Almeida Theatre and I was blown away by Chimerica - the plot's main strand is a photographer searching for the Tank Man of Tiananmen Square - in the play, he has taken that iconic shot in 1989.
And he now wants to know if the Tank Man is still alive and who he is, as we follow his trail around America, other strands are weaved into the play: growth, censorship, protest, politics.
Like NSFW, it deals with moral issues very well, remembering there are many grey areas, whilst also been very sharp - it is getting transferred to the West End and I thoroughly recommended. Think I will keep an eye out for her next play as well.
Sunday, 30 January 2011
Interval
So I've decided to try harder to keep at this...
After a delightful Christmas (Die Hard should be on every year)
New Years was spent in Diss, Norfolk - good food, lovely walks and lots of games courtesy of Toby Price - alpaca alert!
Then there was Fela at The National Theatre (don't ever want to see a theatre audiece shaking their hips again), Tom Wrigglesworth at the BBC Studios, Jonny Sweet at The Soho Theatre, The Wild One at The Phoenix, The Big Sleep at the BFI, BUG at the BFI (the videos weren't as good this time), a ski lesson in Hemel Hempstead (I didn't fall over!), Bob Le Flambeur at the BFI (Hello Jonathan Ross), Alex Winston at Bush Hall, The Dogs at Wimbledon's Stadium and a delicious roast at Mason & Taylor.
After a delightful Christmas (Die Hard should be on every year)
New Years was spent in Diss, Norfolk - good food, lovely walks and lots of games courtesy of Toby Price - alpaca alert!
Then there was Fela at The National Theatre (don't ever want to see a theatre audiece shaking their hips again), Tom Wrigglesworth at the BBC Studios, Jonny Sweet at The Soho Theatre, The Wild One at The Phoenix, The Big Sleep at the BFI, BUG at the BFI (the videos weren't as good this time), a ski lesson in Hemel Hempstead (I didn't fall over!), Bob Le Flambeur at the BFI (Hello Jonathan Ross), Alex Winston at Bush Hall, The Dogs at Wimbledon's Stadium and a delicious roast at Mason & Taylor.
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