Dublin Theatre Festival

lukegriffen

This year's programme looks a lot stronger than last year, though I'd prefer if there wasn't so many Chekov plays. One to look out for is Ivanov, I saw this Hungarian company last year and they put on an excellent show.

Went to see bobrauschenbergamerica on Thursday - I thought it was really good, much more light-hearted & funnier than I was expecting. You won't see anything else like it this year, so try and see it.

James, son of James : I saw Fabulous Beast' Flowerbed last year and really enjoyed it, but I thought this production was somewhere between bad and cringingly awful. It didn't seem to know whether it wanted to be a drama, a musical or a dance/physical theatre production. The dialogue was too bad to make it a decent drama, the musical numbers were too bad to make it a half-decent musical, and the dancing was almost an aside . The first hour seemed to pass quickly enough, but by the end of the 2 hours I was aching to get out.

Wannabe Deise

thanks Luke.
I have bobrauschenbergamerica this afternoon and it sounds good.

Going to the Playboy tonight and Pride of Parnell St tomorrow

I have my tickets for James son of James booked for later on in the week. Doesn't sound good.


BTW
"Is this about sex?" got a poor review from IT and Long Days Journey into Night got a good one but sounds like a real endurance test. I'll post the reviews separately.

lukegriffen

Did not mean to put you off "James..." - there are certainly things to enjoy in it, and it did get a big round of applause, so you may like it.

Is this about sex didnt get good reviews in edinburgh.

Wannabe Deise

No worries. Better to go pre-warned.
I'll probably go anyway unless I can offload the tickets to some misfortunate.


Saw bobrauschenbergamerica Saturday afternoon. I thought it was ok. I was struggling to gather what it was all about. I know nothing about Bob Rauschenberg so that didn't help. Will google him now and read the reviews to see if that makes any more sense of it.

Sold my Playboy ticket as I wasn't feeling well Saturday evening. I'll catch it after the festival as it runs on for a few weeks as do Uncle Vanya and Woman and Scarecrow.

Saw the Pride of Parnell St y'day. I thought it was good with very strong performances. Not a lot new being said though.

Tonight I am going to Traces.

Very annoyed with Ulster Bank for not sending me tickets for On the Case which I missed. Anyone see it? Apparently tickets were not necessary anyway.

cue

I saw On the Case last night. No ticket necessary although maybe those with tickets had a better view. I liked the projected graphics and the sound. It reminded me of a comic version of The Matrix in places. The aerial stuff did not do it for me though. It was all very skilful but in the end I just got bored watching.

lukegriffen

I don't think bobrauschenbergamerica was meant to be about anything in particular, it was just vignettes / snippets of American life, highlighting the absurdity of it in places.

I saw Pride of Parnell St. Was a bit disappointed by it, I expected more, it seemed to ramble a lot without there being any point to some of the dialogue. It wasn't a patch on 'Eden', Eugene O'Briens one from a years ago.

Hibiku was visually appealing. No idea what the message behind it was. I snoozed a bit during it, then awoke to find the monks, I mean dancers, in virtually the same position. Perfect lazy Sunday afternoon theatre, and a lot less stressful than watching Ireland play rugby.

Has anyone seen Kebab, and if so, would they recommend it ?


Oh & just to add I thought the Tivoli was a great venue, I've never been there before. It'd be great if they could start using that again for shows.

Dudess

Went to Playboy tonight. Really liked it. Loved how the dichotomy between Dublin and Nigeria was illustrated. The young girls wearing their pyjamas and Ugg boots, the Nigerian guys speaking so lyrically and poetically ("aw, he tells it lovely!") The first act was quite light-hearted - some very funny bits. Second act, the more serious one, was really intense and dark. Eileen Walsh was amazing. For a Cork girl her accent was perfection.
Yizzer accent's not that easy to pull off for us Corkies!

Wannabe Deise

Agreed re: Eden vs Pride of Parnell St.

Traces was superb. A real spectacle. Slow at the beginning but then just amazing. Full scale standing ovation at the end. It will be hard for any other show to beat it in the festival in terms of value for time and money for me.
Go and see it if you can.

Kebab got a poor review on Aertel which is the only review I have seen yet.

mags16

lukegriffen wrote:

James, son of James : I saw Fabulous Beast' Flowerbed last year and really enjoyed it, but I thought this production was somewhere between bad and cringingly awful. It didn't seem to know whether it wanted to be a drama, a musical or a dance/physical theatre production. The dialogue was too bad to make it a decent drama, the musical numbers were too bad to make it a half-decent musical, and the dancing was almost an aside . The first hour seemed to pass quickly enough, but by the end of the 2 hours I was aching to get out.

I went to see James, son of James on Sunday night and I agree with you. The dancing was beautiful but I didn't see enough of it. The acting and the script was pretty dodgy. And don't get me started on the music!

Do you remember when James was hanged at the end? Something went wrong and he started to really choke! The wire with the light bulbs was wrapped too tightly around his neck so that when he was kicked off the pedestal, his harness rope was too long. He could have died! The director called to him from the audience to see if he was ok. Very scary. I've never seen such a shook looking curtain call.

It made me really angry. If you are going to do something risky on a stage, you need to be absolutely sure that it is safe. I don't want to see someone lose their life.

lukegriffen

That's really bad re. James. I also thought the last moments were completely pointless, and if the girl had mistakenly stood in the wrong spot ...Shock tactics just for the sake of shocking.

Went to see Kebab. It was about Romanians coming to live in Ireland, but was played by 3 (presumably) English actors speaking English accents, so that was slightly odd.
The script seemed to bypass difficult/key moments by skipping time, so you didn't really see the characters grow, one minute the girl was objecting to what her boyfriend wanted her to do, "2 months later" she was doing exactly what he wanted.
A pretty grim story, I'm still waiting to see a really good Irish immigrant play. Saw Declan Meade's Mushroom this year (or was it last year?) which was more realistic, but lacking in other ways.


Re. Eileen Walsh in earlier post - I saw her in Saved a few months ago & she was incredible. I happened to linger in the Peacock after coz it was lashing rain, and she walked by in her civvies and she was the complete girl-next-door, if I'd seen her at a bus stop I wouldn't have given her a second look, she was that ordinary, which made me appreciate her performance even more.

Wannabe Deise

mags16 wrote:

Do you remember when James was hanged at the end?

Now thats what I call a spoiler!!!

mags16 wrote:

Something went wrong and he started to really choke! The wire with the light bulbs was wrapped too tightly around his neck so that when he was kicked off the pedestal, his harness rope was too long. He could have died! The director called to him from the audience to see if he was ok. Very scary. I've never seen such a shook looking curtain call.

It made me really angry. If you are going to do something risky on a stage, you need to be absolutely sure that it is safe. I don't want to see someone lose their life.

Sounds very dodgy indeed.

Wannabe Deise

lukegriffen wrote:

Went to see Kebab. It was about Romanians coming to live in Ireland, but was played by 3 (presumably) English actors speaking English accents, so that was slightly odd.
The script seemed to bypass difficult/key moments by skipping time, so you didn't really see the characters grow, one minute the girl was objecting to what her boyfriend wanted her to do, "2 months later" she was doing exactly what he wanted.
A pretty grim story, I'm still waiting to see a really good Irish immigrant play. Saw Declan Meade's Mushroom this year (or was it last year?) which was more realistic, but lacking in other ways.

They slated Kebab on the View last night and made the point about sudden change of character. They reckoned it was work in progress rather than a finished play.

Wannabe Deise

Peter Crawley reveiwed James son of James in today's IT: "a fitful musical and a garbled message".

Michael Seaver quite harsh on Traces. "aspires to fringe more than mainstream" as if that is a bad thing. Yawn!

mags16

Wannabe Deise wrote:

Now thats what I call a spoiler!!!



Sounds very dodgy indeed.

Sorry wannabe deise, but if you go see the show, you can see the end coming half way through. There is a lot of Jesus Christ Superstar in it.

lukegriffen

Wannabe Deise wrote:

Michael Seaver quite harsh on Traces. "aspires to fringe more than mainstream" as if that is a bad thing. Yawn!

I thought the acrobatics in Traces were absolutely superb, but I thought it was a very uneven show, with an awful lot of goofing about - throwing basketballs & chairs about, fake TV shows, dull musical pieces. They need a director or choreographer to edit about 50 minutes of the show. I can understand that they may not be able to do a physical show for 90 minutes, but there needs to be some sort of continuity.

Wannabe Deise

mags16 wrote:

Sorry wannabe deise, but if you go see the show, you can see the end coming half way through. There is a lot of Jesus Christ Superstar in it.

No worries. I sold my tickets outside the show y'day evening.

Wannabe Deise

lukegriffen wrote:

I thought the acrobatics in Traces were absolutely superb, but I thought it was a very uneven show, with an awful lot of goofing about - throwing basketballs & chairs about, fake TV shows, dull musical pieces. They need a director or choreographer to edit about 50 minutes of the show. I can understand that they may not be able to do a physical show for 90 minutes, but there needs to be some sort of continuity.

I agree there were many problems with the show (I thought the "Time" bit was silly as well) but for me I was just blown away by the acrobatics.

What else have you seen?

mags16

I'm off to see a preview of The Idiots tonight in the Axis Theatre in Ballymun tonight. I'll let yez know what I think.

Regarding the Fabulous Beast show, I met a pal last night who loved it! She usually has good taste. Maybe you should have kept your ticket, Wannabe Deise!!

lukegriffen

WannabeD - thanks for posting the IT Reviews - Blackland looks interesting, i might go to that tomorrow. I tried to get into R. Macbeth tonight but no luck, sold out. It was hard to figure out from the IT review whether it's any good.

mags16 - feedback on the idiots would be great, i might go to it next week, but i'm a bit apprehensive it could be really dodgy, I couldn't watch the film

mags16

Hey lukegriffen, here is my impression of The Idiots. It's completely bonkers!!

It's about a group of people who live in this guy's uncle's house in Dalkey and they get their kicks out of pretending to be mentally disabled in public situations. Why? Well I suppose it is to do with finding your own individual idiot, and revisiting the innocence and purity that you often find in people with this kind of disability. Of course the idiot stuff started to effect their real lives too and then things start to fall apart.

The performers used their real names for some reason - and there were lots of them. There must have been 35 or 40 people on the stage. Some performances were fab, others were weak enough.

The design was pretty amazing - a series of connected gray panels, some with windows. The set changes were pretty cumbersome.

Definitely worth a look. Though be warned, there is a lot of nudity and scenes containing graphic sex. So if you are offended by a bunch of folk "spazzing" while participating in a high energy nudey orgy :eek:, give it a miss!


By the way, lukegriffen, are you in the business yourself? There is an actor by the same name in Dublin.

Dudess

I saw the highly controversial film, written and directed by Lars von Trier (not everyone's cuppa tea). Got a whack of the censor's stick here and in many other countries. Fairly pretentious but interesting. How it would transfer onto stage - the mind boggles!

Countryripple

Not got a review as such, as I was not allowed in to see the play I had tickets for!!! Paid E60 for two tickets. All they said on them was 7.30. I presumed this meant doors at that time but no. Turned up at 7.37 and cranky c0w refused to let us in!!!! I argued the point that the tickets did not say that the performance was at 7.30!! Sooooooooooooo pissed off!!!! Others turned up after we did too and were turned away!!! Ive now got a pair of tickets I never used. I wouldnt mind so much but im a student and pretty broke and been looking forward to it for weeks!!

I think this was very bad on behalf of the festival that it is not clearly stated that the time on the tickets is not for when the doors open!!!! :mad:

Sorry. Rant over.

microgirl

Countryripple wrote:

Not got a review as such, as I was not allowed in to see the play I had tickets for!!! Paid E60 for two tickets. All they said on them was 7.30. I presumed this meant doors at that time but no. Turned up at 7.37 and cranky c0w refused to let us in!!!! I argued the point that the tickets did not say that the performance was at 7.30!! Sooooooooooooo pissed off!!!! Others turned up after we did too and were turned away!!! Ive now got a pair of tickets I never used. I wouldnt mind so much but im a student and pretty broke and been looking forward to it for weeks!!

I think this was very bad on behalf of the festival that it is not clearly stated that the time on the tickets is not for when the doors open!!!! :mad:

Sorry. Rant over.

That is really crap, but I have to say (which might not be what you want to hear, sorry ) that in my admittedly not-vast experience of going to the theatre, the time on the ticket is always show time, not door time. It's not the same as gigs.

lukegriffen

mags16 wrote:

By the way, lukegriffen, are you in the business yourself? There is an actor by the same name in Dublin.

no, i'm not in theatre, and it's not actually my name, just a pseudonym.

Blackland was very interesting, but one scene, relating to American abuse in Abu Ghraib prison, was quite horrible, so i'm sick of nudity at this stage, so i might give The Idiots a miss.

Re. previous post : some theatres will let you in late, eg. Gaiety, & theatre on Dame St which boards won't let me name, but begins with O, where you can slip in at the back discreetly. Smaller ones such as Peacock, Project etc have strict no-latecomers rule, which I agree with.

Countryripple

I got tickets for my bro for another play and his tickets stated 8.00pm, but that was for letting people in. Play didnt start until 8.30. So as you can imagine I was a bit shocked when the woman would not let us in. In fact, when we got there, there was no-one around for a few mins, the she came out of the theatre door and said she had already held off on closing the doors and let people in late. I think ill write them a letter of complaint anyway. By the looks of it, we were not the only ones that were left out of pocket for the same reason!!

Dudess

lukegriffen wrote:

Smaller ones such as Peacock, Project etc have strict no-latecomers rule, which I agree with.

Yeah I went to the Abbey last week and the performance started at 8. I arrived a few seconds before 8 and was lucky to get in really. My mates had left my ticket with the usher and he was quite icy. I had to stand at the back for the first act. Fair enough.

Wannabe Deise

I didn't use my tickets for "Is this about sex?" based on the poor reviews. Better to waste the money only rather than both time and money.
Next up Grand Inquisitor tomorrow night, the Idiots on thursday, Long Day's Journey Friday, History Boys Saturday, Frgaments and Road to nowhere on Sunday.

Countryripple I don't think you have any grounds for complaint. In my experience a theatre tickets always states time of start of show and I agree with policy of no late admission - it is not fair to performers or the audience who are there on time.
That might sound harsh but your lesson should be learned now - be there on time in future.

lukegriffen

I decided to go see the Idiots, and from a politically correct point of view, there's no way I can recommend this play. However, the 75 mins. fairly much flew by. As Mags16 said, there must have been 40 actors involved, but at the curtain call there was about 5 I don't even remember having seen in the play.
The first 2 scenes set the pace and are well done, and there's one tall guy who's hilariously good, but you feel you shouldn't really be laughing at him.
Everyone takes their kit off, un-necessarily imo, but i'm probably just tired of seeing willies on stage & soon after the play ends.
The play didn't seem to come to a natural conclusion, it seemed an unfinished piece, cobbled together.

Re. "Is this about sex" : Rough Magic produced 2 great plays earlier this year - Don Carlos & a Martin Crimp play, yet their 'new writing' plays have been pretty poor, I thought last year's The Bonefire was awful.

Wannabe Deise

Going to see the Idiots tonight.

Saw the Grand Inquisitor last night. The content was fine and thought provoking (adapted from a dialogue in Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov) but as a theatrical experience underwhelming.

Fragments and History Boys got rave reviews in today's IT

Wannabe Deise

The Idiots - Never saw the movie and didn't read any reviews of the show except the few comments on here.

For me it was an amazing extraordinary show. Was it any good though? Yes I think so. Superb set design and stage craft (although final bit of prop movement for the family scene required too much work). The folding walls and quick scene changes, the opening scene with the full cast on stage looking up at the audience; the final scene with most of them behind the "glass" partition. Some very convincing "idiotic" performances. Dylan Tighe was excellent.
What was it about? I am guessing it is intented to mock our collective prejudice against those more mentally challenged than "us", as well as pointing out the capacity for cruelty and hypocrisy even in the well-intentioned. At the same time I think it makes the point that we need to live life rather than let it pass us by - it is ok to be idiotic at times - a point pushed home in the final "stay young" themed song (what was it?)

I was amazed and amused by the sheer scale and starkness of the nudity.

ichiaye

The song at the end of The Idiots is by Alphaville and I think it was used in the Napoleon Dynamite soundrack http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7CuJ8cR9sg