71 replies to this topic

[xanderl]

Yes, getting somewhat annoyed with the lack of info the RSC sends to members - eg there was a £12 offer for Julius Caesar on the RSC website (now expired) which I knew nothing about

One of the membership schemes I will be culling next year I think

[Honoured Guest]

Epicoene, on 12 June 2012 - 07:20 AM, said:

For anyone interested you can book tickets for this now directly through the Riverside website - all seats £25 plus concessions. For any RSC London-based members who were expecting the RSC to maybe have the courtesy to inform them of this run at the Riverside and offer some priority booking, dream on.

I think there's a general confusion here. When the RSC had a regular home at the Barbican (and, before that, at the Aldwych and Warehouse), members joined as either Stratford Members, London Members, Joint Members or Newcastle Members. So, London and Joint Members routinely got information and priority booking for the London seasons.

But for years the RSC has been based only in Stratford, with occasional short London seasons and tours, and so the "London Membership" was discontinued about ten years ago. All Members now routinely get information and priority booking for the Stratford seasons but I don't think they should expect priority booking wherever the RSC pops up, be it Hammersmith, Aylesbury, Bradford, Salford, Norwich, Cardiff or wherever else.

The Hammersmith run of Troilus and Cressida was mentioned on the RSC website several months ago but I agree with you to the extent that I don't understand why the RSC doesn't e-mail such news to its Members and general e-list. Why don't you contact them to ask and then tell us their response? It may be that they'd rather that Members take a regular look at the frequent updates and news and press releases posted on their website, but that's just my guess at a possible reason.

[Epicoene]

Honoured Guest, on 12 June 2012 - 09:18 AM, said:

But for years the RSC has been based only in Stratford, with occasional short London seasons and tours, and so the "London Membership" was discontinued about ten years ago. All Members now routinely get information and priority booking for the Stratford seasons but I don't think they should expect priority booking wherever the RSC pops up, be it Hammersmith, Aylesbury, Bradford, Salford, Norwich, Cardiff or wherever else.

On the other hand there was priority booking for their current Roundhouse season (a waste of time given the number of empty seats), and I bet there will be for the West End London transfers of Julius Caesar and Much Ado. Why the difference ? The same reason as is being discussed over in the Royal Court thread - they are only interested in "members" when they have difficulty selling tickets.

[xanderl]

Booking for the west end Julius and Ado has been open for ages. There was a GILT offer for them which (of course) the RSC didn't tell members about

[Honoured Guest]

Epicoene, on 12 June 2012 - 10:11 AM, said:

Why the difference ?.

I repeat: Why don't you ask them for their reason? And then perhaps tell us! I suspect that Riverside Studios has programmed Troilus and Cressida whereas the RSC hired the Roundhouse to present its current season there.

[Epicoene]

Honoured Guest, on 12 June 2012 - 11:54 AM, said:

I repeat: Why don't you ask them for their reason? And then perhaps tell us! I suspect that Riverside Studios has programmed Troilus and Cressida whereas the RSC hired the Roundhouse to present its current season there.

I wonder if the RSC has hired the Noel Coward for Julius Caesar (cheapest stalls ticket £63) ? Oh ... I know .... why don't I ask them ? OK. Will do.

[Honoured Guest]

I've just turned up my copy of the RSC Members' News dated February 2012. Page 4 gives details of the London Season of JC and MAAN and page 5 gives the full London performance schedule, booking information, ticket discounts and ticket prices.  Booking opened on : 27 Feb (Full - web), 29 Feb (Full - phone), 12 Mar (Assoc - web), 14 Mar (Assoc - phone) and 26 Mar (Public). Just what you were asking for!

By the way, you seem to be quoting the Superseat ticket price plus fees. The vast majority of stalls seats cost £10 less, with a further £9.50 reduction for previews.

[Honoured Guest]

Today's Sunday Times contains an article by Mark Ravenhill which lightly discusses how he became involved and the early encounters with the Wooster Group. Behind the Murdoch paywall but also available today from shops.

[David J]

A Tale of Two Companies

(Bear with me with this, I wanted to get this out straight away)

By the second half about a third of the auditorium had left, and many were demanding their money back.. I myself stayed on to watch a 3 Hour and 35 Minute production.

The wooster group played the Trojans as some Inuits in an Alaska type setting. The weird thing about them was that they went around speaking softly, with what I am guessing was Inuit accents, into microphones that were attached to their faces within this small space, though it did not prevent them getting drowned out by the rough audio at times.

The worst thing though was that they had these screens dotted around the stage, which played these clips that had no bearing on the story, apart from the fact that they showed "real" Inuits. During the whole production the trojans were copying every gesture that was made in these clips. This really limited their acting abilities, and the scene where the two lovers first meet lacked chemistry

They did not even do it very well, because a lot of the time they were staring at these screens waiting for the gestures that they mimic. Imagine a rather forgetful dance group that has to rely on visual prompts to remind them what their next move is every couple of seconds. This may be harsh, but it does get tiresome quickly, espeially when this takes up half of a 3+ Hour production.

The RSC group is really the best thing about this production. It felt like any other production I had seen by this company. Best performances were Joe Dixon as Achilles and Scott Handy as Ulysses, though bizarrly the latter once came on playing the woman who "launched a thousand ships", Helen.

I also like to note that there were the some brief moments of nudity

This is the first time I saw Troilus and Cressida and I myself liked the play itself, and would like to see a better production of this. Right now this is a Discount

Discount

[Honoured Guest]

David J, on 03 August 2012 - 11:23 PM, said:

were demanding their money back and I heard that it was the same case for the last few nights.

According to the original schedule, this was the first preview.

The Wooster Group has played Riverside Studios several times over the years, so hopefully more of the London audience will know what to expect.