38 replies to this topic

[Snout]

Does anyone know the running time on this, please?

[Snout]

Thank you.

[Eve]

1 hr 55 (no interval) and getting shorter.

Have you seen it yet Skylight?

I'm looking forward to it although given the usual amount of Katie Mitchell - baiting on this board I bet it won't go down too well on here.

[Backdrifter]

Seeing it tonight, in fact.

[Eve]

I haven't seen it yet but I will when it's run in a bit.  Apparently it's attracting the frightfully fashionable crowd.  Pashminas and skinny jeans all round. (And that's just the men.   )

'fraid that's me summed up then!

[Backdrifter]

I saw it last night.

Did anyone here ever see the excellent sitcom Spaced? There's an episode in which a rather well-worn cliche is employed (though to great comic effect), i.e. the incomprehensible 'experimental' theatre production, consisting in this case of David Walliams in Lee Bowery-style all-over make-up screaming gibberish while discordant music and explosions are heard, and someone in the background holds up caption cards with random words on, while dismantling a vacuum cleaner.

Attempts On Her Life wasn't a million miles away from that sort of thing. It's as though someone with a beef about wanky abstract theatre has written a comedy spoof of everything they detest about the kind of thing (as they'd see it) poncey chin-stroking Islingtonians rave about - only it's real. When you're trying to fly the flag for theatre and preach to the unconverted, this is the kind of thing they can use as ammunition against you as it will probably confirm every single prejudice they have about indulgent theatrical wankery. It's deeply embarrassing. Although, I confess that at times I was transfixed by its unrelenting crappiness. I'm not into this "it's so good it's bad" nonsense - to me, if something's bad that's it, it's just bad, and this is several miles further down the road from bad, but it did cross a line into an area of such sheer drivelliness that I was determined to see it out to the very end. Although, as the cast descended into the stage at the end while still all talking bollocks, I did leave then as I couldn't bear to listen to anyone applauding it, let alone applaud it myself.

I see quite a bit of theatre, more than anyone I know personally though I'm sure not as much as many here, and I see all kinds of things, from site-specific productions in toilets through to West End musicals, and everything in between. I can be a bit of a sucker for off-centre stuff and will be among the first to defend it but - and you must believe me, I don't exaggerate about these things - this is genuinely one of the very worst productions I've ever seen.

The most entertaining things were the woman next to me getting increasingly worked up and impatient as it progressed, and the big-screen extreme close up of Kate Duchene's bare feet as she lay corpse-like on a gurney at one point, having shed her shoes and had a video camera probe her peds as a toe tag saying GIRL NEXT DOOR was attached. I wonder how she feels about every tiny detail of her (it has to be said) rather rank-looking soles being projected for all to see. (Myself, I enjoyed it). There were the most walk-outs I've ever seen in one go, which caused some disruption as there's no interval so people were legging it mid-show and of course with no centre aisles at the Lyttleton there were multiple standing ovations. One bloke 2 rows behind me audibly said as he left "Life's too short to sit through crap like this."

[coated peanuts]

Oh dear

*wipes away tears of laughter*

Katie Mitchell is close to my "3 strikes and you're" out rule, so I guess it's lucky that I'd decided to give this one a miss anyhow. I'll give her another try with her next greek play.

[steven]

saw 2nd preview...am big Mitchell fan, but even I was thinking we've seen these filming techniques in WAVES better before, and the relentlessly tedious, wanky script...well i don't know what type of person it appeals too...  There ARE nice bits...but not enough...it was ALIENATION THEATRE of the highest order.