[AnnieInTheStalls]

As a Katie Mitchell virgin, I had serious expectations of weirdness with this - but was completely let down! Some strange things with plastic sheets and plastic bags, the meaning of which is completely beyond my comprehension, but apart from that, hardly any pretention at all, and all rather straight and effective. The scene changes ( which I assume are all Mitchell ideas) are just as worth watching as the play itself.

The play is about a bunch of ghastly medical students and their associates, being very decadent and saying things like "You didn't make love to me, you made love to your own pain!" and "let's die together!" I didn't find it at all profound or moving, but I rather enjoyed it in a gigglesome sort of way.

It was a full and appreciative house (didn't seem to be any empty seats after the interval), and considerably younger than the audience for The Power Of Yes.

Finished about 9.55.

Annie

[nlc]

Some strange things with plastic sheets and plastic bags, the meaning of which is completely beyond my comprehension,

Those bits seemed like something out of CSI. I liked the scene changes too and the music is certainly of the time but I find Schoenberg really hard work to listen to.

It definitely wasn't as weird as I was expecting either but it didn't particularly 'wow' me. All the characters are particularly horrible and I found I couldn't care less what happened to them all.

It was ok but it seemed a bit like a student production overall.

[applesarenice]

I thought it was painfully dull. To the point where I wanted to grab one of those plastic bags and smother myself!! I just didn't engage with any of it at all, I can happily live with unlikeable characters as long as they are doing something interesting, but I just found it dull.

My take on the plastic bags was that we were meant to see it as a puppet show, being controlled by someone/thing offstage.

It was quite unbalanced as well, it was obviously a three act play, and so the first half is far too long (90 minutes or so) and the second half very brief.

Disappointing, after a run of good, or at least interesting things at the NT

[Weez]

The critics seem very impressed! Evening Standard (sorry, going on memory so don't have links and am probably misremembering XP) I think went for 2 stars, but Guardian and... Times? went for 4 stars, and Independent (I think) gave it 5! I particularly liked the Independent's review; he acknowledged that his constant good reviews for Katie Mitchell works probably made him a bit crackers, but he doesn't care, he genuinely thinks she's great. XD

Anyway, I'm off next weekend, so shall see how it goes!

[Daniel]

I went on Monday & it's the first time in years that I have not returned after the interval. People were leaving throughout the 1st act - I would estimate about 8 - & there were about 10 of us on the walk to Waterloo Station. So the theatre lost AT LEAST 18 people at the interval - a large number when you consider it was in the Cottesloe.
It was the most dreadful, boring, pretentious play I have ever seen in 40 years of regular theatregoing. Utterly ghastly.

[Weez]

I'm a supporter of the National generally, but I am not a supporter of horrible plays, and that's what this was. Please don't misunderstand me; I thought the production was really good. The set wasn't overly complicated, but it was effective. The sound was interesting and appropriate. The lighting... actually, the lighting bugged me. Can't we just use our audiencely imagination to pretend the actors are sitting in the semi-dark, instead of having them actually sitting in the semi-dark for two-thirds of the play? But I LOVED the scene-changes. Not sure what they meant, unless it really was nothing more profound than "hey, isn't this kinda like a crime scene with a forensics team?", but loved them nonetheless. And the cast worked really hard with what they had.

Shame what they had was a horrible play where seven incredibly unappealing characters do nothing of any interest for over two hours. And I don't mean "they're all b*****ds!" unappealing, because I LOVE watching a good b*****d at work onstage. I mean "you are not interesting to watch on any level and I hope some more charismatic characters come along soon".

Really did rather like the production, but absolutely HATED the play. About fifteen people made a break for it at the interval, and one of the returning martyrs could be heard to utter "it certainly is painful to watch, isn't it?". See it if you're curious and can get a cheap ticket, but bear in mind it's a Marmite sort of play and you could easily fall down on the "hate it" side.