This is my kind of Play but I've never been to the Almeida Theatre so would someone please tell me about the seating, where are the best places to watch the production, and is the stage eye-level from the Stalls or do you get a crick in the neck. The seating plan is really not very helpful. Thanks in advance.

The stage is about... a foot and a half off stalls-level, and there's a slight rake but not much of one. The restricted view seats in the stalls do put a pillar directly in your path, but considering they're only £6, they're amazing value for money and some of the best restricted-view seats I've seen. I've never sat in the circle though, sorry.

If you can, try to get the middle block of the front row, to the right (facing stage) if you have a choice, but not the right block. I enjoyed this play and production immensely. The direction, cast, lighting, script ~ for me were just wonderful. A pleasure to watch but I was lucky in my seating. There is barely any rake in this theatre. Bench seating but enough space in between (ie no armrests). It is a low stage with legroom if you are front row. If you are flexible in the time when you go just use their online seating chart to find one date when you can sit in the best place.

P.S. Almeida online shows AA to be front row ~ this is not used in Waste therefore A is your front row.

Anyone else seen this now? Interesting play with its mixture of analysis of morality, feminism, sexism, political integrity, class, ...lots to think about. I liked it as it became more like Ibsen but I thought the main character was not established well enough or rounded enough in the first act. I liked the brother /sister stuff very much - Phoebe Nicolls had some tough lines to get out there at the end - and I liked the scenes between the lovers and I liked the cynical politician scene so all in all, maybe some good parts a whole play doth not make. Will Keen played it full of mannerisms - do blokes throw themselves about like this?
Saw Sam West in the bar explaining the plot to some others....

I saw it a couple of weeks ago and also absolutely loved it. I did not feel much for the Will Keen character but loved his sister.
The scene with all the politicians was excellent.
I did feel that the Almeida theatre had a lot to do with my enjoyment.
I had previously seen a production of this play at the Old Vic but enjoyed this one much more.

8.5/10

Alnoor

hi Alnoor,
When was it at the Old Vic because I could have sworn I had seen it before? Yes, I liked the sister too, very reliable actress for this kind of self sacrificial part. She must be the first one they call for that kind of part. The Almeida is fun, makes every performance into an event and loads of actors about in the foyer - fun spotting.

Hi Lynette--or should I say Madame Moderator

Waste was at the Old Vic during the Peter Hall season in the 90s.

It had Michael Pennington and Felicity Kendall in the cast.

Also during that season there was Waiting for Godot with Alan Howard and Sir Ben Kingsley--which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Alnoor

Yes, that's the Godot I saw and got the autographs round the corner in the cafe. And the Waste - I'll go scour the programme box but I think I saw it.
You can just call me Madame!

I enjoyed this hugely - a great companion piece to The Voysey Inheritance at the NT a couple of years back.

One thing: I thought Phoebe Nicholls was playing Will Keen's wife, not his sister, until Mark Shenton's blog put me right - http://blogs.thestage.co.uk/shenton/2008/10/confession-time/. I'm clearly not alone in this misapprehension, so can anyone tell me where in the play it's made clear what their relationship really is? A superb evening nonetheless.

Job

At the beginning although they refer to him as 'your Henry' to Frances, she says she has no influence of him and never has 'from the days when we played in our suburban nursery together'. And Lady Julia continues to elicit information about him, his age and that he dislikes women and 'society'.

But one of the problems of the play is that Henry is not characterised sufficiently at the beginning, we don't get the nod to pay attention to him so we are playing catch up from the point when he tries to seduce Amy.

The idea that Frances is performing all the duties of a wife except in the bedroom, is very clear as is her self sacrifice in her giving up her academic life. But at the end, her reaction is not that of a wife , nor is her way of trying to get him back on track. It was very brother/sister I thought and superbly done.

Not necessarily, but Will Keen does. That said, I usually quite enjoy his throwing-self-about-ness, and did in this.


I see your Sam West In The Bar and raise it to Hytner a few seats along from me (didn't thank me either time I stood to allow him through - yeah he should be slung out of the NT!), Gyles Brandreth in the row behind, and Claire Price in the row behind him.

Louisa Clein stood in for Jeany Spark, who was ill, and did a great job - supposed to be reading it in but after having the script with her for her opening scene, didn't have it with her afterwards.

If the lovely Claire Price was behind you who was doing her role at the Menier--unless there was no show at the Menier that night?

That is a very curious misapprehension which must have changed the whole dynamic of the play - so you thought they were both adulterers ? Interesting.

I saw a previous production of the play with Daniel Massey and Judi Dench (which part would you cast her in ?) - but not the Peter Hall one - I think I have now seen it often enough.

It is indeed notable how the Almeida audience contains so many familiar faces (Alan Rickman was behind me) - hard to imagine them filling their booking forms in in advance for these sold-out events.

I thought I had seen the Peter Hall because I felt I had seen it before and as Alnoor said it had been on at the Old Vic but on looking through our programmes I found the the prog for the Judi Dench one, Lyric 1985 - so must have been there with you, Jan. I can't remember a thing about it but it must have seeped into my brain. It was an RSC production.

Yup.

Job

I wondered that when someone said to her at the end of the show that they thought she was in the Menier show, and she said she still was. I assume they don't have Monday perfs.

She looked LUSCIOUS and was wearing really nice specs. And has a throaty laugh.

I saw it at the Pit, before it transferred to the Lyric. John Barton directing. Judi Dench was mis-cast as Amy O'Connell but Dan Massey (one of my favourites) was fine.