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Original poster

Just been to see a weird play

27 replies

Dubiousness · 14/09/2018 23:18

Don't know if it counts as avant garde or not, but the actors did practically no actual speaking. Just a lot of acting emotions in an apparent storyline that had I no idea of, and lots of people muttering under their breath in Italian and Spanish, neither of which I speak. (This was in the UK). I have no idea WTF it was about. I'm obviously not arty or out there enough to understand these things. Hmm

Weirder still was that at the end, about half the audience gave them a standing ovation, and the other half didn't. I've never seen that before. Hopefully the people still sitting down were also thinking WTF.

Afterwards at the bar, people were talking about how deep and meaningful it was. I just don't get it.

OP posts:
ChateauRouge · 14/09/2018 23:22

Was it by invitation only?

Original poster
Dubiousness · 14/09/2018 23:28
Grin

No it wasn't. We went because some family members bought us tickets as they thought it looked interesting.

OP posts:
MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig · 14/09/2018 23:39

Perhaps the standing ovation people all spoke the foreign language and all the sitting down people didn’t and so missed the whole meaning of the play. Grin

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Theatre
Original poster
Dubiousness · 14/09/2018 23:46

Partly. The person who loved the play was telling us some of what was said in Italian, which still wasn't much as it was all deliberately muttered. The story still made no sense. Seems a bit ridiculous to expect a UK audience to understand though.

OP posts:
NCNCNC123 · 15/09/2018 00:01

What was the play?

Witchend · 15/09/2018 00:08

Please tell us the name, so I can add it to my list of never to attend again plays. So far I have:
Brand
Blood Wedding
Death and the Maiden

Brand had the smallest audience I've ever seen. We started the first act with 14 people, only 6 (which included me and dh) came back for the second half... We only came back because we thought it had to get better.
It didn't.

GunpowderGelatine · 15/09/2018 00:52

I once went to a play called Shopping and Fucking that had a live rimming on stage. That was an eye opener

Rebecca36 · 15/09/2018 01:02

You might have found the sound poets of the 1960s interesting. I saw them at the RAH when I was a teenager. Very expressive, no words.

MollyMallyMindy · 15/09/2018 01:04

I saw Fram (about Thor Heyerdahl, who is a great chsracter for a play), mainly to see if it was as bad as my friend said.
It was worse. The auduence at the National were booing before the interval, and near the end the climax involves some children dying - only it was all so melodramatic the remaining auduence were laughing at them.

I've seen some bad amdram (and worked on some) but that was a different league of terrible.

SLoisachtal · 15/09/2018 07:28

What was it?

ChateauRouge · 15/09/2018 07:57

Wait- Fram was about Thor Heyerdahl?
Why wasn't it about Fridjhof Nansen? (whose ship was Fram, whereas Heyerdahl's raft was Kon Tiki)

MollyMallyMindy · 15/09/2018 08:33

Arse. You're right. Point still stands, it should have been a good story and wasn't. The embarrassed almost-lack of applause from the huge Olivier theatre was amazing.

SLoisachtal · 15/09/2018 08:35

You're right about Fram, Chateau, although I admit I hadn't heard of Nansen or his ship before.

SLoisachtal · 15/09/2018 08:36

Oops - X post

ChateauRouge · 15/09/2018 08:39

Grin Sorry- Nansen is a bit of a hero of mine (not to minimise Heyerdahl''s achievements in any way!)

ChateauRouge · 15/09/2018 08:39

Shame the play was so bad...

Original poster
Dubiousness · 15/09/2018 08:46

Oh hold on. I've just looked it up, and apparently Physical Theatre is actually a thing. I'm obviously so uncultured Hmm

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_theatre

OP posts:
CurlsLDN · 15/09/2018 08:50

What was the play and the company?

Sorry to say about 70% of my degree was on physical theatre. Funnily enough emoting a brilliant pad doesn't come in useful often in my office job.

Witchend · 15/09/2018 09:11

I know about the Fram and Nansen because they're mentioned in the Arthur Ransome book Winter Holiday

Original poster
Dubiousness · 15/09/2018 09:16

The play was called Missing, by a company called Gecko.

I've just found out that it was originally running a few years ago and stopped because there was a fire in part of the building and their set was destroyed, and their main hall has now reopened so they let them put on the same play again. Here's a review which says "At the end of opening night, it’s hard to tell whether the standing ovation is for the show or for the building."

www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/sep/07/missing-review-bac-gecko

(Note: I don't live in the area and I'm not familiar with the venue, so I wasn't aware of the history).

According to other reviews, it's a story about looking deep into the psyche and a man trying to sell her a brightly-lit soul to help her realise that her parents' fiery divorce has shaped her own soul. Really? The only thing I could work out was that an Italian bloke kept harassing her.

Go on, flame me then. I bet you're all going to tell me how they're one of the most respected theatre companies going and how thick I am for not being able to work out a storyline Hmm

OP posts:
StopPOP · 15/09/2018 09:21

Sounds boring as fuck Grin

SLoisachtal · 15/09/2018 09:30

I think I'd have headed for the bar, OP!

HandlebarTash81 · 15/09/2018 09:38

Gecko are actually really well respected but you have to be very clever to understand their brilliance.

Bad luck, OP. Sounds shit.

StopPOP · 15/09/2018 09:54

...or very clever and still find it shit Wink

Original poster
Dubiousness · 15/09/2018 10:54

The audience seemed to be full of trendy, arty people.

OP posts: