Thoughts on last night

Watching theatre at the cinema is okay, but not as good as actual theatre.

Cinema audiences are less respectful. Suspect a lot of GoT fans were not really ready for the gearshift to Chekhov.

The bold restaging and total eschewing of the play's naturalism was striking and engaging, but also fatiguing, occasionally obscuring and made the whole thing a very different beast.

Indira Varma was the standout in the cast. Emilia Clarke did well, but was hampered by Trigorin being reset as a young man, which threw off the balance (and point) of the play. Sophie Wu was a twitchy, but still funny Masha. Stripped of the chance to soften the edges, the actors struggled to make the characters relatable, or likeable, or understandable. Daniel Monks' Konstantin was a seriously unlikeable whiney milksop.

When every line is delivered with profound pauses it lessens the impact given by contrast.

Having all the characters on the stage all the time, and devoid of context rendered the iconic ending incomprehensible.

It was a pleasant evening, and the other half hasn't been put off watching more Chekhov. It was interesting and intermittently good, but hopefully the next production will play the play to its strengths.

It's still a better script than the Cherry Orchard. Hopefully someone will put on the three sisters sometime soon too... Had enough of seeing Vanya and the cherry orchard, time for the lesser played plays.

To bring it back to the NT and football, the director, Jamie Lloyd has tried something different and it didn't work so well, time for a change of director I think. Has he gone yet?

Posted By: Cardiff Canary, Nov 4, 09:52:01