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bridiem

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Everything posted by bridiem

  1. bridiem
    I also found it sad that when I entered the ROH for the first time in so long, the first thing I heard was a rather dismissive 'we don't have cast sheets any more, you have to look online', so instead of feeling celebratory I felt irritated and negative. I had my cast sheet printed out because I left home after 5pm when the cast sheet appeared online, but most people will either have had to start fiddling with their phones, or cramming around one of few screens showing the cast (I only saw one in the amphi by accident), or there will probably have been quite a lot who just didn't bother finding out who was dancing. If I'd left home before 5pm (which will often happen) I would not have had a sheet to refer to. And yes, lots of signs and announcements telling people to turn their phones off. Ridiculous.
  2. bridiem
    Most people around me were wearing masks, though I agree that a lot of people weren't. But even where mask-wearing is a requirement (e.g. on London Transport) it's not enforced and a lot of people don't wear them, so I think public compliance is just weakening. And to be fair, the Opposition presents itself as mask-wearing in Parliament and non mask-wearing at its party conference, so there's no consistency there either. I find it strange that people ignore the ROH's request - it just seems like a courtesy both to the ROH itself and to fellow audience members. But I didn't let it worry me either.
  3. bridiem
    Blazing commitment, energy and passion from the whole company tonight - they were on fire! As if to say: this is us, this is who we are, this is what we do. And they did it, brilliantly and heartbreakingly.
  4. bridiem
    Or The Judas Tree? Or My Brother, My Sisters? Or Las Hermanas? Or Different Drummer? I don't ultimately find Giselle dark, though I suppose it's undeniably creepy...
  5. bridiem
    Many, many years ago I walked out of a performance not because I didn't like it but because I was so furious with the audience and the theatre... It was at SW and it's so long ago I can't be sure but I think it was a Merce Cunningham piece. It was the first work on the bill, and it was performed in silence - no music, no soundscape, no nothing. Except that it wasn't. Latecomers were allowed in after it had started, crashing along rows with theatrical whispered apologies; other audience members laughed and talked freely; and staff could be heard talking loudly in the foyer outside. I was incredulous. I know it can be demanding watching a silent work, in silence; but it was really ludicrous and I lost my rag. I complained to SW afterwards and I seem to remember being offered a refund or a free ticket or some such. But I couldn't believe how disrespectful it was, not just to other audience members but also to the dancers.
  6. bridiem
    So did I! I've rarely been so disappointed by a production. And to add insult to injury I did my usual getting lost at the Barbican act when trying to get back to the tube and ended up going up and down and round and round... I ended up wandering around in tears after a thoroughly depressing evening. 😯
  7. bridiem
    That's just not OK. And it appears to relegate the performers on any given night to a degree of irrelevance that is really not acceptable.
  8. bridiem
    It also doesn't work for anyone who isn't at home in the few hours before the performance - a lot of people are at work or out and about and won't be able to print them before arriving at the theatre. And the fact that the numbers affected are comparatively small (which is open to question) doesn't make it any less important.
  9. bridiem
    It would be far preferable for everyone to switch OFF their phones for the duration of being in the ROH (or any other theatre). Like so many others I am glued to my laptop or phone for most of my waking hours (and I'm not even working now!) and the theatre should be one place where you get away from tech. Telling everyone to switch off their phones before the performance at the same time as effectively telling them that that's the only way of accessing their tickets and cast sheets is really not sensible. Given the amount of high-quality paper involved in producing programmes I really can't imagine that the extra flimsy paper used for cast sheets for those who want them is really much of an environmental issue.
  10. bridiem
    The thread got diverted into discussing R&J sales too, Rob S, so the performance mentioned is in just over a week's time. I do hope the house will fill up by then, by whatever means.
  11. bridiem
    In the light of your post I've just looked at the 11.30am Kaneko/Bracewell performance on 9th October (to which I'm going, as a Londoner with a short journey!) and the number of non-sold seats is shocking. Also interesting if the Amphi generally isn't selling well. Perhaps they've now pushed the prices too far for those without deep pockets.
  12. bridiem
    I understand what you're saying, fromthebalcony, but I think that ultimately all that matters is what appears on stage - that's the only standard by which a work can or should be judged. But I hope you do enjoy it!
  13. bridiem
    I was advised at SW to go to the ENB website, which I did, and under the heading Creature (at the top of the website, as you would expect) you can easily find the casting for each date, but I couldn't find the actual cast sheets with the full info. It seems from this link that you can find them if you scroll down to 'explore our blog' - but why would you do that? Maybe you can also find them under the Creature heading, but it's not obvious (at least to me...) if so.
  14. bridiem
    If it's a comfort to anyone, nearly everyone in my immediate vicinity in second circle at Sadler's Wells on Thursday evening was wearing a mask.
  15. bridiem
    Precisely. If someone is being paid to write a critique of the work, they have to stay to the end to give a full account of it; if anyone else is so unimpressed after an hour of it that they leave, they have every right to share that experience with others as long as they make it clear that they didn't stay for the whole work. People who post on this forum love dance/ballet and from my memory hardly ever leave before the end of a work, so the fact that so many did is I think both sad and significant.
  16. bridiem
    I'm afraid I also left at the interval. I like loud, but I just found it all very uninvolving. Part of the problem was that as Chris G says there was no synopsis on the digital cast sheet, and I found that I had very little idea as to what was actually happening - I'd read about the setting and themes etc in advance but clearly that wasn't enough (or at least not enough for me...). I have loved most of Akram Khan's work to date but in this (or at least in the first half) it felt to me as if he was mainly just repeating himself but to less effect than usual. I also found the score/soundscape pretty repetitive and undramatic and the sets and costumes dull (as evidenced, I think, by the curtain call photo above). The dancers were brilliant (though Erina Takahashi seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time mopping the stage in the first half). Anyway I hope (and am sure) that others enjoyed it more, but it was an anti-climactic return to live performance for me.
  17. bridiem
    He does excel as Benno, but I think he also excels in princely roles. Both because of the elegance of his dancing and because of the quality of his character and acting.
  18. bridiem
    That's what I have - the trouble is, it's so easy that I end up recording hundreds of programmes! Then every now and then I delete lots of them because I realise I'm not actually going to watch them...
  19. bridiem
    Thanks, Geoff - I've just bought one there.
  20. bridiem
    Has this really happened?!!
  21. bridiem
    Thanks, Richard LH - I used this link and now have my Covid pass in case needed at any stage. Easier, at least for me, than having to go into the app repeatedly to prove status.
  22. bridiem
    I think I might start a free trial of Amazon Prime so I can watch the final.
  23. bridiem
    I can't believe she's in the final. Absolutely amazing!
  24. bridiem
    I thought it could be Bruce Sansom, but not absolutely sure.
  25. bridiem
    Thanks, Rob S and oncnp. I clearly didn't read the small print! But I suspect a lot of other people will also not have done so.
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