Scottish Ballet: The Crucible 2022

[Lizbie1]

Re attendance: it's my impression from a not very large sample that with the exception of ENB, who usually put on their more "fashionable" offerings there, ballet doesn't sell well at Sadler's Wells.

 

Can anyone who goes frequently shed any light? Do other dance forms generally do better?

[Jan McNulty]

1 hour ago, Lizbie1 said:

Re attendance: it's my impression from a not very large sample that with the exception of ENB, who usually put on their more "fashionable" offerings there, ballet doesn't sell well at Sadler's Wells.

 

Can anyone who goes frequently shed any light? Do other dance forms generally do better?

 

I haven't been a regular visitor for some years but when we were down for NB's Casanova in May I believe the houses were reasonable for all except the Thursday matinee.  It's such a shame that the ballet offerings don't seem as popular.

 

In the late 80s and early 90s I spent a lot of Saturday matinees there to the extent that I was sitting next to a gentleman in the Birmingham Hippodrome once and he said to me "oh I see you've come up from London for the day".  He was shocked when I responded I had travelled down from Liverpool as we often used to coincide at the Wells!

 

[art_enthusiast]

On 18/06/2022 at 10:36, LinMM said:

Art_enthusiast it looks like you made it to Sadlers Wells in the end!!  Did you have any problems with the Angel? There are no current reported problems and was certainly open as usual last Tuesday and Wednesday when I passed by it. 
I think the closure you are reporting must have been an unusual one off! 
It’s also easy to get to Sadlers from Kings Cross and either bus it or walk up the Pentonville Rd to the Angel. 

Yes I did indeed - I cut it quite fine though! I ended up taking the bus from King's Cross which was relatively smooth. Yes I think the Angel station closure was a one-off that day, apparently due to staff shortages.

Anyway it was definitely worth going!

[postie]

Also saw it on Saturday and thought the Scottish deserved better than half a House. It was beautiful and at times thrilling. Loved the soundscape, the setting, the tensions, moods .. just excellent.

 

My only concern is the usual one about abbreviating or cutting supporting arcs - the original text is a sophisticated, carefully woven piece of writing for an ensemble cast. I'd guess this was 1 hour 40 of performance. At some point the original art is .. not. But this certainly delivered its story with aplomb. Glad I saw this.

 

Incidently, the spoken word version returns to the National in a couple of months, with her off The Crown and him off Game of Thrones. Some might think Miller's smarting response to 1950s US McCarthyism also has resonance in the modern world.

 

On the question of attendance, it does feel quite a time atm in London with so much to see, and also at a time of economic uncertainty.

 

I think it might be right that SW doesn't have a huge ballet following, thought it does have quite the Matthew Bourne following, and he's been trying to fill 4.5K of seats at the Albert Hall - and at decent prices. I don't know really, there just seems almost a dizzying number of events and booking periods atm.