Did you see it?

~ by Servetus on October 28, 2020.

Posted in Richard Armitage
Tags: , , ,

21 Responses to “Did you see it?”

  1. I dearly hope so.

    Liked by 1 person

    Andrea Númellóte said this on October 28, 2020 at 10:10 am | Reply

    • I think there will be ways to see it. This is not an Urban / Candida Brady situation — Sonja Friedman productions needs to realize on their investment and more importantly, they know how to do it.

      Liked by 1 person

      Servetus said this on October 28, 2020 at 4:48 pm | Reply

  2. Didn’t get to see it myself even though I had tickets. We are back in level 5 lockdown here, and that means NO organised indoor events. The irony (and the twisting knife moment) was that the cinema sent me a reminder/welcome message to their venue last night. But no, I didn’t go. Frankly, I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed it, sitting indoors, worrying I might catch something. But that’s just me. Now hoping that RA was not just referring to the BBC release – which again will only be limited in terms of reach.

    Liked by 1 person

    Guylty said this on October 28, 2020 at 11:17 am | Reply

    • Our cinemas are open now but i haven’t been, either, essentially because I also think I couldn’t relax and enjoy it. (That said, if it did come here, I’m sure I would be very tempted.).

      If it’s shown on the BBC it will become more widely available both legally and illegally. The legal variant will take time — but I just saw this week that PBS in the US is going to show an NT Live production. I figured this would happen after the broadcasts this summer. They killed the potential audience of people who were willing to pay $25 a ticket that way, and so now their best chance for income will be from sales to broadcast networks. It was only a matter of time.

      Like

      Servetus said this on October 28, 2020 at 4:52 pm | Reply

  3. Veni, vidi, amavi ( maybe ). I came, I saw it and loved it . The filming brought it closer . I failed to see it in London ,where I live ,due to idleness in not booking as there would be plenty of time ( ! ) and then panicking about the pandemic . Seeing it with others at the cinema is so much better than on tv ( though I will look again when the BBC has it before Christmas) . Very moving play ( and funny ) and the cast was wonderful. Toby Jones never better. I saw RA in the Crucible, and other than that have only seen North and South this year during lockdown, after the Guardian said it was the best period drama ( which I had never heard of) , so he is a bit of a new actor for me. He was fantastic. He looked great with such thick , longish hair- how could Yelena resist him ( Dr Astrov that is ) for her pompous fake of a husband . The nuances about burn -out from pandemics, too much drinking in lockdown, and climate change , were frighteningly spot on. Left in tears. Yet there is a lot of farce in the play. RA sat at the back at one point, like Dr Anton Chekhov ( who he resembles in this ) observing the characters. Chekhov is one of the best writers ever in plays and short stories and died of TB at 40. Our loss as a great humanist writer. It is on elsewhere on Sunday, so will investigate seeing it again. If you get it in the USA or elsewhere , just go !

    Like

    Lynne Owen said this on October 28, 2020 at 11:20 am | Reply

    • I imagine it will come to the big cities in the US, but probably not before there’s a vaccine. The kind of cinema that would show it is hurting especially badly right now. The nearest place to me it will come will probably be Chicago and right now we’re not supposed to enter Illinois without quarantining for two weeks.

      I thought one of the most interesting features of the play was how intensely the cast played it in terms of emphasizing both its hilarious and its dramatic / tragedic elements. When I saw it (the first night in particular) I felt like they were almost consciously steering it to maximize either at any given point — they’d push the comedy until the breaking point, particularly, where you’d realize you’d been conditioned to laugh and then something horrible confronted you. But I didn’t have a hard time understanding while Yelena was initially rejecting Astrov. Honestly, in that household, with all of those men constantly pestering her and wanting things from her, I was surprised she didn’t spontaneously combust.

      Like

      Servetus said this on October 28, 2020 at 5:02 pm | Reply

  4. Sadly not, sigh.. have a nasty cough, not that one according to the test i took, could by the dry indoors air at my place which i am really struggling with but had to wait to have result back and also, here people can eat and drink in cinemas, so mask wearing a bit on and off i guess. I just didn’t want to get thrown out because of accidental cough. Still debating as i don’t have a cinema in walking distance either which means getting some means of transport as well. Sadly, everything about these times makes it anything but an enjoyable or relaxing experience to contemplate going on my own to a cinema. Might make it, but not really sure at this stage as thing are not getting any better round here either.. But really pleased with all the positive reactions about it.

    Like

    Hariclea said this on October 28, 2020 at 3:03 pm | Reply

    • Sorry you’re coughing! I’ve been sneezing since August and while I’m not happy about the cold, I’m hoping the fact that we had a hard freeze this week will mean that I’m done with it soon.

      Liked by 1 person

      Servetus said this on October 28, 2020 at 5:03 pm | Reply

      • Freeze is a bit early but we’ve dipped in temperature this week too, having to turn heating on urgh. It seems doubly annoying to have a cold in these times, hope you’ll be rid of it soon, i’m drinking all the teas in the cupboard (in lieu if escaping outside and having nice coffees somebody makes for me), i imagine it’s the same with you…

        Liked by 1 person

        Hariclea said this on October 28, 2020 at 6:37 pm | Reply

  5. I did see it and say this without gloating because I am sure there will be more opportunities to/ ways of seeing Uncle Vanya in the future. It was wonderful to see the actors in close-up, not just because RA looked so handsome but to see the reactions of the actors. This was particularly revealing in the way the camera stayed on certain characters when another was speaking. The close-up wasn’t such an advantage when Aimee-Lou Wood was speaking. Good as she was she had a habit of nodding to emphasise her words, which was really distracting. Roger Allam was great, and I think better than Hinds. It was ironic though to sit in a cinema watching a play filmed in an empty theatre.

    Like

    Armidreamer said this on October 28, 2020 at 4:45 pm | Reply

    • Thanks for these impressions! I did not understand why Wood got so much praise for this; to me she was easily the weakest member of the cast. I am looking forward to seeing what Allam does. I have never been that impressed by Hinds but I had a brief encounter with him at the stage door that made me like him more.

      I’m going to come out and say that I have really resented the whole “don’t talk about it because I didn’t see it” dynamic this spring, after the production was shut down and no one was going to see it any longer. That’s not a fair thing to ask of others in a situation like this. It would be different if there were actual spoilers and more people would see it later, but talking about a play that (a) is a century old and (b) in its current version is no longer accessible is an important way of preserving the memory of it.

      Liked by 1 person

      Servetus said this on October 28, 2020 at 5:08 pm | Reply

  6. Yes I do know what you mean, particularly about the importance of preserving memories. I am sensitive to rubbing people’s noses in something they haven’t seen, either the play or the film or both , but then we as Armitage fans all have opportunities and frustrations – I couldn’t see Love. Love , Love and am doubtful of hearing the Agatha Christies.

    Liked by 1 person

    Armidreamer said this on October 28, 2020 at 9:03 pm | Reply

  7. If I have to wear a hazmat suit I am going. I always thought Checkhov was stuffy from what I heard, but the snippets from this adaptation connected with me.

    Like

    Fatima said this on October 29, 2020 at 3:07 am | Reply

    • I don’t if it’s stuff but it very much reflects the issues of a certain social segment. If you can’t identify with them, it’s not going to be interesting. (E.g., one could argue that the major social problems at the time this play was written are either entirely absent from the play or so far in the background that if you don’t know what they are — which his original audiences would have, admittedly — you won’t even guess.) Anyway, there is theater that I find significantly stuffier than this.

      Like

      Servetus said this on October 30, 2020 at 5:43 pm | Reply

      • Well, we can cancel the hazmat suit. Winnipeg has gone code red. We had a per capita infection rate equal to that of Kentucky, Arkansas, and (I think) Wisconsin..oh and Toronto. Movie theatres and libraries are shut down, capacities are reduced and my aunt ended up in hospital and managed to get a few things to her before lockdown. Peace be with you, Servetus, there are canucks pulling for your country.

        Liked by 1 person

        Fatima said this on November 3, 2020 at 4:02 pm | Reply

  8. Alas no… closest cinema was two hours away in Germany and as travelling to another country in times of Corona is not advised right now…

    Like

    Esther said this on November 1, 2020 at 9:04 pm | Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.