#luke thallon

[dynamics-of-an-asteroid]

"Well, I mean, it really isn't the sort of thing you would like, is it?" "In that case, why did you send it to me?" "I just took a chance!"

[dalyankiz1981]

On a high once again after watching this for the second time. And I even let hubby come and watch it with me as he was still recovering from his heart attack the first time I saw it (out of danger and in the hands of brilliant doctors, I hasten to add, but still recovering - in case anyone thinks I was a horrible wife for leaving him to go watch my fave 🤣)

Needless to say he really enjoyed it too and was talking about it all the way home (and if he was to develop a lil man crush on Andrew too which I suspect he might have it wouldn’t be the worse thing! 🤭)

Ofc I loved it even more this time around and it was even more special and hilarious because an older guy in the same row as us was laughing so hard throughout it - one of those types of laugh that sets you off in fits too 😂 😂 Absolutely MARVELLOUS darlings!! 🤩

[denimbex1986]

'*****

Andrew Scott is wondrous in this revelatory update of Noël Coward’s classic comedy

‘Present Laughter’ will return to UK cinemas as part of NT Live from July 18 2024. This review is from the Old Vic in 2019.

He’s won hordes of new fans as a restrained, tormented priest in ‘Fleabag’, but this Noël Coward play shows Andrew Scott under a different kind of sexual torment. He plays Garry Essendine, a spoilt, petulant actor who gluts himself on the sex and intimacy his fans offer, then sits soggily in the mess he’s created. And he’s frighteningly good at it. Coward’s comedy lets Scott show off both his endless proficiency for delivering a well-timed quip, and his physical virtuosity. Each time Essendine’s resentful friends accused him of overacting (and that happens a lot) his gestures amplify until he’s carving his frustrations into the indifferent air. He shrugs off a new dressing gown his ex-wife gives him with the sinuous grace of a cat wriggling out of an expensive new collar, effusively praising it all the while. And his chemistry with Joe, the lover he takes against everyone’s better judgment, mixes a mocking knowingness with a desperate intensity that makes the audience gasp.

Coward admitted that ‘Present Laughter’ is basically him sending himself up, albeit in a way that was acceptable within the homophobic moral codes of WWII-era society. Matthew Warchus’s production takes things a step closer to real life. ‘Joanna’ has become ‘Joe’, and suddenly the illicit thrill of their relationship makes more sense, and this tightly interconnected group of friends and lovers gains a kind of queer authenticity. It’s like being transported to a parallel universe where everyone is bisexual, endlessly stylish and schooled from birth in the art of the bon mot.

Rob Howell’s flamboyant 1930s-style set design manages to feel like both a living room and a gay nightclub, one which glows with blue light and pulses to slightly naff twenty-first-century love songs between scenes. The stilted, over-furnished staging conventions that often come with Coward revivals have been dismissed, like a sweaty stage-door fan who’s outstayed his welcome.

Coward’s artfully sketched romantic entanglements make Essendine’s grandly designed living room a constant hubbub of people imploring him: to love them, to behave better, to earn the money that keeps Essendine Inc afloat. These scenes are beautifully drawn: especially Sophie Thompson’s performance as his secretary Monica, which mixes loyalty with a rebellious refusal to be cast as the sexless grandmother figure he wants her to be. And Luke Thallon is wonderfully funny as Roland Maule, the aspiring playwright who will not quit, in any sense. The play’s cumulative effect is to show the trials of being needed, the way that you can be swamped with people who idealise you and still be unable to either express or have what you actually want. Characters are forever grasping at Essendine’s hands, trying to hold on to him for longer than he wants; when he finally clings to the departing Monica’s hand, it’s heartbreaking. The party’s over, and Scott’s extravagant loneliness is unforgettable.'

[caroleditosti]

'Patriots,' a Superb Play About the Oligarch Kingmaker Who Made Putin

Peter Morgan's play is both fun and chilling. Will Keen as Vladimir Putin and Michael Stuhlbarg as Boris Berezovsky, the man who Putin in power, are formidable. It's a must-see.

The full company of Patriots (Matthew Murphy) After the USSR dissolved and Ukraine and various former Soviet republics established their independence, the popular Boris Yeltsin was elected as the President of Russia and remained as President from 1991-1999. Yeltsin, who attempted to transform Russia’s command economy into a capitalist market economy during a period of upheaval, allowed a small…

[shakespearenews]

Having applied for the job as a duo, they’ve been in post since June 2023 and have just announced their plans for the year ahead – a judicious mixture of tragedy and comedy, new and old, long and short. They built the season by simply approaching people they wanted to work alongside and asking what they wanted to stage. The results range from Emily Burns’s contemporary take on Love Labour’s Lost set in the world of a Musk-like tech bro, starring Bridgerton’s Luke Thompson, to a King Lear in Ukrainian and Luke Thallon as Hamlet, directed by Rupert Goold. Alongside Shakespeare, there’s new work across four stages including an adaptation of Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia and revivals of plays by Sheridan and Marlowe.

---

Evans checks with Harvey before he proceeds. “One of the things we should just be candid about is that we didn’t know whether we were right because we didn’t consider ourselves to be Shakespeare scholars. We love Shakespeare, and we have directed and acted in Shakespeare but because Greg had such an encyclopaedic knowledge of Shakespeare, we thought that was maybe what was needed.

[shesnake]

Andrew Scott & Luke Thallon in Noël Coward’s Present Laughter (2019) dir. Matthew Warchus, The Old Vic

[utterlywholocked]

Whole Cast of Pinter Five.

Rupert Graves, Jane Horrocks, Colin Mcfarlane, Emma Naomi, Luke Thallon and Nicholas Woodeson, with director Patrick Marber

[peterviney1]

Present Laughter- Old Vic 2019 review Review added of PRESENT LAUGHTER by Noel Coward at The Old Vic (FOLLOW LINK). This version stars Andrew Scott and has been noted for 'gender fluidity.' Few plays ever get so many five star reviews as this production. I've given it a mildly mean four. Go to the review and find out.

[widgenstain]

I don’t know how I feel about the casting announcement for The Play That Must Not Be Named On Tumblr. 

[toby-regbo-italia-blogger]

From Instagram

@thecoronettheatre We're excited to announce Toby Regbo has joined the cast of @deadpoetslive

He joins Lindsay Duncan (Sherlock, About Time) and Luke Thallon (Leopoldstadt, Patriots) for a special reading

20 - 22 Oct

TICKETS SELLING OUT, BOOK NOW!

#tobyregbo #regboners #tobyregbofans #reign #reignfrancis #frary #thelastkingdom #aethelred #imedici3 #tommasoperuzzi #adiscoveryofwitches #jackblackfriars #chivalry #mrnobody #somedaythispainwillbeusefultoyou #uwantme2killhim #fantasticbeasts2 #finalfantasyxiv #thediofieldchronicle #kineticvibe #dreamitcon #sasnakcity #germancomiccon #mcmcomicconlondon #fantasybasel #polymanga #nevastalgia #englishactors #tobyregboitaly #tobyregboblog

[thorntoncrusadepost]

 Rosalind Eleazar won an award for her amazing performance in Uncle Vanya! I’m so happy for her! If you liked her perfomance, then go show her some love at her twitter https://twitter.com/RosalindEleazar like Richard did 

https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/rosalind-eleazar-luke-thallon-win-equity-2020_53349.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=11february2021

[philsharp]

New Series - THOUGHT/PROCESS - Adrienne Yang / Emily Fairn / Alessandro Piavani / Luke Thallon / Tessa Bonham-Jones / Scot Greenan / Philippine Velge / Miles Yekinni/ Sebastian Croft / Charlie Cattrall - - - - - #portrait_page #portrait_planet #portraitphotography #actorslife #headshot #headshotlondon #headshotphotographer #londonheadshots #headshotnyc #headshotsla #actorsheadshots #portrait_mood #portrait_star #portraitvision_ #portrait_ig #portrait_today #topportraits #flakphotorecs #gfx50s #fujifilm (at Phil Sharp - Studio) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-wb15qFZWB/?igshid=1d88903d8zfc2

[picolin]

2019年演劇ベスト

今年見たプロダクションは、旧作再演を含めて46作品だった。

（ITAの『地獄に堕ちた勇者ども』は数年前に録画を見ていたので感想はブログに上げていない）

ベスト5

1 A Very Expensive Poison @ The Old Vic  

ロシアの元スパイの暗殺という題材を、歌あり踊りありパペットありで華やか、というかむしろしっちゃかめっちゃかに語る。冷戦以降のロシアという巨大国家が抱える暗いトラウマもきちんと言及されるのがよか��た。

2 Sweat @ Donmar / Gielgud 

USにおける人種間緊張が起こるまさにその瞬間を、ペンシルベニアの寂れた工場町というトランプ支持の最前線に取材したルポ的力作。登場人物すべてをフェアな目で描くタフな目。

3 The Watsons @ Chichester/Menier Chocolate Factory 

オースティンの未完成小説というネタから二次創作という営みの奥深さを、これもまたメタメタに楽しく描く。作者が登場するとちょっと日本のマンガにおけるコマの外みたいで可笑しかった。

4 Present Laughter @ The Old Vic  

ノエル・カワードがもし現在この作品をかけたなら、という想定で数キャラのジェンダーとセクシュアリティを変更した意欲的プロ。それをネタにせずきちんと真面目に取り組んでいる。

5 The Doctor @ Almeida

シュニッツラーの原作を現���の晒しあげ文化の分析に昇華したロバート・アイクの力量。

次点

・Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp. @ Royal Court 

・Top Girls @ NT Lyttelton 

・Downstate @ NT Dorfman 

Best Theatrical Moment:   A Very Expensive Poison 一幕終わり、ロシア国歌に乗って登場する大統領閣下(Reese Shearsmith)

Best Performers:   Luke Thallon / Present Laughter @ The Old Vic & Hammed Animashaun / A Midsummer Night's Dream @ Bridge 

この二人はこの数年間色々なプロで見てきて、ついにこの規模で観客（と私）の心を鷲掴みにするときが！という喜びを感じたパフォーマンスだった。

[bakerlooandbeyond]

Great Scott! The man's on fire:

Present Laughter  | The Old Vic, London : 28 June 2019

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Verdict: Andrew Scott sets fire to Noel Coward

 by Patrick Marmion for the Daily Mail 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-7190745/Present-Laughter-Old-Vic-London-Great-Scott-mans-fire.html

Anyone who thinks Andrew Scott is good on telly had better see if there are any tickets left at the Old Vic.

Great as he was as Moriarty opposite Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock, and magnetic as he was playing the fit young priest opposite Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Fleabag, he’s even better on stage.

What you don’t get on screen is the improvisation. Scott knows exactly how to work his audience. At this week’s opening night of Noel Coward’s 1942 comedy he almost shot us a wink, and set the house ablaze. If he tries it again, they’ll have to call the fire brigade.

As Coward’s overwrought and oversexed thespian Garry Essendine — a self-portrait by Coward mocking his own grandiosity and sexual peccadilloes — Scott gives a positively incendiary turn.

The big change, though, is that Matthew Warchus’s clockwork production turns the play into a gay comedy, giving Garry two male suitors…

Warchus may think Coward would approve, because he was gay himself. I think he might have found it too obvious, and anyway, it’s not what he wrote.

Coward valued irony, evasiveness and poise over social crusading, and says as much throughout the play — especially in the character of a deliciously idiotic young playwright (Luke Thallon).

There’s also a slight coarsening of the tone, with Scott sometimes melting down like Basil Fawlty.

Should we worry about this? Scott’s fans won’t. I imagine they will be prepared to walk over red hot coals to see him in the flesh. And they won’t be disappointed. The Dublin-born actor dishes up plenty of ham as he sees off a female admirer: all gushing histrionics, wrist pressed to his forehead.

At other times he’s sulky, sly and acid with a laser gaze. But as the plot escalates it’s face in hands, fingers running through hair and arms flung into a crucifix. And there’s plenty of pirouetting, too — in a whole range of floaty fabrics. The more carried away he gets, the more he sounds like Graham Norton — and the bigger the laughs.

But when he smooches the thick-voiced, indecently handsome Enzo Cilenti, as his Javier Bardem-lookalike Latin lover, the huge Old Vic suddenly becomes silent.

Can Coward’s soda-siphon comedy take such earnestness? I’m not sure. It makes Scott seem more vulnerable — and makes us take him more seriously. But rest easy: we’re soon back into the ding-dong, door-banging mayhem.

Migraine sufferers should be warned: Rob Howell’s staging is unmerciful on the eye. It’s a spread-eagle Art Deco edifice in bright speckled blue with fan windows and chintzy decoration. Along with pop ranging from The Doors to The Shirelles, the idea must be to jar us out of our cosy expectations.

Coward’s trademark silk dressing-gowns are openly ridiculed as the production declares itself thoroughly now and metropolitan.

Scott even drinks straight from a bottle. Horrors!

And if Indira Varma (Luther and Game Of Thrones), as Garry’s wife, adds Cowardian elegance and froideur in a range of swish and stylish outfits, Sophie Thompson maintains the eccentricity with a Jean Brodie-ish turn as Garry’s secretary.

Still, gorgeous and colourful as the supporting acting is, the show belongs to Scott. He eats it alive — and has the audience for dessert.

[bwthornton]

#Cinema #Theatre National Theatre Live: Present Laughter | Andrew Scott and Luke Thallon

https://stratford-upon-avon-theatre.blogspot.com/2019/11/cinema-theatre-national-theatre-live.html

[gravesdiggers]

Happy Silver Fox Saturday and congratulations to Pinter Five for their press night (or, more accurately, afternoon) yesterday!

All the reviews so far are largely positive and most agree that while the plays themselves might be tricky (too unpolished, short or written for radio and therefore harder to stage), the cast are wonderful with what they’re given, and more than a few recognise Rupert’s most prominent - and memorable - role in the first play, The Room and his comedic talents in the second, Victoria Station.

(Links are all to Twitter - sorry, but Tumblr will have a hissy fit if I go direct!)

“a profoundly sinister [turn] from Rupert Graves...” [Time Out]

“Jane Horrocks and Rupert Graves shine...” [Ought To Be Clowns]

“Bert (an expressive Rupert Graves)... Rupert Graves is delightfully absent as the oddly reticent and literal cabbie... the combination of Soutra Gilmour’s imaginative staging, Patrick Marber’s considered direction and excellent performances from an ensemble cast of established stars and exciting newcomers, means this Jamie Lloyd season really is the theatre gift that keeps on giving.” [MyTheatreMates]

“ Victoria Station is a joy; Graves superbly shades from blank incomprehension, to bewilderment to something ineffable that might be love, or loss, or complete despair. It is Graves' night in the acting stakes. He's magnificent too in Family Voices...” [What’s on Stage]

“Patrick Marber’s direction brings out the simmering undercurrent of violence. The last few minutes are almost unbearably tense, as Graves, silent throughout, nears the point of explosion. [In Victoria Station] MacFarlane is great, as is Graves as the driver, but the insistence on the piece being played for comedy makes it feel tonally out of step with the other two plays. [In Family Voices] ...there’s an inevitably static quality to the piece that the quality of the performances can’t override. ” [The Stage - full text below]

We’ve reached the fifth instalment of Jamie Lloyd’s season of Pinter’s one-act plays, but only now do we arrive at The Room, Pinter’s first play, written in 1957.

It’s an opportunity to see him carving out his identity as a writer. Many of the tropes that would come to define him are already in evidence – the claustrophobia of the rooming house, a keen ear for speech patterns, narrative ambiguity, a pervading sense of menace and unease – but he’s still honing his craft. It foreshadows The Birthday Party in more ways than one.

Jane Horrocks and Rupert Graves play Mr and Mrs Hudd, a married couple living in cramped lodgings. She talks up a storm, while he never says a word. The world outside their room, the house itself even, is made to seem ominous and threatening. A series of visitors pierce this domestic set-up. Nicholas Woodeson as their loquacious landlord, Emma Naomi and Luke Thallon as a young couple who say they are interested in taking a room in the house, but seem more intent on intimidating Mrs Hudd, and Colin MacFarlane as a mysterious blind man.

Horrocks anchors the piece, radiating fear even when chattering away about tea and bacon. Patrick Marber’s direction brings out the simmering undercurrent of violence. The last few minutes are almost unbearably tense, as Graves, silent throughout, nears the point of explosion.

Throughout the season, the plays have been grouped intelligently, echoing each other in interesting ways, and that’s also true here.

The Room and another longer piece – Family Voices – are sandwiched around Victoria Station, a two-hander written in 1982. It takes the form of a dialogue between a taxi dispatcher and one of his drivers. While it could no doubt be played straight, Marber plays it broadly for laughs. MacFarlarne revels in the role of the increasingly exasperated dispatcher as he deals with a man who does not know where he is – neither geographically nor spiritually, it seems. MacFarlane is great, as is Graves as the driver, but the insistence on the piece being played for comedy makes it feel tonally out of step with the other two plays.

The triple bill concludes with Family Voices, a radio play  first broadcast in 1981. Luke Thallon plays a young man who has fled his home for an unknown reason and ended up at yet another sinister rooming house, inhabited by members of the same, strange family. The play takes the form of a series of letters between Thallon and Horrocks as the mother searching for her son and Graves as the young man’s possibly deceased father.

Its origins as a play written for radio are evident and it operates here principally as a showcase for Thallon to do a series of voices and characters. He’s very good at this, but there’s an inevitably static quality to the piece that the quality of the performances can’t override.

As a whole, this is the least satisfying instalment of the Pinter project to date, despite the fascinating opportunity it provides to see the shaping of a young playwright.

Natasha Tripney