(Based on a conversation with my husband)
99 puce balloons/dragging on the Lyttelton stage
Great war sells/Its red alert
The second scene from somewhere else
It brought the pyrotechs to life
Making us all squint our eyes
Waiting for the songs to die as 99 bad ideas go by
99 scripts they must read
98 the bin will meet
This one they’ll make all a flurry
Add some Tommies in a hurry
People speak and then they’re gone
What’s the audience waiting for?
Any play that features war?
Hynter’s job ain’t on the line
Was this the best play that they could find?
99 plays I have seen
Only one with puce balloons
It’s all over, I’m feeling shitty
Was this limp show supposedly gritty?
Not one character made me care
And this play’s seen lots of wear
The joyous bits went flopping by,
I think of home, and then I go.
(This review is for the first preview of The Silver Tassie, which took place on April 15th. While some of the performances will improve over time, nothing can be done to rescue this deeply flawed script. I imagine the person who revived it getting the V.C., which if you’ve seen the play you will understand is a joke meaning they should have just let it die.)
Tags: National Theater, Plays that didn't deserve a revival, sean o'casey, The Lyttelton Home of Bad Theater, The Silver Tassie, Why the Lyttelton gives me PTSD
Life in the Cheap Seats - Webcowgirl's London theatre reviews 
April 21, 2014 at 6:42 pm |
It must have been a different play I saw on the following night. Much better than the 2010 production by the The Druid. No point in going back over old opinions about this play. It is what it is. As O’Casey said himself…”A generous handful of stones, aimed indiscriminately, with the aim of breaking a few windows. I don’t think it makes a good play, but it’s a remarkable one,” said Seán O’Casey of his savage 1928 drama that details the cruelties of the trenches during the first world war, but also the casual cruelties of everyday Dublin life.
It was meant to shock and it is all the more important to stage this again in the 100th Anniversary Year of the start of The Great War.
September 8, 2014 at 9:58 pm |
[…] the year for theatrical productions with a First World War theme – revivals of old plays (The Silver Tassie), debuts of new (Versailles), and now The Return of the Soldier this strange hybrid of an old story […]
July 30, 2016 at 12:21 pm |
[…] pretty much a losing game for the poor and civilians. (And, if you’ve seen his play The Silver Tassie, you’ll see that O’Casey is of the opinion it’s pretty shit for the soldiers as […]