After what Sonia has said about the plays... I think I take a pass until I've seen the series... Even then, I think I'll take a pass after what the actors have said.
If it was my play i would hope it was given a chance to be judged on it's own merits.
I wonder how would other plays by established writers have stood up to the 'warts and all' filming of the whole process? I am sure that this is not the first West End production where the producer and cast have had moments of doubt.
It is what it is, and was always going to be so. I still hope it is a good play, a good production and that i have a bloody good evening!
'All we see and seem is but a dream within a dream' Poe
Have a squint at Sonia's Comments about the finished product (as reported by the Observer) in my Censorship thread...
But I hope that you enjoy the evening that you have paid for - and hope that the production team remember that it's ticket buyers they are supposed to be entertaining.
Car crash TV? I don’t know SF and don’t ever expect to, but if you look at her work she is very serious about the Theatre and has a hard won reputation that she is putting on the line here. I really don’t see her throwing that all away as a Simon Cowell wannabe.
If the chosen play/s (chosen from our efforts remember) are not world stoppers it is not SF or C4’s fault! There is a little to much ‘look at me! look at me! going off here sometimes.
Having said that – I have done what I always said I would and put my hand in my pocket to buy a ticket. I will go along with an open mind and I hope pass fair comment afterwards.
'All we see and seem is but a dream within a dream' Poe
I don’t know SF and don’t ever expect to, but if you look at her work she is very serious about the Theatre
I’m not trying to call SF’s reputation into question: Indeed I respect what she is trying to do with modern theatre… But it was she has said:
She questioned if she had a play worthy of production in the shortlist. She still questions if the play produced it a decent bit of theatre.
We have to remember that this is not ‘SF is the Thing’ and that other people have a say in this.
You’ll recall that I read a number of the plays submitted by fellow posters here – and on the whole, they would survive a better critique than have been mentioned in the Observer article.
The displayed naivety of the short-listed playwrights is staggering (with the exception on the one that came fourth). I find it hard to believe that the people that are in the final three may never seen a play or even endeavoured to get people to read their work aloud for them.
I wait for the series; but fear that we could be watching “The TV Programme’s the Thing” and that we will be wasting an opportunity to get a new breed of audience into our already struggling theatres.
On Sonia Friedman, above, by my old friend Playfull, June 5th;
"I really don’t see her throwing that all away as a Simon Cowell wannabe."
On Sonia Friedman by Lyn Gardner, Guardian Arts correspondant, May 19th;
"She is set to become the Simon Cowell of the theatre production world when next month Channel 4 starts airing The Play's the Thing! which aims to do for aspiring West End playwrights what Pop Idol did for would-be chart-toppers. Like Cowell, Friedman has a waspish tongue."
Playfull - I, too, have an open mind, and I genuinely hope the play is indeed great. But Miss Friedman has already gone on record to say that it probably isn't!
If it ISN'T great, then it SHOULD be SF or C4's fault. If from 2000 writers and 3500 submissions they can't find a play with a modicum of greatness to it, and then make it great with the combined skills of a huge number of professionals and 9 months work, shouldn't we (and anyone else) be allowed to ask 'Why'? At that time, could we not ask 'Did they really fail to attract anything of potential greatness? Did they not identify potential greatness? Did they waive potential greatness in favour of tv spectacular?'
Unless, of course, potential greatness was indeed less important than tv spectacle. As Ms Friedman says, "Do I have a great play? Probably not. Have I got a theatrical event? Probably." It just seems a curious way to review a play they themselves have commissioned!
'Look at me, look at me!' Waiving for a moment the obvious statement that this is a much-needed trait for any budding writer, I'm only responding to Ms Friedman's own review!
I'm keeping a bunch of unripe wine fruit in case the play isn't as good as, in my own arrogant opinion, I or my friends could have written. And I'll happily put them down and eat Umble Pie instead if I'm wrong!
Either way, I bet you'll enjoy the night. And if this drama (for so it is, not comedy) turns out to be decent, I'll be following you down there despite the decidedly 'iffy' review it is already receiving from its own producer!
Umm, Playfull, I'll buy a ticket for June 14th and meet up with you for a drink. I do think that live theatre has to be judged live - and our putative commitments to being playwrights means that we should be seeing as much live theatre as possible.
An agent in LA once told me that you can learn a lot from seeing a bad play. If it's bad, I'll learn. If it's good, I'll be entertained. Either way, if I am going to later be intensely critical of C4's failed opportunity to create good theatre, I am certainly going to be in the audience in order to judge whether the theatre is any good.
Errrm ... bit embarrassing. I sort-of got into Space Cadets a bit last year, and the SC Forum crowd were desperate to contact Drew (who played the US pilot) and it was late, and I'd had a beer or two that night, happened to have his e-mail and telephone number, passed them on and ...
Errrm ... bit embarrassing. I sort-of got into Space Cadets a bit last year, and the SC Forum crowd were desperate to contact Drew (who played the US pilot) and it was late, and I'd had a beer or two that night, happened to have his e-mail and telephone number, passed them on and ...
AdMan and PlayFull, going on the 14th? What bar for a drink? SF doesn't do the Simon Cowell bit. She just wants to open up the theatre. The tickets are cheaper too! WotPlay
Have you managed to book for the 14th Swan? If so what will you be wearing? Are you going ‘full length and fabulous’? I was thinking of wearing my Black Fedora with burgundy crushed velvet smoking Jacket and impossibly long cigarette holder – just in case the cameras are there.
'All we see and seem is but a dream within a dream' Poe
Gosh, nice to see the old crowd back (although I've enjoyed dropping in on Moonbird, Thez and co!). All very interesting and exciting, isn't it? This build up? Been getting the general gist of the threads and there seems to be some pessimism about the winning play. Just occurs to me though...How do these programmes work? Basically, they create tension by putting doubt in the minds of the audience - "will they pull it off, or WON'T they?" - they lower our expectations, engage our sympathy...thus setting the scene for a triumphant "David and Goliath" victory by the poor, trodden-upon, (by now very neurotic) writer! In short, I have no doubt the play will be a STORMING hit and will have all the more impact for the audience having been braced for potential disaster.
I have no feeling about the play itself either way - because I know next to nothing about it! Any pessimism I have is merely centred around the programme itself from the quotes attibuted to the management and team; and I'm waiting to see both with great excitement!
