Where are you going tonight?

[Bruce Rioja]

Tonight I'm going to the Octagon for A Streetcar named Desire. Really looking forward to it.

Going on Saturday, William. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated - it's had some cracking reviews.

Have a good evening.

Edit: I quite like this line from The Independent.

A melancholy emptiness echoes around David Thacker's production. He neither sentimentalises nor demonises his characters but shows them in all their fractured richness – providing realism and magic in equal measure.

[General Mannerheim]

Brando is dead!?

[clapton is god]

^^ We saw Streetcar on Saturday the 18th after it opened the night before. Excellent production, truly excellent! What an opener on the season. We both emerged quite shocked. In fact my wife had tears in her eyes as we left the theatre. Its quite a dramatic ending! Superb performances all round from an excellent company.

We enjoyed it so much that I ordered the film with Brando and Leigh to compare the two productions and the Octagon compares very favourably.

Enjoy it both of you.

[William the White]

^^ We saw Streetcar on Saturday the 18th after it opened the night before. Excellent production, truly excellent! What an opener on the season. We both emerged quite shocked. In fact my wife had tears in her eyes as we left the theatre. Its quite a dramatic ending! Superb performances all round from an excellent company.

We enjoyed it so much that I ordered the film with Brando and Leigh to compare the two productions and the Octagon compares very favourably.

Enjoy it both of you.

Thanks clapton, will report on my response. Looking forward to it even more now.

Think the general might be persuadable to attend the original 3D drama?

[thebish]

do you have to wear special glasses?

[William the White]

do you have to wear special glasses?

What do you hope you might see?

Ever the optimist, thebish.

[thebish]

do you have to wear special glasses?

What do you hope you might see?

Ever the optimist, thebish.

when I were a lad, all the magazines used to advertise x-ray specs... they never worked either!

[General Mannerheim]

do you have to wear special glasses?

What do you hope you might see?

Ever the optimist, thebish.

when I were a lad, all the magazines used to advertise x-ray specs... they never worked either!

to be fair them cassocks are pretty thick!

[William the White]

Streetcar is a very, very good production that tonight built from a slow set-up to the stunning climax that clapton identified - it even had a bunch of sixth formers round us sniffling (and also, chatting really animatedly at the interval)...

Regional theatres, I suspect, face severe cuts come the end of October... Losing theatre of this quality will be very hard to bear... for a lot of people - Tuesday night and about 80% full... I just hope it won't happen, but am very fearful...

[Bruce Rioja]

Regional theatres, I suspect, face severe cuts come the end of October... Losing theatre of this quality will be very hard to bear... for a lot of people - Tuesday night and about 80% full... I just hope it won't happen, but am very fearful...

I'm really torn on this, William. I'm an advocate of the arts paying for themselves and should the Octagon have to push up its ticket prices then I'm happy to pay the extra. However, I understand that not everyone's in a similar position and who knows, maybe someday I won't be.

[Little Green Man]

Talking of regional theatre, I'll be trying to catch this fine fellow in a few days time.

http://www.traverse.co.uk/shows_hoipolloi.htm

[Little Green Man]

I just hope it won't happen, but am very fearful...

Not just you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6rYDaORe3k

[William the White]

Regional theatres, I suspect, face severe cuts come the end of October... Losing theatre of this quality will be very hard to bear... for a lot of people - Tuesday night and about 80% full... I just hope it won't happen, but am very fearful...

I'm really torn on this, William. I'm an advocate of the arts paying for themselves and should the Octagon have to push up its ticket prices then I'm happy to pay the extra. However, I understand that not everyone's in a similar position and who knows, maybe someday I won't be.

I think it's quite a while since the last survey was done into regional theatre audiences - sometime in early 1990s, i think, but when it was the Octagon had the greatest social range of any theatre in England and Wales, and, i think, the highest proportion of social classes C,D and E. I suspect it may have a significantly lower proportion now (but still high in comparison to others).

That strikes me as something to be proud of, and it's noticeable how the octagon audience really enjoys itself - actors talk about it a lot - there's nothing like an octagon audience, vocal, appreciative, enjoy themselves.

It would be a real shame to see that go.

I'm a strong advocate of public support for the arts - because it shouldn't be available exclusively to the wealthy.

[Il Pirate]

Regional theatres, I suspect, face severe cuts come the end of October... Losing theatre of this quality will be very hard to bear... for a lot of people - Tuesday night and about 80% full... I just hope it won't happen, but am very fearful...

I'm really torn on this, William. I'm an advocate of the arts paying for themselves and should the Octagon have to push up its ticket prices then I'm happy to pay the extra. However, I understand that not everyone's in a similar position and who knows, maybe someday I won't be.

I think it's quite a while since the last survey was done into regional theatre audiences - sometime in early 1990s, i think, but when it was the Octagon had the greatest social range of any theatre in England and Wales, and, i think, the highest proportion of social classes C,D and E. I suspect it may have a significantly lower proportion now (but still high in comparison to others).

That strikes me as something to be proud of, and it's noticeable how the octagon audience really enjoys itself - actors talk about it a lot - there's nothing like an octagon audience, vocal, appreciative, enjoy themselves.

It would be a real shame to see that go.

I'm a strong advocate of public support for the arts - because it shouldn't be available exclusively to the wealthy.

Well said William. And the sooner we stop massive subsidies for the Royal Opera House, which in the main is taken from lottery monies, the better. Not that I'm against opera, I quite like some it; but why should 'grass root' community arts and artists miss out of the divvy, so the government can subsidize a particular niche market, attended in the main by class 'A' demograph rich bast**ds is beyond me.

[TANGODANCER]

Nothing wrong with sponsoring the ROH or any such perpetrators of the musical arts, they should just accep that all genuine arts are important. Tracy Emin and co or the ROH? ? No contest.

[Verbal]

Probably Bolton for a few, to celebrate my 23rd

[William the White]

Nothing wrong with sponsoring the ROH or any such perpetrators of the musical arts, they should just accep that all genuine arts are important. Tracy Emin and co or the ROH? ? No contest.

TANGO adds transparency to his traditional role as agent provocateur...

[Il Pirate]

Nothing wrong with sponsoring the ROH or any such perpetrators of the musical arts, they should just accep that all genuine arts are important. Tracy Emin and co or the ROH? ? No contest.

Nothing wrong with subsidising it at all, I have to agree. As long as other art bodies are subsidised to the same degree, which sadly is not the case.

[Il Pirate]

Probably Bolton for a few, to celebrate my 23rd

Happy birthday verbal. I've got tins of soup in my cupboard older than you

[Gary the Enfield]

Probably Bolton for a few, to celebrate my 23rd

Happy birthday verbal. I've got tins of soup in my cupboard older than you

You do know the Cold War's over don't you Long John?

Happy Birthday Verbal. Hope you had a good 'un.