Little Dog Laughed at the Garrick
Jan. 19th, 2010 02:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
burntcopperWent to see Little Dog Laughed last night with Pooks, starring Rupert Friend as the actor, Tamsin Grieg as his agent, Harry Lloyd as actor's boyfriend, and Gemma Arterton as the boyfriend's girlfriend. It is AWESOME. Very funny, everyone gives a great performance, and it's seriously sharp and black in places.
Plot: Up-and-comer actor and agent in NYC to get their hands on a play. Actor, when drunk, calls for a rent boy. Rent boy and him start seeing each other in a non-work capacity, with added dealing with falling for a bloke for the first time for each of them. Agent tries to keep a lid on it and manage the writer of the play. Girlfriend is really, really fucking confused and trying to deal.
V. sparse set - it's mostly bare white with the occasional bed or chair (as it takes place mostly in either the actor's hotel room, a trendy restaurant or the very sparse bugger all furniture of the boyfriend's flat, this works) and a lot of lighting.
Tamsin Grieg? So of the awesome (and the best lines) that Pooks was having traumatic flashbacks to agents she has known (especially Julie Caitlin Brown, even has her gestures). Utterly, utterly razor sharp and chic and *horrifically* insecure. She pretty much carries the plot of the play and works as a narrator, explaining the background to the audience, talking us through conversations with the writer, the mechanics of Hollywood - there is a lot of speaking to the audience, which all the characters do, but she does the most.
Rupert Friend is probably the least stand-out but does a very nice line in charismatic, manipulative and occasionally inarticulate (especially when trying to explain to the rent boy he's seeing for the second time about being in the closet, when what he mostly wants is the connection - it's why he's seeing him again). Probably his best scene in the manipulative is him and the agent talking us through the lunch they have with the writer to get their hands on the play.
Harry Lloyd, rentboy/boyfriend? Adorable, cynical, pragmatic, vulnerable, torn between his best mate/girlfriend and his sudden feelings for a bloke when he'd previously counted himself as straight. Especially when he's getting his first 'I'm not going to rip him off while he's drunk and passed out' feelings. A lot of that's done in body language. Very, very magnetic on stage, this boy.
Gemma Arterton, girlfriend: So. Fucking. Adorable. Confused, drifting, no idea what she's doing or what the hell is going on (she's just split up from her rich older boyfriend at the beginning of the play so starts it off adrift), then comes the realisation and all she pretty much wants is security and someone to take care of her. Especially when she finds out she's pregnant and they try to figure out what to do.
actor/boyfriend is played really well, from their hesitancy at the beginning - the second time actor calls him, he explains that he doesn't want sex, just wants to sleep with him. When they wake up in the morning, it's horrifically uncomfy, they're beginning to realise they fancy each other and not okay with it to the point that Harry Lloyd's leaving, one last look and suddenly they're snogging, which goes to the fastest onstage strip ever, both of them getting in the other's way and tripping the other up. Brilliant just for how correct that is for those 'Bed. Now. Yesterday.' times.
No, the ending is not happy, at least not for everyone - the agent twists the originally gay play to a heterosexual one to make it more mainstream, the actor decides his image is more important than being happy and marries the preggers girlfriend (hello! photo scene at the end is brilliant) as a beard and boyfriend leaves with a cheque in his pocket from the agent because he doesn't want to live the lie of pilates instructor/pa/script reader. My only real poutiness, as I like happy endings, but it's really true to the play and the mechanics of Hollywood.
I has photos of all the cast. I is happy. Also, seating - we were at the back of the dress circle, great view - overhang cuts off the top of the stage but doesn't matter in this as all of it takes place below that point.
in quest for twitter client for nokia s60, trialling gravity and now going to try twittix. wish me luck.
Plot: Up-and-comer actor and agent in NYC to get their hands on a play. Actor, when drunk, calls for a rent boy. Rent boy and him start seeing each other in a non-work capacity, with added dealing with falling for a bloke for the first time for each of them. Agent tries to keep a lid on it and manage the writer of the play. Girlfriend is really, really fucking confused and trying to deal.
V. sparse set - it's mostly bare white with the occasional bed or chair (as it takes place mostly in either the actor's hotel room, a trendy restaurant or the very sparse bugger all furniture of the boyfriend's flat, this works) and a lot of lighting.
Tamsin Grieg? So of the awesome (and the best lines) that Pooks was having traumatic flashbacks to agents she has known (especially Julie Caitlin Brown, even has her gestures). Utterly, utterly razor sharp and chic and *horrifically* insecure. She pretty much carries the plot of the play and works as a narrator, explaining the background to the audience, talking us through conversations with the writer, the mechanics of Hollywood - there is a lot of speaking to the audience, which all the characters do, but she does the most.
Rupert Friend is probably the least stand-out but does a very nice line in charismatic, manipulative and occasionally inarticulate (especially when trying to explain to the rent boy he's seeing for the second time about being in the closet, when what he mostly wants is the connection - it's why he's seeing him again). Probably his best scene in the manipulative is him and the agent talking us through the lunch they have with the writer to get their hands on the play.
Harry Lloyd, rentboy/boyfriend? Adorable, cynical, pragmatic, vulnerable, torn between his best mate/girlfriend and his sudden feelings for a bloke when he'd previously counted himself as straight. Especially when he's getting his first 'I'm not going to rip him off while he's drunk and passed out' feelings. A lot of that's done in body language. Very, very magnetic on stage, this boy.
Gemma Arterton, girlfriend: So. Fucking. Adorable. Confused, drifting, no idea what she's doing or what the hell is going on (she's just split up from her rich older boyfriend at the beginning of the play so starts it off adrift), then comes the realisation and all she pretty much wants is security and someone to take care of her. Especially when she finds out she's pregnant and they try to figure out what to do.
actor/boyfriend is played really well, from their hesitancy at the beginning - the second time actor calls him, he explains that he doesn't want sex, just wants to sleep with him. When they wake up in the morning, it's horrifically uncomfy, they're beginning to realise they fancy each other and not okay with it to the point that Harry Lloyd's leaving, one last look and suddenly they're snogging, which goes to the fastest onstage strip ever, both of them getting in the other's way and tripping the other up. Brilliant just for how correct that is for those 'Bed. Now. Yesterday.' times.
No, the ending is not happy, at least not for everyone - the agent twists the originally gay play to a heterosexual one to make it more mainstream, the actor decides his image is more important than being happy and marries the preggers girlfriend (hello! photo scene at the end is brilliant) as a beard and boyfriend leaves with a cheque in his pocket from the agent because he doesn't want to live the lie of pilates instructor/pa/script reader. My only real poutiness, as I like happy endings, but it's really true to the play and the mechanics of Hollywood.
I has photos of all the cast. I is happy. Also, seating - we were at the back of the dress circle, great view - overhang cuts off the top of the stage but doesn't matter in this as all of it takes place below that point.
in quest for twitter client for nokia s60, trialling gravity and now going to try twittix. wish me luck.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-19 03:59 pm (UTC)Hm. Have I ever been that tired? I cannot recall…
Sounds like a pretty impressive play, and thanks for the summary! It’s nice to hear that Tamsin Grieg is still as good as ever - I’ve liked her from Black Books onwards. Of course, unlike you I’m quite happy with a downer ending. It’s the hint of Vogon in my psyche: “I don’t see why anyone else should have a good time...”
Also: Many thanks for the GILT and Theatremonkey tips! Tickets for Priscilla were purchased last night, so in a couple of weeks from now I shall be sitting back and enjoying a cock, in a frock, on a rock.
As it were.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-19 04:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-19 07:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-19 09:58 pm (UTC)