Tamburlaine at TFANA

[AntV]

Tamburlaine at TFANA#1

Posted: 11/3/14 at 2:22am

Anyone see this yet? Is it worth the 4 hour run time? Anyone who hasn't seen it but is familiar with the play want to share their thoughts on it?

[dramamama611]

Tamburlaine at TFANA#2

Posted: 11/3/14 at 7:04am

FOUR hours? Yikes, it had better be riveting.

If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it? These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Tamburlaine at TFANA#2

Posted: 11/3/14 at 7:20am

Pretty sure it's a streamlined version, too, and that the original is closer to 7 hours.

"I know now that theatre saved my life." - Susan Stroman

[frogs_fan85]

Tamburlaine at TFANA#3

Posted: 11/3/14 at 7:58am

It was 3.5 hours at the first preview on Saturday night. The show moved pretty quickly and you get a decent half hour break to get some air/coffee. I had a good time and John Douglas Thompson is always a pleasure to watch.

[stevenycguy]

Tamburlaine at TFANA#4

Posted: 11/3/14 at 3:48pm

Just making sure, you mean a 7pm show is "out on the street" at 10:30pm?

[frogs_fan85]

Tamburlaine at TFANA#5

Posted: 11/3/14 at 4:02pm

Yes, I think I was already walking past BAM on the way home when I looked at my watch and it was 10:35.

[LarryD2]

Tamburlaine at TFANA#6

Posted: 11/3/14 at 4:05pm

It's a streamlined adaptation of two plays, not unlike the Henry IV that was done at Lincoln Center with Kevin Kline. And the two plays are very entertaining, and rarely produced. I've only read them, never seen them, so I'm anxious to see this. Marlowe revivals are few and far between, let alone productions with actors as fine as Mr. Thompson.

[ClydeBarrow]

Tamburlaine at TFANA#7

Posted: 11/10/14 at 6:59pm

Anyone seen this?

"Pardon my prior Mcfee slip. I know how to spell her name. I just don't know how to type it." -Talulah

[jnb9872]

Tamburlaine at TFANA#8

Posted: 11/10/14 at 9:10pm

I tagged along with a friend since I had yet to see anything at TFANA (which I thankfully have remedied now, I adore the Polonsky space! It is tremendous.) I also had never seen a Marlowe script on its feet before. I think this production is an assortment of some stunning moments and staging intermixed with a lot of less-successful language and scenes that don't inspire. There is a LOT of story here, maybe that's a casualty of the streamlining. Peripheral characters come and go (often via death) so often that few of them register. Thompson is remarkable, but often pretty one-note, as I think the whole show is. It's very gloomy, very bloody, very barbarous and cruel. But it definitely leaves an impression.

And yes, it's 3:30 as of last week with a 30 minute intermission.

Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.