2021 Armitage Weekly Round-up #3

/ January 24, 2021

In last week’s round-up, I had listed a tumblr post that compiled the detail shots by Mike Lees of the intricately detailed Uncle Vanya set. Beauty aside, it is just astounding with how much care and precision the set was designed. In the comments, Besotted and I were musing about the point and reason of such detail – that is invisible for the audience. Keen on getting an answer from the source, I took to Instagram and actually asked the set designer, Rae Smith, “all that detail that would not have been noticeable by the theatregoers (e.g. documents in Russian, Cyrillic typewriter) is that all due to your own perfectionism/style or is that done solely to benefit the actors so they can “be” the character and feel completely immersed?” She kindly came back with an answer. (If below embedded IG post doesn’t show on your screen, I have included a screenshot of her answer below left.)

 

Sieh dir diesen Beitrag auf Instagram an

 

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Rae Smith (@rae_smith_london)

//www.instagram.com/embed.js

Interesting to know, right, that the set itself here serves not only the entertainment of the audience, but even more so the imagination of the actors. That is a lot of prep and props just for the benefit of helping actors do their job. That sounds as if I disapprove – I do not!

Rae Smith actually had tagged the wrong stage manager into her reply and corrected her mistake in a second reply. Which brought Graham Michael, stage manager for UV, into the thread. You can read the conversation in the embedded IG post above, but just to say he chimed in on the Cyrillic typewriter. And interestingly – that typewriter apparently is currently up for auction on eBay! Graham posted the link for me, and I checked it out – Yours for £40 – if you act fast. Only 5 hours to go… (click picture to go to listing).

Graham also let it slip to me that he still has plenty of photos from UV. I have encouraged him to share them 😁Ok, but now for this week’s…

  1. That’s how I like to start a round-up – with some gorgeous Guy with nice edits. Posted by zuzcreation
  2. Riepu10 continues to delight us with her Astrov gifs, here with added hand porn let’s continue to keep the veil of silence over that anachronistic plastic biro…
  3. Riepu10 again. With this series of masterpiece gifs. Required watching. Possibly not in presence of significant other. Enjoy
  4. Staying with Riepu10 – this is an old edit of hers from a while back. Hm, I am wondering whether we should create a Porter meme *coughs*… This could be an interesting source image
  5. Jeepers, that’s some strong hairporn here in this gif set by richiecrispie. Astrov with his #romanticherohair
  6. An old one by thelurkingdead, spotted on mezzmerizedbyrichard’s TL – Richard through car windows…
  7. Nfcomics has completely nailed it. *coughs*. What a Guy Wants
  8. In the current climate, I really enjoyed this piece of fan fiction by thewarriorandtheking. Fluff! Of the best kind
  9. The Hobbit characters as birds by elvish-sky. Yeah, not surprised about Thorin

Sorry, looks like a slow week… But if you need to fill time, I can back Richard’s recommendation of the new Nicola Shindler-produced Channel 4 drama It’s a Sin. Mr Guylty and I tuned in last night and went on what is basically a binge for our standards: three out of five episodes watched in one evening. The show follows a group of young gay men (and one token female, straight friend 😜) through the 1980s. Each episode takes place in a different year, starting in 1981 and ending in 1991. For someone who has lived through the eighties, I did have memories of this new lethal illness that caused the campaigns for safe sex in the mid-eighties. But since the friend group in the film is roughly ten years older than me, the earlier episodes were just that bit too far removed from my own memories and experiences. Having said all that, the show walks the perfect balance between laughter and sadness. Watching some of the action is just astounding – the bias and bigotry and discrimination is hard to stomach. And especially so when you realise it’s only 40 years ago. The show certainly gets the general atmosphere very well across, not least thanks to the fabulous 80s soundtrack. Definitely a great show to watch – not just for members of the LGBTQ+ communities!

Happy Saturday,

Sonja ❤️

 

 

 

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43 thoughts on “2021 Armitage Weekly Round-up #3”

  1. Wonder which fan has bought the typewriter!
    Great investigative work on the props and it makes complete sense that the set helps the actors with their acting and being in the zone.
    Watcehd the first episode of Its a Sin and it was very good. I was only a little kid in the 80s but I remember alot of the TV ads.

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  2. Haven’t had a chance to do much tv other than date time with hubs. We’ve been trying to watch The Stand, but haven’t caught up and my hubs keeps making jokes taking me out of the story. Oh well, at least we’ve read the book already.
    ❄️
    We got snow to deal with today so won’t be up for tv tonight. I’ll probs be begging for some hot coffee ☕️and demanding he let me put my cold feet 🦶🏼on his hot legs to warm myself up by the time we’re done digging ourselves through the snow today. ❄️☃️❄️ Thank you for including WAGW in this weeks line up. 😊

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  3. Mmm, #6 is yummy… so free of shrubbery and a particularly lovely shot of Lucas!

    Thanks for the insight on the set. Amazing. And have I been totally blind not to notice the Astrovian background with the green typewriter? 😃

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  6. Thank you for getting the answer to the stage design question! I’m glad we were given the opportunity to see the finer details of the set, especially since I only have eyes for Astrov when I’ve watched the play. 😉

    Re AIDS campaign from the 80’s, this was Australia’s. Horrible! I still don’t know if was considered a “success” or not.

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  7. Thanks for the round-up Guylty, some delights here. Riepu10 rules!
    4) I love the idea of a Porter meme! He is no match for those woolly mittens though
    6) Thud! RA suits a car so so much. I thought for some reason that the first images were all of Lucas, and I was going to write that he had a touch of the Dolarhydes, then I realised that the first two were Francis. it is fascinating how RA manages to convey the different aspects of his characters in his eyes or set of his face.

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