35 posts tagged “ben whishaw”
Happened upon this set of interviews in my Whishaw files. It includes not only Ben but Eddie Redmayne, whom I know for playing Angel in the recent TV version of Tess of the D'Uberville's, Rupert Friend who was wonderful as Prince Albert in the Young Victoria and Aaron Johnson who I don't really know.
I like it for its relaxed and candid nature. And for not having the usual pretty but dumb interviewer.
OK OK I'll stop fishing for cheap laughs but in my defence, Mike Bartlett did choose a quite provocative title for his latest play.
I've already hinted in my tweets that I quite liked this play. Anything that has Ben Whishaw in it is going to immediately win points and, well, Cock was wonderfully entertaining.
The story centre's on John (Whishaw) who lives with his long term boyfriend M (Andrew Scott). The relationship is on the rocks and John meets and sleeps with a woman (W, played by Katherine Parkinson of the IT Crowd). He decides to confess his infidelity and mend his relationship with M but is still drawn to W and cannot quite give her up.
M decides to force John into choosing and invites W to dinner with the two of them in order have the whole thing out. But what he doesn't tell John is that he's also invited his Dad (Paul Jesson) to the dinner party for moral support.
It is both very funny and sad. John is at the same time irritatingly indecisive and endearing as he struggles with his feelings for both M and W.
But anyway I digress. Cock isn't on for very long and can only accommodate a small audience so it's no surprise that it has now sold out and I am more glad than I can express that I gambled on liking it and booked to see it twice.
Second visit will be in just over a weeks time and has a Q&A with the director and cast afterwards. Excited moi?
Oh and here are a few other reviews from the pro's who probably aren't quite as biased about Whishaw as I am.
Guardian "You may, according to taste, find the title a come-on or a turn-off.
But, far from being a sensational shocker, Mike Bartlett's play is a
sharp, witty study of a man helplessly torn between his longtime male
partner and a loving woman."
Variety "Tender or tortured, every scene is a bout in which punches are verbal,
not physical. Yet the stripped-down physical language is amazingly
expressive. John's nervous but increasingly excited first heterosexual
experience is genuinely erotic, a feat of directorial bravura
considering not a stitch of clothing is removed, neither of them
touches the other, and all they do is lock eyes, sway and, well, act."
The Stage But although the text is a compelling account of emotional confusion
and the struggle to comprehend the nature of love, Bartlett’s idea of
having a bare stage and no props, realised here in James Macdonald’s
experimental production, using designer Miriam Buether’s bear-pit set,
has mixed results.
I can only assume that the dressing rooms at the Royal Court theatre are tiny or smell of block drains or something because the actors that are performing there seem to prefer the sofa's in the public bar for a pre-performance drink or chat.
Then barely had I recovered and the man himself, Mr Whishaw, walked in and bought a banana and a tangerine (you think they'd get a bit of fruit laid on for them, the theatres aren't that impoverished surely?)
Then there was the theatre audience itself. It's like a Donmar in Pimlico with Imogen Stubbs enjoying the marvellous Cock (sorry but they will give modern plays such provocative titles) in the Jerwood Upstairs. Anyway I'm too tired now to do justice to writing about Cock except to say that it was my first visit Upstairs and the theatre was so deliciously thimble-sized that I was close enough to Mr Whishaw to touch him. I didn't, I hasten to add, I sat on my hands. However, at one point one of the other actors shoved him and I thought he was going to land into my lap.
Anyway tomorrow, tomorrow for more on that. Tired and have an early start.
Just wading through the reams of media coverage I've been collecting on Bright Star since it first premiered in Cannes in May and I came across this interview with Ben Whishaw.
It's probably the most relaxed I've seen him in an interview, normally he just comes across as a bag of nervous tension. In it he just oozes with enthusiasm for the role and experience of making it in a way I haven't seen from him before.
Just want to ruffle his hair, pinch his cheeks and give him a large slice of cake to eat.
(Interview is in two parts)
Looks like I'm going to get the chance to be on the same stage as Ben Whishaw after all...
Thank you for booking to see Cock here at the Royal Court.
As you may know, the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs is an adaptable studio space that can be configured in many different ways. At the time of going on sale we had not agreed the design for this production, so were unaware of the exact seating arrangements. We can now confirm the seating layout for Cock. As always we have endeavoured to make the seating as comfortable as possible, however the unique design of this production has meant that a proportion of the seats are without back rests. There is also no space underneath the seating for coats and bags. We would therefore ask that you deposit all such items, free of charge, in the theatre’s Cloakroom, which is located downstairs in the Stalls foyer area.
Rehearsals are going well, with a current running time of 1 hour, 45 minutes without interval. The production’s design means that all seating is accessed by crossing the stage. We are therefore not able to admit latecomers or readmit anyone who leaves during the performance. We would kindly ask that you arrive in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in good time before the performance is due to start in order to deposit bags at the cloakroom and make your way to the auditorium.
If you have any concerns with the above information, please do feel free to contact our team who will be happy to discuss these with you. We are contactable on 020 7565 5050, or via email at boxoffice@royalcourttheatre.com.
I do hope you enjoy the performance of Cock and we look forward to welcoming you to the Royal Court.
Best wishes
Dan Alicandro
Deputy Sales Manager
OK so Bright Star was in a win-win situation:
John Keats: check
Jane Campion: check
Ben Whishaw: check
The trailers were promising. Campion was going to have to do something pretty stupid for me not to like this film, for me not to love this film.
For those who don't know the story, it is told through the eyes of Fanny Brawne, the neighbour and object of romantic poet John Keats' affection and some would say muse. The two were unable to marry because Keats didn't have any money as his poetry was yet to gain mass market appeal and then his life was cut short by TB.
Keats wrote beautiful poetry and this is a beautiful film. The setting, showcasing the simple beauty of English nature is like a third character next to Brawne and Keats.
The script is kept simple almost with the attitude that less says more leaving Abbie Cornish who plays Brawne and Whishaw who plays Keats to showcase a more subtle side to their acting abilities.
There is one particular scene which cements Cornish as such a talent, I find it hard to believe that she could have produced such overwhelming emotion for more than one take. It is when Brawne finds out from Keats' friend Charles Brown that he has died in Rome, where he had traveled to for the good of his health to avoid the British winter.
The performance touches on such grief and heartbreak that it brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. And it is up there with Juliet Stephenson in Truly Madly Deeply.
If I was to judge this film on tears alone, my tears that is, not the actors, it would get a very damp 10 out of 10 as blubbed the whole way through. And I wasn't the only one in the cinema.
Not that I particularly care but here are what some of the professionals thought:
Daily Telegraph "It’s by some measure the best film she’s ever made. It feels special without being at all precious. Eloquent, too, but not self-consciously lyrical or florid."
Time Out "A combination of unstuffy dialogue, wise casting, unselfconscious performances and sensuous but never pretty photography makes Campion’s version of the nineteenth century feel current but not anachronistic."
Went to see An Education last night which, incidentally, was very good but what got me really excited was seeing the full trailer for Bright Star on the big screen. It is longer than earlier trailers, with a bit more humour and I can hardly contain my excitement as it finally comes out on Friday.
It reminded me of lovely hour I spent last week while on holiday. I was laying in a hammock on a hot afternoon, partially shaded by the branches of a grapefruit tree watching the odd cloud cross the sky and the occasional plane while listening to Ben Whishaw recite Keats poems on my iPod. It was one of those perfect moments I'll always remember. I'm sure Keats would have approved.
Here's the trailer, sadly with the US voice over which wasn't on the version of saw last night, and one of the poems...
Went to see An Education last night which, incidentally, was very good but what got me really excited was seeing the full trailer for Bright Star on the big screen. It is longer than earlier trailers, with a bit more humour and I can hardly contain my excitement as it finally comes out on Friday.
It reminded me of lovely hour I spent last week while on holiday. I was laying in a hammock on a hot afternoon, partially shaded by the branches of a grapefruit tree watching the odd cloud cross the sky while listening to Ben Whishaw recite Keats poems on my iPod. It was one of those perfect moments I'll always remember. I'm sure Keats would have approved.
Here's the trailer, sadly with the US voice over which wasn't on the version of saw last night, and one of the poems...
Was catching up with the Radio 4 film programme podcasts which, incidentally, are very good if you are interested in non-mainstream film, and there was an interview with first time director Peter Strickland who made the film Katalin Varga.
It's been on the fringes of my films-to-see radar but I confess not a priority until listening to the interview. What intrigued me is the fact that it is a first film, made on a tiny budget in Romanian and Hungarian.
Strickland inherited £40,000 from a relative and rather than do something sensible like buy a house decided to realise a dream and make a film. But not only did he make the film, a challenge in itself, but he chose to make it in Romania and in languages he doesn't speak. As he found out Romanian and Hungarian are not very commercial languages to shoot a film in and once it was finished he really struggled to get someone to show it. He even starting thinking 'oh well at least I got to learn a bit of Romanian'.
It was eventually picked up and showcased at this year's Berlin film festival and has made it to the Curzon in London.
I confess I find the story of how it was made fascinating and want to go and see it this weekend. A colleague saw it at the weekend and really enjoyed it (and she was sat behind Ben Whishaw, can you believe that).
It's interesting that it is potentially the second shoe-string budget film I've seen in month that has actually been very good (Le Donk and Scor-Zay-Zee being the other) and proves that you don't necessarily need millions to make good movies.
I've been scouring the internet for months and months for news of when sometime Stanley stalker and actor-fav Ben Whishaw would be treading the boards again.
He's got films in the can (Bright Star & The Tempest) but I crave the live performance, so imagine my joy when I discovered this little golden nugget on a theatre website.
Yep Mr Whishaw is taking to the stage at the Royal Court Upstairs in November in a play called Cock about a man who falls for a women while on a break from his boyfriend. It's in a small intimate theatre, with unallocated seating so I'll be practising my elbows-out dash to the front row between now and Nov 20 (yep booked tickets already). Just hope he doesn't fling anything at me this time.
