5 posts tagged “shakespeare”
I could get used to going to the theatre every week, especially on Mondays which are usually such a dreary prospect, unfortunately there are funding issues so I'll have to make do with my sporadic trips for now. Anyhow, on to tonight's performance, The Revenger's Tragedy at the National Theatre which one of my fellow theatre-goers succinctly described as shagging in the first half and stabbing in the second.
There was a bit more to it than that but Thomas Middleton who wrote the play must have been the Tarantino of his day because this certainly would have had an 18 certificate. (It's amazing what you can get away with on stage because it's culture, innit?)
Middleton looked up to Shakespeare who was the equivalent of Scorsese in his day and there are certainly influences: talking to skulls anyone?
To try and describe the plot would just confuse. I read it online and in the program beforehand and it certainly addled my poor brain but all becomes clear in the live performance.
Essentially it is set in an corrupt Italian court and sees the protagonist plot a lengthy and complicated revenge on the ruling family among whom there are also various hard done by members seeking out their own revenge. Naturally it ends in a high, bloody, body count and tragedy. Although I think Middleton needed to work on the tragic element a little, Hamlet this isn't.
It was brilliantly acted so that you soon forgot the language and verse, ably led by Rory Kinnear as Vindice. It was predominantly a contemporary staging but nothing was lost in dragging the costumes, sets and music into the 21st century.
Enjoyed every minute and I admit to a vague feeling of smugness knowing that people just two rows behind paid a lot more for their tickets as I managed to get the Travelex subsidised seats near the front for the bargain price of £10.
And now I am away to bed forsooth I will be veritably grumpy in the morning when the alarm goeth off.
In pictures, sort of:
And back home to open my pressies which were particularly fab this year, most notable being a new digital camera which is a much better version of the one I've already got from Mosh and some headphones to replace the ones I lost in Cuba and a beautiful silver bangle from my friend Chris with a quote from my favourite Shakespearean play on it.
Also got a massive haul of my favourite brand of plain chocolate which should probably last me weeks but probably won't...
Just been to see Othello at the Donmar Warehouse, a theatre so small you can tell when the actors are looking you in the eye. And what actors: Chiwetal Ejiofor, Ewan McGregor and Kelly Reilly.
Acted with all the animation, subtlety and spit that befits Shakespeare and with cod piece and heaving bosom aplenty it is a tale of the worst of human emotions: jealousy and revenge and it's tragic consequences.
The machiavellan Iago (McGregor) looked over for promotion by Othello (Ejiofor) expertly plots his revenge, at first subtely sowing the seeds of doubt about his wife Desdemona's (Reilly) fidelity and then rapidly reeling Othello and his unwitting helpers into his web of lies.
Othello was played as man of passionate personality, but ultimately someone who is insecure and proud, whose pride once pricked is savagely wounded.
Iago who is one of the most evil characters of all the Shakespeare plays I know was played with firm purpose and no remorse even as he is undone.
And the beguilling Reilly played Desdemona as naturally flirtatious but with an innocence that helps steal the element of tragedy.
I was gripped from the moment the actors burst onto the stage until they took their final bow. It was such a great play to start the year.
Tickets are apparently going for £600 on ebay and I can understand why, but I wouldn't have sold mine for double that.
Oh and if all that wasn't enough, Richard E Grant and Richard Curtis were both in the audience and David Oyelowo who played Danny in Spooks was sat right behind me.
When I booked the tickets for the RSC's King Lear back in summer it seemed like an age to wait but in the blink of an eye the months have passed. Arriving excited with anticipation at the New London Theatre there were posters warning us that the play contained loud gun-shots and brief nudity. J and I both joked that as long as it wasn't Ian McKellan who was getting his kit off, that would be fine.
I'm fond of good tragedy and in particular Shakespeare's but this storyline didn't really move me and left me feeling that most of the characters got what they deserved. Perhaps it was the way it was played and that is no way a criticism of the acting which was generally superb.
It sounds like I didn't enjoy it but I really did and almost entirely because of McKellan who's performance was mesmerising. He is a true King of Shakespearean acting, put him and Patrick Stewart on the stage together and the rest of the cast might as well stay in their dressing rooms.
Other notable performances came from Sylvester McCoy who played The Fool and was unceremoniously and rather shockingly hung just before the interval. (His 'body' was retrieved by stage hands during the interval which some in the audience felt deserved an applause.)
Frances Barber who I've seen playing Mrs Coulter in the Dark Materials at the National was an excellently selfish and manipulative Goneril, the eldest daughter.
The jury is still out on Romola Garai (seen recently in the film Atonement) who played the youngest daughter Cordelia and the chief victim of the tragedy. Many actors have said baddies are more fun to play and maybe it's because she's a goody that she didn't get the chance to shine, I don't know, I'd have to see another actress play the part to really judge.
This probably only makes sense to me but while the story didn't move me in the same way that say Hamlet or Othello does the performance itself was utterly engaging.
And oh yes I nearly forgot, the nudity. Well it wasn't what I'd describe as brief and despite the warning it was far more shocking than Equus . What I will say is that Gandalf's is bigger than Harry Potter's.
Which band or artist which is no longer performing or alive would you have loved to have seen?
Submitted by Rev Stan.
Have been very impressed by the number of answers given to this and interesting to follow how the answers change during the day. By my rough calculations Vox posts the question in the middle of the night American time because it always changes at lunch time here in old blighty, so as the different parts of the world woke up and started blogging there was a slight shift in choices of artists.
Alot of the American answers seem to include the Beatles, Elvis, Frank Sinatra and other crooners and blues musicians from bygone days while in Europe the Beatles still dominated but bands such as Led Zepplin, Jimi Hendrix and Queen started to creep in.
An alarming large number of people want to see the Spice Girls, to which I'm not going to comment.
I think if I was to tot up the answers the Beatles and Elvis would be in the top two which isn't too much of a surprise.
And now for my answer. Well I could come at it from a different angle and say Laurence Olivier as I regard him as an artist and he did perform and I would have loved to have seen him in a Shakespeare play but that wouldn't be in keeping with what I had in mind when I posed the question.
So my top two has to be Nirvana and Abba.
Nirvana because I just love 'em and will be eternally jealous of my brother Derren who saw them at Rock City in Nottingham. Back then it was still possible to dodge security and get up on stage for a bit of stage diving, which he did. How cool is that?
And Abba because I just love the songs and it would be a great sing-along, have a bit of dance show.
