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Sep. 15th, 2006 09:51 amFor reasons which escape me, I seem to have been remarkably cultured over the last few weeks.
First up was a trip to see Particularly in the Heartland, an avant-garde piece of experimental theatre from US-based TEAM theatre. The piece wsa a hit at this year's edinburgh Festival and got a good writeup in The Guardian, and so naturally I expected it to be tooth-grindingly awful. As it was, it was interesting enough with some very good ideas which simply didn't seem to go anywhere - particularly a lengthy Christmas Carol-inspired scene. Sadly, whilst interesting, it could still do with being half an hour shorter and with less shouting. It being avant-garde theatre, there's also a girl wandering about in her underwear for no particular reason for a large part of the show, and even that wasn't enough to fully redeem it in my eyes.
My London chums can still see if if you're so minded, as it's on until after the weekend..
Next was a trip to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Startford Upon Avon to see Patrick Stewart as Prospero in the Tempest. The thing I like most about the RSC is that they have the budget and the clout not to do things by halves so the set design and staging never have the half-finished feel of many stage productions, and they're also unafraid to experiment. Moving the setting of Prospero's Isle from the traditional Mediterranean/tropical setting to an Arctic research base completely changes the meanings of a lot of Shakespeares dialogue, such as the shift from the original's shipwrecked crew cheerfully finding all that can support life on the island to a despairing cynicism at their plight in an arctic wasteland.
Stewart is, predictably, completely brilliant and manages to dominate the play, even in the face of excellent performances by Caliban, Trinculo, Stephano and Antonio (a brilliant Matinee villain), plus an Ariel who seemed more inspired by Freddie Krueger than any Neil Gaiman Fae (and was all the better for it).
As well as all of that, Patrick Stewart is astonishingly buff for a 66-year old man. Fans of naked Jean-Luc Picard-flesh are advised that the staging of Anthony & Cleopatra, which is also playing at the moment with Stewart in the lead, features him wandering round with his top off for most of the play.
And then to cap it all off I spent last night here:
And very nice it was too.
First up was a trip to see Particularly in the Heartland, an avant-garde piece of experimental theatre from US-based TEAM theatre. The piece wsa a hit at this year's edinburgh Festival and got a good writeup in The Guardian, and so naturally I expected it to be tooth-grindingly awful. As it was, it was interesting enough with some very good ideas which simply didn't seem to go anywhere - particularly a lengthy Christmas Carol-inspired scene. Sadly, whilst interesting, it could still do with being half an hour shorter and with less shouting. It being avant-garde theatre, there's also a girl wandering about in her underwear for no particular reason for a large part of the show, and even that wasn't enough to fully redeem it in my eyes.
My London chums can still see if if you're so minded, as it's on until after the weekend..
Next was a trip to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Startford Upon Avon to see Patrick Stewart as Prospero in the Tempest. The thing I like most about the RSC is that they have the budget and the clout not to do things by halves so the set design and staging never have the half-finished feel of many stage productions, and they're also unafraid to experiment. Moving the setting of Prospero's Isle from the traditional Mediterranean/tropical setting to an Arctic research base completely changes the meanings of a lot of Shakespeares dialogue, such as the shift from the original's shipwrecked crew cheerfully finding all that can support life on the island to a despairing cynicism at their plight in an arctic wasteland.
Stewart is, predictably, completely brilliant and manages to dominate the play, even in the face of excellent performances by Caliban, Trinculo, Stephano and Antonio (a brilliant Matinee villain), plus an Ariel who seemed more inspired by Freddie Krueger than any Neil Gaiman Fae (and was all the better for it).
As well as all of that, Patrick Stewart is astonishingly buff for a 66-year old man. Fans of naked Jean-Luc Picard-flesh are advised that the staging of Anthony & Cleopatra, which is also playing at the moment with Stewart in the lead, features him wandering round with his top off for most of the play.
And then to cap it all off I spent last night here:
And very nice it was too.
