Big Damn Histories, update 7
Just finished 1 Henry VI. We're into the home stretch now!
Plays watched: 5/8
Alcohol units consumed: 4.
Cups of tea consumed: 3.
Hours of sleep: 7.5
Net running time of marathon: 26.5 hours
Transcendence achieved: I am totally in the zone. Also I have had so much caffeine today that I will probably not sleep for the rest of the week.
Random comments and observations:
+ 1 Henry VI is remarkably packed with stuff, isn't it? The French plot and the English plot both -- I keep getting sucked into the one and then when the other one comes up I'm all "oh, right, this is in the play too!" Although the English plot is more fun.
+ I think I sorta have a random crush on Bernard Hill, even though he has funny hair in this and he's playing a character with serious anger-management issues (he's the Duke of York).
ETA: Of course as soon as I say this he turns up in part two with a really half-assed stubbly-looking beard. Gah.
+ It's really weird watching this right after Henry V and seeing the English peers at the beginning played by old actors, since we just left off with them as historically-accurate young men (Henry V himself was only about 35 when he died).
+ Mortimer, whom we see for one scene as a decrepit old man who has been in prison for years, totally resembles someone out of a Monty Python sketch. I'm not sure whom.
+ The inability of most of the French characters in these productions to speak convincing French is a constant irritation. The exception is Katherine in Henry V, who is actually played by a French actress and so doesn't count anyway. ;)
+ Peter Benson, who plays Henry VI, is not a conventionally attractive man, but is not utterly horrible-looking. However, the costumers have done him no favors by putting him in a pageboy wig and powder-blue dress. (Well, that's what it looks like!)
+ I liked it a lot better in general than I did first time around, once we got past the random running and screaming fest that is the first act.
+ Trevor Peacock does kick a lot of ass as Talbot.
And now, on to 2 Henry VI, which is actually the only one of these I haven't actually seen yet. So that will be fun.
Plays watched: 5/8
Alcohol units consumed: 4.
Cups of tea consumed: 3.
Hours of sleep: 7.5
Net running time of marathon: 26.5 hours
Transcendence achieved: I am totally in the zone. Also I have had so much caffeine today that I will probably not sleep for the rest of the week.
Random comments and observations:
+ 1 Henry VI is remarkably packed with stuff, isn't it? The French plot and the English plot both -- I keep getting sucked into the one and then when the other one comes up I'm all "oh, right, this is in the play too!" Although the English plot is more fun.
+ I think I sorta have a random crush on Bernard Hill, even though he has funny hair in this and he's playing a character with serious anger-management issues (he's the Duke of York).
ETA: Of course as soon as I say this he turns up in part two with a really half-assed stubbly-looking beard. Gah.
+ It's really weird watching this right after Henry V and seeing the English peers at the beginning played by old actors, since we just left off with them as historically-accurate young men (Henry V himself was only about 35 when he died).
+ Mortimer, whom we see for one scene as a decrepit old man who has been in prison for years, totally resembles someone out of a Monty Python sketch. I'm not sure whom.
+ The inability of most of the French characters in these productions to speak convincing French is a constant irritation. The exception is Katherine in Henry V, who is actually played by a French actress and so doesn't count anyway. ;)
+ Peter Benson, who plays Henry VI, is not a conventionally attractive man, but is not utterly horrible-looking. However, the costumers have done him no favors by putting him in a pageboy wig and powder-blue dress. (Well, that's what it looks like!)
+ I liked it a lot better in general than I did first time around, once we got past the random running and screaming fest that is the first act.
+ Trevor Peacock does kick a lot of ass as Talbot.
And now, on to 2 Henry VI, which is actually the only one of these I haven't actually seen yet. So that will be fun.