London!
Sorry this has taken a while, but LJ has been on a real go-slow for me, and it's been driving me mad!
Anyway, herein my report on seeing Ibsen's 'Ghosts, or Those Who Return' with HARRY LLOYD at the Arcola Theatre in Hackney, London:
I shall never love London, no matter how much I get more used to it, but since I have to go there if I am to see Harry Lloyd in plays, then how better to go than by meeting up with my longest time-served friend (thirty years this year!) and the incomparable misswed?!
It was a great couple of days (even if the coach journey home nearly finished me and my veins off), and the play was FANTASTIC!!!
Seriously, if there is any possibility at all of your going to see it, then GO.
My goodness me, I knew we were in for a treat when I saw the performance photo thingies on the 'foyer' wall (the theatre is tiny weeny and really rather funky) and there were signs of partially unbuttoned shirts and sweaty hair about the personage of our H.
We'd expected the play to be rather inaccessible and worthy, but it really, really wasn't. Apparently it is a modernised adaptation, but the production didn't have that feel about it at all. They'd gone for a period set and period costume, but had 'allowed' the actors to speak in their own accents (though largely in well-spoken versions of), and the language felt entirely appropriate to the piece.
In fact, afterwards, we were scoffing at a review that said, 'would they really have said 'go ahead' in nineteenth century Norway?' - well, perhaps not, but they wouldn't have been speaking in English, either!!
The only odd bit, that both Miss Wed and I noted, was that Regine's character (I think she's supposed to be in her early twenties) uses the word 'hell' as an expletive, and 'bitch' in reported speech, but then criticises her father for using the word 'bloody'! That was right at the beginning though, and all the negative reviews I've seen since appeared to be trying too hard to be purist about the text and reading of the different characters.
To my mind, the whole thing was very smooth, and certainly carried little old philistine me away!
Despite joining the queue to go into the studio a while after it formed, we managed to get front row seats. You have to imagine the (small) set as one quarter of a square, and the audience occupying the other three quarters:
Since the set design was sort of semi 'in the round', we had to guess where we'd get the best view point, but despite getting a fair amount of Harry's back in the first part, we had some wonderful views of his face (and neck and chest - yum!) when he was really getting into his stride in the second half.
In this scene, we were sitting just to the left of this photo, and got every little nuance of what was a very important, intimate moment.
Also, had we been in the other block of seating, we'd have been robbed of the power in the final scene by not seeing his face at all.
And OH, SWEET LORD was he gorgeous in this play. He spent the first half of the play wearing a three piece Victorian black suit (love his face here!):
Photo credited to Robert Workman
...and the last part covered in sooty streaks, a damp, half unbuttoned shirt (which showed off the shape of his body nicely), dishevelled trousers and ultimately touchable hair. Haven't got a good picture of this (though there was one in the foyer), so you'll have to make do with this one instead:
Photo credited to Donald Cooper
Since the lighting gets darker and darker throughout the play, there were also several moments when the luminescence of Harry's eyes really came into its own. This was particularly true of the part where he's sitting in the single armchair at the corner of the stage, his character nearly defeated. Just, wow.
Suzanne Burden, who played his mother, was fantastic. She spent most of the play on stage, and her character really goes through the emotional mill, so I could manage not to be jealous of how much she got to touch him!!
Right at the end of the play, she has to embrace him rather desperately, and he is supposed to be inert - this is just before the curtain (had there been one!) falls... They came back on stage to take a bow almost immediately, and she was still apologising to him for practically smothering him!
It was a really lovely moment to see (especially at such close quarters) and he was most charming in showing that it didn't matter - of course!
I know it's one of the things actors are paid for, but I don't know how they manage to maintain such a high emotional charge night after night. Ms. Burden must be absolutely shattered at the end of every performance. She nearly had me in tears when her character is at the end of her emotional rope, and screams at her son, 'But I gave birth to you!'
Mind you, there were several occasions when I nearly put my hand over my eyes - Harry was so, so good in the role (and it was a big role - certainly the biggest out of the three plays I've seen him in, The Sea, View From the Bridge and now this one), and since his character is on the brink of a break down, it was harrowing to watch.
In happier times!
(Note the Batman t-shirt, lankyguy!!)
I seem to say this every time, but this was the finest thing I've seen him in, and not just because of that shirt! He was so much more into this role (how one reviewer could call his acting insipid is beyond me) than I've experienced before - whether this was because of the larger role, or the tiny cast, or the point they were at in the run, or because he's getting better and better, I couldn't say, but it was very happy-making.
We didn't go for the stage door lurking afterwards, for several reasons, not least it took us two hours to get back from the theatre as it was! Since it was such an intimate play, it would have also felt weirder than normal, and I'm not sure it would have been right to pick up Harry for his performance, when the rest of the cast were equally amazing.
We'd have loved to have gone to one of the performances with an aftershow discussion, but I couldn't have waited any longer to go to London - I was very uncomfortable sitting in the audience as it was (despite the leg room afforded by the front row), and was absolutely exhausted by the time I got to bed.
The coach home the next day was roasting and the air vents didn't appear to be working, and my legs and bottom were hurting too much for me to sleep all the way back. The journey seemed endless, despite only being three hours long.
But still, it really was a great experience, and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
Thank you SO much to misswed for stirring me to go, and for missing out on things that other friends would have accompanied her with! And also to Ann, although she won't see this, for seeing me across London before and afterwards - I'd never have managed it else.
I think that about covers all things Harry - though I may well think of other things the minute I press 'post'!!
Anyway, herein my report on seeing Ibsen's 'Ghosts, or Those Who Return' with HARRY LLOYD at the Arcola Theatre in Hackney, London:
I shall never love London, no matter how much I get more used to it, but since I have to go there if I am to see Harry Lloyd in plays, then how better to go than by meeting up with my longest time-served friend (thirty years this year!) and the incomparable misswed?!
It was a great couple of days (even if the coach journey home nearly finished me and my veins off), and the play was FANTASTIC!!!
Seriously, if there is any possibility at all of your going to see it, then GO.
My goodness me, I knew we were in for a treat when I saw the performance photo thingies on the 'foyer' wall (the theatre is tiny weeny and really rather funky) and there were signs of partially unbuttoned shirts and sweaty hair about the personage of our H.
We'd expected the play to be rather inaccessible and worthy, but it really, really wasn't. Apparently it is a modernised adaptation, but the production didn't have that feel about it at all. They'd gone for a period set and period costume, but had 'allowed' the actors to speak in their own accents (though largely in well-spoken versions of), and the language felt entirely appropriate to the piece.
In fact, afterwards, we were scoffing at a review that said, 'would they really have said 'go ahead' in nineteenth century Norway?' - well, perhaps not, but they wouldn't have been speaking in English, either!!
The only odd bit, that both Miss Wed and I noted, was that Regine's character (I think she's supposed to be in her early twenties) uses the word 'hell' as an expletive, and 'bitch' in reported speech, but then criticises her father for using the word 'bloody'! That was right at the beginning though, and all the negative reviews I've seen since appeared to be trying too hard to be purist about the text and reading of the different characters.
To my mind, the whole thing was very smooth, and certainly carried little old philistine me away!
Despite joining the queue to go into the studio a while after it formed, we managed to get front row seats. You have to imagine the (small) set as one quarter of a square, and the audience occupying the other three quarters:
Since the set design was sort of semi 'in the round', we had to guess where we'd get the best view point, but despite getting a fair amount of Harry's back in the first part, we had some wonderful views of his face (and neck and chest - yum!) when he was really getting into his stride in the second half.
In this scene, we were sitting just to the left of this photo, and got every little nuance of what was a very important, intimate moment.
Also, had we been in the other block of seating, we'd have been robbed of the power in the final scene by not seeing his face at all.
And OH, SWEET LORD was he gorgeous in this play. He spent the first half of the play wearing a three piece Victorian black suit (love his face here!):
Photo credited to Robert Workman
...and the last part covered in sooty streaks, a damp, half unbuttoned shirt (which showed off the shape of his body nicely), dishevelled trousers and ultimately touchable hair. Haven't got a good picture of this (though there was one in the foyer), so you'll have to make do with this one instead:
Photo credited to Donald Cooper
Since the lighting gets darker and darker throughout the play, there were also several moments when the luminescence of Harry's eyes really came into its own. This was particularly true of the part where he's sitting in the single armchair at the corner of the stage, his character nearly defeated. Just, wow.
Suzanne Burden, who played his mother, was fantastic. She spent most of the play on stage, and her character really goes through the emotional mill, so I could manage not to be jealous of how much she got to touch him!!
Right at the end of the play, she has to embrace him rather desperately, and he is supposed to be inert - this is just before the curtain (had there been one!) falls... They came back on stage to take a bow almost immediately, and she was still apologising to him for practically smothering him!
It was a really lovely moment to see (especially at such close quarters) and he was most charming in showing that it didn't matter - of course!
I know it's one of the things actors are paid for, but I don't know how they manage to maintain such a high emotional charge night after night. Ms. Burden must be absolutely shattered at the end of every performance. She nearly had me in tears when her character is at the end of her emotional rope, and screams at her son, 'But I gave birth to you!'
Mind you, there were several occasions when I nearly put my hand over my eyes - Harry was so, so good in the role (and it was a big role - certainly the biggest out of the three plays I've seen him in, The Sea, View From the Bridge and now this one), and since his character is on the brink of a break down, it was harrowing to watch.
In happier times!
(Note the Batman t-shirt, lankyguy!!)
I seem to say this every time, but this was the finest thing I've seen him in, and not just because of that shirt! He was so much more into this role (how one reviewer could call his acting insipid is beyond me) than I've experienced before - whether this was because of the larger role, or the tiny cast, or the point they were at in the run, or because he's getting better and better, I couldn't say, but it was very happy-making.
We didn't go for the stage door lurking afterwards, for several reasons, not least it took us two hours to get back from the theatre as it was! Since it was such an intimate play, it would have also felt weirder than normal, and I'm not sure it would have been right to pick up Harry for his performance, when the rest of the cast were equally amazing.
We'd have loved to have gone to one of the performances with an aftershow discussion, but I couldn't have waited any longer to go to London - I was very uncomfortable sitting in the audience as it was (despite the leg room afforded by the front row), and was absolutely exhausted by the time I got to bed.
The coach home the next day was roasting and the air vents didn't appear to be working, and my legs and bottom were hurting too much for me to sleep all the way back. The journey seemed endless, despite only being three hours long.
But still, it really was a great experience, and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
Thank you SO much to misswed for stirring me to go, and for missing out on things that other friends would have accompanied her with! And also to Ann, although she won't see this, for seeing me across London before and afterwards - I'd never have managed it else.
I think that about covers all things Harry - though I may well think of other things the minute I press 'post'!!