Liam in Merchant
So that was fan-bloody-tastic as he always is! :-) Setting was a big mirrored chamber with cold blue-ish lighting for Venice and warm orangy-yellow for Belmont.
Neve MacIntosh not great as Portia. Reciting rather than acting and feeling but better as the young doctor. Nerissa and Jessica as irritating as always. Jimmy Chisholm was Shylock - very angry and bitter all the time and to his credit visibly shrunk at the end of the Trial scene. Antonio permanently angry too. Not much indication of homo-erotic relationship between Bassanio and Antonio until the trial scene when it looks like Antonio going to have to die - Liam and he kissed much to the indrawn breath of the Edinburgh matrons and nervous giggles of the horrendous school party behind us. God they were annoying! They had learnt Hath Not a Jew eyes and quality of mercy by heart and were whispering it loudly along with Shylock and Portia - I gave them my best Globe Steward glare but didn't seem to work.
Liam however shone. He did the Casket scene out front addressing the audience (and including them in the jokes) like at the Globe,and using their reactions rather than introspectively like we've usually seen it done. And when he found the right casket, he came right to the front of the stage and showed the first few rows, the picture as he described it. Like in this picture:
http://www.lyceum.org.uk/sites/home/Bassanio%20(Liam%20Brennan)%2040pc.jpg
So that was all great!
Sublime to the ridiculous - I am now off to watch Spamalot! Exit stage right humming "Always look on the bright side of life"
ETA: So that was terrific! Just as extremely silly as in the US at New Year. You won't succeed in showbusiness fell a little flat in UK but the sheer exuberance of it won the audience over. It's wet and cold in London and so watching over 1000 people singing along to "always look on the bright side of life" is very cheering! Esp with my current existance :-)
Neve MacIntosh not great as Portia. Reciting rather than acting and feeling but better as the young doctor. Nerissa and Jessica as irritating as always. Jimmy Chisholm was Shylock - very angry and bitter all the time and to his credit visibly shrunk at the end of the Trial scene. Antonio permanently angry too. Not much indication of homo-erotic relationship between Bassanio and Antonio until the trial scene when it looks like Antonio going to have to die - Liam and he kissed much to the indrawn breath of the Edinburgh matrons and nervous giggles of the horrendous school party behind us. God they were annoying! They had learnt Hath Not a Jew eyes and quality of mercy by heart and were whispering it loudly along with Shylock and Portia - I gave them my best Globe Steward glare but didn't seem to work.
Liam however shone. He did the Casket scene out front addressing the audience (and including them in the jokes) like at the Globe,and using their reactions rather than introspectively like we've usually seen it done. And when he found the right casket, he came right to the front of the stage and showed the first few rows, the picture as he described it. Like in this picture:
http://www.lyceum.org.uk/sites/home/Bassanio%20(Liam%20Brennan)%2040pc.jpg
%2040pc.jpg){kind=link}
So that was all great!
Sublime to the ridiculous - I am now off to watch Spamalot! Exit stage right humming "Always look on the bright side of life"
ETA: So that was terrific! Just as extremely silly as in the US at New Year. You won't succeed in showbusiness fell a little flat in UK but the sheer exuberance of it won the audience over. It's wet and cold in London and so watching over 1000 people singing along to "always look on the bright side of life" is very cheering! Esp with my current existance :-)