(no subject)
You know I've been not too bad at keeping up with my theatre reviews this year... well not AWFUL anyway *g* but I feel I probably ought to finally write a review of Anne Boleyn given its final performance is tomorrow.
(it sold out ages ago so it's not like I can encourage you to go anyway unless they bring it back again next year which you never know they might after all they brought In Extremis back for a second year and that was Howard Brenton's other play for the Globe)
I mean I only saw it about three weeks ago, that's not soooo bad.
Anne Boleyn @Shakespeare's Globe
So obviously this play is about Anne Boleyn (thank you Captain Obvious) but it's also about James I (or James VI if you're Scottish). It starts with an opening monlogue from Anne but then we get to see James I, newly King of England and struggling with a country that looks like it might be torn apart by religious factions at any moment. And then he finds two books belonging to Anne, William Tyndale's translation of the New Testament and his The Obedience of a Christen Man.
And so the scene is set for a play about religion and the reformation and England heading towards Civil War and an altogether more interesting Anne than the one who simpers in Henry VIII :P
Starting with James' scenes though I do just LOVE James Garnon who plays him with... well something approaching Tourettes I guess (the nervous ticks and saying inappropriate things rather than swearing) and who bursts onto the stage and yo can't look away from and who dresses up in an old dress of Anne's and dances with George Villiers (Ben Deery, who was in La Cage incidentally! though not as a Cagelles and he was much prettier here)
And then the rest of the play was a sort of... flashback? to Anne and Henry and her ladies-in-waiting and Miranda Raison is an actress I could watch all day long <3 she just sparkles and had such a sense of humour and intelligence about her and I was drawn into her story and found myself wishing I didn't know where it was going to end.
They'd invented a couple of meetings between Anne and William Tyndale, the first of which ended in them praying together, the second of which went very abdly wrong because Tyndale and his followers hugely disapproved of Anne and Henry's marriage (or ratehr Henry's divorce)
I found it interesting actually that they made such a big deal about Henry and Anne being in love, she kept saying it over and over again and Miranda Raison and Anthony Howell had incredible chemistry too <3
Other highlight of the cast was Amanda Lawrence who played Lady Rochford. She's becoming a favourite of mine at the Globe. She did a wonderful line in trying to be as brave as Anne but crumbling at physical opposition (and goodness didn't this play make clear how very few choices any of the women had and how very unusual Anne was in many ways and why she scared all the men so much).
If I had a criticism about the play it would be that the ending somewhat faded. I was being dragged along as Anne was arrested and seperated from Henry and I was SO glad we didn't see her execution but it was enthralling and then there was a whole bit with James and then Anne did a speech directly to the audience calling us all "demons of the future" and IDK I mean I guess it balanced the opening but mostly I felt like I was being lectured and stopped concentrating.
But that was a relatively minor thing actually when balanced with the rest of the play that was clever and funny and moving and generally a good thing.
I did also go to the Friends Talkback thing afterwards but I have to say I can't entirely remember exactly what they said. There was a bit of chat about working with a living playwright, and abot how going back to Henry VII after Anne Boleyn was a bit like "going back to your wife after a weekend with your mistress" <3 oh and Anthony Howell said he looked up halfway through the opening night and ended up doing one of his longest speeches straight to Dominic Rowan (who plays Henry in Henry VII... where Anthony plays Buckingham... confusd yet?)
*stops rambling*
OH WAIT of course the other thing was a LONG conversation about what happened before the play started which was various cast members coming out and chatting to the audience... in costume but very much as themselves. It was rather weird I have to say, I didn't really know what to say to them though others seemed to have nice little chats. Apparently it's a thing this Director likes? At the Talkback it came up a couple of times, firstly if the actors liked doing it (not really, some of them more than others) and secondly how it felt to those in the seats watching the actors chat to theGroundlings (some people felt really alienated, some found it mostly funny, one of the actors said he'd try and shout up to the galleries next time)
IDK. The Globe is absolutely a place where there's a weird crossover between audience and cast and where, with the jog at the end, there's often a really self-conscious "we are actors" thing that runs through the plays (in a good way :P) but I still wasn't entirely convinced. Still I liked seeing Ben Deery up close :P
(it sold out ages ago so it's not like I can encourage you to go anyway unless they bring it back again next year which you never know they might after all they brought In Extremis back for a second year and that was Howard Brenton's other play for the Globe)
I mean I only saw it about three weeks ago, that's not soooo bad.
Anne Boleyn @Shakespeare's Globe
So obviously this play is about Anne Boleyn (thank you Captain Obvious) but it's also about James I (or James VI if you're Scottish). It starts with an opening monlogue from Anne but then we get to see James I, newly King of England and struggling with a country that looks like it might be torn apart by religious factions at any moment. And then he finds two books belonging to Anne, William Tyndale's translation of the New Testament and his The Obedience of a Christen Man.
And so the scene is set for a play about religion and the reformation and England heading towards Civil War and an altogether more interesting Anne than the one who simpers in Henry VIII :P
Starting with James' scenes though I do just LOVE James Garnon who plays him with... well something approaching Tourettes I guess (the nervous ticks and saying inappropriate things rather than swearing) and who bursts onto the stage and yo can't look away from and who dresses up in an old dress of Anne's and dances with George Villiers (Ben Deery, who was in La Cage incidentally! though not as a Cagelles and he was much prettier here)
And then the rest of the play was a sort of... flashback? to Anne and Henry and her ladies-in-waiting and Miranda Raison is an actress I could watch all day long <3 she just sparkles and had such a sense of humour and intelligence about her and I was drawn into her story and found myself wishing I didn't know where it was going to end.
They'd invented a couple of meetings between Anne and William Tyndale, the first of which ended in them praying together, the second of which went very abdly wrong because Tyndale and his followers hugely disapproved of Anne and Henry's marriage (or ratehr Henry's divorce)
I found it interesting actually that they made such a big deal about Henry and Anne being in love, she kept saying it over and over again and Miranda Raison and Anthony Howell had incredible chemistry too <3
Other highlight of the cast was Amanda Lawrence who played Lady Rochford. She's becoming a favourite of mine at the Globe. She did a wonderful line in trying to be as brave as Anne but crumbling at physical opposition (and goodness didn't this play make clear how very few choices any of the women had and how very unusual Anne was in many ways and why she scared all the men so much).
If I had a criticism about the play it would be that the ending somewhat faded. I was being dragged along as Anne was arrested and seperated from Henry and I was SO glad we didn't see her execution but it was enthralling and then there was a whole bit with James and then Anne did a speech directly to the audience calling us all "demons of the future" and IDK I mean I guess it balanced the opening but mostly I felt like I was being lectured and stopped concentrating.
But that was a relatively minor thing actually when balanced with the rest of the play that was clever and funny and moving and generally a good thing.
I did also go to the Friends Talkback thing afterwards but I have to say I can't entirely remember exactly what they said. There was a bit of chat about working with a living playwright, and abot how going back to Henry VII after Anne Boleyn was a bit like "going back to your wife after a weekend with your mistress" <3 oh and Anthony Howell said he looked up halfway through the opening night and ended up doing one of his longest speeches straight to Dominic Rowan (who plays Henry in Henry VII... where Anthony plays Buckingham... confusd yet?)
*stops rambling*
OH WAIT of course the other thing was a LONG conversation about what happened before the play started which was various cast members coming out and chatting to the audience... in costume but very much as themselves. It was rather weird I have to say, I didn't really know what to say to them though others seemed to have nice little chats. Apparently it's a thing this Director likes? At the Talkback it came up a couple of times, firstly if the actors liked doing it (not really, some of them more than others) and secondly how it felt to those in the seats watching the actors chat to theGroundlings (some people felt really alienated, some found it mostly funny, one of the actors said he'd try and shout up to the galleries next time)
IDK. The Globe is absolutely a place where there's a weird crossover between audience and cast and where, with the jog at the end, there's often a really self-conscious "we are actors" thing that runs through the plays (in a good way :P) but I still wasn't entirely convinced. Still I liked seeing Ben Deery up close :P