(no subject)
Having been annoyed recently that some productions I KNOW I really enjoyed have almost entirely escaped my memory (the RSC History Cycle, or more specifically the Henry IVs) I suppose I ought to be better at keeping up with this year's reviews!
So earlier this year I missed a whole bunch of things for no real reason except I was failing to post a bit at that point so here are some very short thoughts about them just to prompt my own memory!
(I have to say though that some of these are already shamefully vague in my head :-/)
22.01.2012 Union Theatre fundraiser @ Wilton's Music Hall
This is so long ago that there was a preview for Patience at it and now Patience has been and gone and I have despaired of it ever transferring back to Wiltons *sighs*
It was a beautiful evening though, it was amazing to see one theatre support another and was pretty much the last piece in the puzzle that spurred me on to actually going to the Union Theatre. I have to say though I spent a lot of the evening listening to old Union shows and wondering why I didn't go (top of that list- The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (and not only because it had Sasi Strallen in it :-P) (I REALLY want to see Sarah Lark in stuff now too).
All the numbers were good though, I remember Lucy Williamson's Ladies Who Lunch being particularly fab as well as the Dames at Sea numbers.
And then we had a bunch of Pirates songs to start and finish as well as some Iolanthe which broke my heart because it ALWAYS does and basically it was Iolanthe's return to the fairies and ALL THE TEARS.
I can't wait to see Wilton's when they've got more of their repairs done, the bar already looks great!
02.02.2012 Festival of the Spoken Nerd Theatre Royal Haymarket
So I went to this because someone else had to drop out and I'm so glad I did! It was maths & science as performance art? IDK it was a room full of geeks and geeky jokes and explosions and very funny songs and then accurate and informative maths bits.
6 months on my main memories are of the Russian Roulette played with marshmallows & an incredibly bitter substance (which the teenager playing didn't really seem to find horrifying) and of the final "experiment" with soundwaves where they put gas through a tube with little holes in it- set fire to the gas and then played sounds through the tube so you could SEE the soundwaves VERY cool.
If I get another chance to see these guys I'll absolutely be taking it.
10.02.2012 Masterclass @ Vaudeville
So Tyne Daly was basically incredible in this. Completely terrifying and WOW was I glad that, although this was back in the heady days of stalls tickets last year, we weren't in the front row because she really was chanelling Maria Callas at her most insulting.
The funniest parts were when she was actually reacting to her "students" because generally they were oblivious or awful or prone to tears but the best bits were when she was remembering her past, lost in a reveries of previous performances and although she never sang (because what would be the point, there's only ever going to be one Maria Callas) I really felt transported back into her memories.
11.02.2012(matinee) St Albans Scout and Guide Gang Show @ Alban Arena
Our local Gang Show is always fantastic but I'm afraid the 2012 edition will always be overshadowed by the death of Jon Hudson for me. Sitting next to his Mum as she talked about how involved he'd been and then trying to prevent the Brownies from noticing how upset she was at the end was sad and hard. Just One Person makes both me and her cry at the best of times :-/
That said there was a great Olympics number (including a Twelve Days of Christmas take off that was perfect) and a wonderful parody of talent shows called Strictly No Talent and the quality of dancing & singing was high as always.
11.02.2012 Absent Friends @ Pinter Theatre
Why didn't I review this at the time!? This was Reece Shearsmith & Katherine Parkinson & Elizabeth Berenson & Steffan Rhodri & David Armand & Kara Tointon which is a pretty amazing cast (well, I was unconvinced by Kara beforehand but she won me over).
It's a deliberately awkward play- Reece's character Colin has recently been bereaved and they invite him over to comfort him only he doesn't actually need comforting so you have a wonderfully English situation with cups of tea and overly organised sandwiches etc. and everyone being incredibly repressed with Colin in the middle being the only one who seems at all happy.
Katherine Parkinson was my highlight because she got more and more wound up so that when she snapped it was entirely believable and almost painful to watch.
Nobody does that line between laughter and despair quite like Alan Ayckbourn
15.02.2012 Sex With A Stranger @ Trafalgar Studios
One day I'm going to see a play with Russell Tovey in which he doesn't end up simulating sex while the audience is barely a metre a way... obviously this play wasn't that day :-P
The play was weirdly structured with short scenes which all ended in fade-to-black and which were entirely out of order. We saw Adam (Russell Tovey) with in bed with Grace (Jaime Winstone) and then jumped back to watch him get ready for a night out whilst talking to his girlfriend Ruth (Naomi Sheldon).
Mostly what I remember from this play was that I wanted to both shake and hug Ruth because we KNEW that he was going to end up going home with someone else but her continued paranoia that he might was partly what pushed him to it only of course it wasn't paranoia because she was right!
As Grace Jamie Winstone was incredibly ditzy but just as sympathetic as Ruth really and although Adam was clearly to blame it's hard to hate him completely because he seems vaguely helpless (and hopeless).
It's not a remotely cheerful play though- you dread what you've already seen and slowly come to discover how bad it is and there isn't really a moral it's just a thing that happens.
25.02.2012Love Song for the City @ The Roundhouse
Free tickets :D I won this ticket to see the Aurora Orchestra in one of their New Moves concerts which are all collaborations.
My favourite part of this was probably the first piece- Metamorphosen by Strauss which was a piece I didn't know at all- or possibly the absolutely wonderful West Side Story Symphonic Dances. Michael Gordon's Gotham also sounded good but I'm afraid the New York films kept making me dizzy which didn't really help with the atmosphere.
I also wasn't enormously convinced by the venue- I like the Roundhouse but the sound system was set up for a band not an orchestra and it was too loud & reverb-y plus there was an incredibe humming from... something I never quite identified :-/
And so now I need to write about my second Henry V viewing and also about the Rest Is Silence which is taking up a surprisingly large part of my brain atm and I'll be up-to-date.
Sorry about the brain dump!
So earlier this year I missed a whole bunch of things for no real reason except I was failing to post a bit at that point so here are some very short thoughts about them just to prompt my own memory!
(I have to say though that some of these are already shamefully vague in my head :-/)
22.01.2012 Union Theatre fundraiser @ Wilton's Music Hall
This is so long ago that there was a preview for Patience at it and now Patience has been and gone and I have despaired of it ever transferring back to Wiltons *sighs*
It was a beautiful evening though, it was amazing to see one theatre support another and was pretty much the last piece in the puzzle that spurred me on to actually going to the Union Theatre. I have to say though I spent a lot of the evening listening to old Union shows and wondering why I didn't go (top of that list- The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (and not only because it had Sasi Strallen in it :-P) (I REALLY want to see Sarah Lark in stuff now too).
All the numbers were good though, I remember Lucy Williamson's Ladies Who Lunch being particularly fab as well as the Dames at Sea numbers.
And then we had a bunch of Pirates songs to start and finish as well as some Iolanthe which broke my heart because it ALWAYS does and basically it was Iolanthe's return to the fairies and ALL THE TEARS.
I can't wait to see Wilton's when they've got more of their repairs done, the bar already looks great!
02.02.2012 Festival of the Spoken Nerd Theatre Royal Haymarket
So I went to this because someone else had to drop out and I'm so glad I did! It was maths & science as performance art? IDK it was a room full of geeks and geeky jokes and explosions and very funny songs and then accurate and informative maths bits.
6 months on my main memories are of the Russian Roulette played with marshmallows & an incredibly bitter substance (which the teenager playing didn't really seem to find horrifying) and of the final "experiment" with soundwaves where they put gas through a tube with little holes in it- set fire to the gas and then played sounds through the tube so you could SEE the soundwaves VERY cool.
If I get another chance to see these guys I'll absolutely be taking it.
10.02.2012 Masterclass @ Vaudeville
So Tyne Daly was basically incredible in this. Completely terrifying and WOW was I glad that, although this was back in the heady days of stalls tickets last year, we weren't in the front row because she really was chanelling Maria Callas at her most insulting.
The funniest parts were when she was actually reacting to her "students" because generally they were oblivious or awful or prone to tears but the best bits were when she was remembering her past, lost in a reveries of previous performances and although she never sang (because what would be the point, there's only ever going to be one Maria Callas) I really felt transported back into her memories.
11.02.2012(matinee) St Albans Scout and Guide Gang Show @ Alban Arena
Our local Gang Show is always fantastic but I'm afraid the 2012 edition will always be overshadowed by the death of Jon Hudson for me. Sitting next to his Mum as she talked about how involved he'd been and then trying to prevent the Brownies from noticing how upset she was at the end was sad and hard. Just One Person makes both me and her cry at the best of times :-/
That said there was a great Olympics number (including a Twelve Days of Christmas take off that was perfect) and a wonderful parody of talent shows called Strictly No Talent and the quality of dancing & singing was high as always.
11.02.2012 Absent Friends @ Pinter Theatre
Why didn't I review this at the time!? This was Reece Shearsmith & Katherine Parkinson & Elizabeth Berenson & Steffan Rhodri & David Armand & Kara Tointon which is a pretty amazing cast (well, I was unconvinced by Kara beforehand but she won me over).
It's a deliberately awkward play- Reece's character Colin has recently been bereaved and they invite him over to comfort him only he doesn't actually need comforting so you have a wonderfully English situation with cups of tea and overly organised sandwiches etc. and everyone being incredibly repressed with Colin in the middle being the only one who seems at all happy.
Katherine Parkinson was my highlight because she got more and more wound up so that when she snapped it was entirely believable and almost painful to watch.
Nobody does that line between laughter and despair quite like Alan Ayckbourn
15.02.2012 Sex With A Stranger @ Trafalgar Studios
One day I'm going to see a play with Russell Tovey in which he doesn't end up simulating sex while the audience is barely a metre a way... obviously this play wasn't that day :-P
The play was weirdly structured with short scenes which all ended in fade-to-black and which were entirely out of order. We saw Adam (Russell Tovey) with in bed with Grace (Jaime Winstone) and then jumped back to watch him get ready for a night out whilst talking to his girlfriend Ruth (Naomi Sheldon).
Mostly what I remember from this play was that I wanted to both shake and hug Ruth because we KNEW that he was going to end up going home with someone else but her continued paranoia that he might was partly what pushed him to it only of course it wasn't paranoia because she was right!
As Grace Jamie Winstone was incredibly ditzy but just as sympathetic as Ruth really and although Adam was clearly to blame it's hard to hate him completely because he seems vaguely helpless (and hopeless).
It's not a remotely cheerful play though- you dread what you've already seen and slowly come to discover how bad it is and there isn't really a moral it's just a thing that happens.
25.02.2012Love Song for the City @ The Roundhouse
Free tickets :D I won this ticket to see the Aurora Orchestra in one of their New Moves concerts which are all collaborations.
My favourite part of this was probably the first piece- Metamorphosen by Strauss which was a piece I didn't know at all- or possibly the absolutely wonderful West Side Story Symphonic Dances. Michael Gordon's Gotham also sounded good but I'm afraid the New York films kept making me dizzy which didn't really help with the atmosphere.
I also wasn't enormously convinced by the venue- I like the Roundhouse but the sound system was set up for a band not an orchestra and it was too loud & reverb-y plus there was an incredibe humming from... something I never quite identified :-/
And so now I need to write about my second Henry V viewing and also about the Rest Is Silence which is taking up a surprisingly large part of my brain atm and I'll be up-to-date.
Sorry about the brain dump!