(no subject)
4 productions from the 2010 Kings & Rogues Globe season are now available to download/rent through Digital Theatre.
That includes Henry IV parts 1 & 2 which were awesome and leads me to hope that eventually Henry V might follow. It's a HUGE amount cheaper than the DVDs have been historically too so :D
I've been feeling a little under the weather recently and Mum reckons I might be suffering from theatre withdrawal symptoms which is a little concerning and worryingly possibly accurate (it's been well over two weeks since I saw a play, it's surprising I'm functioning like myself at all really :-P)
On Saturday I'm seeing NSFW at the Royla Court and maybe another matinee thing (depending on how weak I'm feeling though technically it's a dance thing not a theatre thing) BUT you'd think somewhere in this theatreless fortnight I'd have considered maybe catching up on my 2 missing reviews? CLEARLY NOT.
Or rather NOW I have. This'll probably be short because 1) it was a while ago and 2) this play makes me a bit rage-y but here goes anyway.
Taming of the Shrew @ The Globe (21.07.2012)
So yes. Taming of the Shrew. There's a slightly odd play :-/
Starting with something good- they used the Christopher Sly framing device at the start of this version really well. I thought I recognised one of the (rather beautiful) stewards but was quickly distracted by the sight of Simon Paisley Day dressed as a drunk football fan making an enormous fuss in the middle of the yard and storming the stage followed by said steward and half a dozen other stewards/first aid people/staff marching up onto the stage and suddenly transforming into the actors deciding to play a trick on the drunk man and put him in the middle of the play. It worked beautifully (though I always feel weird when a version of Shrew starts like that and then forgets to end the framing device *shrugs*
The beautiful steward, incidentally, was Joseph Timms who was playing Lucentio.
Every sentence I've tried starting after this just comes out all angry about the play and it's not really fair because it was a good production. Samantha Spiro is very watchable and it has to be said that her Kate was horrible (mind you so was Sarah MacRae's Bianca who came across as a spoilt brat and I didn't really blame Katherina for being awful to her). And Simon Paisley Day... well he's a fantastic actor but seriously I HATE THIS PLAY and it makes me so ANGRY that he starves her and is awful to her and refuses to give her food until she'll say whatever the hell he wants her to say and then it's a romantic ending? LOOK the perfect marriage.
BAh. Sorry. Couldn't keep it in. After seeing this play I may have ranted on twitter and then got into an argument with someone and I do KNOW all the arguments about this play and Kate needing to learn to be sociable and that Petruchio maybe starves himself/doesn't sleep too and BLAH BLAH BLAH she's forcibly married against her will and then tortured and this production played the whole thing far too straight for that to seem reasonable.
The comedy/slapstick was all done very well, I liked Pearce Quigley as Grumio particularly but all of the rival lovers stuff was good too and there were a lot of laughs and it's a good production I've just had it with this play.
I want a nightmarish version where Kate comes back to her family obviously entirely destroyed with none of her humour or character left intact and where we get to see the dawning realisation of what's happened to her appear on the faces of her father and sister and everyone who laughed at her OR I want to see that happen with a Petruchio who realises he actually liked her as she was and he's ruined a wonderful woman for no good reason and now he has to live with her (and himself).
Um.
No more Taming of the Shrew for Sarah I think.
So that leaves only on review owing and my thoughts and feelings on that are still a mas of contradictions and confusion even months later which is actually very apt given the prodcution but I actually started writing something about it a while ago so I need to find that first *g*
You know what else I never wrote about? Seeing The Proclaimers!
There's not so much to say about that though except I really enjoyed it, they sound great and I would like to have permission to execute all selfish idiots who insist on 1) continuing to use their phone once they've been told to switch it off 2) think using flash photography is in any way sensible in a HUGE darkened room or 3) TALK ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE QUIET SONGS *glares*
The concert really was good though, genuinely so, and I do still love I Would Walk 500 Miles no matter how many times I've heard it sung by them or others.
That includes Henry IV parts 1 & 2 which were awesome and leads me to hope that eventually Henry V might follow. It's a HUGE amount cheaper than the DVDs have been historically too so :D
I've been feeling a little under the weather recently and Mum reckons I might be suffering from theatre withdrawal symptoms which is a little concerning and worryingly possibly accurate (it's been well over two weeks since I saw a play, it's surprising I'm functioning like myself at all really :-P)
On Saturday I'm seeing NSFW at the Royla Court and maybe another matinee thing (depending on how weak I'm feeling though technically it's a dance thing not a theatre thing) BUT you'd think somewhere in this theatreless fortnight I'd have considered maybe catching up on my 2 missing reviews? CLEARLY NOT.
Or rather NOW I have. This'll probably be short because 1) it was a while ago and 2) this play makes me a bit rage-y but here goes anyway.
Taming of the Shrew @ The Globe (21.07.2012)
So yes. Taming of the Shrew. There's a slightly odd play :-/
Starting with something good- they used the Christopher Sly framing device at the start of this version really well. I thought I recognised one of the (rather beautiful) stewards but was quickly distracted by the sight of Simon Paisley Day dressed as a drunk football fan making an enormous fuss in the middle of the yard and storming the stage followed by said steward and half a dozen other stewards/first aid people/staff marching up onto the stage and suddenly transforming into the actors deciding to play a trick on the drunk man and put him in the middle of the play. It worked beautifully (though I always feel weird when a version of Shrew starts like that and then forgets to end the framing device *shrugs*
The beautiful steward, incidentally, was Joseph Timms who was playing Lucentio.
Every sentence I've tried starting after this just comes out all angry about the play and it's not really fair because it was a good production. Samantha Spiro is very watchable and it has to be said that her Kate was horrible (mind you so was Sarah MacRae's Bianca who came across as a spoilt brat and I didn't really blame Katherina for being awful to her). And Simon Paisley Day... well he's a fantastic actor but seriously I HATE THIS PLAY and it makes me so ANGRY that he starves her and is awful to her and refuses to give her food until she'll say whatever the hell he wants her to say and then it's a romantic ending? LOOK the perfect marriage.
BAh. Sorry. Couldn't keep it in. After seeing this play I may have ranted on twitter and then got into an argument with someone and I do KNOW all the arguments about this play and Kate needing to learn to be sociable and that Petruchio maybe starves himself/doesn't sleep too and BLAH BLAH BLAH she's forcibly married against her will and then tortured and this production played the whole thing far too straight for that to seem reasonable.
The comedy/slapstick was all done very well, I liked Pearce Quigley as Grumio particularly but all of the rival lovers stuff was good too and there were a lot of laughs and it's a good production I've just had it with this play.
I want a nightmarish version where Kate comes back to her family obviously entirely destroyed with none of her humour or character left intact and where we get to see the dawning realisation of what's happened to her appear on the faces of her father and sister and everyone who laughed at her OR I want to see that happen with a Petruchio who realises he actually liked her as she was and he's ruined a wonderful woman for no good reason and now he has to live with her (and himself).
Um.
No more Taming of the Shrew for Sarah I think.
So that leaves only on review owing and my thoughts and feelings on that are still a mas of contradictions and confusion even months later which is actually very apt given the prodcution but I actually started writing something about it a while ago so I need to find that first *g*
You know what else I never wrote about? Seeing The Proclaimers!
There's not so much to say about that though except I really enjoyed it, they sound great and I would like to have permission to execute all selfish idiots who insist on 1) continuing to use their phone once they've been told to switch it off 2) think using flash photography is in any way sensible in a HUGE darkened room or 3) TALK ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE QUIET SONGS *glares*
The concert really was good though, genuinely so, and I do still love I Would Walk 500 Miles no matter how many times I've heard it sung by them or others.