(no subject)
I am currently, simultaneously, being mildly annoyed at all the Olympics nostalgia because could we maybe continue looking forwards instead of backwards AND spending a lot of time thinking "this time last year Lizzie Armistead was winning her medal!" "the 29th was that amazing relay in the pool when the French beat the USA" and generally wishing last year back again.
Because I'm good at contradictory emotions :-P
Anyway. Enough sport, more theatre :-P
(though I'm currently being annoyed at myself for not noticing how far I'd gone beyond the 400 entries you can see when clicking on a tag- I've got 584 tagged with theatre so I can't see about a third of them :-/ I need to retag things with, IDK "theatre:a" "theatre:b" or something like that because LJs tags make no sense (why allow 1000 entries with a tag if you're not going to show them!)
Henry VI, Part 2 (The Houses of York and Lancaster)
So I was sitting for part 2, at the back of the lower gallery with a pretty good view despite being "restricted" by a pillar. I was glad I was sitting but mostly it reminded me why I liked standing *g* ALTHOUGH it was nice to actually be able to see everything happening in the yard which you can't when you're part of it.
By part 2 I was having a few problems remembering who was who in some of the men with place names' scenes but that was sort of inevitable with such a small cast and I don't think it stopped me understanding what was happening.
I loved Suffolk and his relationship with Margaret (though they totally could have made even more of that). I thought it was interesting that he and Margaret (and all of them to be honest) consistently ignored the fact that they weren't convincing/controlling Henry nearly as much as they thought they were. They could throw accusations at Gloucester all day long but Henry didn't believe them.
(Mum and I had a disagreement about Shakespeare's/this production's opinions of Gloucester- she said it was so negative with all the accusations but I thought actually he came out very well, seeming like an old-fashioned statesman to whom very little of the mud stuck even though they did take him down in the end)
I also loved Eleanor, her fierceness and energy even if it wasn't focussed very cleverly and you couldn't help feeling Gloucester could have stopped her/used her energies better if he'd paid more attention rather than being vaguely affectionate when she basically suggested killing the king! She brought her fate on herself but I still pitied her. And I loved the tension between her and Margaret- two women trying very hard to win in a man's world.
The funniest part of this play was probably when, at the start of act two, the actor who had played Suffolk came out and picked up his own severed head and sort of scowled at the comparison and then announced he was Jack Cade before he and the rest of the cast went into a sort of... song/chant about Jack Cade bringing most of the groundlings along for the ride by judicious placing of cast members. Being at the back it was quite fun to see them accost random groundlings and lean on their shoulders or get right in their faces.
Oh also the "Edward the Third had three sons" explanation of Yorks claim is HILARIOUS and Brendan O’Hea had so much fun with it despite his York generally being quite severe, a definite hard man.
I was VERY glad when they got to the battle scenes and they started smearing their faces with red or white paint to show which side they were on, it was incredibly helpful (and made for some great moments later on when people switched sides and had to cover one colour with another). Oh! I also loved that once the battles had started Queen Margaret changed into armour whereas Henry was still in his long flowing robe- it made it very obvious who was calling the shots.
What else? Oh the three York boys were all very good though it has to be said I was more than a little thrown by Simon Harrison's... well his Richard II didn't so much limp as his legs seemed to be entirely out of his control but I got used to it and his Richard was certainly fascinating. He, Patrick Myles (Edward) and Gareth Pierce (George) very much came as a pack and I may have spent too much time on tumblr seeing Teen Wolf gifs but "pack" is exactly the word I want to use there.
After the second play we headed back to the groundling queue ready for part 3 and spent some time discussing the family tree in the programme which had a few issues. Like why didn't they bother linking Henry IV back to John of Gaunt when they could have easily from the lay out? And also why not put Richard II in his rightful place- it would have made a LOT more sense of some of the dynastic quarrels and there were definitely people around us who were confused enough that they almost convinced me I was wrong about Richard II being the Black Prince's son. Mind you of course Shakespeare's tendency to amalgamate people doesn't help clarify which Somerset or Warwick etc your dealing with at any given moment.
Because I'm good at contradictory emotions :-P
Anyway. Enough sport, more theatre :-P
(though I'm currently being annoyed at myself for not noticing how far I'd gone beyond the 400 entries you can see when clicking on a tag- I've got 584 tagged with theatre so I can't see about a third of them :-/ I need to retag things with, IDK "theatre:a" "theatre:b" or something like that because LJs tags make no sense (why allow 1000 entries with a tag if you're not going to show them!)
Henry VI, Part 2 (The Houses of York and Lancaster)
So I was sitting for part 2, at the back of the lower gallery with a pretty good view despite being "restricted" by a pillar. I was glad I was sitting but mostly it reminded me why I liked standing *g* ALTHOUGH it was nice to actually be able to see everything happening in the yard which you can't when you're part of it.
By part 2 I was having a few problems remembering who was who in some of the men with place names' scenes but that was sort of inevitable with such a small cast and I don't think it stopped me understanding what was happening.
I loved Suffolk and his relationship with Margaret (though they totally could have made even more of that). I thought it was interesting that he and Margaret (and all of them to be honest) consistently ignored the fact that they weren't convincing/controlling Henry nearly as much as they thought they were. They could throw accusations at Gloucester all day long but Henry didn't believe them.
(Mum and I had a disagreement about Shakespeare's/this production's opinions of Gloucester- she said it was so negative with all the accusations but I thought actually he came out very well, seeming like an old-fashioned statesman to whom very little of the mud stuck even though they did take him down in the end)
I also loved Eleanor, her fierceness and energy even if it wasn't focussed very cleverly and you couldn't help feeling Gloucester could have stopped her/used her energies better if he'd paid more attention rather than being vaguely affectionate when she basically suggested killing the king! She brought her fate on herself but I still pitied her. And I loved the tension between her and Margaret- two women trying very hard to win in a man's world.
The funniest part of this play was probably when, at the start of act two, the actor who had played Suffolk came out and picked up his own severed head and sort of scowled at the comparison and then announced he was Jack Cade before he and the rest of the cast went into a sort of... song/chant about Jack Cade bringing most of the groundlings along for the ride by judicious placing of cast members. Being at the back it was quite fun to see them accost random groundlings and lean on their shoulders or get right in their faces.
Oh also the "Edward the Third had three sons" explanation of Yorks claim is HILARIOUS and Brendan O’Hea had so much fun with it despite his York generally being quite severe, a definite hard man.
I was VERY glad when they got to the battle scenes and they started smearing their faces with red or white paint to show which side they were on, it was incredibly helpful (and made for some great moments later on when people switched sides and had to cover one colour with another). Oh! I also loved that once the battles had started Queen Margaret changed into armour whereas Henry was still in his long flowing robe- it made it very obvious who was calling the shots.
What else? Oh the three York boys were all very good though it has to be said I was more than a little thrown by Simon Harrison's... well his Richard II didn't so much limp as his legs seemed to be entirely out of his control but I got used to it and his Richard was certainly fascinating. He, Patrick Myles (Edward) and Gareth Pierce (George) very much came as a pack and I may have spent too much time on tumblr seeing Teen Wolf gifs but "pack" is exactly the word I want to use there.
After the second play we headed back to the groundling queue ready for part 3 and spent some time discussing the family tree in the programme which had a few issues. Like why didn't they bother linking Henry IV back to John of Gaunt when they could have easily from the lay out? And also why not put Richard II in his rightful place- it would have made a LOT more sense of some of the dynastic quarrels and there were definitely people around us who were confused enough that they almost convinced me I was wrong about Richard II being the Black Prince's son. Mind you of course Shakespeare's tendency to amalgamate people doesn't help clarify which Somerset or Warwick etc your dealing with at any given moment.