(no subject)
This morning has been... challenging to say the least but amazingly we've mostly solved all of the problems that got thrown at us. Mostly.
Distraction needed at lunchtime however so another review I guess.
The Lightning Child @ Shakespeare's Globe
I am entirely unsurprised that this got bad reviews and yet I really enjoyed it! It's a retelling of Euripides The Bacchae by Che Walker & Arthur Darvill involving a narrator called Ladyboy Herald, Dionysus and a bunch of other gods/mythical characters and a host of "real" characters including Caster Semenya, Neil Armstrong and Billie Holiday. It involves music (Arthur Darvill's input) and not a lot of clothes and it's probably everything some people dislike about the Globe.
I will say I was a little disappointed because I loved The Frontline so much and would have happily seen it over and over again and whilst I enjoyed The Lightning Child I have no desire to see it again. Also it wasn't a musical. Yes there were songs but then most Globe productions involve songs and there just weren't enough to justify musical and I can't help wondering whether the fact that the show's composer was cast in a Broadway show in the run up to it opening caused some of the songs to be cut/not as good as they might have been.
I just really enjoyed the spectacle though. The opening with a white covered globe which fell away to reveal that the Herald had been waiting there since the play began and then the covers fell from the back of the stage to show drums and fire and the whole cast and bright colours... I really enjoy that kind of thing and when your story is (basically) about excess and Dionysian wildness and how either extreme can be damaging you have to go big really.
Of course because of the story (Pentheus tries to stop the Dionysiac rites and specifically the Maenads and then gets ripped apart by his own mother) the upbeat first half is followed by a horrifying second half and I'd say we didn't really need to see Pentheus's death on stage but that wasn't even the worst bit (of more later). I think I felt that perhaps they tried to put too many other stories in to illustrate the central point? It didn't quite hang together even though I though most individual sections were good.
They had two plots particularly that twisted through the whole play. Firstly two drug addicts one of whom adopts a dog in the hopes that this will help him clean up and the other of which is a woman who moves into a flat with a worldclass violinst. They show the opposite sides of the extremes with the drug addicts showing what happens when you give in to Dionysus as they're dragged back into the escape of addiction but the women... well it's very much the Pentheus story in that the non-talented woman became jealous and then snapped and, well. when they had an actual violin on stage and I assumed they couldn't possibly be going to smash it but I was wrong... and then it got worse (there was a hammer involved)
And they absolutely made sense to me but I heard a lot of people around me being confused about their presence in the story. Plus Caster Semenya (inspired by the gods, brought down to earth by the testing she was put through) and Billie Holiday (again a gods given talent).
The performances were all great but particularly Tommy Coleman as Dionysus who was incredibly charismatic but also beautiful when not-talking about the boy he clearly loved and lost and then terrifying towards the end when you saw what happened to those who didn't fall at his feet. Also Jonathan Chambers was amazing as Ladyboy Herald (though I was afraid he'd catch a chill given how small his costume was and how long he was on stage for). He was the unifying element really and he brought an amazing humanity to the play but I think it was just too big to really hold up as a single piece.
On a shallow level I did enormously enjoy things like Colin Ryan's soldier being seduced by the Maenads and basically turning into one of them and the tiny gold costumes that almost all the men ended up in at varying points (still not entirely sure if Philip Cumbus' miniskirt was attractive or horrifying... equal parts I think). The Maenads were all stunning and brilliant as their varying other roles (Moyo Akandé & Cat Simmons especially) oh and Finty Williams was incredible as Pentheus' mother and her speech after she killed him was just amazing because it was pretty long but everybody was still and concentrating.
So... a big beautiful mess? Except really traumatic at the end (the two women and the violin and the hammer actually gave me nightmares). I'm very glad I saw it and I'm still fascinated to see more by Che Walker and/or Arthur Darvill but, without a doubt, The Frontline was better.
My reviews are so rambly, should I try and make them shorter or more focussed in some way? Not that I'm very sure I could but it would probably be a good idea if I at least tried to structure them rather than just writing things as I think of them.
I still need to write about Edward II, Chimerica and Blue Stockings and I 3 plays this weekend again (well maybe 2, we'll see) \o/
Distraction needed at lunchtime however so another review I guess.
The Lightning Child @ Shakespeare's Globe
I am entirely unsurprised that this got bad reviews and yet I really enjoyed it! It's a retelling of Euripides The Bacchae by Che Walker & Arthur Darvill involving a narrator called Ladyboy Herald, Dionysus and a bunch of other gods/mythical characters and a host of "real" characters including Caster Semenya, Neil Armstrong and Billie Holiday. It involves music (Arthur Darvill's input) and not a lot of clothes and it's probably everything some people dislike about the Globe.
I will say I was a little disappointed because I loved The Frontline so much and would have happily seen it over and over again and whilst I enjoyed The Lightning Child I have no desire to see it again. Also it wasn't a musical. Yes there were songs but then most Globe productions involve songs and there just weren't enough to justify musical and I can't help wondering whether the fact that the show's composer was cast in a Broadway show in the run up to it opening caused some of the songs to be cut/not as good as they might have been.
I just really enjoyed the spectacle though. The opening with a white covered globe which fell away to reveal that the Herald had been waiting there since the play began and then the covers fell from the back of the stage to show drums and fire and the whole cast and bright colours... I really enjoy that kind of thing and when your story is (basically) about excess and Dionysian wildness and how either extreme can be damaging you have to go big really.
Of course because of the story (Pentheus tries to stop the Dionysiac rites and specifically the Maenads and then gets ripped apart by his own mother) the upbeat first half is followed by a horrifying second half and I'd say we didn't really need to see Pentheus's death on stage but that wasn't even the worst bit (of more later). I think I felt that perhaps they tried to put too many other stories in to illustrate the central point? It didn't quite hang together even though I though most individual sections were good.
They had two plots particularly that twisted through the whole play. Firstly two drug addicts one of whom adopts a dog in the hopes that this will help him clean up and the other of which is a woman who moves into a flat with a worldclass violinst. They show the opposite sides of the extremes with the drug addicts showing what happens when you give in to Dionysus as they're dragged back into the escape of addiction but the women... well it's very much the Pentheus story in that the non-talented woman became jealous and then snapped and, well. when they had an actual violin on stage and I assumed they couldn't possibly be going to smash it but I was wrong... and then it got worse (there was a hammer involved)
And they absolutely made sense to me but I heard a lot of people around me being confused about their presence in the story. Plus Caster Semenya (inspired by the gods, brought down to earth by the testing she was put through) and Billie Holiday (again a gods given talent).
The performances were all great but particularly Tommy Coleman as Dionysus who was incredibly charismatic but also beautiful when not-talking about the boy he clearly loved and lost and then terrifying towards the end when you saw what happened to those who didn't fall at his feet. Also Jonathan Chambers was amazing as Ladyboy Herald (though I was afraid he'd catch a chill given how small his costume was and how long he was on stage for). He was the unifying element really and he brought an amazing humanity to the play but I think it was just too big to really hold up as a single piece.
On a shallow level I did enormously enjoy things like Colin Ryan's soldier being seduced by the Maenads and basically turning into one of them and the tiny gold costumes that almost all the men ended up in at varying points (still not entirely sure if Philip Cumbus' miniskirt was attractive or horrifying... equal parts I think). The Maenads were all stunning and brilliant as their varying other roles (Moyo Akandé & Cat Simmons especially) oh and Finty Williams was incredible as Pentheus' mother and her speech after she killed him was just amazing because it was pretty long but everybody was still and concentrating.
So... a big beautiful mess? Except really traumatic at the end (the two women and the violin and the hammer actually gave me nightmares). I'm very glad I saw it and I'm still fascinated to see more by Che Walker and/or Arthur Darvill but, without a doubt, The Frontline was better.
My reviews are so rambly, should I try and make them shorter or more focussed in some way? Not that I'm very sure I could but it would probably be a good idea if I at least tried to structure them rather than just writing things as I think of them.
I still need to write about Edward II, Chimerica and Blue Stockings and I 3 plays this weekend again (well maybe 2, we'll see) \o/