(no subject)
Today might be Thursday but it feels like Friday because I've got tomorrow off work purely because it's the end of our leave year and I'm already carrying over the maximum without this day. What that ACTUALLY means is it's a day off with nothing I have to do \o/
My current plan involves a lie-in before heading into London and hitting up some museums :D I'm thinking the Beautiful Science exhibition at the British Library before heading down to South Ken to see the Collider & Mind Map exhibitions at the Science Museum. Though I do also want to see the current Transport Museum exhibition... also The Vikings at the BM but I've been rather put off by the rumours of ENORMOUS crowds of people.
After the museums I'm meeting seiyaharris & we're going to see Lost Boys and I can't think of many better ways to spend a day (except for just sleeping through all of it which is, I'll admit, rather tempting).
All the planning would have been easier if tfl.gov.uk hadn't just launched a hideous new website :-/ I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually but it couldn't even recognise "the British Library" and has removed the "I'd prefer to walk option" which, apart from anything else, made it tell me to get a bus from St Pancras to the BL despite them being LITERALLY NEXT DOOR TO EACH OTHER /o\
On the plus side it finally recognises St Albans Rail Station as an actual place.
I just went to look at my list of things to review and for one horrible moment I couldn't remember seeing this next one At All /o\
(I remembered in the end obviously)
King Lear @ National Theatre (Olivier)
I mean honestly, how do you forget watching Lear?! And it was a good produciton too although the fact that I forgot it so entirely does rather illustrate the fact that it was good not INCREDIBLE.
I liked the more modern setting but they had Lear using a microphone at the start and then Goneril and Regan did as well and what that mostly did was mean I couldn't quite hear Cordelia when she started speaking but it did add to the effect of her being so different rather beautifully.
I thought Olivia Vianall made a good Cordelia- slightly awkward but oh so determined once she was married and I was so glad I liked her because she keeps getting nominated for awards for her Desdemona which I was distinctly underwhelmed by.
The things I remember, really remember though, are Kate Fleetwood & Anna Maxwell Martin with their brittle power and bitchiness and cruelty covered by the sickening sweetness which is exactly how I see Goneril & Regan. And of course Simon Russel Beale was magnificent in his descent into something that looked very much like dementia.
Mostly though I'm going to remember Adrian Scarborough's Fool (and the brutal ending he got) which genuinely shocked me.
And I'm going to remember the ridiculous amount of fun Sam Troughton was clearly having playing Edmund as wicked and slimey and far too smart for all these idiots surrounding him. I love Sam Troughton a lot and I'm so glad his voice problems at the start of the run didn't continue. He really was a magnificent Edmund and he reminded me, in a weird way perhaps, very much of Mad Mikkelsen as Hannibal I think because of the seeming humanity and then immediate twisted actions and the way he sometimes seemed to be playing with everyone else.
Also I have to talk about Tom Brooke who is fast becoming one of my favourites because his Edgar was so trusting and so innocent and somehow despite everything he still seemed pure and whole at the end? Although I wouldn't have wished that kingdom on anyone!
The thing that will really stick with me though is a thing that really only the National could do and that was the size of the supporting cast- I know we counted at the time but there were at least 40 soldiers in Lear's guard at the start of the play and that many people make a sound and an atmosphere that you can't fake and then as they deserted him a few at a time it made Lear's aloneness so much more obvious than it would have been if we were just told. It also actually meant there was a degree of sympathy for Goneril when she was faced with these rowdy soldiers. She might have treated her father badly but I found it hard to blame her for wanting the soldiers gone!
I haven't really been very inspired by a lot of the NT's output recently for whatever reason so it was really good to see Lear and remain enthralled throughout. Mostly I'm looking forward to the next season now and the opening of the Dorfman <3
My current plan involves a lie-in before heading into London and hitting up some museums :D I'm thinking the Beautiful Science exhibition at the British Library before heading down to South Ken to see the Collider & Mind Map exhibitions at the Science Museum. Though I do also want to see the current Transport Museum exhibition... also The Vikings at the BM but I've been rather put off by the rumours of ENORMOUS crowds of people.
After the museums I'm meeting seiyaharris & we're going to see Lost Boys and I can't think of many better ways to spend a day (except for just sleeping through all of it which is, I'll admit, rather tempting).
All the planning would have been easier if tfl.gov.uk hadn't just launched a hideous new website :-/ I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually but it couldn't even recognise "the British Library" and has removed the "I'd prefer to walk option" which, apart from anything else, made it tell me to get a bus from St Pancras to the BL despite them being LITERALLY NEXT DOOR TO EACH OTHER /o\
On the plus side it finally recognises St Albans Rail Station as an actual place.
I just went to look at my list of things to review and for one horrible moment I couldn't remember seeing this next one At All /o\
(I remembered in the end obviously)
King Lear @ National Theatre (Olivier)
I mean honestly, how do you forget watching Lear?! And it was a good produciton too although the fact that I forgot it so entirely does rather illustrate the fact that it was good not INCREDIBLE.
I liked the more modern setting but they had Lear using a microphone at the start and then Goneril and Regan did as well and what that mostly did was mean I couldn't quite hear Cordelia when she started speaking but it did add to the effect of her being so different rather beautifully.
I thought Olivia Vianall made a good Cordelia- slightly awkward but oh so determined once she was married and I was so glad I liked her because she keeps getting nominated for awards for her Desdemona which I was distinctly underwhelmed by.
The things I remember, really remember though, are Kate Fleetwood & Anna Maxwell Martin with their brittle power and bitchiness and cruelty covered by the sickening sweetness which is exactly how I see Goneril & Regan. And of course Simon Russel Beale was magnificent in his descent into something that looked very much like dementia.
Mostly though I'm going to remember Adrian Scarborough's Fool (and the brutal ending he got) which genuinely shocked me.
And I'm going to remember the ridiculous amount of fun Sam Troughton was clearly having playing Edmund as wicked and slimey and far too smart for all these idiots surrounding him. I love Sam Troughton a lot and I'm so glad his voice problems at the start of the run didn't continue. He really was a magnificent Edmund and he reminded me, in a weird way perhaps, very much of Mad Mikkelsen as Hannibal I think because of the seeming humanity and then immediate twisted actions and the way he sometimes seemed to be playing with everyone else.
Also I have to talk about Tom Brooke who is fast becoming one of my favourites because his Edgar was so trusting and so innocent and somehow despite everything he still seemed pure and whole at the end? Although I wouldn't have wished that kingdom on anyone!
The thing that will really stick with me though is a thing that really only the National could do and that was the size of the supporting cast- I know we counted at the time but there were at least 40 soldiers in Lear's guard at the start of the play and that many people make a sound and an atmosphere that you can't fake and then as they deserted him a few at a time it made Lear's aloneness so much more obvious than it would have been if we were just told. It also actually meant there was a degree of sympathy for Goneril when she was faced with these rowdy soldiers. She might have treated her father badly but I found it hard to blame her for wanting the soldiers gone!
I haven't really been very inspired by a lot of the NT's output recently for whatever reason so it was really good to see Lear and remain enthralled throughout. Mostly I'm looking forward to the next season now and the opening of the Dorfman <3