(no subject)
I debated for a little while doing as I did in the Olympics and posting all our Commonwealth medals but there are many reasons not to do that starting with the fact that I just can't get excited about Lawn Bowls and continuing through the fact that just what I mean by "our medals" is slightly dubious because I was just as over the moon for Ross Murdoch as I was for any of the English medallists... I'm not so good at remembering to cheer for only a subset of Team GB people.
That said.
The Brownlees are a special case...
It was a spectacular display from them too, 2nd & 3rd coming out of the swim but Johnny had a great transition (unlike at the Olympics) and then they were away on the bokes & although Marc Austin tried valiantly to hold on it was basically just the two of them from there on in. Ali of course pulled away towards the end of the run (despite pulling the most awful faces) and that ridiculous slowdown at the end when you could see him half considering waiting for his brother as he collected ALL the flags ♥
Sadly no pictures of the half hug before Johnny collapsed onto the floor so medals instead.
Sadly I barely saw any of the track cycling but it sounds like it went pretty well. I mean I know we're used to golds not silvers on the track but both the Pursuit & Sprint teams are still getting used to new line ups (and not necessarily final ones either) so silver is pretty great and our B2 tandem girls were brilliant ♥
BUT I was totally going to post and say I wasn't posting about sport (LOL) because theatre!
Julius Caesar @ Shakespeare's Globe
I loved this production SO MUCH and I think a large part of that is that they used the space and the Groundlings so perfectly to evoke the crowds in Rome by starting to make us part of things before the play ever started. Julius Caesar starts at Lupercal so they've gone for a festival atmosphere with musicians around and a puppet show.
And OH what a puppet show! They do it twice, once for the Groundlings & once for everyone else but the Groundlings version is best because we'd all be queuing and were absolutely willing to cheer and boo and shout things out and it's VERY Punch & Judy. It goes through Caesar's conquests prior to the play complete with dreadful french accents for Gaul etc. and the whole thing has been written (by their AD Tatty Hennessey) in terrible verse but nicking lines & references from modern pop culture so we got bits of Braveheart and Sparta and "Cry God for Caesar... and ROME" and also "A day may come when the courage of men fails..." and bits of the Princess Bride and it was all just brilliant. LOADS of points to Will Mannering and Tom Kanji for effectively starting half an horu earlier than most of the other actors rain or shine!
And then the play itself started and of course we were in the right mood for taking part in crowd scenes and shouting CAESAR and cheering and booing. I love being a Groundling generally but this was definitely a good show to be right in there.
All of which makes all of the crowd scenes, with Rome for Caesar and then for Brutus and then for Mark Anthony work really well because the actual physical Groundlings are letting themselves be swayed and you see how easily it happens.
And the actors who have to give the big speeches to the crowds all paly them perfectly. George Irving is magnificent and aristocratic and a little bit distant, Tom McKay's Brutus is honest and upstanding and plays on the theme of liberty and freedom so well because you can see that he believes what he's saying and then as Mark Anthony Luke Thompson absolutely held the audience in the palm of his hand with the "Brutus is an honourable man" stuff and I'd never have believed how few previous credits he has if I didn't already know.
I loved the relationship between Cassius and Brutus, once they become co-conspirators they're tied together and there seems to be genuine affection alongside real frustration and Anthony Howell's voice when he said "How 'scaped I killing when I cross'd you so?", the utter amazement that Brutus has hidden this pain from him and that actually therefore Brutus was showing spectacular patience. I also got ridiculously choked up at their farewell which is stupid but there it is.
I spent a fair bit of time thinking about the Anthony in this play turning into the Anthony in Anthony & Cleopatra and I guess it's not a big leap- open hearted but also calculating and very much more a lover than a fighter but that not meaning he won't fight. I loved the way he crumbled when the conspirators left him alone with Caesar's corpse- from slightly confused good will to anger and hurt in a split second.
And as usual I loved all the smaller roles too- Casca edging slowly away during Mark Anthony's funeral oration, Joe Jameson as Octavius trying very much to sound like a man but inescapably appearing like a frustrated boy at times, sleepy Lucius clearly devoted to his master, a Portia who I have to admit I thought seemed unbalanced from the start but was no less compelling for that and then Will Mannering playing a million characters but who I never got confused about who he was being.
It was really interesting watching this production after seeing the all-female one at the Donmar because it just seemed like a completely different play. Not in a way that casts doubt on either performance but it was just wonderful to see the same words used in different ways and to realise how much difference staging can make. For one thing this Caesar was somewhat remote from all his friends and enemies whereas in the Donmar they had a split level stage so even when he wasn't in a scene you could see Caesar playing cards and drinking with the other "senators" and that leads to a very different image of him.
We also got to go to the Meet the Cast afterwards where there were some very interesting conversations about how they'd done one performance in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and how it reminded some of them (Brutus specifically) to make sure the more intimate and intense scenes stayed focussed amongst the bigger and wider scenes.
There was also an amount of teasing going on about Anthony Howell losing Cassius' dagger in one production (leaving poor Will Mannering trying to stab himself down the front of his armour with an ENORMOUS sword) oh and Joe Jameson as Octavius pushed a woman out of his way for one exit and she was in the Meet the Cast and said she'd been feeling faint and he looked so horrified (she was amused, said it worked perfectly!)
What else? Apparently they don't necessarily know what music the actors will be involved in when they cast it so Keith Ramsay as Lucius knew they chose him partly because he could sing but he had to learn to play the harp (a bit) and Catherine Bailey said she had an email some way into rehearsals asking if she'd like to do some singing (they had three female voices singing at each of the deaths).
Similarly there was a thing that George Irving does (spoilers!) that he didn't realise he was going to be doing till quite late on but it's a BRILLIANT touch towards the end.
I do so love the Globe and this was one of their Shakespeare done perfectly performances <3 I've got 5 more Globe shows to see this season and only one of those is Shakespeare now so that will be interesting!
That said.
The Brownlees are a special case...
It was a spectacular display from them too, 2nd & 3rd coming out of the swim but Johnny had a great transition (unlike at the Olympics) and then they were away on the bokes & although Marc Austin tried valiantly to hold on it was basically just the two of them from there on in. Ali of course pulled away towards the end of the run (despite pulling the most awful faces) and that ridiculous slowdown at the end when you could see him half considering waiting for his brother as he collected ALL the flags ♥
Sadly no pictures of the half hug before Johnny collapsed onto the floor so medals instead.
Sadly I barely saw any of the track cycling but it sounds like it went pretty well. I mean I know we're used to golds not silvers on the track but both the Pursuit & Sprint teams are still getting used to new line ups (and not necessarily final ones either) so silver is pretty great and our B2 tandem girls were brilliant ♥
BUT I was totally going to post and say I wasn't posting about sport (LOL) because theatre!
Julius Caesar @ Shakespeare's Globe
I loved this production SO MUCH and I think a large part of that is that they used the space and the Groundlings so perfectly to evoke the crowds in Rome by starting to make us part of things before the play ever started. Julius Caesar starts at Lupercal so they've gone for a festival atmosphere with musicians around and a puppet show.
And OH what a puppet show! They do it twice, once for the Groundlings & once for everyone else but the Groundlings version is best because we'd all be queuing and were absolutely willing to cheer and boo and shout things out and it's VERY Punch & Judy. It goes through Caesar's conquests prior to the play complete with dreadful french accents for Gaul etc. and the whole thing has been written (by their AD Tatty Hennessey) in terrible verse but nicking lines & references from modern pop culture so we got bits of Braveheart and Sparta and "Cry God for Caesar... and ROME" and also "A day may come when the courage of men fails..." and bits of the Princess Bride and it was all just brilliant. LOADS of points to Will Mannering and Tom Kanji for effectively starting half an horu earlier than most of the other actors rain or shine!
And then the play itself started and of course we were in the right mood for taking part in crowd scenes and shouting CAESAR and cheering and booing. I love being a Groundling generally but this was definitely a good show to be right in there.
All of which makes all of the crowd scenes, with Rome for Caesar and then for Brutus and then for Mark Anthony work really well because the actual physical Groundlings are letting themselves be swayed and you see how easily it happens.
And the actors who have to give the big speeches to the crowds all paly them perfectly. George Irving is magnificent and aristocratic and a little bit distant, Tom McKay's Brutus is honest and upstanding and plays on the theme of liberty and freedom so well because you can see that he believes what he's saying and then as Mark Anthony Luke Thompson absolutely held the audience in the palm of his hand with the "Brutus is an honourable man" stuff and I'd never have believed how few previous credits he has if I didn't already know.
I loved the relationship between Cassius and Brutus, once they become co-conspirators they're tied together and there seems to be genuine affection alongside real frustration and Anthony Howell's voice when he said "How 'scaped I killing when I cross'd you so?", the utter amazement that Brutus has hidden this pain from him and that actually therefore Brutus was showing spectacular patience. I also got ridiculously choked up at their farewell which is stupid but there it is.
I spent a fair bit of time thinking about the Anthony in this play turning into the Anthony in Anthony & Cleopatra and I guess it's not a big leap- open hearted but also calculating and very much more a lover than a fighter but that not meaning he won't fight. I loved the way he crumbled when the conspirators left him alone with Caesar's corpse- from slightly confused good will to anger and hurt in a split second.
And as usual I loved all the smaller roles too- Casca edging slowly away during Mark Anthony's funeral oration, Joe Jameson as Octavius trying very much to sound like a man but inescapably appearing like a frustrated boy at times, sleepy Lucius clearly devoted to his master, a Portia who I have to admit I thought seemed unbalanced from the start but was no less compelling for that and then Will Mannering playing a million characters but who I never got confused about who he was being.
It was really interesting watching this production after seeing the all-female one at the Donmar because it just seemed like a completely different play. Not in a way that casts doubt on either performance but it was just wonderful to see the same words used in different ways and to realise how much difference staging can make. For one thing this Caesar was somewhat remote from all his friends and enemies whereas in the Donmar they had a split level stage so even when he wasn't in a scene you could see Caesar playing cards and drinking with the other "senators" and that leads to a very different image of him.
We also got to go to the Meet the Cast afterwards where there were some very interesting conversations about how they'd done one performance in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and how it reminded some of them (Brutus specifically) to make sure the more intimate and intense scenes stayed focussed amongst the bigger and wider scenes.
There was also an amount of teasing going on about Anthony Howell losing Cassius' dagger in one production (leaving poor Will Mannering trying to stab himself down the front of his armour with an ENORMOUS sword) oh and Joe Jameson as Octavius pushed a woman out of his way for one exit and she was in the Meet the Cast and said she'd been feeling faint and he looked so horrified (she was amused, said it worked perfectly!)
What else? Apparently they don't necessarily know what music the actors will be involved in when they cast it so Keith Ramsay as Lucius knew they chose him partly because he could sing but he had to learn to play the harp (a bit) and Catherine Bailey said she had an email some way into rehearsals asking if she'd like to do some singing (they had three female voices singing at each of the deaths).
Similarly there was a thing that George Irving does (spoilers!) that he didn't realise he was going to be doing till quite late on but it's a BRILLIANT touch towards the end.
I do so love the Globe and this was one of their Shakespeare done perfectly performances <3 I've got 5 more Globe shows to see this season and only one of those is Shakespeare now so that will be interesting!