(no subject)
I started putting the reviews I need to write on my HabitRPG account and now my to-do list is 1) all theatre and 2) all red /o\ so let me at least write about this weekend because that should be quick!
N & I had a lovely afternoon wandering around Stratford and being remarkably restrained in the shops. I bought some badges & a bag for life from the RSC shop and then ALL THE FUDGE because they had Ginger & Cream fudge to try and it was amazing <3 Then after a very nice supper and a few glasses of wine we stumbled down towards the theatre *g*
The Witch of Edmonton @ RSC (Swan Theatre)
You know there is nothing like seeing other Elizabethan/Jacobean plays to remind you how brilliant Shakespeare really is. Because I spent so much of this play desperate for a proper comic interlude (antyhing to lighten the tone) or the sense that any of the bad characters might get their comeuppance.
I mean there was some light relief from a band of Morris Men and one of the best bits was when the devil-dog (Tom) came and played for them and their Morris went very dark but otherwise I just kept being annoyed that the one who played the Hobby Horse used the devil-dog to get revenge on all kinds of people but the worst thing that happened to him was falling in a pond!
I mean that's the main problem I had with this play- it ends with two characters about to be executed and one is an old woman who has been hit and cursed and beaten and left on her own so when the devil-dog appears to her she grabs the chance for revenge which primarily seems to involve ruining crops and pinching at people (though she does ask for one woman to be driven mad and that woman then kills herself) and she dies still reviled and abandoned even by her demon.
Meanwhile our hero (? protagonist maybe) Frank is a bigamist who then murders his second wife for her money and then blames two entirely innocent men for her death and what end does he get? Forgiven by his fatehr and his first wife and his second wife's father AND the two men he falsely accused! I mean he still gets executed but it was really icky.
All the acting was good and there were some really effective uses of the stage and lighting and smokey atmosphere etc and Eileen Atkins was brilliant and had probably the best speech in the whole thing about men and women who "bewitch" and confuse and cause pain to people but aren't called witches and reviled. It's true that the play doesn't condemn her, it definitely shows that her actions rise from the way she's been treated, but the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth sadly.
Still I was glad to get a chance to see Eileen Atkins and there were some good moments in there- the two wives meeting with the first disguised as a man and the second begging her to be "servant and friend and wife to Frank" was tense and awkward and perfect.
Not my greatest RSC trip though.
Shamefully I never wrote up my last Stratford trip when I saw two of the other plays in the RSC's Roraing Girl season. Actually not so much shamefully as sadly because I enjoy both of them a lot more than the Witch and now these reviews are likely to be quite short. Better late them never (maybe)?
Arden of Faversham @ RSC (Swan Theatre)
My enduring memory of Arden of Faversham, and this is going to last a VERY long time, is the enormous wall of Maneki-neko cats that were revealed at the back of the stage at the end of the play. Giant golden cats in endless rows... it was somewhat terrifying and impossible to forget! (you can sort of see them in the back of this production shot.
The play started with a rather beautifully choreographed snippet of life in a factory where they appeared to be making/packing these cats as well as snow globes and other pieces of tourist-y gifts- Arden of Faversham the landowner has become a factory owner and his wife Alice is the sort of woman you associate with TOWIE all enormous blonde hair and ridiculous heels.
Arden is the (true?) story of a woman who, with her lover, has her husband killed complete with bungling assassins, miscommunication and then an unfortunately timed visit by the police. It's full of dark humour with blood dripping from the corpse and Alice realising too late that murder is probably a bad idea.
Ian Redford's Arden was pretty loathsome but then Sharon Small and Keir Charles as Alice & Mosby weren't exactly appealing characters either- each one out for their own ambitious ends with little care for anyone else. Jay Simpson and Tony Jayawardena as Black Will and Shakebag were the highlights though, messing up in every way possible and causing far more injury to themselves than anyone else- a lingering sense of menace completely overtaken by their ridiculousness.
I'm not sure it's a brilliant play or one I'd ever seek out again but Polly Findlay's production of it was definitely fun.
We saw these two plays on the same day which was a little interesting. Mostly when I've seen multiple plays in a day they've been connected but the only connection in this "season" was Jacobean plays with female title characters!
The Roaring Girl @ RSC (Swan Theatre)
I liked this best of the three plays but then Moll Cutpurse is a women who sometimes dresses as a man and basically seems to wander about London solving other people's problems and being spectacularly awesome AND they set in vaguely in the 1890s so it had awesome Victorian costumes and it was just very pleasing in many ways.
Lisa Dillon had such a wonderful swagger as Moll but also this twinkle that let you know she was having the best time and that really everything was sort of part of a private joke to her although at the same time being really angry about the way the men in the play act. Joe Bannister played the man who asks to pretend to woo her in order to convince his father that the girl he REALLY wants to marry is at least not as bad as Moll (I mean I've seen worse plots!) and he was sweet and I did love the way he just sort of let Moll carry him along with her once he'd asked for help.
A lot of the reviews at the time were a bit sneery about the number of subplots (several of which I have to admit I've entirely forgotten) but there was also a lot of describing it (and Lisa) as strident and harsh and other insults that sound only too familiar when the subject is a dominant woman... no Charles Spencer I didn't find Moll "icy" and I had zero problems sympathising with her!
I also quite liked the rock/ska/punk music they used although at times I did wonder whether it was a bit much (pick one setting and stick with it!) but it certainly added to the energy.
But mostly I loved it for having this character who was bold and daring and totally in control of the situation, the people around her and her own body. I mean you can quibble and say that the fact that she makes very clear that actually her "honour" is entirely intact is rather at odds with allowing her to own her own body and sexuality (and that the real woman she's based on really wasn't so chaste) but I loved the play all the same.
So yes. An intriguing season of plays if not entirely successful for me. I never did get to the fourth play, White Devil, but I think I'll cope with the disappointment!
N & I had a lovely afternoon wandering around Stratford and being remarkably restrained in the shops. I bought some badges & a bag for life from the RSC shop and then ALL THE FUDGE because they had Ginger & Cream fudge to try and it was amazing <3 Then after a very nice supper and a few glasses of wine we stumbled down towards the theatre *g*
The Witch of Edmonton @ RSC (Swan Theatre)
You know there is nothing like seeing other Elizabethan/Jacobean plays to remind you how brilliant Shakespeare really is. Because I spent so much of this play desperate for a proper comic interlude (antyhing to lighten the tone) or the sense that any of the bad characters might get their comeuppance.
I mean there was some light relief from a band of Morris Men and one of the best bits was when the devil-dog (Tom) came and played for them and their Morris went very dark but otherwise I just kept being annoyed that the one who played the Hobby Horse used the devil-dog to get revenge on all kinds of people but the worst thing that happened to him was falling in a pond!
I mean that's the main problem I had with this play- it ends with two characters about to be executed and one is an old woman who has been hit and cursed and beaten and left on her own so when the devil-dog appears to her she grabs the chance for revenge which primarily seems to involve ruining crops and pinching at people (though she does ask for one woman to be driven mad and that woman then kills herself) and she dies still reviled and abandoned even by her demon.
Meanwhile our hero (? protagonist maybe) Frank is a bigamist who then murders his second wife for her money and then blames two entirely innocent men for her death and what end does he get? Forgiven by his fatehr and his first wife and his second wife's father AND the two men he falsely accused! I mean he still gets executed but it was really icky.
All the acting was good and there were some really effective uses of the stage and lighting and smokey atmosphere etc and Eileen Atkins was brilliant and had probably the best speech in the whole thing about men and women who "bewitch" and confuse and cause pain to people but aren't called witches and reviled. It's true that the play doesn't condemn her, it definitely shows that her actions rise from the way she's been treated, but the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth sadly.
Still I was glad to get a chance to see Eileen Atkins and there were some good moments in there- the two wives meeting with the first disguised as a man and the second begging her to be "servant and friend and wife to Frank" was tense and awkward and perfect.
Not my greatest RSC trip though.
Shamefully I never wrote up my last Stratford trip when I saw two of the other plays in the RSC's Roraing Girl season. Actually not so much shamefully as sadly because I enjoy both of them a lot more than the Witch and now these reviews are likely to be quite short. Better late them never (maybe)?
Arden of Faversham @ RSC (Swan Theatre)
My enduring memory of Arden of Faversham, and this is going to last a VERY long time, is the enormous wall of Maneki-neko cats that were revealed at the back of the stage at the end of the play. Giant golden cats in endless rows... it was somewhat terrifying and impossible to forget! (you can sort of see them in the back of this production shot.
The play started with a rather beautifully choreographed snippet of life in a factory where they appeared to be making/packing these cats as well as snow globes and other pieces of tourist-y gifts- Arden of Faversham the landowner has become a factory owner and his wife Alice is the sort of woman you associate with TOWIE all enormous blonde hair and ridiculous heels.
Arden is the (true?) story of a woman who, with her lover, has her husband killed complete with bungling assassins, miscommunication and then an unfortunately timed visit by the police. It's full of dark humour with blood dripping from the corpse and Alice realising too late that murder is probably a bad idea.
Ian Redford's Arden was pretty loathsome but then Sharon Small and Keir Charles as Alice & Mosby weren't exactly appealing characters either- each one out for their own ambitious ends with little care for anyone else. Jay Simpson and Tony Jayawardena as Black Will and Shakebag were the highlights though, messing up in every way possible and causing far more injury to themselves than anyone else- a lingering sense of menace completely overtaken by their ridiculousness.
I'm not sure it's a brilliant play or one I'd ever seek out again but Polly Findlay's production of it was definitely fun.
We saw these two plays on the same day which was a little interesting. Mostly when I've seen multiple plays in a day they've been connected but the only connection in this "season" was Jacobean plays with female title characters!
The Roaring Girl @ RSC (Swan Theatre)
I liked this best of the three plays but then Moll Cutpurse is a women who sometimes dresses as a man and basically seems to wander about London solving other people's problems and being spectacularly awesome AND they set in vaguely in the 1890s so it had awesome Victorian costumes and it was just very pleasing in many ways.
Lisa Dillon had such a wonderful swagger as Moll but also this twinkle that let you know she was having the best time and that really everything was sort of part of a private joke to her although at the same time being really angry about the way the men in the play act. Joe Bannister played the man who asks to pretend to woo her in order to convince his father that the girl he REALLY wants to marry is at least not as bad as Moll (I mean I've seen worse plots!) and he was sweet and I did love the way he just sort of let Moll carry him along with her once he'd asked for help.
A lot of the reviews at the time were a bit sneery about the number of subplots (several of which I have to admit I've entirely forgotten) but there was also a lot of describing it (and Lisa) as strident and harsh and other insults that sound only too familiar when the subject is a dominant woman... no Charles Spencer I didn't find Moll "icy" and I had zero problems sympathising with her!
I also quite liked the rock/ska/punk music they used although at times I did wonder whether it was a bit much (pick one setting and stick with it!) but it certainly added to the energy.
But mostly I loved it for having this character who was bold and daring and totally in control of the situation, the people around her and her own body. I mean you can quibble and say that the fact that she makes very clear that actually her "honour" is entirely intact is rather at odds with allowing her to own her own body and sexuality (and that the real woman she's based on really wasn't so chaste) but I loved the play all the same.
So yes. An intriguing season of plays if not entirely successful for me. I never did get to the fourth play, White Devil, but I think I'll cope with the disappointment!