(no subject)
I'm currently suffering from a severe lack of... well I was going to say motivation but that's not quite it. I have plenty of motivation but somewhere between that and the stuff actually getting done there appears to be a bottomless sinkhole of nothingness :-/ I feel like everything I'm doing at the moment is ending up very last minute and as a result I can also see all the things I'm NOT doing right now that are going to cause future problems and I need to get a grip.
Problem is that's rather easier said than done/ I think it might be time to break out ALL the lists and also maybe go back to using HabitRPG properly...
Anyway this weekend I wasn't going to get anything done anyway because it was a Stratford weekend <3 N & I have got these down to an art now, drive up in the morning & park near the hotel, grab lunch in town in time for the matinee. Once that's over check in at the hotel, have a wander in town and grab (a usually delicious and expensive) dinner before the evening play after which it's off to the Dirty Duck for a quick drink and then back to the hotel *g*
We were in a rather nicer hotel than usual this time as the Premiere Inn was full, turns out the River Festival was on this weekend. Definitely got a better quality breakfast and a much more comfortable room though IDK if it was worth the extra money.
ANYWAY. Plays this time round were:
Merchant of Venice @ Royal Shakespeare Theatre
I find Polly Findlay very hitt & miss as a director and I fear this wasn't one of her hits (for me). The idea of casting an Israeli actor as Shylock was great and apparently he's a very well respected actor but the problem was, particularly having seen Jonathan Pryce only weeks before, Makram J. Khoury just couldn't carry the centre of the play in the same way? His performance was subtle and fascinating in many of his big speeches but (and this wasn't helped by his costume) he tended to disappear in the face of the larger presences of the actors around him.
Mind you. Neither was I remotely convinced by an Antonio who basically appeared to be a lovesick teenager most of the time. I don't know if he was having problems with his voice or if he always sounds like that but Jamie Ballard never made me believe this was someone who was well loved and respected in Venice. I mean he was clearly in love with Bassanio (and, interestingly, the feeling appeared to be entirely mutual given they started with a kiss) but I couldn't for the life of me see why anyone else loved/respected him so much. We were told, because the play does tell you, but never shown.
Oh and the less said about Launcelot Gobbo the better. I literally couldn't see any of his first scene because they played it in the stalls and that might have been better than when I COULD see him.
HOWEVER there were good points! I loved the Casket scenes. Morocco was considerably less ridiculous than he sometimes is but also took the result with real nobility meanwhile Aragon was an aging dandy and left with his sunglasses firmly in place <3 meanwhile I've never seen Portia's song make the correct answer more obvious. Not only did she sing it herself so she dropped heavy emphasis on all those rhymes but she also kept looking pointedly at the right box.
Actually Patsy Ferran was basically the best bit of the whole play which was lucky because she's why I saw it. I mean I'm not sure I buy her as this famed beauty but you could see why people were attracted to her and she was young and impulsive but also so kind and wise with it. I very much enjoyed the overwhelming joy she and Jacob Fortune-Lloyd showed after Bassanio chose right <3 also Ken Nwosu & Nadia Albina as Gratiano and Nerissa were wonderful foils for their friends (though I never really saw any chemistry between them).
The trial scene was very much the best part and the best bit of IT was watching Portia's face as she saw how much Bassanio loved Antonio and just what he would give up for him. Clearly she wanted to save him but there were definitely mixed feels going on and the end of the play made it seem even less of a comedy than usual.
Neither Nerissa & Gratiano nor Jessica & Lorenzo looked very stable as couples. Obviously Shylock's end was horrible as it always is but then Portia and Bassanio... well with Antonio right there in their home Portia could welcome him but when she gave him the ring to give to Bassanio it felt (to me) rather like a recognition of the fact that Antonio was very much between them, an unresolved problem, and so at the end of the play Antonio was left standing sadly alone just as he started.
So interesting but I'm SO glad we didn't travel just to see this!
Interestingly I complained bitterly to N that the very minimalist set for Merchant didn't allow for any fun water which I know the RSC stage can manage (it was all burnished metal as a floor and back with a giant pendulum swinging at one side) but my complaints were swiftly silenced because of course Othello start in Venice and they took advantage of that fact *g*
Othello @ Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Now THIS I loved. I mean I think the NT Othello still shades it but N & I headed to the pub after this and talked about it for an hour solidly (normally we get distracted by all the actors coming in or what we might do the next day, not this time!)
The big headline with this production wasn't it's wonderful Othello (Hugh Quarshie who, it has to be said, is looking incredibly good for 60 especially with his top off) but that they'd cast another black actor, Lucian Msamati, as Iago. Now I'd actually posit that the things I loved that this play did differently were mainly because Iago was played by Lucian not because of his race BUT it can't be denied that Roderigo's casual racism (thick lips etc.) goes down very differently when it's being said to another black man and the whole of the drinking scene with Cassio also played very much more as us and them because Iago and most of the Cypriot's were singing African songs before Cassio tried rapping (badly).
Mostly though I loved that Lucian played an Iago who was absolutely making things up as he went along. You could see him working things out and reacting on the fly AND you could see how bothered he was by things failing to go his way or in fact sometimes by them going his way. This Iago had a strange cleaning obsession and the more wound up he got the more he would rub at things with his handkerchief (and then Desdemona's handkerchief) and it really made him human because you could see the frustration and the desperation and the way things slightly spiralled out of control even as he tried to control them tighter.
I very much enjoyed Ayesha Dharker's Emilia too as she desperately tried to win Iago's love back but stood by Desdemona and, much to my own surprise, I even liked Joanna Vanderham's Desdemona because she managed to keep the artless innocence and submission to Othello's ridiculous whims without ever losing her character. She was funny and rash and had such a will to live but was also so in love.
Roderigo was a properly sulky teenager type which is my favourite way to see him played and the rest of the supporting cast were all equally good but mostly it comes back to Othello and Iago, as it should, and much as with Rory Kinnear I could quite see why this Iago was trusted because he was so good an actor and left so much up to Othello to interpret but also this Othello was always habouring barely supressed rage (he almost tortures Iago at one point). They definitely kept the feeling of Cyprus as a place on the edge of war and Othello the soldier as opposed to Cassio the gentleman (though I felt less sympathetic towards Cassio than I often do).
Oh! And because I mentioned it before- the set was simple but oh so clever. There were three or four panels of grating down the centre of the stage which could either be raised (one became the Duke's council of war table) or lowered and underneath them was water so that when raised there was a pool and when lowered there was water that became the canals of Venice (complete with gondola) or a pool in Othello's house in Cyprus etc.
I think this play has pushed Lucian Msamati up to joint second in my favourite Iago's list (alongside Tim McInnerny and just behind Rory Kinnear). I'm glad there are still ways for Othello to surprise me too <3
Problem is that's rather easier said than done/ I think it might be time to break out ALL the lists and also maybe go back to using HabitRPG properly...
Anyway this weekend I wasn't going to get anything done anyway because it was a Stratford weekend <3 N & I have got these down to an art now, drive up in the morning & park near the hotel, grab lunch in town in time for the matinee. Once that's over check in at the hotel, have a wander in town and grab (a usually delicious and expensive) dinner before the evening play after which it's off to the Dirty Duck for a quick drink and then back to the hotel *g*
We were in a rather nicer hotel than usual this time as the Premiere Inn was full, turns out the River Festival was on this weekend. Definitely got a better quality breakfast and a much more comfortable room though IDK if it was worth the extra money.
ANYWAY. Plays this time round were:
Merchant of Venice @ Royal Shakespeare Theatre
I find Polly Findlay very hitt & miss as a director and I fear this wasn't one of her hits (for me). The idea of casting an Israeli actor as Shylock was great and apparently he's a very well respected actor but the problem was, particularly having seen Jonathan Pryce only weeks before, Makram J. Khoury just couldn't carry the centre of the play in the same way? His performance was subtle and fascinating in many of his big speeches but (and this wasn't helped by his costume) he tended to disappear in the face of the larger presences of the actors around him.
Mind you. Neither was I remotely convinced by an Antonio who basically appeared to be a lovesick teenager most of the time. I don't know if he was having problems with his voice or if he always sounds like that but Jamie Ballard never made me believe this was someone who was well loved and respected in Venice. I mean he was clearly in love with Bassanio (and, interestingly, the feeling appeared to be entirely mutual given they started with a kiss) but I couldn't for the life of me see why anyone else loved/respected him so much. We were told, because the play does tell you, but never shown.
Oh and the less said about Launcelot Gobbo the better. I literally couldn't see any of his first scene because they played it in the stalls and that might have been better than when I COULD see him.
HOWEVER there were good points! I loved the Casket scenes. Morocco was considerably less ridiculous than he sometimes is but also took the result with real nobility meanwhile Aragon was an aging dandy and left with his sunglasses firmly in place <3 meanwhile I've never seen Portia's song make the correct answer more obvious. Not only did she sing it herself so she dropped heavy emphasis on all those rhymes but she also kept looking pointedly at the right box.
Actually Patsy Ferran was basically the best bit of the whole play which was lucky because she's why I saw it. I mean I'm not sure I buy her as this famed beauty but you could see why people were attracted to her and she was young and impulsive but also so kind and wise with it. I very much enjoyed the overwhelming joy she and Jacob Fortune-Lloyd showed after Bassanio chose right <3 also Ken Nwosu & Nadia Albina as Gratiano and Nerissa were wonderful foils for their friends (though I never really saw any chemistry between them).
The trial scene was very much the best part and the best bit of IT was watching Portia's face as she saw how much Bassanio loved Antonio and just what he would give up for him. Clearly she wanted to save him but there were definitely mixed feels going on and the end of the play made it seem even less of a comedy than usual.
Neither Nerissa & Gratiano nor Jessica & Lorenzo looked very stable as couples. Obviously Shylock's end was horrible as it always is but then Portia and Bassanio... well with Antonio right there in their home Portia could welcome him but when she gave him the ring to give to Bassanio it felt (to me) rather like a recognition of the fact that Antonio was very much between them, an unresolved problem, and so at the end of the play Antonio was left standing sadly alone just as he started.
So interesting but I'm SO glad we didn't travel just to see this!
Interestingly I complained bitterly to N that the very minimalist set for Merchant didn't allow for any fun water which I know the RSC stage can manage (it was all burnished metal as a floor and back with a giant pendulum swinging at one side) but my complaints were swiftly silenced because of course Othello start in Venice and they took advantage of that fact *g*
Othello @ Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Now THIS I loved. I mean I think the NT Othello still shades it but N & I headed to the pub after this and talked about it for an hour solidly (normally we get distracted by all the actors coming in or what we might do the next day, not this time!)
The big headline with this production wasn't it's wonderful Othello (Hugh Quarshie who, it has to be said, is looking incredibly good for 60 especially with his top off) but that they'd cast another black actor, Lucian Msamati, as Iago. Now I'd actually posit that the things I loved that this play did differently were mainly because Iago was played by Lucian not because of his race BUT it can't be denied that Roderigo's casual racism (thick lips etc.) goes down very differently when it's being said to another black man and the whole of the drinking scene with Cassio also played very much more as us and them because Iago and most of the Cypriot's were singing African songs before Cassio tried rapping (badly).
Mostly though I loved that Lucian played an Iago who was absolutely making things up as he went along. You could see him working things out and reacting on the fly AND you could see how bothered he was by things failing to go his way or in fact sometimes by them going his way. This Iago had a strange cleaning obsession and the more wound up he got the more he would rub at things with his handkerchief (and then Desdemona's handkerchief) and it really made him human because you could see the frustration and the desperation and the way things slightly spiralled out of control even as he tried to control them tighter.
I very much enjoyed Ayesha Dharker's Emilia too as she desperately tried to win Iago's love back but stood by Desdemona and, much to my own surprise, I even liked Joanna Vanderham's Desdemona because she managed to keep the artless innocence and submission to Othello's ridiculous whims without ever losing her character. She was funny and rash and had such a will to live but was also so in love.
Roderigo was a properly sulky teenager type which is my favourite way to see him played and the rest of the supporting cast were all equally good but mostly it comes back to Othello and Iago, as it should, and much as with Rory Kinnear I could quite see why this Iago was trusted because he was so good an actor and left so much up to Othello to interpret but also this Othello was always habouring barely supressed rage (he almost tortures Iago at one point). They definitely kept the feeling of Cyprus as a place on the edge of war and Othello the soldier as opposed to Cassio the gentleman (though I felt less sympathetic towards Cassio than I often do).
Oh! And because I mentioned it before- the set was simple but oh so clever. There were three or four panels of grating down the centre of the stage which could either be raised (one became the Duke's council of war table) or lowered and underneath them was water so that when raised there was a pool and when lowered there was water that became the canals of Venice (complete with gondola) or a pool in Othello's house in Cyprus etc.
I think this play has pushed Lucian Msamati up to joint second in my favourite Iago's list (alongside Tim McInnerny and just behind Rory Kinnear). I'm glad there are still ways for Othello to surprise me too <3