Why don't you go and shout at the English and beat them for me?
I have had an immensely fine day. Having played on the interwebs this morning I took myself off up to Waterloo to meet chiasmata. The weather was playing nicely enough for us to be able to go and picnic by the London Eye before wandering down to the National to see St Joan.
Oh, but it was glorious. I am actually a bit lacking in words on the whole thing. I had read the play in the very distant past (wasn't I a horribly precocious brat...) but really remembered very little. The set design was fantastic - huge blasted trees around the back of the stage (reminiscent of landscapes ravaged by modern warfare) and a sloping revolve that performed a good half-dozen functions and not only featured a handy trapdoor but could be elevated as well... And much was made of chairs - they form the pyre seen at the beginning and end, they're used in dance and movement and to convey change and also the relationship between the sacred and the secular and how they coincide and things. (I am still thinking about the chairs... I will be thinking about them for some time. Such is my life.) Oh, and in amongst the blasted trees were dummies with discarded costumes on - Joan's dress, a set of archbishop's robes (plus mitre) and a crown & swishy coronation robe. I love symbolism in theatre. It makes me quite absurdly happy looking at all the tiny details and layers of meaning and just the fact that everything means something and has a purpose...
The performance ranged from being laugh-out-loud funny to feeling-slightly-wibbly moving and was absolutely perfectly paced throughout. Anne-Marie Duff was amazing as Joan - she was so energetic and so captivating and vibrant... Paul Ready as the Dauphin was fabulous - he played him as whiny and almost-sulky, but without making him seem utterly weak, or totally unlikeable: and he was very funny. I was really very taken with his purple socks, as he sloped about the place in stockinged feet. Dunois (as played by Christopher Colquhoun) was also incredibly good *nods*
There were just so many brilliant moments - the kingfisher-puppetry; Joan leading the siege of Orleans which involved a huge swirly flag and leaping and thoroughly beating huge bits of metal. Plus the revolve was sloped right up to be a big wall and there was leaping and thumping and noise and light and it was very obviously a big battle without much actual fighting, which is Very Clever Indeed...
I cannot explain or describe or really communicate anything, not least because it was all incredibly thought-provoking in about six different directions all at once. The ideas of gender identity and the rights of the individual and nationalism and the social order and organised religion all muddled together and making me think. Lots and lots of thinking. Possibly at some point there will be some kind of coherent discourse. Equally, possibly not. On the plus side, at least it did make me think. Unlike the people sitting just in front of the Katie-Kate and I, who uttered some comments so cretinously stupid that my brain almost stopped working entirely in a bid to preserve itself from the stupid.
Anyhow, it was so splendid that not only did I keep clapping even after my shoulder had stealthed off (pah) but we also went straight down to the bookshop to get copies of the play. La. I shall read it at some point and maybe do more thinking & try to write something rather more coherent than the above. Oui.
With it still being nice and sunny when we left the theatre we went and got tea/diet coke as applicable and returned to the grass to sit and talk. And talk. And talk. And eat biscuits. And talk... It is always splendid to find someone with whom you can talk about everythings as well as nothings; and hit all the points in-between as well. Oh, and people who think that a good way to round off the evening is to play on the swings, looking out over the river to Big Ben and giggling like lunatics...
Oh, but it was glorious. I am actually a bit lacking in words on the whole thing. I had read the play in the very distant past (wasn't I a horribly precocious brat...) but really remembered very little. The set design was fantastic - huge blasted trees around the back of the stage (reminiscent of landscapes ravaged by modern warfare) and a sloping revolve that performed a good half-dozen functions and not only featured a handy trapdoor but could be elevated as well... And much was made of chairs - they form the pyre seen at the beginning and end, they're used in dance and movement and to convey change and also the relationship between the sacred and the secular and how they coincide and things. (I am still thinking about the chairs... I will be thinking about them for some time. Such is my life.) Oh, and in amongst the blasted trees were dummies with discarded costumes on - Joan's dress, a set of archbishop's robes (plus mitre) and a crown & swishy coronation robe. I love symbolism in theatre. It makes me quite absurdly happy looking at all the tiny details and layers of meaning and just the fact that everything means something and has a purpose...
The performance ranged from being laugh-out-loud funny to feeling-slightly-wibbly moving and was absolutely perfectly paced throughout. Anne-Marie Duff was amazing as Joan - she was so energetic and so captivating and vibrant... Paul Ready as the Dauphin was fabulous - he played him as whiny and almost-sulky, but without making him seem utterly weak, or totally unlikeable: and he was very funny. I was really very taken with his purple socks, as he sloped about the place in stockinged feet. Dunois (as played by Christopher Colquhoun) was also incredibly good *nods*
There were just so many brilliant moments - the kingfisher-puppetry; Joan leading the siege of Orleans which involved a huge swirly flag and leaping and thoroughly beating huge bits of metal. Plus the revolve was sloped right up to be a big wall and there was leaping and thumping and noise and light and it was very obviously a big battle without much actual fighting, which is Very Clever Indeed...
I cannot explain or describe or really communicate anything, not least because it was all incredibly thought-provoking in about six different directions all at once. The ideas of gender identity and the rights of the individual and nationalism and the social order and organised religion all muddled together and making me think. Lots and lots of thinking. Possibly at some point there will be some kind of coherent discourse. Equally, possibly not. On the plus side, at least it did make me think. Unlike the people sitting just in front of the Katie-Kate and I, who uttered some comments so cretinously stupid that my brain almost stopped working entirely in a bid to preserve itself from the stupid.
Anyhow, it was so splendid that not only did I keep clapping even after my shoulder had stealthed off (pah) but we also went straight down to the bookshop to get copies of the play. La. I shall read it at some point and maybe do more thinking & try to write something rather more coherent than the above. Oui.
With it still being nice and sunny when we left the theatre we went and got tea/diet coke as applicable and returned to the grass to sit and talk. And talk. And talk. And eat biscuits. And talk... It is always splendid to find someone with whom you can talk about everythings as well as nothings; and hit all the points in-between as well. Oh, and people who think that a good way to round off the evening is to play on the swings, looking out over the river to Big Ben and giggling like lunatics...