Another fabulous fangirly weekend! (Which may have included finally seeing Frankenstein :)).
Sunday evening finally rolls around after one of the busiest weekends I've had in a while. Not that I'm complaining. I've already posted about my Friday night adventures, and with the dawn of Saturday, Round Two began -- this time, off to the National Theatre with bigtitch, crowie, mogwai_do where we met up with evildrem, loreley_se and temaris for Frankenstein
Wow. I tried to stay away from most spoilers and reviews of the show until I saw it myself. I always like to experience the show with "fresh" eyes, uninfluenced by the thoughts of others. I had heard that Benedict and Johnny Lee were the strengths of the show and that the production was hampered by some awkward dialogue on the part of the supporting cast and that certain sections were rather clunky.
Well, what I saw yesterday afternoon was brilliant. In speaking with both evildrem and loreley_se (who have already seen the show), they confirmed that certain scenes were cut, others have been shortened and some of the dialogue has been changed: the end result, a production which keeps you mesmerized for nearly two hours and leaves you with much to think about.
Firstly, as to the cast, we saw Benedict as Victor and Johnny Lee as The Creature. Benedict was, surprise, surprise, a delight to watch. Frankly, he could play the Victor character with his eyes closed; he manages to convey brilliance and haughtiness, despair and obsession beautifully. There were certain moments, when he said certain lines, that you could almost see Sherlock emerge within him. Hands down, his best scenes were with The Creature. The last scene in particular is rather poignant indeed. And let's just say he's carries off swishy coats and knee high boots beautifully.)
Johnny Lee Miller as The Creature was amazing. The Creature is, in my opinion, the meatier of the two roles. The sheer physicality required to play The Creature is astonishing. That initial birth scene is riveting as he learns to control his body and then watching his "growth" scene as he sees the sun rise for the first time, experiences the joy of birds flying, revels in the feel of rain and grass -- just incredible. And then watching his growth -- there are times when your hearts nearly breaks for him at the beginning, but then JLM starts to imbue his version of The Creature with a malevolence born of his experiences with dealing with mankind which goes a long way towards the question of who is the monster.
There is *so* much I could say about the play, but I think everyone needs to have their own experience of it. The production is incredibly multi-levelled; on its face, it's nearly two hours of good drama on a magnificent set. But there are so many themes upon themes within the play; the parent/child relationship, what makes a god?, the creation of life, science versus nature, love, and on an on. I'm actually quite excited now about going to hear Danny Boyle and Nick Dear speak on Monday the 14th about their production at the Olivier. It will be quite fascinating to hear their take on Frankenstein.
On that note, I'm also very much looking forward to a return visit in April when (fingers crossed that nobody will be ill), I'll be seeing Benedict as The Creature. I'm very keen to see his interpretation of the role.
Once the production was ended, we took a vote and decided to try our luck at the Stage Door. And lucky we were! After waiting for maybe ten minutes, Benedict appeared -- with his own sharpie in his pocket :). He was generous with his time and signed for everyone (probably 25 to 30 people), personalizing the programmes and posing for photographs. (And yes, I now have my very own Benedict bit of memorabilia :D.)
And speaking of the Benedict, here he is:
All in all, an utterly fabulous day. And by the time we finally got home after dinner in London, we all crashed to our respective beds by eleven p.m. It must be the Cumberbatch Effect as we normally stay up until well past midnight!
As for today, all of my guests left during the course of the day until finally it was only evildrem and me heading to Sadler's Wells for a final show this weekend. We had booked to see The Centaur and the Animal a few months back. We were both intrigued by the idea of a dance production involving live horses.
Well, let's just say at the end of the show, we both looked at each other and our silent expressions said it all: what was that about? It was interesting and very different and half of it (the half involving the equines I thoroughly enjoyed) but the other half was a bit ... puzzling.
Essentially, the show was a collaboration between Bartabas and Ko Murobushi. Bartabus is a French horse trainer who is the founder of an equestrian performing group called Zingaro. Ko Murobushi is a Japanese dancer, know for his Butoh style of dancing in which control of the body with very slow, hyper controlled movement is the objective.
Throughout most of the production, you had Ko in the foreground on white sand ("dancing" with very odd voice overs accompanying him) with Bartabus on one of his four horses in the background on the dirt covering the majority of the stage (taking his horses through various performances). Frankly, the stars of the show were the four horses. According to the programme, Bartabus has been training them for two years for this production and is the only one who is currently riding them. Should any of the horses be injured, there is no replacement as each has been trained uniquely. And per evildrem (who has equestrian experience of her own) the horses were exquisite and their performances were magnificent. Horses are usually easily spooked; imagine how difficult it must have been to train four horses to perform intricate dressage type movements on a relatively small stage, surrounded by lights which suddenly shift into absolute darkness, and very loud music and unexpected sounds from the audience. Much of the time, Bartabus was controlling the horses without reins, frequently waving vast swathes of cloth behind their heads, and in one scene, handling a magnificent stallion through a step movement which the stallion clearly was uncomfortable with (involving Ko lying on the floor very close to his hooves). Very, very impressive -- mostly on the part of the horses, but also on the part of Bartabus.
And when it came time for the applause, the horses got the vast majority of the whistles and whoops -- and took it all in, looking very relaxed.
I have to say, I don't think I'll go and see another Butoh dance performance; however, I'd be very keen to seen Bartabus and his horses again.
So -- another fabulous fangirl weekend!
Wow. I tried to stay away from most spoilers and reviews of the show until I saw it myself. I always like to experience the show with "fresh" eyes, uninfluenced by the thoughts of others. I had heard that Benedict and Johnny Lee were the strengths of the show and that the production was hampered by some awkward dialogue on the part of the supporting cast and that certain sections were rather clunky.
Well, what I saw yesterday afternoon was brilliant. In speaking with both evildrem and loreley_se (who have already seen the show), they confirmed that certain scenes were cut, others have been shortened and some of the dialogue has been changed: the end result, a production which keeps you mesmerized for nearly two hours and leaves you with much to think about.
Firstly, as to the cast, we saw Benedict as Victor and Johnny Lee as The Creature. Benedict was, surprise, surprise, a delight to watch. Frankly, he could play the Victor character with his eyes closed; he manages to convey brilliance and haughtiness, despair and obsession beautifully. There were certain moments, when he said certain lines, that you could almost see Sherlock emerge within him. Hands down, his best scenes were with The Creature. The last scene in particular is rather poignant indeed. And let's just say he's carries off swishy coats and knee high boots beautifully.)
Johnny Lee Miller as The Creature was amazing. The Creature is, in my opinion, the meatier of the two roles. The sheer physicality required to play The Creature is astonishing. That initial birth scene is riveting as he learns to control his body and then watching his "growth" scene as he sees the sun rise for the first time, experiences the joy of birds flying, revels in the feel of rain and grass -- just incredible. And then watching his growth -- there are times when your hearts nearly breaks for him at the beginning, but then JLM starts to imbue his version of The Creature with a malevolence born of his experiences with dealing with mankind which goes a long way towards the question of who is the monster.
There is *so* much I could say about the play, but I think everyone needs to have their own experience of it. The production is incredibly multi-levelled; on its face, it's nearly two hours of good drama on a magnificent set. But there are so many themes upon themes within the play; the parent/child relationship, what makes a god?, the creation of life, science versus nature, love, and on an on. I'm actually quite excited now about going to hear Danny Boyle and Nick Dear speak on Monday the 14th about their production at the Olivier. It will be quite fascinating to hear their take on Frankenstein.
On that note, I'm also very much looking forward to a return visit in April when (fingers crossed that nobody will be ill), I'll be seeing Benedict as The Creature. I'm very keen to see his interpretation of the role.
Once the production was ended, we took a vote and decided to try our luck at the Stage Door. And lucky we were! After waiting for maybe ten minutes, Benedict appeared -- with his own sharpie in his pocket :). He was generous with his time and signed for everyone (probably 25 to 30 people), personalizing the programmes and posing for photographs. (And yes, I now have my very own Benedict bit of memorabilia :D.)
And speaking of the Benedict, here he is:
All in all, an utterly fabulous day. And by the time we finally got home after dinner in London, we all crashed to our respective beds by eleven p.m. It must be the Cumberbatch Effect as we normally stay up until well past midnight!
As for today, all of my guests left during the course of the day until finally it was only evildrem and me heading to Sadler's Wells for a final show this weekend. We had booked to see The Centaur and the Animal a few months back. We were both intrigued by the idea of a dance production involving live horses.
Well, let's just say at the end of the show, we both looked at each other and our silent expressions said it all: what was that about? It was interesting and very different and half of it (the half involving the equines I thoroughly enjoyed) but the other half was a bit ... puzzling.
Essentially, the show was a collaboration between Bartabas and Ko Murobushi. Bartabus is a French horse trainer who is the founder of an equestrian performing group called Zingaro. Ko Murobushi is a Japanese dancer, know for his Butoh style of dancing in which control of the body with very slow, hyper controlled movement is the objective.
Throughout most of the production, you had Ko in the foreground on white sand ("dancing" with very odd voice overs accompanying him) with Bartabus on one of his four horses in the background on the dirt covering the majority of the stage (taking his horses through various performances). Frankly, the stars of the show were the four horses. According to the programme, Bartabus has been training them for two years for this production and is the only one who is currently riding them. Should any of the horses be injured, there is no replacement as each has been trained uniquely. And per evildrem (who has equestrian experience of her own) the horses were exquisite and their performances were magnificent. Horses are usually easily spooked; imagine how difficult it must have been to train four horses to perform intricate dressage type movements on a relatively small stage, surrounded by lights which suddenly shift into absolute darkness, and very loud music and unexpected sounds from the audience. Much of the time, Bartabus was controlling the horses without reins, frequently waving vast swathes of cloth behind their heads, and in one scene, handling a magnificent stallion through a step movement which the stallion clearly was uncomfortable with (involving Ko lying on the floor very close to his hooves). Very, very impressive -- mostly on the part of the horses, but also on the part of Bartabus.
And when it came time for the applause, the horses got the vast majority of the whistles and whoops -- and took it all in, looking very relaxed.
I have to say, I don't think I'll go and see another Butoh dance performance; however, I'd be very keen to seen Bartabus and his horses again.
So -- another fabulous fangirl weekend!