Comments | lareinenoire: The Histories Cycle, dir. Michael Boyd, at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

lareinenoire

The Histories Cycle, dir. Michael Boyd, at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

Mar 20, 2008 19:06

Disclaimer: These are long and they ramble a lot. I'm taking them more or less verbatim from my notes, though getting rid of bad grammar and things I don't think about when I'm scribbling madly. ;) I'm also adding in proper act and scene numbers so that the descriptions make more sense. Due to the vagaries of train travel -- as I mentioned in the ( Read more... )

shakespeare, shakespeare: henry v, shakespeare: 2 henry iv, shakespeare: 1 henry vi, shakespeare: richard ii, shakespeare: 2 henry vi, shakespeare: 3 henry vi, rsc, shakespeare: 1 henry iv, shakespeare: richard iii, reviews: theatre, histories cycle

Comments 5

angevin2 March 20 2008, 20:38:38 UTC

*cries and cries* OMG I HAVE TO SEE ALL OF THIS AND THEY'RE NOT TAKING IT TO THE STATES AND I HAVE NO MONEY. *tears hair*

...also I totally want to hear your diss-related thoughts, sometime when you're on IM.

Everyone except Hal was wearing a replica of Henry's crown, and Douglas was literally chasing Blunt through a forest of Henries.

Okay, that is awesome. It works sort of on a Foucauldian level (signifiers of royal power everywhere) and also as a nice visual reminder of the devaluation of the crown in a post-Ricardian world (though I am also reminded of the passage about the multiplying white harts in Richard the Redeless and all the rhetoric about the king and his minions being equated with each other in Woodstock, but you know what I mean).

Apparently Falstaff, Mistress Quickly, and Doll Tearsheet ought to just go off and have a three-way-and be done with it. Which is sort of gross.

Oh, you just know they do that all the time. ;) (Chimes at Midnight, btw, which you ABSOLUTELY DO need to see, totally has a Falstaff/Doll/Hal/ ( ... )

lareinenoire March 24 2008, 22:05:04 UTC

I totally want to hear your diss-related thoughts, sometime when you're on IM.

I will try to be online at some point this week -- things were a bit mad over the weekend.

It works sort of on a Foucauldian level (signifiers of royal power everywhere) and also as a nice visual reminder of the devaluation of the crown in a post-Ricardian world

Oh wow, that is so true. The crown really is literally passed from one person to another without any question of (divine) authority involved. Well, depending on whose chronicle you're reading, naturally, but the fact that it can be at all questioned is very important.

(Chimes at Midnight, btw, which you ABSOLUTELY DO need to see, totally has a Falstaff/Doll/Hal/Poins OT4 scene.)

It's on the list of things to watch soon -- just looking for a copy. Apparently Lancastrians need orgies too.

More STUFF NOT HAPPENING.

YES!!

also, is wondering about the ramifications of having Richard II's actor turn up as Fluellen (NB: in the ESC cycle, Henry IV became Macmorris, which was hilariousClive Wood wasn ( ... )

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lareinenoire March 24 2008, 22:05:58 UTC

And I'm beginning to think I must have repressed the Suffolk/Margaret Headless Duet of WTF, because I do not remember it at all, and it doesn't sound especially forgettable

It was highly weird. She was standing in the doorway upstage and holding his head and they were singing a bizarre French duet. I had no idea what to make of it.

dracschick March 21 2008, 00:49:02 UTC

Thanks for posting your thoughts in detail. I am a big Shakespeare fan and found this very interesting to read:)

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lareinenoire March 24 2008, 22:11:27 UTC

Ooh, this is interesting because I didn't pick up on this at the time, but I think you're right - can't possibly be accidental.

I became fairly obsessed with that within about ten minutes, since there is so much emphasis throughout the cycle on...well...it being a cycle. Things circling round and round and coming back, and it came through so beautifully in the casting that I had to look for it in other places.

I loved all of the picture frame bits throughout the cycle, particularly the one later on where Edward ends up in there!

I loved that too. Objectified Edward. My inner feminist critic was giggling like mad.

See, the leek bit really made me wince, because I've seen it played solely for laughs before and I thought this was much nastier (IIRC, the scene is included in the Olivier H5 and made me much less uncomfortable, though it's been a while since I've seen it).I think I was caught between finding it hysterically funny and feeling quite bad for Pistol. Admittedly, I haven't seen the Olivier version (sacrilege, I know) and I ( ... )