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grondficI haven't posted much RL stuff since the original lockdown in February 2020; in spite of a huge amount of feverish at-home activity (free-streaming in the early weeks, the arrival of free-to-view Sky Arts, discovering a number of new-to-me book-series, Persian cuisine in the kitchen etc etc).
But after the (partial) liberation in the summer, we started - cautiously - to return to the newly-opened theatres and cinemas. So here is an official return to normality on LJ/DW ... but then again ... theatregoing is still a new(ish) and stressful experience. I'm going to start this account with a bit of an overview along the lines of ...
How to contend with the COVID-related instructions and restrictions
Each theatre has its own ideas on what constitutes 'government restrictions' or indeed 'government ADVICE' to potential audience members. Some (Bridge, National) decree a specific time to arrive and take seats. Others (Prince of Wales, National) implied that a vaccination 'passport' would be demanded. The Churchill even went so far as to ask that a COVID test might be taken before arrival. However, All of them, without exception, mentioned (using lots of awkward language) that they'd appreciate mask-wearing in the auditorium.
We agonised over each and every word all of the customised emails that were sent just before we were due to go. Arrival became an ordeal - would we be turned away if our vaccination-cards were deemed 'unofficial'?
Well, guys, I'm here to tell you; do what feels most comfortable for you (we heed the mask-wearing throughout, for example; though in some cases we've felt very alone in this) - BUT feel free to ignore most of it (if, for example, you don't have the NHS app or 'proper' proof of vaccination). Because when you arrive, NO ONE CHECKS ANY OF IT. They're just so darned happy to see you that they almost bow you in.
In any case, no theatre we've visited is fully-booked; and in some cases we've been more socially-distanced from our fellow-attendees than when social-distancing was regulated. (Mind - we never made it to Windsor for McKellen's Hamlet; which I gather WAS crammed)
So, having got all THAT off my chest, it's on to the reviews proper -
Bach and Sons (Bridge)
As a vehicle for Simon Russell-Beale, this worked very well; and the inter-cutting of the music was of course sublime. But the play (by Nina Raine) took a mighty quick gallop through the lives of Bach and his two adult sons (with casual references to the many dead-at-an-early-age children that littered his marriages) in a manner that sagged a little in the middle and maybe left us a bit .. unsatisfied? I did love Pravessh Rana's outrageously camp, benignly-implacable Frederick the Great though.
Paradise (National)
Sorry guys - I'm going to have to review this as a separate entry. It really IS that important.
The Windsors: Endgame (Prince of Wales)
OK, so this was infra dig, bawdy, disrespectful, and not quite as it appeared on Ch4. BUT - we laughed all the way through the outrageous plot. Only three members of the tv cast appeared in the stage version - Harry Enfield, playing Prince/King Charles, Matthew Cottle's jack-of-all-theatrical-trades Prince Edward (who, IMHO, stole the show) and Tim Wallers' Andrew (yes - it was ALL mentioned!!)
We did miss some of the others - no-one, but no-one, could follow Hadyn Gwynne's sublime monster Camilla; although Tracy-Anne Oberman gave it her best shot. And we did get the excellent Kara Tointon's singing-voice and dance moves as Kate. But all in all - props for the timing, for getting-in the gag about being 'the Prince of Wales AT the Prince of Wales', and for the sheer vulgar chutzpah of the whole thing. The audience bowed (as instructed) at the end.
Romeo and Juliet (Globe)
Guys, I'm going to town on this one because it was just one of the most misconceived things I've seen (although it would be beaten in the awfulness stakes a bare 6 weeks later - cf Sleepy Hollow below).
Mind - I was only there for Alfred Enoch who I've had a crush-of-shame on ever since he appeared in a lamentable Troy-story on tv, playing Aeneas. We've seen him subsequently in the Rothko play Red with Alfred Molina (https://grondfic.livejournal.com/265930.html).
So this time, he played Romeo, channelling his inner Marcus Rashford with great panache and a football. Yup - it was a modern-dress modern-sensibilities production. And - to be fair to it - we weren't the demographic it was aimed at (that would be the secondary-school party down in the pit).
Even so ... there are some things that even Wokeness doesn't excuse. Like, for example, the didactic captions that appeared over the stage as each scene unfolded. Examples: The rational part of a young person’s brain isn’t fully developed until age 25 and When boys are taught the rules of patriarchy they are forced to deny their feelings. These were designed to gently guide the audience to a view of the play as a social treatise rather than a doomed-love story.
This treatment resulted (unsurprisingly) in an oddly passionless play, with which we couldn't engage positively.
Some members of the cast didn't help either. Here I point the finger at Adam Gillen's Mercutio. Gillen specialises in mad parts. We first saw him as a scatalogical manchild of a Mozart in Amadeus (https://grondfic.livejournal.com/257699.html), and subsequently as a psychotic druggie in Killer Joe (https://grondfic.livejournal.com/266073.html). In these two productions, he succeeded; in this one, he completely lost it. Unsurprisingly, he played Mercutio as high on coke most of the time. I didn't like the interpretation, but worse - he spoke so rapidly in such a strange accent that we couldn't follow his part properly. Even Queen Mab rather died the death. Please, next time, be high on coke INTELLIGIBLY!
It was telling that - in spite of all the captions - the only time that the school-party audience broke into spontaneous applause was when Capulet (veteran actor Silas Carson) went mad at his daughter for not being delighted at his choice of husband, told her a number of mediaeval home-truths, and stomped out, filled with righteous wrath. So - good acting trumps captions every time. Well done Silas.
Dial M for Murder (Churchill, Bromley)
I was surprised to discover that this title (which I knew as a USA-based film) was actually a play by Frederick Knott (written for stage but later adapted for tv), and was based in 1950s London.
Tom Chambers (known mainly for being Inspector Sullivan in Father Brown on daytime telly, and for winning the 6th series of Strictly Come Dncing in 2008) plays tennis-ace Tony Wendice who has married for money, but is now aware that his wife Margot (Diana Vickers) has begun an affair with a crime writer during his absence on tour. He resolves on revenge (but wants to keep the money) .... !!!
Cue - thriller. Nicely done by a small cast. No need to exercise the brain or the emotions - just a straight 'Oh God! Will he get away with it or not?' at the relevant point. And the 'Phew!' when it turns out that the police in 1952 aren't as thick as they have been appearing recently in real life.
Enjoyable, if mindless, entertainment.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Churchill, Bromley)
Oh dear, what a shambles! From the moment we walked in to be informed that the programmes were unavailable, to the unofficially-extended-interval-induced late ending we were all at sea. We inferred the following:
(a) The play was based on the story by Washington Irving; not on the film starring Johnny Depp;
(b) UK actors speaking in (early) American-Dutch accents need to practice VERY hard and employ a decent dialect coach in order to ensure complete intelligibility;
(c) To the playwright - don't complicate a simple plotline, and be very careful how you change the ending.
That said - Ichabod Crane was quite sexy in a fey-way, and the Headless Horseman was quite impressive. But all-in-all, this particular game wasn't worth the candle (let alone the ticket-price). We did manage to get a programme at the end though, but even then we had to pay for it! The lady selling it asked us what we thought of the show. We said we'd get back to her on that, and made our escape. So it's a nul-points from me then
Next-up - Hamlet starring Cush Jumbo. This one I can't wait for!
But after the (partial) liberation in the summer, we started - cautiously - to return to the newly-opened theatres and cinemas. So here is an official return to normality on LJ/DW ... but then again ... theatregoing is still a new(ish) and stressful experience. I'm going to start this account with a bit of an overview along the lines of ...
How to contend with the COVID-related instructions and restrictions
Each theatre has its own ideas on what constitutes 'government restrictions' or indeed 'government ADVICE' to potential audience members. Some (Bridge, National) decree a specific time to arrive and take seats. Others (Prince of Wales, National) implied that a vaccination 'passport' would be demanded. The Churchill even went so far as to ask that a COVID test might be taken before arrival. However, All of them, without exception, mentioned (using lots of awkward language) that they'd appreciate mask-wearing in the auditorium.
We agonised over each and every word all of the customised emails that were sent just before we were due to go. Arrival became an ordeal - would we be turned away if our vaccination-cards were deemed 'unofficial'?
Well, guys, I'm here to tell you; do what feels most comfortable for you (we heed the mask-wearing throughout, for example; though in some cases we've felt very alone in this) - BUT feel free to ignore most of it (if, for example, you don't have the NHS app or 'proper' proof of vaccination). Because when you arrive, NO ONE CHECKS ANY OF IT. They're just so darned happy to see you that they almost bow you in.
In any case, no theatre we've visited is fully-booked; and in some cases we've been more socially-distanced from our fellow-attendees than when social-distancing was regulated. (Mind - we never made it to Windsor for McKellen's Hamlet; which I gather WAS crammed)
So, having got all THAT off my chest, it's on to the reviews proper -
Bach and Sons (Bridge)
As a vehicle for Simon Russell-Beale, this worked very well; and the inter-cutting of the music was of course sublime. But the play (by Nina Raine) took a mighty quick gallop through the lives of Bach and his two adult sons (with casual references to the many dead-at-an-early-age children that littered his marriages) in a manner that sagged a little in the middle and maybe left us a bit .. unsatisfied? I did love Pravessh Rana's outrageously camp, benignly-implacable Frederick the Great though.
Paradise (National)
Sorry guys - I'm going to have to review this as a separate entry. It really IS that important.
The Windsors: Endgame (Prince of Wales)
OK, so this was infra dig, bawdy, disrespectful, and not quite as it appeared on Ch4. BUT - we laughed all the way through the outrageous plot. Only three members of the tv cast appeared in the stage version - Harry Enfield, playing Prince/King Charles, Matthew Cottle's jack-of-all-theatrical-trades Prince Edward (who, IMHO, stole the show) and Tim Wallers' Andrew (yes - it was ALL mentioned!!)
We did miss some of the others - no-one, but no-one, could follow Hadyn Gwynne's sublime monster Camilla; although Tracy-Anne Oberman gave it her best shot. And we did get the excellent Kara Tointon's singing-voice and dance moves as Kate. But all in all - props for the timing, for getting-in the gag about being 'the Prince of Wales AT the Prince of Wales', and for the sheer vulgar chutzpah of the whole thing. The audience bowed (as instructed) at the end.
Romeo and Juliet (Globe)
Guys, I'm going to town on this one because it was just one of the most misconceived things I've seen (although it would be beaten in the awfulness stakes a bare 6 weeks later - cf Sleepy Hollow below).
Mind - I was only there for Alfred Enoch who I've had a crush-of-shame on ever since he appeared in a lamentable Troy-story on tv, playing Aeneas. We've seen him subsequently in the Rothko play Red with Alfred Molina (https://grondfic.livejournal.com/265930.html).
So this time, he played Romeo, channelling his inner Marcus Rashford with great panache and a football. Yup - it was a modern-dress modern-sensibilities production. And - to be fair to it - we weren't the demographic it was aimed at (that would be the secondary-school party down in the pit).
Even so ... there are some things that even Wokeness doesn't excuse. Like, for example, the didactic captions that appeared over the stage as each scene unfolded. Examples: The rational part of a young person’s brain isn’t fully developed until age 25 and When boys are taught the rules of patriarchy they are forced to deny their feelings. These were designed to gently guide the audience to a view of the play as a social treatise rather than a doomed-love story.
This treatment resulted (unsurprisingly) in an oddly passionless play, with which we couldn't engage positively.
Some members of the cast didn't help either. Here I point the finger at Adam Gillen's Mercutio. Gillen specialises in mad parts. We first saw him as a scatalogical manchild of a Mozart in Amadeus (https://grondfic.livejournal.com/257699.html), and subsequently as a psychotic druggie in Killer Joe (https://grondfic.livejournal.com/266073.html). In these two productions, he succeeded; in this one, he completely lost it. Unsurprisingly, he played Mercutio as high on coke most of the time. I didn't like the interpretation, but worse - he spoke so rapidly in such a strange accent that we couldn't follow his part properly. Even Queen Mab rather died the death. Please, next time, be high on coke INTELLIGIBLY!
It was telling that - in spite of all the captions - the only time that the school-party audience broke into spontaneous applause was when Capulet (veteran actor Silas Carson) went mad at his daughter for not being delighted at his choice of husband, told her a number of mediaeval home-truths, and stomped out, filled with righteous wrath. So - good acting trumps captions every time. Well done Silas.
Dial M for Murder (Churchill, Bromley)
I was surprised to discover that this title (which I knew as a USA-based film) was actually a play by Frederick Knott (written for stage but later adapted for tv), and was based in 1950s London.
Tom Chambers (known mainly for being Inspector Sullivan in Father Brown on daytime telly, and for winning the 6th series of Strictly Come Dncing in 2008) plays tennis-ace Tony Wendice who has married for money, but is now aware that his wife Margot (Diana Vickers) has begun an affair with a crime writer during his absence on tour. He resolves on revenge (but wants to keep the money) .... !!!
Cue - thriller. Nicely done by a small cast. No need to exercise the brain or the emotions - just a straight 'Oh God! Will he get away with it or not?' at the relevant point. And the 'Phew!' when it turns out that the police in 1952 aren't as thick as they have been appearing recently in real life.
Enjoyable, if mindless, entertainment.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Churchill, Bromley)
Oh dear, what a shambles! From the moment we walked in to be informed that the programmes were unavailable, to the unofficially-extended-interval-induced late ending we were all at sea. We inferred the following:
(a) The play was based on the story by Washington Irving; not on the film starring Johnny Depp;
(b) UK actors speaking in (early) American-Dutch accents need to practice VERY hard and employ a decent dialect coach in order to ensure complete intelligibility;
(c) To the playwright - don't complicate a simple plotline, and be very careful how you change the ending.
That said - Ichabod Crane was quite sexy in a fey-way, and the Headless Horseman was quite impressive. But all-in-all, this particular game wasn't worth the candle (let alone the ticket-price). We did manage to get a programme at the end though, but even then we had to pay for it! The lady selling it asked us what we thought of the show. We said we'd get back to her on that, and made our escape. So it's a nul-points from me then
Next-up - Hamlet starring Cush Jumbo. This one I can't wait for!
