Shakespearean Geekery
Feb. 6th, 2011 12:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
przedPart, the First
It's been a hectic week, what with (unspectacular) snow days and the usual work craziness. But Thursday I took the time to attend my first National Theatre Live screening. They were broadcasting a Donmar production of King Lear starring Derek Jacobi, and since I could afford neither the time nor the money for a trip to London or New York to see the production (though the NYC dates were tempting) this was my one chance to see it.
I've never really liked Lear. I've seen a few productions--with John Wood, Nigel Hawthorne and Christopher Plummer as Lear--but the best of them struck me as no more than all right, and the worst (John Wood's) just came across as silly. (The director for the Wood's production had chosen to place a giant, spinning, open-ended box in the centre of the stage, a bit of design that I'm sure was meant to be significant, but mostly seemed infuriatingly dumb.) So, I came to Jacobi's Lear hopeful, but wary.
It was utterly fantastic.
In part, I'm sure it's just because I'm older and the play has more resonance for me now. I've seen my father begin to succumb to cognitive problems, and then lost him. I have multiple friends dealing with failing parents. The problems of aging and mortality are far more real than when I saw it for the first time at the age of twenty. (Much as one is not supposed to like them, I even had some empathy, if not sympathy, for Regan and Goneril.)
But more than that, this was the sort of production I adore: stripped down staging, clear verse speaking, and emotional depth. The stage was bare, and the stage, backdrop and surrounding walls were made up of white, mottled wood. During the storm scene, the lighting was dimmed and lighting was visible through the boards of the floor and backdrop, an eerie and effective technique.
Jacobi was of course fantastic. His rages against Cordelia, and then his less than kind daughters were epic, and his reunion with Cordelia at the end was touching in the extreme. It actually made me cry, which is a difficult thing for a Shakespeare production to do. But the best scene, I think, was the mad scene on the heath. That scene tends to bring out the worst shouty tendencies in a lot of actors, but for this production both actor and director went in the opposite direction. When Lear spoke his lines, the lighting would freeze, the sounds of the storm would fade, and Jacobi would whisper his lines. It gave the effect of hearing the troubled thoughts of a man on the breaking point.
Lear's still never going to be my favourite Shakespeare, but this production has definitely turned my opinion on it.
Here's the poster for the production:
And there's a lovely interview with Jacobi on the Guardian's website here.
Part, the Second
The other morning, the sweetie nearly did me in.
Sweetie: You know Ralph Fiennes is doing a film of Coriolanus, right?
Me: What!?
Those of you who know me well, probably know that Coriolanus is one of my favourite plays by Shakespeare, right up there with Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry V. (Yes, I like my Shakespeare rather on the martial side.) So the news that Mr. Fiennes, for whom I've been accumulating a lot of respect in the last few years, was doing a film version is, shall we say, relevant to my interests.
But the Sweetie didn't stop there.
Sweetie: I think Gerard Butler is in it, too.
Me: ::emits high pitched, eardrum-piercing squeal:: ::stops and catches breath:: Is he playing Tullus Aufidius? He's got to be playing Tullus Aufidius.
As it turns out, Mr. Butler is playing Tullus Aufidius, enemy, and slashy foil, to Fiennes' Caius Martius Coriolanus. And there's more casting goodness: Brian Cox is playing Menenius, Coriolanus' friend and mentor, and Vanessa Redgrave is playing Volumnia, Coriolanus' war-mongering mother. (For the record, it's not that I think Mr. Butler is the best actor ever. But he's very easy on the eyes, and the sort of brutish performance he mustered in a visually pleasing bit of tosh like 300 bodes very well for his Tullus Aufidius.)
The good news (for me) doesn't end there. Fiennes has updated the story to the modern age, setting it all in an Iraq/Afghanistan sort of conflict. I have a real fondness for modern day productions of Shakespeare, and this looks to be a really interesting fit of story and setting.
The film is set to premiere at the Berlin film fest, and I'm hoping it plays Toronto. Soonish.
In the meantime, have a few pics:
Tullus Aufidius looks skeptically at Caius Martius.
Tullus Aufidius faces down Caius Martius in a knife fight. Is it wrong that the thought of two guys knife fighting strikes me as totally hot?
Fiennes directing Butler.
Can. Not. Wait.
It's been a hectic week, what with (unspectacular) snow days and the usual work craziness. But Thursday I took the time to attend my first National Theatre Live screening. They were broadcasting a Donmar production of King Lear starring Derek Jacobi, and since I could afford neither the time nor the money for a trip to London or New York to see the production (though the NYC dates were tempting) this was my one chance to see it.
I've never really liked Lear. I've seen a few productions--with John Wood, Nigel Hawthorne and Christopher Plummer as Lear--but the best of them struck me as no more than all right, and the worst (John Wood's) just came across as silly. (The director for the Wood's production had chosen to place a giant, spinning, open-ended box in the centre of the stage, a bit of design that I'm sure was meant to be significant, but mostly seemed infuriatingly dumb.) So, I came to Jacobi's Lear hopeful, but wary.
It was utterly fantastic.
In part, I'm sure it's just because I'm older and the play has more resonance for me now. I've seen my father begin to succumb to cognitive problems, and then lost him. I have multiple friends dealing with failing parents. The problems of aging and mortality are far more real than when I saw it for the first time at the age of twenty. (Much as one is not supposed to like them, I even had some empathy, if not sympathy, for Regan and Goneril.)
But more than that, this was the sort of production I adore: stripped down staging, clear verse speaking, and emotional depth. The stage was bare, and the stage, backdrop and surrounding walls were made up of white, mottled wood. During the storm scene, the lighting was dimmed and lighting was visible through the boards of the floor and backdrop, an eerie and effective technique.
Jacobi was of course fantastic. His rages against Cordelia, and then his less than kind daughters were epic, and his reunion with Cordelia at the end was touching in the extreme. It actually made me cry, which is a difficult thing for a Shakespeare production to do. But the best scene, I think, was the mad scene on the heath. That scene tends to bring out the worst shouty tendencies in a lot of actors, but for this production both actor and director went in the opposite direction. When Lear spoke his lines, the lighting would freeze, the sounds of the storm would fade, and Jacobi would whisper his lines. It gave the effect of hearing the troubled thoughts of a man on the breaking point.
Lear's still never going to be my favourite Shakespeare, but this production has definitely turned my opinion on it.
Here's the poster for the production:
And there's a lovely interview with Jacobi on the Guardian's website here.
Part, the Second
The other morning, the sweetie nearly did me in.
Sweetie: You know Ralph Fiennes is doing a film of Coriolanus, right?
Me: What!?
Those of you who know me well, probably know that Coriolanus is one of my favourite plays by Shakespeare, right up there with Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry V. (Yes, I like my Shakespeare rather on the martial side.) So the news that Mr. Fiennes, for whom I've been accumulating a lot of respect in the last few years, was doing a film version is, shall we say, relevant to my interests.
But the Sweetie didn't stop there.
Sweetie: I think Gerard Butler is in it, too.
Me: ::emits high pitched, eardrum-piercing squeal:: ::stops and catches breath:: Is he playing Tullus Aufidius? He's got to be playing Tullus Aufidius.
As it turns out, Mr. Butler is playing Tullus Aufidius, enemy, and slashy foil, to Fiennes' Caius Martius Coriolanus. And there's more casting goodness: Brian Cox is playing Menenius, Coriolanus' friend and mentor, and Vanessa Redgrave is playing Volumnia, Coriolanus' war-mongering mother. (For the record, it's not that I think Mr. Butler is the best actor ever. But he's very easy on the eyes, and the sort of brutish performance he mustered in a visually pleasing bit of tosh like 300 bodes very well for his Tullus Aufidius.)
The good news (for me) doesn't end there. Fiennes has updated the story to the modern age, setting it all in an Iraq/Afghanistan sort of conflict. I have a real fondness for modern day productions of Shakespeare, and this looks to be a really interesting fit of story and setting.
The film is set to premiere at the Berlin film fest, and I'm hoping it plays Toronto. Soonish.
In the meantime, have a few pics:
Tullus Aufidius looks skeptically at Caius Martius.
Tullus Aufidius faces down Caius Martius in a knife fight. Is it wrong that the thought of two guys knife fighting strikes me as totally hot?
Fiennes directing Butler.
Can. Not. Wait.
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Date: 2011-02-06 03:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-06 05:29 pm (UTC)