![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Oxford Adventures
Yesterday was a lovely day spent with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
llinos and marigoldg in Oxford. We toured various Tolkien related sites, had lunch at the Eagle and Child pub (a.k.a. the Bird and Baby) where Tolkien and the other Inklings used to meet, and generally had a lovely time. If you want to see photographic evidence, check out llinos's journal at http://www.livejournal.com/users/llinos/31667.html. knittedmerry took me on a bit of an adventure.
In theatre news, last night I saw Julius Caesar, with Simon Russell Beale as Cassius, Anton Lesser as Brutus, John Shrapnel as Julius Caesar and Ralph Fiennes as Mark Antony. The production had a very modern setting, with the Senators dressed like City business men and the mob appearing as London street people, and the direction was stunning. The acting was uniformly good too. (Don't worry,faramir_boromir, I'll give you the details later.)
Tuesday night we saw Henry IV, Part 2, and astoundingly I think it might have been more successful that Part 1. Part 2 is not one of my favourites and large stretches of it usually come across as dead boring, IMO. In this production, though, they actually managed to make the Justice Shallow stuff genuinely funny, which I though impossible. Didn't hurt that a) John Wood was playing Shallow and b) they made a lot of judicious cuts to those scenes. David Bradley, as the king as stood out this time. He was a bit weak as Henry IV in Part 1, but as the dying king his frailty was perfect. Alas, Matthew Macfadyen while good, will not be giving Antony Sher a run for his money any time soon. He was very good in the confrontation with his father, but he got a bit shouty in his final scene with Falstaff. A more modulated take on that scene would be more effective. Well, I think so, anyway.
Today is a major theatre day: Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, with Aiden Gillen and Jonny Lee Miller this afternoon; Theatre of Blood with Jim Broadbent tonight.
And tomorrow I get to hang out withbluespirit_star!
llinos and marigoldg in Oxford. We toured various Tolkien related sites, had lunch at the Eagle and Child pub (a.k.a. the Bird and Baby) where Tolkien and the other Inklings used to meet, and generally had a lovely time. If you want to see photographic evidence, check out llinos's journal at http://www.livejournal.com/users/llinos/31667.html. knittedmerry took me on a bit of an adventure.In theatre news, last night I saw Julius Caesar, with Simon Russell Beale as Cassius, Anton Lesser as Brutus, John Shrapnel as Julius Caesar and Ralph Fiennes as Mark Antony. The production had a very modern setting, with the Senators dressed like City business men and the mob appearing as London street people, and the direction was stunning. The acting was uniformly good too. (Don't worry,
faramir_boromir, I'll give you the details later.)Tuesday night we saw Henry IV, Part 2, and astoundingly I think it might have been more successful that Part 1. Part 2 is not one of my favourites and large stretches of it usually come across as dead boring, IMO. In this production, though, they actually managed to make the Justice Shallow stuff genuinely funny, which I though impossible. Didn't hurt that a) John Wood was playing Shallow and b) they made a lot of judicious cuts to those scenes. David Bradley, as the king as stood out this time. He was a bit weak as Henry IV in Part 1, but as the dying king his frailty was perfect. Alas, Matthew Macfadyen while good, will not be giving Antony Sher a run for his money any time soon. He was very good in the confrontation with his father, but he got a bit shouty in his final scene with Falstaff. A more modulated take on that scene would be more effective. Well, I think so, anyway.
Today is a major theatre day: Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, with Aiden Gillen and Jonny Lee Miller this afternoon; Theatre of Blood with Jim Broadbent tonight.
And tomorrow I get to hang out with
bluespirit_star!