| I Climbed a Mountain Last Night. |
[Jun. 27th, 2009|08:00 pm] |
At least, that's what both the actors and the audience do when they produce respectivly watch Othello, director Peter Sellars said afterwards in a Q&A.
I wasn't that thrilled with the production. At times it dragged a bit, but for several reasons it's an intriguing production nonetheless. The cast consists of actors of several different races so that Othello isn't the only non-white character. I also liked the sparse set production that mainly consists of a bed, which itself is made of 45 TV screens that constantly show pictures. And I liked that rather often the characters didn't leave the stage but remained. This was particularly effective when Iago spoke about Othello and Desdemona, and we could watch them at the same time – a bit like a split screen.
I always find it hard to understand Shakespeare's language, and I took me quite some time to get accustomed to the American accents, but for me the real problems were the microphones. Sometimes the voices appeared very low, flat and therefore almost emotionless while at other times they echoed through the auditorium when one of the actors spoke louder or even shouted. It was a pity because I thought that particularly John Ortiz as Othello and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Iago were really good, but their acting was diminished by the poor sound.
Peter Sellars admitted that he himself was happier with the sound during the second half of the play and told us that they were still working on it. He also explained why he used the microphones in the first place, namely because he tries to create something like a film soundtrack for his theatre productions, and because he's not fond of actors declaiming and opts for a more natural voice. He told us that e.g. the microphones make sure that the actors are able to play the many intimate scenes that exist in Othello.
The latter reason is the one thing he explained during the Q&A I definitely disagree with because ideally actors can whisper and still be heard in the entire auditorium. First, that's what actors (should) learn in drama school and second, that's what theatre auditoriums are built for.
Still, while the production wasn't the most fascinating one I've ever seen, I'm happy that I did see it. And I'm particularly happy that I stayed for the Q&A because Peter Sellars turned out to be a very intelligent and witty man, and it was refreshing to see a director who actually thinks about what he's doing and why he decides for the actors to do certain things on stage. Not that I get to see directors at a Q&A all of the time, but it happens often enough that I read an article about a particular production, and it becomes clear that the (German) director didn't think very much. I'm glad to see that there are still other directors around. |
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| The Winter's Tale |
[May. 13th, 2009|11:52 am] |
I went to see William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. I just can't resist if it's Shakespeare and if it's an English-speaking production performed somewhere in the vicinity. Apart from that it meant an opportunity to see Simon Russell Beale again, whom I had seen as Guildenstern in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead 13 years ago.
This production was directed by Sam Mendes and starred Rebecca Hall as Hermione, Sinéad Cusack as Paulina, Ethan Hawke as Autolycus and Simon Russell Beale as Leontes.
( What's my verdict like? )
In case you're interested in a professional review here's one from the New York Times, published when the production was shown in New York a couple of months ago. It very much expresses what I thought as well.
A few production photos, which offer an impression of what the production looks like, can be seen here. |
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| What I might have seen at the Donmar Warehouse |
[Nov. 7th, 2008|01:32 am] |
On Tuesday, I went to London for one day in order to see Alan Rickman's Creditors at the Donmar Warehouse. Of course, I had read all the glowing reviews beforehand and was full of high expectation. And it didn't help that I passed an Evening Standard seller in the afternoon, who advertised the latest edition by putting up a sign that announced that the nominations for the Evening Standard Theatre Awards were out. On a whim, I bought a copy and was delighted to see that AR had been nominated. What better evening to see the play than this one?
( Click here if you want to know more about the play ) |
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| No Applause before the Premiere |
[Oct. 7th, 2008|11:14 pm] |
I went to a public rehearsal of Bernard-Marie Koltès' play Roberto Zucco tonight. The premiere will be in a few days only. I thought the theatre company had organised it just for the fun of its audience, but as it turned out we were used as guinea pigs.
The director and actors have come up with the idea to not only use the stage but also partly use the auditorium for their production, and they now intended to see how it would work out when there are actually people in the auditorium. One row of seats and another half row had been turned into aisles so that the actors could occasionaly walk among the audience. Since I sat almost at the back, that was just fine, but I'm not sure how the audience in the front liked it to either turn their heads or just listen to the actors but not see them whenever the actors walked along the aisles.
The director also had decided to only use the very first part of the stage, and a lot of the action actually took place right in front of the stage. I'm afraid that was a bit short-sighted of her, and common sense should have told her that it isn't a good idea because there's something called a line-of-sight. Admittedly, I'm not very tall and the man who sat right in front of me was tall, but still, normally it's no problem to see what's going on on the stage. That can't be said if the actors act in front of the stage, though. There were times when I almost followed an audio play.
( Didn't I like it at all? ) |
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| Das war die Mär von Sweeney Todd. / Er diente einem bösen Gott. |
[Apr. 22nd, 2008|08:24 pm] |
This past weekend I saw Sweeney Todd again, but this time on stage. It was a German-speaking production, but I thought it worked very well. Many of the jokes and puns had been translated, respectively the translator had found similar ones that exist in German.
The singers were very good, and mostly if not all of them were actually opera singers. Therefore, I was slightly astonished to see that they used microphones, because the musical is shown at a theatre of normal size, as you can find them all over Germany. It wasn't one of those huge musical stages.
Sadly, the Judge's version of "Johanna" was cut. I really would have liked to see that, because I still think that it would add to the Judge's characterisation.
After the premiere, I had read a review that criticised that the production was too close to the old Broadway one and not innovative enough. Since I haven't seen the one at Broadway, I don't know whether this is true, but it was close to the libretto - something I tend to appreciate. I was truly happy to see a "real" Victorian street with pie shop and barber shop on the stage.
The blood flow wasn't excessive. I think only two times a bit of fake blood was used, but the victims fidgeted nicely in the chair and then vanished down the chute. :) |
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| As You Like It |
[Oct. 24th, 2007|07:53 pm] |
When I first came across Alan Rickman's essay about playing Jaques in As You Like It, I thought it was interesting to see how an actor approaches and interprets a character, but I also had to realise that, because I wasn't familiar with the play, I had only a vague idea what he was actually talking about. I comforted myself with the thought that one day I'd see the play. I did so finally last night (in German).
Unfortunately, I've never been a particular fan of Shakespeare's comedies, and as it turned out As You Like It won't be my new favourite play either. I thought it was rather non-sensical and not very deep.
On top of that, the director had included some references to pop culture, like a quotation from Dirty Dancing and the song "Suicide Is Painless", which is the signature tune of the TV series M*A*S*H. These kind of additions usually leave me in a state of wonder, because I rarely manage to figure out in how far they are connected to the plot. I always look for a reason, which might be a mistake on my part, because the two reviews I read were positive, and the critics agreed that the audience should just accept that the play's absurd elements had been made even more absurd by the director.
Instead I turned to Alan Rickman's essay, hoping that his thoughts would help me to understand the play or at least Jaques' character, but they didn't really. I still feel that I don't know exactly what he's referring to. Obviously, watching the play once isn't enough. I suppose one day I need to read the play.
From all the characters Jaques, who was played by an actress by the way, was my favourite, because his melancholy seemed to make him more reasonable and sensible than the other characters, who apparently were just driven by folly or ill will most of the time.
Taking into account the Elizabethan world picture, though, I wondered about the fact that Jaques seems to be the only character who doesn't change. Man is ruled by four humours (choler, phlegm, sanguis and melancholy), which ideally should be in a state of balance, but Jaques stays melancholic until the end. |
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