Antony and Cleopatra x4

When: 21st May, 4th June, 12th Aug, 24th Aug (not at all excessive)

 

Where: The Globe

 

Why: Eve Best 

Greedy Globe ducks

The Globe is my happy place. Leaning on the stage, breathing in the scent of warm wood (and sometimes choking on excessive incense smoke), usually with my friend Charles (@cakespeareuk) by my side and a tummy full of groundling queue cake (wrested from the beaks of the riverside ducks who will harass you for snacks), and in perfect confident anticipation of beauteous things to come. You can’t not smile constantly, even when you’re in a see-through Globe poncho and the rain is pouring into your shoes (and eyes). And you’ve paid a teeny fiver for the privilege. I’ve paid more than that for a pint and much as I love an ale, it’s no contest which is better value.

 

We hit the groundling pit on the first night of Clive Wood’s unfortunate illness and so were treated to the hurriedly acquired stand-in Antony in the form of John Light, who rose to the occasion magnificently. He was impressive, handsome (weyy) and held a strong connection with the rest of the cast considering he’d joined them that very morning. Some of the scenes were a bit hilarious with script in hand, including some awkwardness with a sword, and cracking up due to losing his place at the crucial moment of suicide. Far from ideal, but Light’s honesty and charisma with the audience made it work, and he and the brave cast thoroughly earned their thunderous applause at the end of the performance. We came away not feeling cheated at all, but actually pleased to have seen a unique performance. Poor old James Hayes (Lepidus) was ill during my second visit which was a sad loss – the play is less without his epic Irish portrayal of the snake man (“I wish you joy of the worrrrrm” is our new catchphrase) – and the amount of ankle supports seemed to increase each time I went back. Dangerous on that stage.

 

The production each time had an amazing energy, was fast paced and action packed – lots of soldierly running around and flag twirling suspended from the balcony, marching and stomping and especially dancing. The bacchanalian romps at the start and during the drinking scene on Pompey’s boat (and eventually added at the end of the performance in true Globe style – good decision) were a frenzy of Egyptian sensuousness and exuberance, and were true crowd-pleasers. This wanton behaviour also contrasted deeply with the solemnity and formal stiffness of the Roman contingent – I know where I’d rather have lived. I didn’t know the play at all really, and was prepared to have to make the effort to get through it at points, prepared for a bit of tragedy and concentration, but I was in fact joyfully carried along on a perfectly balanced wave of humour and drama. It was an easily accessible performance and incredibly enjoyable.

 

Amazing final night photo by @shaksper. I'm in this somewhere! 

This was mainly thanks to the wonder that is Eve Best. I’ve said it before but she is just amazing. Her Cleopatra was very human – changeable and petulant, imposing but constantly flashing vulnerability and restless mischief too. Rather than the aloof Elizabeth Taylor glamorously exotic high up and far away queen we’ve come to expect, we got an understandable, almost loveable Cleopatra. Eve Best is the perfect Globe actor – working the audience (literally hooking them in this case), playing with them and making eye contact with countless awkward groundlings. The first time I saw it, I ended up kissing her hand as she flaunted her new pearl ring from Antony down to her subjects. Bit embarrassing as I immediately doubted that was what she’d meant me to do, but it seemed right at the time… And an honour, obviously, to kiss the hand of your hero. I haven’t seen her do it again so maybe I was just looking particularly worshipful or something. Awks.

 

Antony as played by Clive Wood was a grizzled lion of a man, torn between his duty in Rome and his happiness in Egypt, and full of grim humour and casual disrespect for Caesar which was super entertaining. The chemistry between he and Cleo wasn’t totally convincing but EB could charm sparks out of a stone so it wasn’t really a problem. I did love his jokey attitude even at his darkest moments (laughing at himself when his suicidal stab doesn’t quite work) but it would be interesting to see it done tragically too at some point.

 

The rest of the cast was also incredibly strong which is really why the play was such an overall hit for me – not just carried by brilliant headliners but showing off an enviable breadth of talent in the whole thing. Jolyon Coy’s Caesar was outstanding – entertaining and chilling in equal measure as the fastidious, calculating menace that he is, and playing off the total polarity between he and Antony to perfection. Phil Daniels as Enobarbus was enjoyably blunt and sardonic, but I feel like more could have been made of his strong friendship with Antony as that didn’t massively come across when they were together. Obioma Ugoala as two very contrasting roles (Mardian the eunuch and Scarus the soldier) was buoyant and powerful, and Cleo’s attendants Charmian and Iras played by Sirine Saba and Rosie Hilal were excellent, charming twin pillars of support to the wayward queen.

 

I got hit by two serious downpours – one on the DVD filming night (12th August if you were there!) which will be interesting to see on screen… Romance through cords of rain. The weather can also heighten the drama though which is why I love the Globe – you get a different performance because of the changing nature of the arena you’re in. On one occasion during a dramatic speech from Cleo as she’s missing Antony, the wind caught her shawl and blew it dramatically around her which drew whoops from the audience and laughs of delight from Eve Best, who rode it out and made it part of the performance.

 

Some favourite moments of the play include:

• The party on Pompey’s boat featuring drinking games (“A toast… to LEPIDUS!”), dancing and dropping Caesar on the floor.
• Cleopatra viciously beating up the messenger who brings the news of Antony’s marriage to Octavia.
• The soothsayer ripping out the goat’s entrails during the interval – brilliantly gory. 
• Cleo’s outfits – god I wish we could all go around wearing long white dresses and floor-length gold sequined capes.

I was lucky to go to the final night of the run, and experience all the extra fun that entails. We were round the left of the stage and so saw EB peeping out of the curtains, and during the extra riotous opening scene she roamed around the stage dressed as an old peddler in a cloak, thrusting a pomegranate at various cast members. The whole cast were given a rose at the end of the curtain call which they threw into the audience as we threw roses at them, which resulted in a frenzy of petal chucking and mutual appreciation between cast and groundlings.

 

Thank you to all involved for four beautiful and fun evenings! (I am such a nerd).

 

Brixpig x

Final night roses

Much Ado About Nothing: Oldies at the Old Vic

When: Tuesday 29^th October

Where: Old Vic

Why: Mission to see every version of Much Ado that is produced – ongoing

I sort of can’t be bothered to give this production a scathing review, as somehow I feel like that would be expending energy on something which didn’t give me any energy in the first place. It doesn’t deserve my strong opinion either way.

The twist on this oft-performed play was that the ultimate Shakespearean couple Beatrice and Benedick were played by an older couple – here, the venerable James Earl-Jones (voice of Mufasa, who knew?) and Vanessa Redgrave. I say twist; I think that was the plan, but simply hiring older actors to play the parts and leaving them to it wasn’t really enough, in my opinion. There was much made of this unusual casting in the press, it was meant to be an intriguing new interpretation and a new perspective on a classic – but as far as I could see, it made no difference at all.

Redgrave and JE-J played the roles so straight that I lost all interest before the interval. Almost all the humour in the lines was completely lost due to JE-J simply reading his lines out in a monotone cascade while sat in a chair at the side of the stage (- for variation, sometimes he stood up at the side of the stage, legs splayed, and read out his lines in a monotone cascade). I can’t blame the main couple entirely for the production’s lack of dynamism and humour, but they were an essential part of it, and greatly contributed to my bitter sense of disappointment as I’d been expecting a lot from these greats. Not to mention the fact that this version was directed by the brilliant Mark Rylance, who is unquestionably an acting genius. I saw Rylance’s talk near the start of the run, and although generally fairly interesting, he didn’t seem hugely fired up about the production which I think carried through to the actual performances. It was set in the second world war for “no particular reason”, other than it allowed Rylance to incorporate an all-black regiment from the time, which fitted in nicely with the casting of JE-J. But there was a kind of reserved blankness in Rylance’s talk which disconcerted me at the time, then made total sense when I saw the play. Maybe he already knew it was going to flop.

There are some positives. This was the first version of Much Ado that I’ve seen where the comedy scenes (Dogberry, Verges, the guard) didn’t annoy me beyond belief – and yes, that includes the classic Kenneth Branagh film and the beauteous Eve Best version at the Globe. The guard were played by children which added the only energy to be found in the play and provided an interesting contrast to the elderly couple, and they did it admirably. There was also a brilliant moment with an old gardener doing some epic crazy dancing behind some tedious scene or other. Redgrave had a couple of nice moments of delivery (her voice is captivating), particularly during Beatrice’s softer moments, such as “and then a star danced”. And the music was good.

However. The staging was totally rubbish and a bit bizarre – a large wooden canopy dominated the stage and was impossible to use to good effect. It was all but ignored during the gulling scenes, when it might have been somewhat useful, and it broke up the stage in an unhelpful way. It was used to good effect only during the funeral scene where it created a shroud and some dynamism with Claudio stood on top delivering his eulogy to Hero. The canopy just seemed to always be in the way and was overly modern for a self-proclaimed old fashioned telling of the story. When you’re playing it straight and your two main characters don’t do much other than sit in a chair or stand in one place, maybe a more interesting stage would have helped to lift the mood.

One review has called this version of Much Ado a “misdirected oddity” and I think that’s exactly right. It was baffling because it seemed that no thought or logic had been put into how or why this couple were older and how they fitted in with the rest of the characters. There was little attention to detail and it was lacklustre in a way I haven’t seen since that fateful Lana Del Rey concert.

Disappointed by Rylance, Redgrave and JE-J, and the Old Vic.

Brixpig x

Macbeth

When: Thursday 27^th June

Where: Globe

Why: Eve Best directed it

I’ve only seen one version of Macbeth before, and that was an al-fresco university production with everyone dressed in black, and I had no idea who was who or who was being murdered. I think it’s the abundance of Macs that gets me twisted. So I had a bit of a murky concept of what the plot actually is – but this version directed by (the brilliant) Eve Best brought clarity and a lightness of touch to a dark play.

As a directorial debut, it was incredibly confident and slick – bringing a simple, fresh and intelligent approach to a much-performed work. I found it hugely entertaining, both as an overall theatre experience and in the humour which was scattered throughout the production. The audience were full-on laughing at several points in the play – my personal favourite was Joseph Millson’s cheeky delivery of Macbeth’s line when he’s made king: “Would you like to kiss my ring?” He engaged the audience with his humour in classic Globe style, which I was pleased to find is not just reserved for comedies.

The chemistry between Millson’s Macbeth and Samantha Spiro’s Lady Macbeth was impressive. The power struggle within their relationship visibly shifts and Lady Macbeth’s general devastation at the end clearly includes the feeling that she has lost her husband too. There is a sense of poignancy too throughout the play and this counteracted the light humour well – particularly Millson’s restless physical performance works just as well for madness as comedy. His ‘tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow’ speech was captivating.

The portrayal of the witches also seemed to be something new – they were less a terrifying force than an otherworldly trio. They were light, intriguing, and gave off a more pagan, mysterious vibe which was really thrilling. The play also ended with a witch playing the pipes, book-ending the performance which had begun with an impressive drumming piece by the whole cast.

Genuinely enjoyed this, which I didn’t think I would say about Macbeth. Nice one Eve.

Brixpig x

Bit of monologue for ya:

She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing. — Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28)

Twelfth Night

When: Tuesday 15th January

Where: Apollo Theatre

Why: My dear @cakespeareuk loves a man in a dress (and got up early to get us £10 day seats)

This all-male production of Twelfth Night totally rocked my socks. We got to the theatre early to watch the actors getting ready on stage – here Mark Rylance slapping his make-up on, there Stephen Fry getting his beard fiddled about with. It was a great start to the play and far from spoiling the magic it added to the feeling of authenticity and kind of emphasised the skill we were about to behold – like, you know full well you’ve just seen a modern man cramming a wig on his head, but as soon as the play starts for real it’s instantly a woman in front of you. Kind of showing off their mastery, really. And this play is such a good one to go all-male on, as it just mixes up the cross-dressing that drives the whole play and makes you understand Shakespeare’s preoccupation with it. It’s quite cool to be seeing a play performed by all men when you know that this is what it was written for and how it was always originally performed. And boy oh BOY did those boys do it well. Even the staging was original, with candle chandeliers dripping all over the actors, traditional (and luxuriant) costumes, and on-stage seating to mimic the Globe.

Sneaky stage photo

I have to go all out there and say that there was not a bad second in this production. I quite often get dozing off moments in Shakespeare (even in my beloved Much Ado, always when the fools are up), but there was none of that here. The silly, for-the-groundlings scenes with Sir Toby and Andrew Aguecheek and Maria were amongst the best, despite the scene where they plot Malvolio’s downfall bringing me violent sixth form speech and drama lesson flashbacks (“Go shake your ears!”). Roger Lloyd-Pack, skinny legged and mournful, stuck in a hedge after eavesdropping on Malvolio had me in hysterics, and Paul Chahidi’s mincing, comedy dame with a frankly astoundingly realistic cleavage was perfect as the catty and clever Maria and provided a great foil to the pompous Malvolio. Stephen Fry’s booming presence was hilarious during the picnic rug scene where he tries to seduce Olivia, but lacked a little bit of subtlety and true malevolence at the end when he swears to get his revenge – more petulant than menacing.

The true star turn was obviously Mark Rylance as Olivia, whom I had never seen but had heard gushing praise for from my flatmate and all other sources. His Olivia was flustered, full of tenderness and hesitance, passion and ridiculousness, gliding about the stage as if on casters. His doleful voice was absolute perfection and his performance seemed to transcend gender, if that doesn’t sound too stupid – you logically know it’s a male actor, and a female character, but almost it didn’t seem to matter what was going on in this performance – it was all about the character of Olivia. It was just masterful and I was suitably impressed.

The whole play was both hilarious and surprisingly romantic – the chemistry between Liam Brennan’s Orsino and Johnny Flynn’s Viola was palpable and engrossing, and their near kiss while Viola was still in her male guise was so convincingly done. Viola and Samuel Barnett’s Sebastian were beautifully played. The music and philosophical fooling provided by Peter Hamilton Dyer’s Feste were expert and moving, and he really tied up the play in its entirety, providing a constant thread in each scene and embodying the spirit of the play.

I’m so thrilled I got to see this production and am seriously crossing my fingers they release a DVD version (as with Much Ado) so that I can relive it.

Verdict: immense.

Brixpig x