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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2013 19:03:29 GMT
I was just wondering if anybody has any interest in the classics. Frankly, I absolutely love modern, edgy, scandalous plays but I have immense respect for classics by Shakespeare, Molière, Goldoni, Ibsen, O'Neill and many others. The fact that these plays are still regularly performed is proof to me that there is something immortal in them that continues to appeal in modern times.
Every year when I go to the Avignon festival, I always make a point of seeing some classics, even if the adaptations have updated the situations -- the text remains incredible to me and proves that certain authors totally understood human nature.
With this in mind, I bought tickets to two different Shakespeare plays today. One is presented in Paris, starring a remarkable young actor whom I first spotted in a yogurt commercial -- A Midsummer Night's Dream is at the superb Théâtre de la Porte Saint Martin, in a production that takes place in the 1960's. It was already playing last season and has been brought back due to its enormous success. This costs 47€.
And in May I will make a special trip to Shakespeare's Globe in London to see The Tempest. I will be standing in the yard, which is perfect for me (tickets £5), but nevertheless I'll be spending about 100€ for the hotel and 100€ for the Eurostar.
Has anybody else broken the piggy bank to see things that seemed indispensable?
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Post by tod2 on Feb 10, 2013 19:23:52 GMT
Many times Kerouac! We love the theatre but I have to say unfortunately although I have briefly stood in the Globe yard, I have not been to see a play there. I hope you enjoy the whole experience in London very much. I envy you!
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Post by lola on Feb 23, 2013 3:33:27 GMT
We loved Comedy of Errors at the Globe six years ago; I was a groundling then, too. We arrived in time for a spot leaning on the stage, which was fun and more comfortable. (Supposedly the "break a leg" saying had its origins in people drooling as they leaned there.) The girls were in cheapish seats, and since they were farther away my younger had failed to realize there were twins who keep being mistaken for each other. At intermission we got it all sorted out. The next semester we put it on , adapted, with our kids' drama club, and our twins looked nothing alike at all.
Over the years we did adaptations of The Imaginary Invalid and, my favorite of ours Tartuffe, by Moliere, a Throne of Blood ripoff Macbeth, She Stoops to Conquer (this was not pulled off as brilliantly) my mashup of various Dracula versions that I hear was on the Too Scary side, a commedia dell'arte play, and Antigone. So I do love the classics. Haven't invested much money, but lots of hours and energy.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2013 22:39:09 GMT
So, tonight was the night for A Midsummer Night's Dream which was absolutely remarkable.
The update was relatively jawdropping, because the costumes were all from the 1960's, exactly what can be seen on The Avengers with Emma Peel and John Steed. The basic set is a swinging nightclub all in plastic with the female characters all in miniskirts, thigh boots, double knit pantsuits, fringes, and the men with their bell bottom trousers and high heels. It is lava lamp projections and hanging spherical chairs.
Later when the venue changes to the night in the forest, they just drop down some camouflage nets and projected trees and branches on the walls.
The original (translated) text was mostly respected with a few juicy anachronisms from time to time and unexpected dance numbers like the sirtaki from Zorba the Greek.
Since I rarely go to expensive theatres, it was pure joy to see that it is still the same old public -- withered crones with varnished claws and and their melting lipstick slowing running up the rivulets of their lip wrinkles. Their husbands are sleepy old slaves who would have preferred to come wearing pyjamas, but their consolation is their big silk scarf as big as a bed sheet.
My own consolation was to see that there were a number of school groups in the audience, and they loved the play.
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Post by lola on Feb 27, 2013 3:38:00 GMT
Sounds like a fun production. I like inventive sets, especially when they do a lot with little.
Your view of wives strikes me as Shakespearean, if not Euripidean. Or do I mean Wagnerian?
My favorite of his plays is Richard III, I think. I wish I had spring for better seats when my daughter and I saw it in Brooklyn last year. That's one reason I want the real RIII to stay a bad guy, because Shakespeare created such a great character for him.
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Post by htmb on Feb 27, 2013 3:46:57 GMT
What a thoroughly vivid description of the "wives." I just can picture them with their sleepy, bored husbands. Is that a "Kerouac," or did someone else write those lines? I certainly would not wish to fit into that particular category, but then, I rarely wear lipstick.
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Post by bjd on Feb 27, 2013 9:34:12 GMT
Having suffered through 5 years of obligatory Shakespeare plays in high school English (Ontario used to go up to grade 13), I wanted nothing more to do with him afterwards. We even had an outing to the Stratford Theatre in Stratford, Ontario, and an outing to a movie theatre to see Laurence Olivier in tights playing Hamlet in some old production.
However, going to real theatre in London, England, afterwards -- when there were cheap seats and it was easy to go, changed my mind about theatre, although I too preferred more modern productions. I remember seeing "Abelard and Heloise" with Diana Rigg (not dressed as Mrs Peel!).
I have seen some more classical plays since then, which are definitely better on stage than being read in a book. My husband refuses to go see plays (he suffered through the French classics in school), so if I go it's usually with a friend. But it's not really that high on my list of leisure activities. I do enjoy being there once it all starts, but I am more likely to go to a movie.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2013 11:03:28 GMT
Here is the advert for what I saw last night, but this is last season's slightly different version.
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Post by lola on Feb 27, 2013 16:07:05 GMT
I would love to see that.
I didn't think I liked his comedies much, either, till I saw what the Globe did with Comedy of Errors.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2013 13:43:54 GMT
I thought it was amusing to compare the little model of the theatre with the seating chart to the real thing after the play ended. |
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2013 19:51:21 GMT
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Post by nycgirl on May 5, 2013 21:35:07 GMT
What a beautiful theatre. I read the reviews for The Tempest, sounds like a good time. I would love to see that Merlin kid's take on Ariel. And I'm surprised the first critic had such nice things to say about the actor playing Ferdinand, because the character as written is actually boring as dirt. It's an impressive feat if the actor playing him can illicit laughs from the audience. ... I am more likely to go to a movie. Speaking of movies, I hear Macbeth is going to be filmed, with Michael Fassbender and Natalie Portman as the leads. |
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Post by bjd on May 6, 2013 6:12:55 GMT
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Post by htmb on May 7, 2013 2:21:17 GMT
I thought about purchasing a ticket for The Tempest, after I learned, through your link, that Colin Morgan was playing the part of Ariel. Since the only date available was for the day after I am to arrive in London, I will just have to enjoy the performance vicariously.
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Post by nycgirl on May 10, 2013 12:05:43 GMT
Yeah, I've seen the Roman Polanski one, the Orson Welles one, and the adaptation Throne of Blood. I'd be willing to see yet another one, if it's done well. Not crazy about Natalie Portman's casting, though. I've seen her attempt at "seductive villainess" before and I wasn't impressed. |
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Post by Deleted on May 10, 2013 13:47:40 GMT
A temporary Elizabethan round theatre has been built in Paris to put on some plays this spring, and it is quite impressive for a small structure. Later, it is supposed to move around to other cities in France and the rest of Europe. La Tour Vagabonde |
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2013 17:51:08 GMT
So, as some of you may have figured out, I went to London this week and finally saw The Tempest. I thought that the production was outstanding, but then again it was at the Globe, and they're supposed to do a good job, right?
As I have only seen outdoor plays in the past in sunny and warm Avignon, it was a bit of a challenge to stand outside for 3 hours in the London drizzle, and they should really do something about the noisy air traffic over the city.
The actor who played Prospero (Roger Allam) was great and so was Colin Morgan playing Ariel, even if he seemed a bit too gay, but after all Ariel is a fairy, isn't he? The real star was Caliban (James Garnon) who had to spend the whole play almost completely naked and covered with grime. He was quite a bit like Gollum but with more spunk. The Miranda and Ferdinand characters were good, too, played by young newcomers with considerable talent.
Anyway, one good thing about the Globe, at least this production, was that it kept in bawdy character with the spirit of Shakespeare productions from 500 years ago, even if the spectators are sometimes surprised to be spit on, slapped, have water thrown on them or squirted out of an erect codpiece.
All in all, it was very clever and good, and I highly recommend it for anybody going to London over the next few months.
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Post by lola on May 16, 2013 22:38:17 GMT
That sounds so fun. Would love to see it with the groundlings, even in a drizzle, as long as I could lean on the stage or some sturdy bystanders.
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Post by lugg on May 18, 2013 6:23:03 GMT
So glad you enjoyed it K2 it would have been really unfair to travel so far for one day and then it turned out otherwise.
I am in London soon myself -I think I might just look to see if any last minute tickets are available. I noticed in your report that you thought that there had been some tickets on sale for that night ?
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2013 11:48:41 GMT
Yes, when I passed through the Globe about 4 hours before, the chalk board said "limited availability" instead of "sold out." However, I also noticed that about an hour before the performance there was a queue outside for "ticket returns -- face value only" that allowed people waiting to buy extra or unused tickets. As everybody knows, sometimes a group of 4 going to a performance of anything suddenly turns into a group of 2 at the last minute, no matter how much they paid for tickets. I would imagine with the £5 tickets, people regularly buy more than they need because it isn't a great loss if they can't convince friends to go with them.
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Post by tod2 on May 18, 2013 15:26:01 GMT
Kerouac, you make your theatre experience SOoooooo tempting!! Darn! I would leap on a plane in a flash if I did not have the excruciating excercise of having to spend hours at the visa halls for UK and of course I would not be going just there, so I would have to beat a path to the Schengen halls also  We won't even mention the plane fare, hotels, and trains......that part just goes with the territory!  |
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2013 15:35:55 GMT
Well I spent about 250€ for transportation, accommodations and food in addition to my £5 theatre ticket, which some people I know might fight difficult to fathom, so I will not even mention it to them.
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2013 15:39:29 GMT
They interrupt the applause at the end to do this weird little victory dance, which someone dared to film and post on YouTube.
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Post by htmb on May 18, 2013 17:41:21 GMT
 Standing the whole time? Would I really want to do that?
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2013 17:44:48 GMT
No, not at your age. ;D
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Post by htmb on May 18, 2013 17:50:36 GMT
Remind me you deserve a kick in the shins, young man.
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Post by mossie on May 19, 2013 7:43:09 GMT
Sure you weren't aiming higher ;D
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Post by htmb on May 19, 2013 11:34:34 GMT
We're only kidding, Mossie. I'm sure Kerouac has figured out we are fairly close in age.
Seriously, Kerouac, did you ever tire of standing, or were you so entertained it just didn't matter? Did you wander around the space? I'm just trying to get a sense of what it must have been like.
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2013 12:04:18 GMT
I don't know if I can really compare my stamina to anybody else, because it appears that I can keep going for considerably longer than most people.
On that day, I got up at 5 a.m. in Paris and was in London around 9:30 a.m. at which time I proceeded to start walking, and I never stopped -- after scoping out my hotel on foot, I went to the Camden market area, then back to the hotel to check in and spend about an hour there. But from about 1:30 p.m. on I started walking again -- up and down the banks of the Thames, and the only time I sat down was about 5 minutes to eat my burrito on a bench. So I had basically been on my feet all day when I got to the Globe, where I will admit that I sat on a bench for about 30 minutes before going inside for the play.
I could have gotten a space to lean against the edge of the stage, but I decided to be civilised and leave that for shorter people. After intermission, I moved to a slightly different area to get a different view of the stage, but no, it was not really a problem for me to stand up.
The only problem was that my legs were stiff after standing for three hours and when I started walking back to the London Bridge station, I felt a bit like the Tin Man without oil.
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Post by htmb on May 19, 2013 16:06:29 GMT
That's a lot of walking, Kerouac, but I tend to walk a lot on vacation, too. I suppose I'm more concerned about the standing in one spot for several hours. Can you roam around and change floor locations if you wish, or are you confined to the spot where you first stake your claim?
Sorry to ask so many questions. Maybe I should just go and find out first hand.
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