The Mirror and The Light - In which heads are lost

 

I haven't seen the RSC's productions of the first two parts of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy,but I have read all three books, and watched Mark Rylance in the BBC series, so was interested in seeing this production, which is an adaptation of the final book, The Mirror and The Light, which covers the period from the execution of Anne Boleyn to the execution of Thomas Cromwell.

Henry VIII and Crowell (Production Image)

I enjoyed it  -  the set is pretty stark but the costumes are sumptuous - full on period styles,  with Henry VIII in particular looking magnificent. And given that we start with Cromwell's arrest, and if course we all know how this is going to  end, but despite this, the play manages to instil a surprising amount of tension into the events.  . 

And despite the outcome, (spoiler- things don't end well for Thomas Cromwell) there are many entertaining moments as well.

Sadly the extension to the run has bee cancelled so it is ending at the end of this month, but well worth seeing if you get the opportunity - it did make me  wish I'd seen the first two, and also to hope that the BBC makes a the last part of the trilogy with Mark Rylance!

In Which I Visit Mars, and the Moon

I have been aware of the work of artist Luke Jerram for a while - I've seen his Museum of the Moon before, in Lincoln Museum, and Gaia, in Salisbury Cathedral, so when I saw that he has now created a version of Mars, and that it was going to be on show in Bristol, I had to book to visit.

Mars was in the Wills Memorial Tower, which I spent a lot of time in as a student doing my post-graduate course, so it felt strange to be going there, not for an exam or lecture, but to see an art installation! 

Mars is 7m in diameter, which means that 1cm on the model represents 10km of the real planet. (Like his other astronomical works, this uses NASA images to  create the surface of the planet)

Mars: Bristol University

It's beautiful, and the Great Hall made a fantastic setting for it.  As well as the planet itself, there was a surround sound accompaniment, including music speech recordings and sounds suggestive of what it might be like on the surface.

I spent about 40 minutes just taking it all in.

It was only in Bristol for a week, and I saw it on the second to last day - it's a shame it wasn't there longer, I might have gone back to see it at a different time f day, if it had been there longer!

Then , (because I follow the artist on Facebook) I saw that the Museum of the Moon was also visiting Bristol, this time, the cathedral.

It's free to visit whenever the cathedral is normally open, but there are also various additional events - one of which was evening opening with restricted numbers, which was what I picked.

 The last time I visited Bristol Cathedral it was to see Antic Disposition's Richard III in 2017, and on that occasion there was not much opportunity to look round the cathedral itself, so I enjoyed doing that - The cathedral has a long history - for some reason, I'd thought of it as being fairly modern (perhaps assuming that, like so much of Bristol, it was built with the profits from slavery and tobacco) 

In fact, it was originally the abbey church for an Augustinian monastery, founded by the Berkley family, who are still around, and claim to be the only remaining family in England who can trace their lineage back directly, father to son so before the Norman Conquest. The one who founded the abbey was an Anglo-Saxon  who cannily supported Henry II back before it fashionable to do so, and married his son off to the previous lord Berkley's daughter, who chose poorly in that particular conflict.   Presumably they have always been either very lucky,  or very adept at changing allegiance as necessary, since they still have a stonking big castle where the family has been living for the last 850 years.   

The oldest parts of the church were built in the 12th Century, although I was right in part,  in so far as the original nave was demolished, (The monks were planning an upgrade, but due to Henry VIII never got to build the new one) and  the current one built  in the 1860s. 

There were some lovely tombs of early abbots - I do like the star-burst surroundings.  There are also some rather nice bits of early vaulted ceilings, in one of the side chapels.

The setting is a great one for the Moon.

I enjoyed playing with looking at it from different angles, and seeing the interaction between the ancient and traditional building, and the Moon.

Although I think I may need to go back to spend more time in the cathedral, in daylight, sometime soon. The Chapter House, which is apparently very good, was closed when I was there, and I should like to be able to spend some time looking at the various memorials, and sculptures (they have a fragment of an Anglo-Saxon carving showing the Harrowing of Hell, which it was too dark to see properly, by the time I got to it, for instance)

It was an interesting evening. 

I also learned that the Moon is coming to Wells cathedral, in October, so I may pop in to see it there, too.

If you're in or near Bristol, it's at the Cathedral until 30th August.

Hamlet - Sir Ian McKellen

When it was announced, last June, that Sir Ian McKellen was going to play Hamlet, I signed up for the theatre's  mailing list. Originally the production was planned for last Summer /  Autumn, but as we all know, many plans went awry.

 However, in March, the theatre mailed to say the show was back on, for this summer, so I contacted two of my best theatre-going friends, and we booked tickets, and on Saturday, met up in Windsor to see the show.

We met up early enough for drinks and catching up, which was wonderful, then we went for  a delicious Moroccan meal, at  Al Fassia  before heading to the theatre.

Our seats were in the stalls, which meant that we had a good view, but rather a crick in the neck when watching bits of the play as characters clambered up to the walkways which formed parts of the set!

The production has  age-blind, gender-blind and colour-blind casting, so as well as McKellen  playing the title role (with Jenny Seagrove, as his mother Gertrude) we had Frances Barber as Polonius and Francesca Annis as the ghost of Hamlet's father, and Ashley D Gayle as Laertes (He had taken over the role at short notice after the original Laertes, Emmanuella Cole, left the production, and he did it extremely well)

I was not enthused by the set - lots of metal ladders and walkways, which I didn't feel added much but which did squeak and rattle when used, which I found distracting, and also meant looking up at a very awkward angle when actors were up on the walkways!

I thoroughly enjoyed McKellen's performance - his first appearance was in deep mourning - formal black suit, silk top hap, dark glasses and astrakhan collar - a very Victorian / Mr Holmes vibe, however the costuming and setting generally were modern - later in the play he appeared in trainers and on an exercise bike, for example, which seems to me to be taking the whole too, too, solid flesh  speech a bit too literally.

I was also not enamoured with the decision to present Ophelia (Alis Wyn Davies) as an angry rock chick - we first met her singing doubt thou the stars are fire.. , accompanying herself on guitar, and then in the mad scenes, again she sang, and accompanied herself, and the control this needed  meant she seemed more angry than mad.  And Gertrude's odd accent as a disrtaction, never explained.

The director had also decided to use hair as way of indicating mental distress - Hamlet cuts his hair off, stripping down for revenge. Gertrude's wig is pulled off, leaving her exposed, as she is shown by Hamlet the causes of his grief, and Ophelia apparently finds time to cut off her own hair as she goes mad. I felt it was a mistake to use the  same metaphor repeatedly like this, it would perhaps have been effective if used for one of the three!

Over all, I felt the production was a bit patchy: There were excellent performances - Ian McKellen is always a joy to watch, and it was wonderful to see and hear him speaking the verse (perhaps a touch fast, in the To be, or not to be soliloquy, but that's a minor criticism) , I never quite forgot his age, but it didn't prevent his performance being convincing, and moving.I was impressed by the performances off Ashley Gayle (Laertes) and Ben Allen (Horatio).

I'm happy that I saw it, and that McKellen decided to give it another go. And I am looking forward to seeing The Cherry Orchard , with the same cast, in October. It's a play I am far less familiar with, so will go in with a much more open mind!

In Which I Go OUT! And there is Theatre, and Meeting A Friend, And Food

 It's been a long time.

But a few months ago, after I had been able to book both my vaccination appointments and knew i would be fully vaxxed by now, and when it looked as though we were getting back to normal, I booked tickets to go to the theatre, with a friend.

The show we booked was Under Milk Wood  at the National Theatre, with Michael Sheen, and we went to the final matinee. It's the first time I've been to the theatre since March of last year, and the first time I've been anywhere except to work, and to spend time in my bubble.

It felt very strange.. There were people, lots of them, and some of them not wearing masks. And then we went to  a restaurant and ate(delicious!) food cooked by someone else!. Fortunately I don't seem to have completely forgotten how to behave in pubic. 

Then we went for our socially distanced performance. we were sitting  with 3 empty seats between us, as when we booked, being from different households/bubbles, we couldn't sit together, and there were lots of empty seats to keep everyone distanced. Were it not for the knowledge of how difficult this makes it for the theatres, I could  get to quite like the extra space!

I've never seen Under Milk Wood before, although I have read it,and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There was, in this production, some additional material; the play began with a group of nursing home residents, and the (unexpected) visit from the son (Michael Sheen) trying to speak to his father (Karl Johnson), who appears unable to understand or respond to him, until he starts to show him old photos, and encourage his to remember his childhood, and all the characters of that little Welsh town, Llareggub...

It makes for a  fascinating take on the play, seeing the characters played by the elderly cast members, and Johnson's almost wordless performance was particularly impressive.

I'm very glad I got to see it. (We saw the final matinee, I'm not sure if it was filmed at ll and whether it may yet appear on NTLive) .

Since I was going to brave the trip to London, I decided that I might as well make the most of it and see a second show, so I had booked to see Constellations as well.

It's a short, two character play, about love and  quantum physics - this production has four different casts, and I saw the second, Zoe Wanamaker as Physicist Marianne, and Peter Capaldi as beekeeper Roland.

The play is a serious of short scenes - a party, where Roland and Marianne make a connection, or don't , spend a night together, or don't.. And we watch as the same scene plays out in slightly different ways, as different choices are made, or not made, or news is good or bad.

It was interesting and unusual, and I enjoyed it, and seeing these two actors on stage (I have see Zoe Wanamaker in other productions but this was the first tie I'd seen Peter Capaldi on stage)

The performance I saw was the last they did, but there are two other cases still continuing!

As the last train home is currently very early, I stayed overnight, and then had a pleasant walk back through Kensington Gardens, and some quiet back-streets, to get back to the station.

It was all quite tiring - I did find being out around so many strangers quite stressful, and I had forgotten, over the past 16 months how much difference the poorer air quality makes to me, personally,  but it was wonderful to see a friend I've not seen for so long, and I did enjoy both shows, despite feeling a bit nervous.

One Year On

 The first National Lockdown here in England  was announced on 23rd March, 2020 and became mandatory on 26th, so we're now a year on, and we're still locked down, although there have been periods when it's been eased.

In the Before Times, this blog was mostly about the exhibitions and plays I was seeing, so material has been rather thin on the ground in the past twelve months.

I have seen some productions - via the wonders of the internet and TV: I've enjoyed the 'Culture in Quarantine' on the BBC, which included releases of several RSC productions such as the Christopher Eccleston / Niamh Cusack Macbeth, and the various NTLive shows which were streamed free (I particularly enjoyed being able to re-watch the Tom Hiddleston Coriolanus and the Mark Gatiss Madness of George III)  and have also seen a number of new, online productions - Michael Sheen in the Old Vic In Camera Faith Healer, and What A Carve Up  and, more recently Romeo & Juliet  (Which uses green screen filming to make it appear that actors are on stage together when they aren't) and the RSC's Dream  which uses motion capture and CGI, coupled with extracts 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' to present a vison of how the fairies might appear. 

There have, too, been lots of other events - online lectures and interviews with writers, actors and academics which to some extent replace the events I might otherwise have attended in person. And some of which I wouldn't have been able to see in person, as they were too far away. 

But I do miss live events. 

There are, of course , some advantages.  I was able to watch 'Faith Healer' in my pyjamas, with a large glass of wine in one hand and a kitten on my lap, which isn't normally practical in the theatre, and there's none of the irritation caused by people who won't stop talking, or who let their pones ring during performances, but on the whole,I'd rather live with those things, and be able to see performances live. I do hope, however, that as things return to normal we we keep some of these positives - so productions can be seen time and again, and are available to people who can't, for whatever reason, get to the theatre. 

I've missed eating out,too. Particularly the social element. I've tried various options - one of the pubs in the village, which normally offers fine dining, has reinvented itself to offer a fruit & veg shop (expanding to include fresh meat and fish, fresh bread, essentials such a loo roll and, in the early days of empty supermarket shelves, flour (decanted into brown paper bags from their huge 25kg sacks and to offer take away food such as fish and chips, pizzas and excellent burgers and fried chicken. I've also tried food from national delivery options - Lebanese street food from Borough Market, and a glorious (if expensive) meal from Mere to heat and plate at home

I have also been, on the whole, enjoying taking my #Permitted Exercise. I had, about a year before all this started, made a decision to try to get fitter and perhaps to lose some weight, so I had already been working (mainly successfully) on getting in at least 10,000 steps a day, but this was mostly through taking (repetitive) walks around the town during my lunch hour in the week, and aiming to do more on foot and make less use of public transport when out and about at weekends, while I had done some walks from home, most had been a bit further afield. 

One positive of being locked down has been getting to know that area immediately around my house much  better,  from watching the gradual seasonal changes, to learning where and when to see wildlife, from foxes, to deer, to badgers.

I see myself as being very lucky to live here, in the country, where I have this, literally on my doorstep, rather than being in a town 

I have been very fortunate that my close family have all stayed well. although I have friends who have not been so lucky, and of course there is the constant anxiety, for myself and others.