Jesus Christ, Superstar and other events

It's a very late post, but in August, some friends and I went to see Jesus Christ Superstar at the Barbican - because sometimes one just wants to relive one's youth and the fun of seeing a musical!

And it was fun - Jesus and Judas were both excellent, and Pilate was a lot of fun as well.   I am not sure that glitter in place of blood, in the '49 strokes' scene would have bee my choice, but it was oddly effective! 

The same day, some of us went to Mere for dinner, and had a wonderful meal, preceded by some very pretty, and tasty, cocktails.

Glorious Lemon Verbena dessert

Then in September, I met up with a couple of friends, to go to  see Zoë Keating at  King's Place in London . It's the 3rd time I have seen her live, and it was just as good as the last two times.I strongly recommend her work to any one of my friends who don't already know her work.

Then, at the end of the month, I went to Chichester, in order to see John Simm and Dervla Kirwan, as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Before the show, I went to look around the Cathedral , which is small, as cathedrals go, but rather nice. 

Tapestry

Then the show itself.

There is a glass stage, over the 'blasted heath', and the witches enter from beneath it. There is also a glass backdrop.

I really enjoyed Simm's performance, particularly in the second half of the play,  as Macbeth starts to unravel.  However, the play did move slowly at times, and I did feel that the sound and stage design did, at times, overwhelm the play at times 

I'm really glad I got to see John Simm (especially as I missed his Hamlet)

It's on until 28th October

Macbeth again

I saw the RSC's production of Macbeth with friends,  in March this year, and , before seeing it, had also booked a second ticket, to see it later in the run (we saw it very early on - I think still in previews.

Other than the company, I enjoyed it more the second time around, partly as my seat was in the central section of the stalls, so I could actually see the whole of the performance, including those parts behind a glass screen at the back of the stage, which were invisible from our seats the first time round! 


The production seems to have settled down, some of the rough edges which were there the first time have gone, and the cast seemed more confident. I think they had made one or two changes, particularly at the end, when MacBeth and MacDuff fight. (MacDuff, Edward Bennett, remains excellent. His grief, on learning of his family's murders, and his change from civil servant to avenging warrior remains a high point of the production).

I still feel that the projected quotes  / explanations were unnecessary and somewhat distracting.

I did enjoy the performances, and did feel it was better this tie round than the first time!

The production is over, now, at the RSC, but is at the Barbican in London from 15th October until  18th January. And I'd say that it is interesting enough to be worth seeing.

Macbeth (National Theatre)

The RSC and National Theatre both have big productions of Macbeth this year, and originally, A and I were planning to see them almost back to back, with the RSC version on 17th March, and NT a week later, on 24th. However, I was ill and missed the NT one. I did, however,  finally  catch up.

The NT version features Rory Kinnear as Macbeth,and Anne-Marie Duff as Lady Macbeth, with Patrick O'Kane as Macduff and Kevin Harvey as Banquo.

The programme tells me that the setting for the play is 'Now, after a civil war'  I'm going to venture a guess that it was a civil war which went very, very badly, as it appears to have left Scotland in a Mad Max style wasteland of gang wars, where noble soldiers such as Macbeth are forced to use parcel tape to attach their armour, and everyone is reduced to living in tiny concrete bunkers, in shanty towns. (I'm assuming that the civil war was with England, and that England came out of it better, as the English forces with Malcolm at the end of the play have proper battle dress and so on, although they are all fighting with machetes and kitchen knives, so presumably Scotland destroyed all the English arms manufacturers and military stockpiles...)

Set with corpse (pic from NT Twitter) 

I have to say that I found the whole post apocalyptic set and setting rather distracting, it left me wondering whether, and when, the plastic bags on poles would become significant. And I also did feel that someone really should have taken the director aside and told him that just because the National's Olivier stage has a big turntable in it so you can rotate the stage, doesn't mean that you have to use it all the time. 

However, despite these irritations, I did enjoy the play, and there were some excellent performances. Rory Kinnear was excellent, he comes across as practical and level-headed, and as such, his disintegration and visions of his victims have all the greater impact. 

Even though the set didn't appeal to me, it did have it's effective points. Macbeth standing, the only still figure as a rave took place celebrating Duncan's visit to their 'castle' for instance, and an early scene with Lady Macbeth washing her hands, long before the sleepwalking scene.

I enjoyed Kevin Harvey's performance as Banquo, (pre-murder). As the ghost, he is forced to appear as a shambling, zombie like figure, which for me didn't work well. 

The vision of Banquo's line of descendants was interesting, involving people wearing masks on the backs of their heads, walking up the sloping part of the set. 

Over all, I thought it was an interesting production, but a bit confused!

It's at the National until 23rd June, and is being shown at cinemas as part of NTLive on 10th May

Macbeth (RSC)

It seems that this is the year of Macbeth - both the RSC and the National Theatre have productions this reason, and yes, I'm seeing both.(probably. I missed the NT one due to being ill, but do have a ticket for later in the run)

First, the RSC production at Stratford upon Avon - it features Christopher Eccleston  as Macbeth, and Niamh Cusack as Lady Macbeth.

Publicity photo from RSC site

It is an interesting production. Although unfortunately features a set design which does not take into account the design of the theatre - you don't expect, when buying seats in the 2nd row of the stalls, to have a restricted view of key scenes.. There is a also a rather distracting clock, or timer, which starts to count down when Duncan is murdered. 

The production is a modern dress one, and features Witches who are little girls, (perhaps 9 or 10 years old),  looking deceptively harmless in their identical pink pyjamas, and fluffy slippers/boots with pom-poms on, and each cradling a battered and uncared-for doll. They speak in unison, and there is definitely a slight 'Midwich cuckoos' vibe there.They were certainly creepy, although the down side is that their appearance makes a bigger impact than their words.

The Witches (production photo from RSC)

Eccleston's Macbeth is a blunt, rugged soldier - someone who is good in a crisis, and liked and admired by his peer. In the early stages of the play he appears out of place among the more obviously sophisticated members of the court: there's a telling little detail when he returns from battle and kisses Duncan's hand, he smears a little blood on it, and appears not to notice, or to notice the King's reaction. Later, as he becomes more and more paranoid and isolated, it seems that 'having' to order the deaths of friends troubles him more than the original murder, and his final defeat is as much at his own hand as that of Macduff. However, Eccleston didn't seem wholly confident in the role. I hope this is simply due to us having seen it so early (pre- press night).

Niamh Cusack as Lady Macbeth is good - increasingly frenetic and chillingly ruthless, coming over as an intelligent, ambitious woman, denied the chance to be anything but a decorative hostess, although her sleepwalking scene was, irritatingly, partly played out in the invisible-to-those-of-us-in-the-side-seats gallery above the stage.

Macduff (Edward Bennett) deserves a special mention, his despair as the distraught husband and father as he learns of his family's deaths is heart-wrenching. The Porter (Michael Hodgson) is on stage through almost all of the play - chalking up a tally of the Macbeths' victims, silently assisting various murders find their victims, and lending a ear (whether sympathetic or not) to Macbeth in his soliloquies. He's wonderfully unsettling. 


However, despite lots of excellent actors I felt that the production as a whole was rather patchy and a little incoherent, and the projected clock, counting down, and the selected lines projected on the set distract from, rather than adding to, the play. 

We saw it very early in the run and there were a few stumbles on lines, too. I do have a ticket to see it again, later in the year, and I shall be interested to see how it feels when everyone is more settled into their roles. But despite the flaws, I did enjoy it, and am glad that I'll get to see it again.

Manchester, Museums and Macbeth: Part 2

So, after our slightly scary and very confusing attempt to appreciate cutting edge art, we made our way to Castlefield for the big screen broadcast of Macbeth. 

The live production was staged in the (deconsecrated) St Peter's Church in Ancoats, so ticketing was pretty limited.

We were in the slightly less atmospheric venue of the NCP Car park at Bridgewater Hall, which is basically a large expanse of tarmac surrounded by high rise blocks of flats.

Although  we arrived 40 minutes before the performance was due to start, we discovered that the car park was filling up, and we had a little difficulty finding a space where we could spread out our picnic rug and see the screen.

The instructions we received mentioned that there would be no food or drink vendors, and that people were welcome to bring their own, and we quickly realised that our 4-pack of beer simply didn't cut it - out immediate neighbours, for instance, had brought poached salmon, chicken, a choice of white or rose wine, and much besides, and (as we later noticed) even after dinner mints.

We had picnic envy, and lacking food, were forced to make conversation with one another while we waited for the play to start.

It was an interesting production; the main action of the play takes place in a very muddy stage / aisle with the audience sitting on either side (and some additional action in the apse of the old church)

I have mixed feelings about the production itself - The Witches seemed rather  over done, even for evil harbingers of doom - they shrieked rather than speaking, and I felt that there were moments when both Macbeth (Kenneth Branagh) and Lady Macbeth (Alex Kingston) seemed rather, well, hammier than was strictly necessary.

There were however also some very high points; Ray Fearon was a convincing and moving Macduff - I shall be looking out for his name in future productions, I'd like to see him in other roles, and despite his occasional over acting, Branagh was also convincingly tormented, a study in increasing paranoia and violent despair.

An interesting production. But I would have preferred a softer carpark to sit on!