Another amazing production at the National, they made this Brechtian piece thoroughly enjoyable. Set in a sort of Oliver Twist's London, the lead male - Mack the Knife - uses the eponymous weapon to exert control over his world. Things go wrong when he has an affair with and marries Polly Peachum, the daughter of Jonathan Peachum. He is master of a gang of beggars that he controls. They pay him a 'franchise' to operate in his territory. Peachum wants Jack dead and engineers to have him arrested and hung. Even the Chief of Police, Tiger Brown, with whom Mack shared a background in the army, is unable to shelter him. Mack decides to flee but not before visiting a brothel, staffed by amongst others, Jenny an ex girlfriend. She has been bribed by Mrs Peachum to betray him and he is arrested. Tiger Brown cannot help because Peachum threatens to disrupt Queen Victoria's coronation visit by unleashing a flood of uncontrolled beggars to make mayhem. Just to complicate matters further Tiger's daughter Lucy turns out to be another of Mack's conquests. Mack is sentenced to hang. However, all take a miraculously positive turn when he is granted not only a Royal pardon but also a knighthood, castle and pension.
Mack is played by Rory Kinnear but, to my mind the star of .he show was Rosalie Craig, singing Polly's role. She just seemed to stand slightly apart but, in fairness, the whole ensemble including the musicians were great.
It is, of course, an easy to follow story and I suppose one that can be enjoyed on different levels. It makes its social comments and has a dig at corruption. It also confronts us with Mack's amorality as well as the duplicitous nature of some of the characters (e.g., Mrs Peachum, Jenny). It is also fascinating to see this example of how Brecht comes to life in a good production.
Tuesday, 9 August 2016
6 August 2016. She Stoops to Conquer
This overlong piece seems to me something to sit through rather than particularly enjoy. It is mildly amusing if one wants mild amusement. Otherwise, it does not seem to me a good use of time. Based around the tricking of two silly bachelors into thinking they are at an inn rather than the house to which they were travelling, we are treated to them making fools of themselves by behaving boorishly to their host. More interestingly, we are also shown how one of them who normally becomes tongue-tied with women of his own ilk, manages to be witty and amusing with a woman he takes to be a servant but who is actually the lady to whom he had been travelling to advance his matrimonial intent. The other friend in the pair falls for another female in the household whose mother was hoping for a financial injection by her daughter marrying the son of the house.
Of course, it is all mildly amusing but not really my cup of tea. The only thing I got from it was the well-portrayed psychological phenomenon of the contextualization of shyness and awkwardness.
Of course, it is all mildly amusing but not really my cup of tea. The only thing I got from it was the well-portrayed psychological phenomenon of the contextualization of shyness and awkwardness.
4 August 2016. The Seagull at the National Theatre
This sumptuous production was engaging throughout. It featured a genuine lake and evoked well the sense of ennui in the country estate. The production also brought to life the characters and their issues and tensions. The lead character, Arkadina played by Anna Chancellor, is an aging actress more city- than country-focussed who sweeps back to her country estate for a visit. Her son, Konstantin, puts on a production of his 'modern' play for her, only to be met by a complete lack of concentration and attempted (successfully) upstaging by his mother. This propels him into torment, which is only exacerbated when his actress, Nina, goes off with Trigorin, the lover of Arkadina and a second-rate writer with delusions of greatness.
It is around this point that Konstantin presents Nina with a dead seagull whose destruction serves as a metaphor for the potential destruction of Nina. This indeed comes to pass as she changes from an innocent girl over-protected by her father, to the mother of Trigorin's child. We pick up her story in the fourth act where she has returned to the countryside but still professes love for Trigorin, seeing her life as indeed like the seagull's. Poor Konstantin sees his love for Nina will never be requited and shoots himself which is where the play ends.
Running alongside this central story we have the character of Medvedenko a poor and money-obsessed schoolteacher who is in love with Masha, the daughter of the estate manager, Shamrayev. She would rather have Konstantin. However she goes on to marry the schoolteacher and in the fourth act we find that they have a baby and are to move away shortly. The other major characters are Sorin, Arkadina's brother and a constant presence on the estate as well as Evkeny Dorn, a doctor friend of his who is having a rather half-hearted affair with Polina.
It can be seen that the play is complicated but not too complicated. It is also clever in its structure with the fourth act allowing us to see how things unfold. It comments on various matters including romantic relationships, town versus country and the delusions people harbour. It also, of course, references the theatre and acting.
The NT production was the third of a trilogy, made up also of Platonov and Ivanov. Those who did so reported that seeing all three on one day was a thoroughly worthwhile experience enabling to see amongst other things the evolution of the Young Chekhov's writing between the plays.
It is around this point that Konstantin presents Nina with a dead seagull whose destruction serves as a metaphor for the potential destruction of Nina. This indeed comes to pass as she changes from an innocent girl over-protected by her father, to the mother of Trigorin's child. We pick up her story in the fourth act where she has returned to the countryside but still professes love for Trigorin, seeing her life as indeed like the seagull's. Poor Konstantin sees his love for Nina will never be requited and shoots himself which is where the play ends.
Running alongside this central story we have the character of Medvedenko a poor and money-obsessed schoolteacher who is in love with Masha, the daughter of the estate manager, Shamrayev. She would rather have Konstantin. However she goes on to marry the schoolteacher and in the fourth act we find that they have a baby and are to move away shortly. The other major characters are Sorin, Arkadina's brother and a constant presence on the estate as well as Evkeny Dorn, a doctor friend of his who is having a rather half-hearted affair with Polina.
It can be seen that the play is complicated but not too complicated. It is also clever in its structure with the fourth act allowing us to see how things unfold. It comments on various matters including romantic relationships, town versus country and the delusions people harbour. It also, of course, references the theatre and acting.
The NT production was the third of a trilogy, made up also of Platonov and Ivanov. Those who did so reported that seeing all three on one day was a thoroughly worthwhile experience enabling to see amongst other things the evolution of the Young Chekhov's writing between the plays.
3 August 2016. Ragnar Kjartansson at the Barbican
This is a fantastic and engaging exhibition. The opening room screens a brief film, Take me here by the dishwasher, to the accompaniment of 10 troubadours. Their music carries through the common parts of the gallery.
The next room screens The Visitors, perhaps the highlight of the exhibition. This extraordinary nine-screen video installation is the product of a group of musicians spending time in a run-down mansion in upstate New York. Each was give a separate room where they were recorded playing their part. The screening brings the nine rooms together to brilliant effect.
Elsewhere, there are screenings of:
Death and the children. Kjartansson with a fake sycle confronts a party of incredulous children in a cemetery and tells them he is death.
God. Behind red velvet curtains, a screening of Kjartansson singing with a big band the lyrics 'sorrow conquers happiness'
A lot of sorrow. A six hour video of the band The National playing their song, Sorrow.
Me and my mother, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015. Four screenings of the recordings of his mother intermittently spitting at him.
Some of this might sound weird but it worked (for me at least) to powerful effect. An excellent exhibition.
The next room screens The Visitors, perhaps the highlight of the exhibition. This extraordinary nine-screen video installation is the product of a group of musicians spending time in a run-down mansion in upstate New York. Each was give a separate room where they were recorded playing their part. The screening brings the nine rooms together to brilliant effect.
Elsewhere, there are screenings of:
Death and the children. Kjartansson with a fake sycle confronts a party of incredulous children in a cemetery and tells them he is death.
God. Behind red velvet curtains, a screening of Kjartansson singing with a big band the lyrics 'sorrow conquers happiness'
A lot of sorrow. A six hour video of the band The National playing their song, Sorrow.
Me and my mother, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015. Four screenings of the recordings of his mother intermittently spitting at him.
Some of this might sound weird but it worked (for me at least) to powerful effect. An excellent exhibition.
i August 2016. Faith Healer at the Donmar
This sell-out production is engaging from the start. The stage is screened by a wall of water as one sits waiting for the action. We open with a monologue by Frank who we quickly learn is the Faith Healer. He apparently has gifts that work from time to time and he becomes the centre of a roadshow, managed by the cockney Teddy and his girlfriend Grace. The following two acts are the monologue accounts by Grace and Teddy, essentially all covering the same territory but from different perspectives. Finally, we have Frank again, concentrating on his last appearance -at a pub in Ballybeg.
It was a beautiful performance of beautiful writing and I found it very worthwhile to buy the text. This clarified various points but one is still left with the enigma of the ending.
It was a beautiful performance of beautiful writing and I found it very worthwhile to buy the text. This clarified various points but one is still left with the enigma of the ending.
30 July 2016. Georgia O'Keefe at Tate Modern
I did not really get on with this large exhibition of O'Keefe's work. Unfortunately, it has not left memories for me, with the exception of the huge flower paintings. however, I will give it another go in due course.
30 July 2016. Bhupen Khakhar at Tate Modern
This comparatively compact exhibition covers a lot of ground and was very educational for me, having been unaware of Khakhar's work. An Indian who came to London, his work covers his sexuality as well as the cancer from which he died. They are powerful paintings and the first room has paintings that bear a strong lineage to the works of Henri Rousseau.
29 July 2016. The deep blue sea at the NT
This power drama by Terrence Rattigan had, as its star, Helen McCrory, playing the part of Hester. She is middle-aged and broken by the faithlessness of her great passion, Freddie, the test-pilot for whom she left her husband. The play opens with her being found by neighbours, having attempted to gas herself. The actors who played the neighbours evoked their characters brilliantly. They both came across as naive and rather self-satisfied in their relationship, with her on the verge of giving birth. They served as an excellent marker for the starting point of a relationship. Then we have McCrory and her two men showing how things might turn out.
The triangle was the oft-repeated one of a woman leaving her steady and devoted (still) husband for a rotter. As such, I'm not sure I got a lot out of it. However, the acting was brilliant and I really liked the other characters - the young couple; the nosy landlady; and the struck-off doctor. The set was also excellent, reproducing a block of flats and using gauze so that one could see through the walls.
The triangle was the oft-repeated one of a woman leaving her steady and devoted (still) husband for a rotter. As such, I'm not sure I got a lot out of it. However, the acting was brilliant and I really liked the other characters - the young couple; the nosy landlady; and the struck-off doctor. The set was also excellent, reproducing a block of flats and using gauze so that one could see through the walls.
Friday, 5 August 2016
19 July 2016. Hockney at the Royal Academy
This exhibition in the Sackler was running alongside the summer exhibition, It consists of a set of 82 identically-sized portraits, painted over two years from the Summer of 2013. All the sitters sat in the same chair with the same backdrop but were free to choose their own clothing.
This exhibition required a ticket because of its anticipated popularity. However, I'm afraid I found the phenomenon of the series more interesting than many of the individual portraits. Many of the sitters were unknown to me and while Hockney drew out their characters, it did not seem to be that he did this to some extraordinary extent. The most interesting for me was the portrait of Celia Birtwell, who had featured in Hockney's 1970 portrait of Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy.
This exhibition required a ticket because of its anticipated popularity. However, I'm afraid I found the phenomenon of the series more interesting than many of the individual portraits. Many of the sitters were unknown to me and while Hockney drew out their characters, it did not seem to be that he did this to some extraordinary extent. The most interesting for me was the portrait of Celia Birtwell, who had featured in Hockney's 1970 portrait of Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy.
7 June 2016. Blue/Orange at the Young Vic
The entrance to the theatre is ingenious. One passes through the waiting room of a hospital clinic before entering the auditorium. The set is similarly lifelike, all the action taking place in a smallish therapy room in a psychiatric unit. At first we meet the 'patient', Christopher and the junior psychiatrist, Bruce. There is a lengthy interchange between them, concerning whether Christopher should be discharged but also introducing whether his race will intrude upon the decision - whether psychiatry is colour-blind.
Shortly, the consultant, Robert, joins the pair. After engaging in some rather patronising banter with Bruce, he makes it clear that he would like to see Christopher discharged. He dresses this up with all sorts of enlightened reasoning but one continually feels that his decision is really motivated by the cost of keeping someone hospitalised as well as the senior's desire to assert himself over his junior.
Towards the end, it becomes clear that Christopher really does need to remain within the institution. He believes oranges to be blue and it becomes apparent that his claimed ancestry to Idi Amin is but a delusion. However, by now, the relationship between Bruce and his senior has deteriorated beyond redemption and so it is the consultant's will that prevails. Christopher is discharged.
Overall, I found it hard to know what to make of this play. It seemed to espouse some Laingian ideas but only in the cynical hands of Robert and completely inappropriately. So were we meant to think Laing had a point or not. Likewise, it addressed the issue of racial bias but it was clear that in the case of Christopher, bias was not the cause of his original sectioning. He really was mad. Then again it dealt with the pressing need to meet targets and economise in the NHS. But it is hard to believe this would extend to someone who really thought oranges were blue.
I also had a slight issue with the acting. It struck me as overdone. One row followed another. Looked at positively by the FT as 'a bruising ding-dong', it left me feeling it was somewhat exaggerated - to the point of implausibility.
Shortly, the consultant, Robert, joins the pair. After engaging in some rather patronising banter with Bruce, he makes it clear that he would like to see Christopher discharged. He dresses this up with all sorts of enlightened reasoning but one continually feels that his decision is really motivated by the cost of keeping someone hospitalised as well as the senior's desire to assert himself over his junior.
Towards the end, it becomes clear that Christopher really does need to remain within the institution. He believes oranges to be blue and it becomes apparent that his claimed ancestry to Idi Amin is but a delusion. However, by now, the relationship between Bruce and his senior has deteriorated beyond redemption and so it is the consultant's will that prevails. Christopher is discharged.
Overall, I found it hard to know what to make of this play. It seemed to espouse some Laingian ideas but only in the cynical hands of Robert and completely inappropriately. So were we meant to think Laing had a point or not. Likewise, it addressed the issue of racial bias but it was clear that in the case of Christopher, bias was not the cause of his original sectioning. He really was mad. Then again it dealt with the pressing need to meet targets and economise in the NHS. But it is hard to believe this would extend to someone who really thought oranges were blue.
I also had a slight issue with the acting. It struck me as overdone. One row followed another. Looked at positively by the FT as 'a bruising ding-dong', it left me feeling it was somewhat exaggerated - to the point of implausibility.
3 June 2016. Triple Bill at the ROH
This triple bill comprised Obsidian Tear by Wayne McGregor, The Invitation by Kenneth MacMillan and Within the Golden Hour by Christopher Wheeldon.
Obsidian Tear owes its title, according to the FT, to nodules of volcanic glass which in Native American legend are the petrified tears shed by the Apache tribe after their doomed army galloped over a cliff. Set to the music of Esa-Pekka Salonen, the piece features nine male dancers dressed in rather androgynous kilts and divided skirts. With dramatic lighting by Lucy Carter, this felt a very modern piece. However, I was slightly disappointed that Edward Watson's role did not quite live up to the expectations I had brought after seeing his stunning performance in Metamorphosis. The Invitation is a dark narrative piece concerning young innocent cousins who fall into the clutches of an older and more debauched pair, the wife of which strikes up a relationship with the youth while the man pursues and assaults the girl, destroying her innocence and trust. This part was particularly well danced by Francesca Hayward who evoked the feelings of the subject matter.
Within the Golden Hour was a series of seven pieces, mainly to the music of Ezio Bosso (and one to Vivaldi). It featured in particular Sarah Lamb and Stephen McRae as well as two further pairs of dancers. The music gave the opportunity for the dancers to be put through their paces and was, I thought, the best of the bill. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XavL43C3RH4
Obsidian Tear owes its title, according to the FT, to nodules of volcanic glass which in Native American legend are the petrified tears shed by the Apache tribe after their doomed army galloped over a cliff. Set to the music of Esa-Pekka Salonen, the piece features nine male dancers dressed in rather androgynous kilts and divided skirts. With dramatic lighting by Lucy Carter, this felt a very modern piece. However, I was slightly disappointed that Edward Watson's role did not quite live up to the expectations I had brought after seeing his stunning performance in Metamorphosis. The Invitation is a dark narrative piece concerning young innocent cousins who fall into the clutches of an older and more debauched pair, the wife of which strikes up a relationship with the youth while the man pursues and assaults the girl, destroying her innocence and trust. This part was particularly well danced by Francesca Hayward who evoked the feelings of the subject matter.
Within the Golden Hour was a series of seven pieces, mainly to the music of Ezio Bosso (and one to Vivaldi). It featured in particular Sarah Lamb and Stephen McRae as well as two further pairs of dancers. The music gave the opportunity for the dancers to be put through their paces and was, I thought, the best of the bill. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XavL43C3RH4
30 May 2016. The Invisible Hand at the Tricycle
Although I am writing this over two months after seeing The Invisible Hand, the play is still quite vivid in my memory. The tale is of an American banker who has been kidnapped in Pakistan and is confined to a shed. There he engages positively with some of his captors while others are more suspicious of him. He strikes a deal that he will trade his way to saving his life, employing his knowledge of the money markets. But this has a sinister edge, as the trader and one of his captors make use of the inside information of future acts of terrorism to trade his way to success.
The play captured well the amoral nature of the market as well as the seemingly whimsical nature of one's fate in captivity. A particularly strong moment is when one of the captors is accused of collaborating with the prisoner.
I'm not sure this play provoked a major new direction of thinking for me but it certainly conveyed extremely well the situation in the cell. It was very well acted and the direction was excellent. The bright light that masked the scene changes was particularly effective.
The play captured well the amoral nature of the market as well as the seemingly whimsical nature of one's fate in captivity. A particularly strong moment is when one of the captors is accused of collaborating with the prisoner.
I'm not sure this play provoked a major new direction of thinking for me but it certainly conveyed extremely well the situation in the cell. It was very well acted and the direction was excellent. The bright light that masked the scene changes was particularly effective.
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