The Hobbit

I saw The Hobbit at the Theatre Royal last Wednesday evening. Before rocking up I wasn't sure if it was actually a play or a musical, but at only 19 quid, it hardly mattered.

It was a slow starter. The story is essentially a road trip so rather difficult to show this on stage. There was a lot of walking on, around and over the set by the actors. I found the same problem with the Grapes of Wrath. Journeying just isn't inherently interesting.

But it got better.

The actors finally found their stride about a third of the way through and no longer seemed to be just wandering around aimlessly. The spider was a real highlight and so was smaug. I especially enjoyed the riddle game between Bilbo and Gollum. Bilbo apparently played Sam in the Lord of the Rings musical. The scenery and props were really good (two tree-looking things on rotatable bases with stairs and doors), transforming from Hobbiton to Mirkwood to Laketown with ease and the cast clambered all over them, and even rope-swung between them. The barrel scene was also well played with the actors getting into the wine kegs and disappearing into apparently thin air. Very cool. I liked the archers too. Good effects.

The actors were very carefully chosen for height too. They were either over six foot or under five so there was a very discernible difference between the 'dwarfs' and Bilbo and the 'men'. It really enhanced the illusion that there were two different races. Although one of the actors who played a man was clearly a sub for the dwarfs.. with such a height difference, it was very obvious what he was intended to be. :D

But then Gandalf fluffed his lines a couple of times, some of the lighting techs were off in their timing and the staging had a few problems too, so although the actors were good, especially Thorin and Bilbo, it just didn't engage me as much as it possibly could have if the flaws hadn't been so noticeable.

My rating for that performance would have to be about 3.5 out of 5. I wanted to like it more than I did. Ah well, experience experienced.

Wrathing Fantastic

In my first theatrical outing in my new home town I saw 'The Grapes of Wrath' at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth.

It was really good. The cast was simply amazing, including Christopher Timothy (who played James Harriot in All Creatures Great and Small), Sorcha Cusack and Oliver Cotton. Cotton as the Preacher was especially impressive, and his acting and story telling ability was incredible - I found myself riveted to him every time he spoke. The American accents were a bit dicey at times and there wasn't quite the consistency of accent across the cast you'd like but the acting was suburb and all the supporting cast members were equally brilliant in all the various (and multiple) roles they played.

The set was minimal and very evocative. With just a few changes, it was quite amazing the range of expression it could achieve. They had a working car that the cast all clambered aboard and which both somehow went forwards and backwards but also sideways and in circles!?! And not initially visible to the audience they had a trough of water in the stage which the cast members bathed in at one point, and later they made it rain and absolutely drenched the cast! Very cool.

Produced by the English Touring Theatre, who brought us The Scottish Play with Patrick Stewart, it was just as impressive. The story was vastly condensed from the book, or so I was told having never read it, but the idea and intent was definitely delivered; you could feel the anguish of the people who were being systematically crushed, and yet feel a great respect for their endurance and tenacity in the face of such hardship.

I went with one of my work-mates and her sister and they were understandably inordinately proud of their local theatre. I shall definitely be seeing more productions there. And I loved the Grapes of Wrath.

A Mad Dash for Three G's

One of the things I love about this city is that eventually everyone you’d ever want to see visits here. I’ve just seen Patrick Stewart in Macbeth, Ian McKellen will soon be playing here in King Lear and this evening I saw Neil Gaiman and Jonathan Pryce!

So – G number one was Neil Gaiman in conversation with Claire Armitstead from the Guardian, at the Criterion Theatre in Picadilly, It was an interview, but really he needed so little prompting, she just sort of nudged him in appropriate directions

I was running very late too. I just made it to the theatre for 1800, which is when it was supposed to start, but like all good theatrical events, it was running five minutes late so it was all good.

Neil is in town for the UK opening and promotion of ‘Stardust’ the movie, which I will in due course see, but he talked of many other things as well. It was an hour’s dialogue – and the crowd were allowed to ask questions at the end too. It was fascinating. He’s a lot nicer and gentler in person than you are led to believe from his writing and he said some very interesting things. Like he writes something to discover what he thinks about a subject rather than to illuminate others, and that he isn’t concerned with offending people when writing; in person he’s squeamish and polite, but the minute he’s in a story he looses his inhibitions and just writes what the story asks of him. He also said that if he ever tried to write something for money it invariably went wrong, but if he wrote what interested or intrigued him, the money just sort of worked itself out.

Richard kept my company at this event, and as we were both due at the Apollo to see a play at 1945, he was understandably concerned that we make that performance in time. However as the Gaiman interview was over by 1900 we had about ¾ of an hour up our sleeves and so decided to go to have a look in a Neil’s book signing down the road to see how long the line was. The signing was happening at the Piccadilly Waterstones (the biggest bookstore in Europe) and when we got there we were told to wait for about 2 minutes and then were ushered into a separate room. I really don’t know how we managed it but R and I ended up first in line for the signing. So of course we waited. And waited. Until Neil finally came in at about 1925. I got some photos and two books signed and Richard got his copy of Good Omens signed, which he’d been carrying around the world with him in hope of such an opportunity as he’d already managed to get it signed by Terry Pratchett it’s other author. So it was a bit of a mad dash for us, over to the Blue Posts to pick up the tickets from Jase and then to make it to the theatre on time, but we did.

So, the second G was seeing Jonathan Pryce in ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ at the Apollo. It was an absorbing play. The dialogue was electric and the actor’s were superb… only, I was a little lost as to what the whole thing was about, until interval, when Jason was able to illuminate me. The film apparently makes it a lot clearer, but essentially the main plot of the play is a competition: 1st prize is a Cadillac, 2nd Prize is you keep your job, and 3rd Prize is you’re fired! So, it’s four door-to-door salesmen in the US competing to sell real estate, and if they don’t get any sales up on the board they lose their jobs.

I found it compelling, but just as I was a little lost at the beginning, so I was a tad under-whelmed at the end. The twist really wasn’t one for me, and although the dynamic between the actors was good, a couple of them kept loosing their American accents, which I found quite jarring. Add that to that the fact that I wasn’t feeling so great and the end result was that I enjoyed it but wasn’t fired by it – no pun intended.

So the third G? It was goodbye to Martin tonight. He’s off home tomorrow and so we had a last beer at the Belgium bar De Hems (I had strawberry beer this time – can’t wait to go to Belgium!) and an Adelaidean contingent photo and then I had to retire.

Sad to see him go but he will be back for Christmas… won’t you Marty??!!

The Scottish Play with a Stewart

Last night, being Thursday the 27th of September, our theatre guru Mr Standing organised a trip to the Gielgud Theatre, to see William Shakespeare's Macbeth staring Patrick Stewart.

It was an interesting interpretation. Stark and very grim, set in a quazi WWI era, with most of the cast in the woollen military uniforms of that time and the witches dressed as nurses to match. It had a relatively bare stage very reminiscent of a bunker, with off-white brick walls that allowed imagery to be played across them, including swirling blood at times which was very effective. The sound effects were very threatening, being a lot of gun shots and sounds of battle, and the sets consisted of hospital gurneys transformed from bed to table and back to beds at appropriate moments. There was a lot of reuse of set pieces for different purposes and recurring imagery as you’d expect – the focus on knives being one of them of course. I especially liked the way that the witches first acted as nurses, then turned up in the kitchen preparing the meat for the feast and then were morgue attendants. Very effective.

Michael Feast as Macduff, although he started slow, really came through for me – I felt with him when he discovered his family had died, and the moment he brought in Macbeth’s head… Whoooeee! Martin Turner as Banquo was also really good as the upright man, and when he stalked along the table at the feast and stood over Macbeth with his shirt all soaked in blood I absolutely squirmed with glee! And Scott Handy as young Malcolm was very impressive too when his big moment came. I’d seen him in A Knights Tale, so his face was familiar, but I was very impressed with his containment at the beginning of the play and his deception of Macduff at their second meeting. Kate Fleetwood as Lady Macbeth was… bloodthirsty. You could feel the ambition dripping off her. She was truly creepy at times. And Patrick… what can I say? The way he moved about the stage kept your eyes fixed on him. He had a real presence, and really looked the part of the soldier in comparison to the other nobles.

All up…well, I adore Shakespeare no matter what, but whilst I admit that Macbeth isn’t one of my all time favourites, I enjoyed every minute of this production. Thank you J!