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Post by lynette on Oct 29, 2016 8:36:18 GMT
One noble effort. The two guys are brilliant, Jamie Wilkes and James Corrigan. A sitcom awaits. Everyone else does a good job. Good set, good costumes, good music Tim Sutton and a light touch with the directing. They move naturally, the react in modern way even when the text is so dense it really isn't understandable on first hearing. I know the RSC does this all the time but here you can detect a new lightness. The director is Blanche McIntyre who has done a lot of stuff ( though she looks about 15 to me) She is going to direct Titus Andronicus in the next season. I might therefore give this play one last chance.
But omg what went on in the pub behind the theatre all those years ago? You can hear Shakespeare coming through with his clarity, the scenes between the Kinsmen are fab and here I am assuming he wrote them and you can see and hear Fletcher's mishmash of his colleague's greatest hits, the madness of Ophelia reprised here in a way that makes you a bit sick. The prog says Will wrote the beginning which is awful, so a bad day then. But I do recommend because there a moments of really good writing and it is very funny and very sad in parts. A good job this isn't the only play left with WS stamped on it. And you will catch these two v good young actors before they leave for Hollywood or Channel 4.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Oct 29, 2016 15:50:15 GMT
Totally agree. I really liked it especially the horses ;-)
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Post by martin1965 on Oct 29, 2016 16:47:25 GMT
Am going in two weeks, cant wait!
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Post by lynette on Oct 29, 2016 16:49:28 GMT
Totally agree. I really liked it especially the horses ;-) Did I forget to mention the horses.....well, yes and the horses. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2016 11:47:07 GMT
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Post by PalelyLaura on Nov 5, 2016 10:51:21 GMT
Pretty much agree with everything Lynette said about this. Loved it.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2016 20:19:32 GMT
Enjoyed this a lot. And I've now seen professional productions all of [commonly accepted canonical] Shakespeare, so hooray for me.
Thought the play itself was better than some of the other rarely performed plays (eg Pericles) and I now conclude that the only real clunker in the complete works is Henry VIII.
While watching it I was wondering if it has ever been done in tandem with Midsummer Night's Dream. What with Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding being the last scene of Dream, and the first of Kinsmen. Could end with a cliffhanger - get to the end of Dream, Puck does his speech then suddenly the three widowed queens turn up and everyone freaks out, then the play ends with TO BE CONTINUED!! Keep the same cast for the characters who are in both plays, and do some interesting doubling with the pairs of lovers, sets of mechanicals etc. And it's much less tenuous claiming Kinsmen is a sequel than Loves Labours Lost and Much Ado.
That's what I'd do if I ran the RSC anyway
Pleased to see we got a Babion (absent from the student production I saw) although presumably if it was in the RST rather than the Swan we would have got the He- and She-Babion called for in the text.
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Post by lynette on Dec 24, 2016 18:52:21 GMT
What a fascinating idea, xanderl. HenryVIII isn't his best but has great queen Catherine part and lovely sentimental ending!
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Post by theatremad on Feb 7, 2017 8:59:20 GMT
Singularly hated this, one of the worst RSC shows in years. Turning half the characters into nondescript Gods and costumes that made it look ridiculous ruined it.
Not one of his best but deserves a better production than this. After the fab Rover and Seven Acts this production was a letdown. Saw it first preview way back when, left at the interval. Went back last night and stuck it out but wish I hadn't bothered.
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Post by Jan on Feb 7, 2017 14:09:49 GMT
Enjoyed this a lot. And I've now seen professional productions all of [commonly accepted canonical] Shakespeare, so hooray for me. Thought the play itself was better than some of the other rarely performed plays (eg Pericles) and I now conclude that the only real clunker in the complete works is Henry VIII. Good for you. I'm waiting for a Henry VIII to complete a triple-canon. Your are wrong about Pericles though, it is really not that rarely performed (I have seen 8) and it is a great play (on the stage rather than on the page) - better than Tempest for example - you just need to see a good production of it. |
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Post by martin1965 on Feb 7, 2017 18:22:42 GMT
Enjoyed this a lot. And I've now seen professional productions all of [commonly accepted canonical] Shakespeare, so hooray for me. Thought the play itself was better than some of the other rarely performed plays (eg Pericles) and I now conclude that the only real clunker in the complete works is Henry VIII. Good for you. I'm waiting for a Henry VIII to complete a triple-canon. Your are wrong about Pericles though, it is really not that rarely performed (I have seen 8) and it is a great play (on the stage rather than on the page) - better than Tempest for example - you just need to see a good production of it. Come on Jan its not done a great, ive inly seen three in thirty years and dont think apart from the David Thacker Swan production in 89 i have missed any. And as for your comment on seeing a good production, well you coykd sat that about any play! |
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Post by Jan on Feb 7, 2017 18:57:29 GMT
Good for you. I'm waiting for a Henry VIII to complete a triple-canon. Your are wrong about Pericles though, it is really not that rarely performed (I have seen 8) and it is a great play (on the stage rather than on the page) - better than Tempest for example - you just need to see a good production of it. Come on Jan its not done a great, ive inly seen three in thirty years and dont think apart from the David Thacker Swan production in 89 i have missed any. And as for your comment on seeing a good production, well you coykd sat that about any play! I've seen 8 in about the same number of years. So you have missed at least 5. I imagine you didn't see the Cheek by Jowl one for example. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2017 19:32:02 GMT
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Post by Jan on Feb 8, 2017 6:57:29 GMT
Good for you. I'm waiting for a Henry VIII to complete a triple-canon. Your are wrong about Pericles though, it is really not that rarely performed (I have seen 8) and it is a great play (on the stage rather than on the page) - better than Tempest for example - you just need to see a good production of it. Come on Jan its not done a great, ive inly seen three in thirty years and dont think apart from the David Thacker Swan production in 89 i have missed any. And as for your comment on seeing a good production, well you coykd sat that about any play! Just for Martin, who seems to be only a casual theatre-goer, here are the directors of the productions of Pericles I've seen, all in major London/Stratford theatres: David Ultz, Declan Donnellan, David Thacker, Phyllida LLoyd (terrible), Adrian Noble, Yukio Ninagawa, Neil Bartlett, Dominic Cooke. I think I have missed at least 2 more, both at the Globe, and probably others too. In the same period you would have had no chance to see the same number of productions of (say) Coriolanus, Loves Labour's Lost, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Comedy of Errors, Merry Wives of Windsor, Antony & Cleopatra, Titus Andronicus, All's Well That Ends Well, Romeo & Juliet, King John, Henry VI and several more. |
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Post by martin1965 on Feb 8, 2017 13:20:52 GMT
Come on Jan its not done a great, ive inly seen three in thirty years and dont think apart from the David Thacker Swan production in 89 i have missed any. And as for your comment on seeing a good production, well you coykd sat that about any play! Just for Martin, who seems to be only a casual theatre-goer, here are the directors of the productions of Pericles I've seen, all in major London/Stratford theatres: David Ultz, Declan Donnellan, David Thacker, Phyllida LLoyd (terrible), Adrian Noble, Yukio Ninagawa, Neil Bartlett, Dominic Cooke. I think I have missed at least 2 more, both at the Globe, and probably others too. In the same period you would have had no chance to see the same number of productions of (say) Coriolanus, Loves Labour's Lost, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Comedy of Errors, Merry Wives of Windsor, Antony & Cleopatra, Titus Andronicus, All's Well That Ends Well, Romeo & Juliet, King John, Henry VI and several more. None taken Jan, always like being put in my place! |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2017 13:24:14 GMT
You get a much better class of flame war on this forum  |
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Post by Jan on Feb 8, 2017 13:33:36 GMT
You get a much better class of flame war on this forum And in fact in 2003-4 there were three major London productions of Pericles in a 12-month period. You'd struggle to find any other Shakespeare play to achieve that - King Lear maybe. |
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