The Taming of the Shrew - Globe Theatre (+ mild rant)

Set of The Taming of the Shrew

I'd never been interested in seeing TTotS before due to its misogynistic nature (the wonderful 10 Things I Hate About You notwithstanding), but having recently made the momentous decision to see all of Shakespeare's plays, to the Globe I hied. I thought there was a decent chance that this production would be subversive, given Artistic Director Emma Rice's comment that she wanted it to be a version 'for the 21st century'.

Talking of Emma Rice...much as I would like to be supportive of her as new Artistic Director, I admit I'm not happy about some of the changes she's introduced at the Globe. Lights galore, speakers, amplification and, possibly most shockingly, fewer productions with Elizabethan/Jacobean costumes and music...

Is this the end of the world as we know it?

I'm hardly a traditionalist. I've seen and enjoyed plenty of modern/other era adaptations of the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. But isn't the Globe meant to be THE ONE place where you can see these plays performed with more or less the same appearance and feel that they would've had in Shakespeare's day? Isn't that the Globe's whole raison d'être? Other theatres very rarely put on Shakespeare's plays in Elizabethan/Jacobean garb, and one doesn't get many opportunities to hear music from that time, either. If the Globe no longer does this, it just becomes another modern theatre - putting on great plays, sure - but plays that would be equally suited to the National Theatre or anywhere else. I don't understand why Rice would choose to discard the features that make the Globe unique. She might as well encourage members of the public to fire paintballs at the Globe's white exterior walls in order to make it more colorful and friendly and less like a scary, stuffy old theatre.

One innovation of hers with which I do agree, however, is her introduction of gender-balanced casts. This innovation is obviously as unElizabethan as a prominent lighting rig, true. But, unsurprisingly, I favour the balancing of Globe authenticity with modern ideals of equality and diversity. There's nothing that contravenes such ideals in dressing up in Elizabethan garb (especially if women can play men's parts and vice versa) and playing music from that time. Plus, if a character is played well, it's easy to forget the sex of the actor playing him/her. Equality arguments aside, women playing men and vice versa is arguably a less visually obvious departure from Elizabethan ways of doing things than a prominent lighting rig.

Lights, speakers...unauthentically Shakespearean action!

OK, enough about the New Globe Regime. This production of The Taming of the Shrew was set in Ireland in 1916, at the time of the Easter Rising. So...the costumes reflected that era, the music was played by an Irish band, the cast was Irish (or did very convincing accents) and there was the occasional Gaelic phrase thrown in. Katherine (Aoife Duffin) was such a force of nature in the first half it was impossible to imagine her becoming downtrodden. Her face was incredibly mobile and capable of admirable feats of gurning. The first half was extremely funny, involving slow motion wedding slapstick amongst other things. I hadn't expected it to be that funny. My favourite plot line was that involving Vincentio (Louis Dempsey) and his servant, Tranio (Imogen Doel), who pretends to be Vincentio while the real Vincentio pretends to be a teacher in order to get close to and woo Bianca (Genevieve Hulme-Beaman), Katherine's petulant younger sister. Tranio was both very cute and very funny, clearly delighted at assuming the role of master and full of amusing mannerisms.

The second half was predictably depressing as, following her marriage to Petruchio (Edward MacLiam), Katherine immediately became downtrodden; a shadow of her former self. I have to say, I'm impressed at Shakespeare's having created such a believable, cleverly emotionally abusive character at a time when the concept of 'emotional abuse' can't have been well-developed. It seemed pretty clear to me that Katherine went along with Petruchio's demands in this production purely because she knew that unless she did so she would get no food or rest. So...I suppose that's more subversive than Katherine having a complete personality change and genuinely growing to believe that women should be men's doormats. However, even with this interpretation, her final lengthy speech extolling female subordination was a bit much. I would've preferred it if the guests at the party at the end were revealed to be humouring Petruchio, having recognised him for the abuser that he is, and for the police to come and take him away during Katherine's final speech.

There was a lot of spitting in this production. I don't mean ordinary actorly spitting; I mean deliberate spitting as part of the play.

Next: Titus Andronicus

The Mikado - Upstairs at the Gatehouse

LEGO Japan scene

In these turbulent, uncertain, infuriating times, when one's patriotism has been drained to the very dregs, there's nothing like a bit of quintessentially English Gilbert and Sullivan to restore one's battered spirits.

G&S productions are usually done on a grand scale, so it was interesting to see one with only eleven cast members, accompanied by a single pianist rather than a full orchestra. The set was minimal, consisting of a stool and some plants. I would like to say there was a gong, but I think that was a product of my imagination. In the second half a charming Japanese-style love seat entwined with flowers materialised. The costumes were typical Mikado fare - British conceptions of traditional Japanese outfits, with black wigs aplenty. Ko-Ko's headpiece as Lord High Executioner was impressive; it had an axe sticking up out of the top, from which swung a severed doll's head.

The small-scale nature of the production didn't make it any less enjoyable. Being so close to the actors is always a boon. For the most part, the actors were considerably older than the characters they played - Sally-Ann Shepherdson as the schoolgirl Yum-Yum was fifty if she was a day - but it only added to the humour. It was very funny; recent events in British politics made good fodder for Ko-Ko's Little List. The singing was excellent, as befitted former members of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. I particularly enjoyed Yum-Yum and Nanki-Poo (Declan Kelly)'s parts, and the titular Mikado (Bruce Graham) had an incredibly powerful voice. I appreciated the madrigal Brightly dawns our wedding day more than I usually do; it's not one of my favourites. I wonder about the extent to which the production was abridged - unless I'm much mistaken they missed out See how the Fates their gifts allot.

It was just as well the singing was so good, because some of the actors' grasp of their lines wasn't. Pooh-Bah (Graham Stone) forgot his lines twice and Ko-Ko (Trevor Alexander) once. In all my years of theatre-going, until this night I had never actually heard an actor say 'line?'. I've seen a Maori actor tumble, bare-bottom first, into the audience; I've seen a production grind to a halt (literally) because of technical difficulties; I've heard plenty of actors come in at the wrong time and try to cover it up, but never, until this night, had I heard an actor stop and ask to be prompted for a line. And it happened three times in this production! Not to make a big deal out of it or anything...

photo credit: LEGO Culture of Japan - Kyoto Kiyomizu via photopin (license)

Next: The Taming of the Shrew

The Alchemist - Hampstead Parish Church

Atmospheric bubbling flasks & globe

I enjoyed Ben Jonson's comedy The Alchemist when I studied it at university, so was excited to see it performed for the first time. Unlike Shakepeare's plays, which usually involve multiple different settings - sometimes different countries, even - The Alchemist takes place within (and on the doorstep of) a single London house. 

Amoral and inscrutable butler Jeremy takes advantage of his master's absence to use his house as the headquarters for a variety of fraudulent acts. With the help of two other con-people - Subtle (the titular alchemist) and Doll Common - Jeremy aka Face carries out a series of elaborate cons on a number of diverse and gullible characters.

The set contained everything one could wish from a production of The Alchemist: audibly bubbling, lit-up flasks, test tubes containing different coloured liquids, a globe and a board displaying alchemical equations. I was pleased that the set remained traditionally alchemical, given that the production included modern music and dress - which, incidentally, I thought worked well. I particularly enjoyed the music, which really added to the humour. The costumes were good, although I wasn't completely convinced by Drugger's 70s hippy-inspired outfit...I mean, when the drug in question is tobacco, I'm not sure the flower-power imagery works. Or maybe therein lay the joke?

Barney Lyons as Jeremy/Face and Roderick O'Grady as Subtle made an excellent comic pairing. Their swift transformations into different characters for different 'gulls' were impressive and entertaining; some of Subtle's reactions and mannerisms made me laugh out loud. Barney Lyons' Jeremy had a calm and impassive intensity when he wasn't playing 'Captain Face' (apart from during the argument at the beginning), which was almost chilling, especially towards the end, just before he pulled the gun on Subtle and Doll. Margaret Pritchard Houston as Doll was equally funny and engaging in her transformations and in her interactions with Face and Subtle - and, of course, with the ambitious and lecherous Sir Epicure Mammon (Malcolm Stern).

The creative, clever, highly amusing staging of The Alchemist successfully conveyed the bustling, hectic nature of London and captured the audience's interest from the outset. The play opened with all the characters going about their business to the accompaniment of 'London Calling' by The Clash. I loved the bit after the interval when the audience was drawn back into the action with some of the characters crossing the stage, again going about their business in an amusing way. For example, Drugger (Sarah Day) walking by, delightedly clutching her new shop sign, and Kastril (Nicolas Holzapfel) taking an ostentatious drag on a cigar only to dissolve into a coughing fit. 

Other parts of the play that I found particularly entertaining were...:

• Subtle emerging in a blue robe from the pulpit in order to appear religious to Sir Epicure.
• Drugger's shop sign!
• The 'elves' frisking Dapper (Catherine Martin) to ensure she wasn't concealing money.
• The entrance of Doll as the Queen of Fairy, with suitable music, fairy wings and bubbles.
• The very end bit, where Lovewit (Simon Malpas) presents Jeremy with jewels and Subtle and Doll appear - to music - on the run, looking for their next swindle. Very cinematic!

For a completely cynical play in which good in no way overcame evil, The Alchemist made me feel surprisingly uplifted.

Next: The Mikado

The Go-Between - Apollo Theatre

Mercury, messenger of the gods

The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley is one of my top five favourite novels, so I was both excited and apprehensive when I saw the play advertised. Apprehensive because the book is so atmospheric, absorbing, believable, subtle and magical that it's pretty much impossible for any adaptation to do it justice. And because the poster is a little tacky, with its big close-up of Michael Crawford's anxious/contemplative face. And because it is described as a 'musical adaptation', which is enough to strike fear into any Go-Between purist's heart.

However, my concerns about the play's musical nature were allayed when I saw the piano on the stage. The music thankfully wasn't like that in a 'musical' proper (with drums, etc.), which would not have suited the story. The piano was the only instrument used. For the most part I enjoyed the music - it was beautiful and the voices were amazing - but some of the lyrics I found too unsubtle, especially those in the 'Butterfly' song about Leo's feelings towards Marian. Show, don't tell!

The rest of the set was intriguing...patches of grass growing between floorboards, a big wooden chest, floor-length 'windows' at the back of the stage. The lighting was used to great effect throughout the play to convey the different atmospheres. 1900s costumes: excellent.

The characterisation in the play was strong. I was extremely impressed with Luka Green's performance as young Leo. I thought he played the part perfectly; suitably curious and interested in his new surroundings, keenly aware that he was from a different social milieu to the Maudsleys and anxious to avoid making any embarrassing faux pas, both fascinated and frustrated by the behaviour of the adults around him, desperately wanting to impress Marian, mildly irritated by the obnoxious Marcus, independent, confident in his magical abilities...one of the things I liked about the play was the fact that it didn't gloss over Leo's 'magic', which I felt the 1971 film kind of did. The deadly nightshade scene was powerful.

I also really liked Stuart Ward as morose tenant farmer Ted Burgess. The scenes featuring him and young Leo were intense and absorbing. And I loved the special effect of Ted diving into the lake! Michael Cranfield's almost constant presence on the stage as the older Leo worked well, adding to the sense of foreboding. I thought Marian (Gemma Sutton) could have been a bit more serene and detached earlier on in the play, which would have made her later outbursts towards Leo more shocking.

My theatre companion was appalled, incensed and deeply aggrieved that the ending of this version [spoiler alert!] revealed the older Leo to be pleased that he had acted as the 'go-between'; that he considered the damaging effects of that summer's events on his life to have been worth it because he had served the pure and noble role of aiding and abetting True Love. This ending was different to that of the novel, in which the older Leo was aware that the summer's events had caused him to live less boldly than before and to limit his horizons. While I agreed with my companion that the novel's ending was far superior and made more sense, I wasn't too bothered by the play's ending. I think it can be read as the older Leo just being deluded, which makes the whole thing even more poignant...or it can just be ignored. The rest of the play up until the final minute or two was so good, one shouldn't let the final couple of minutes detract from it!

photo credit: Mercury via photopin (license)

Next: The Alchemist

Wallis...'a certain person' - Upstairs at the Gatehouse

Me as Edward VIII - no, not in this production!

I've been interested in the Wallis Simpson/Edward VIII/abdication story since long before I went to a fancy dress 'drag' party as Edward aka David in 2011. Was Edward incredibly selfish in refusing to do his duty, not to mention cruel in putting his shy younger brother with a speech impediment in the position of having to accept the throne? Or should he be admired for refusing to take on a role to which he didn't feel suited and choosing to follow his heart instead? Was Wallis really as horrible as she is usually painted? Can we agree that the Downton Abbey Christmas Special storyline featuring Edward was the most ridic storyline in the show's history?

As is customary at Upstairs at the Gatehouse, the sets were exemplary. I love walking into a theatre and feeling instantly transported to the time period in which the play is set. The swing music helped, too. The sets included simple art deco patterns on the walls, a cream divan, a beautiful old telephone, and, in Edward's rooms, pictures of George V, Charles I and Queen Victoria, and tennis rackets in presses beside a fireplace! Be still, my beating heart. The costumes were excellent, too. The play covered the period from 1931, when Wallis and Edward first met, to 1936, so it was appropriate for there to be costume changes aplenty. I particularly loved Wallis' wide-legged black trousers, her jewellery and black dress towards the end. Lady Thelma Furness' blue v-necked dress was also authentic-looking. Edward looked suitably dapper, although I was disappointed that he never appeared in characteristic plus-fours! There was a reference to his golf-playing, though.

I found the play amusing and engaging; it was interesting to see the progression of Wallis and Edward's relationship after their initial fiery encounter at a party, and Edward's callous throwing-off of Thelma in favour of Wallis. You could understand Edward's attraction to Wallis - she was supremely confident, unwilling to play by upper-class societal rules and able to coddle him to his satisfaction without sucking up to him. Emma Odell made a convincingly self-assured, witty, alluring Wallis, with arch and mischievous facial expressions. You couldn't help feeling sorry for her at the end, stuck with an immature man and shunned by society. Grant McConvey was a suitably petulant, raffish Edward, if a bit too youthful. I don't normally like stories where the characters are mostly cynical and selfish, but I couldn't help enjoying this one. The genuinely loving relationship between the gay butler (Robert Hazle) and the maid who agreed to be his beard (Katie Arnstein) provided a touch of necessary humaneness.

This was a play 'with music' - the butler accompanied himself on the piano during set changes, singing songs relating to the public's perception of the characters. The musical interludes were a positive addition to the play, although I wasn't keen on the 'debauchery' song. I thought the play went on a little too long - the scene with Stanley Baldwin and his wife could have been shorter - but it was very enjoyable and made you wonder whether Wallis really would have been happier to have ditched 'David' after learning that he would have to abdicate - and therefore face extreme and potentially permanent societal disapproval - if he was to marry her.

Next: The Go-Between

Pericles - Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

Scene of a Shipwreck

Shipwrecks and pirates and brothels, oh my! If Bar Mitzvah Boy suffered from too little plot, Pericles suffered from too much. No sooner did the titular Pericles, Prince of Tyre, set foot on a ship than a storm began a-brewing and he ended up stranded and friendless on foreign shores. The shipwrecks and coincidences and comings back from the dead and Marina's ability to talk herself out of ANYTHING might have made this play farcical and Comedy of Errors-esque, but it had such a strong fairytale quality and atmosphere it was easy to suspend disbelief and take it seriously. I felt that one wasn't supposed to see it as taking place in this world, but in a mystical, magical, ancient otherworld. Having never seen Pericles before but knowing it wasn't an oft-performed play, I was apprehensive. But I found this production beautiful and moving.

The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse may have an irritating name (must everything at the Globe be a paean to Sam Wanamaker?) but it's a wonderful, unique theatre and I would thoroughly recommend seeing a performance there. Each time I've gone I've left feeling as though I've just had a vivid, intense, amazing dream. Because it's so small it's easy to forget about the other members of the audience and absorb yourself fully in the play. And the candlelight! It's always used to good, dramatic effect and, again, it somehow helps you feel as though you're the only person in the audience.

Pericles started off a bit weirdly, with Pericles (played by Globe stalwart James Garnon) leaving town on discovering an incestuous relationship between the woman he plans to marry and her father. It was weird because you assumed that this elaborately set-up plotline would go somewhere (e.g. that the woman would materialise later in the play at an inopportune moment), but it didn't. However, I appreciated the randomness of it.

My favourite scene had to be Pericles' first meeting with the woman he would marry, Thaisa (Dorothea Myer-Bennett). It's Thaisa's birthday and a party is held in her honour, to which various knights are invited (and which Pericles gatecrashes). It's all very festive and they play a game where Thaisa has to guess the Latin mottoes inscribed on the backs of the knights' shields. Entertaining. Original. The bedraggled, recently-shipwrecked Pericles doesn't have a shield but gives her a branch instead. And there is a dance! Excellent. THIS was when I was expecting the incestuous woman to turn up.

I loved the character of Marina (Jessica Baglow), a young woman of great integrity, who managed, with words alone, to get herself out of every single undesirable situation. And she faced many such a situation, from an evil adoptive mother to pirates to brothel-keepers. The scene in which she was reunited with her long-lost father, Pericles was genuinely touching. The subsequent appearance, from the rafters, of none other than the goddess Diana, in Pericles' dream, was the crowning moment in the play. 

photo credit: Scene of a Shipwreck via photopin (license)

Next: Wallis

Bar Mitzvah Boy - Upstairs at the Gatehouse

The Torah

Bar Mitzvah Boy The Musical: the musical that says exactly what it is on the tin. Bar Mitzvah Boy The Musical - a musical about a boy preparing for and undergoing his bar mitzvah, right? Yes. That is exactly what it was. A simple story maybe, but the appeal of this show lay in its well-drawn, endearing characters, strong humour and heart-warming nature. 

One of the things I love about Upstairs at the Gatehouse is the fact that its smallness and compactness encourages companies to put extra effort into making their sets as detailed and authentic-looking as possible. Bar Mitzvah Boy is set in the 1970s - this was actually the first staging of the musical since the original 1978 production - so there were shag carpets, beaded curtain/doors and orange and brown wallpaper with geometrical patterns galore. The costumes and hairstyles were also delightfully and convincingly 70s. I have a tendency to romanticise the idea of 70s fashions, so watching this was a reminder that many outfits of the time were indeed hideous.

Adam Bregman was excellent as Eliot Green, the titular Bar Mitzvah Boy, who was very conscientious about his bar mitzvah preparations and annoyed with his family for only caring about what he regarded as superficialities. His agonisings over the meaning of becoming a man and the spiritual element of the ceremony struck me as very true to life and understandable - typically earnestly teenagerish, maybe - but commendable.

While Eliot was the focus of the action, the other characters and how they related to each other played an important part in the story. All the characters were likeable and sympathetic to some extent. The parents, Rita and Victor, were a typical 70s North London couple; Rita (Sue Kelvin) was a housewife and Victor (Robert Maskell) a taxi driver. Rita's extreme anxiety over ensuring that the bar mitzvah passed off without a hitch and impressed the myriad of guests provided much of the humour of the show. Despite her frustration over her husband's lack of interest in the plans (and his reluctance to help out more generally around the house), and his irritation with the non-stop bar mitzvah preparation discussions, it was clear that their marriage was, overall, a happy one.

The relationship between Lesley (Lara Stubbs) and her boyfriend Harold (Nicholas Corre) was more modern in terms of gender roles, but unfortunately that was in a large part due to the fact that Harold was simply a pushover and willing to do anything in order to be liked. Harold was my favourite character; yes, he was a pushover but he was genuinely helpful, optimistic and perpetually good-natured. He also had a song and a dance of his own that he performed while doing the cleaning up. It was clear that Lesley and Harold's relationship was on the rocks and it was interesting to see how/whether their relationship situation would be resolved by the end (it wasn't). Lesley's caring and protective attitude towards her brother was sweet.

One of my favourite scenes was the bar mitzvah scene where Eliot's granddad and Victor had to recite their different parts in Hebrew. The granddad (Hayward B Morse), a very amusing character, was overcome with emotion, while Rita was less than impressed with Victor's reciting, loudly muttering 'appalling'.

It was good to see a musical I was unfamiliar with - I don't think I'd heard any of the songs before. I would've liked a bit more overt klezmer, maybe, but there were klezmer elements incorporated into the music.

This musical has been criticised for not having enough of a storyline, but I really enjoyed it. It was a true 'feel-good' show and I left feeling happy and musically sated. I also learned that 'bar mitzvah' can be used as a verb, not just a noun (well, it was in this show, anyway).

photo credit: Mikraot Gedolot with yiddish commentary - Lekh lekhah - here: Pirush LeTorah Elokim #yiddish #chumash #torah #commentary #perush #bereshit via photopin (license)

Next: Pericles