05 Thursday Oct 2017
Posted in Theatre
I think I have hinted at the mask that, as the Chorus, I wear in Shakespeare in Words. Well, it’s a lovely copper-coloured thing that my friend Alchemilla made – and it had a stormy beginning. Continue reading
28 Thursday Sep 2017
Posted in Theatre
Tags
Beatriz Romilly, Globe theatre, Matthew Dunster, Mexican Revolution, Much Ado About Nothing, shakespeare
So, I was at the Globe for Matthew Dunster’s “Mexican” production of Much Ado About Nothing,and loved it.
Let’s begin with the time-travel quality of just entering the place, climbing up the wooden stairs (we opted for the gallery benches – with cushions), watching from above the groundlings standing in the pit… Oh, the thrill of it!
And then the play itself: lively, colourful, full of song and music, with touches of that kind of melancholy, angry lust for love and life that goes with wartime – given that the setting is the Mexican Revolution… Continue reading
14 Thursday Sep 2017
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So… I’ve gone back to acting.
Well, not really. It’s not that I’m going to take up acting again. Rather, I’ve acted again after… what, twenty years? It goes like this: as a teenager I decided that I wanted to be an actress, and began to take drama classes when I was sixteen. I happened to find a very, very good teacher – one who had the patience to draw me out and drill me hard. With rather good results, if I say so myself. I worked hard at it for four or five years, thinking that I’d go on with it, and go professional… Continue reading
08 Tuesday Aug 2017
Posted in Theatre
How did Shakespeare in the Jungle go, after all?
The answer is: surprisingly well.
Well, the mosquitoes were many, Chinook-sized, and hungry, and the heat murderous – but, in spite of that – and of and the lack of advertising – the garden filled up to capacity… And let me tell you this: few things galvanize a performance like an unexpected audience. Continue reading
03 Thursday Aug 2017
Posted in Theatre
We’re playing Shakespeare in Words, tonight. A kind of anniversary performance, in the same lovely place where we debuted almost exactly one year ago – but with the new version, showcasing how the play has grown since.
Nice, isn’t it? Continue reading
27 Thursday Jul 2017
I don’t know whether I told you that I was formally adopted into the Other Company – Nina’s people – last April. I was already their resident author, and now am a full member, and will start teaching play-writing in the Company’s school next October. Also – possibly the most thrilling aspect of my change of status – I’ll get to direct my own Lunedì this year… Continue reading
06 Thursday Jul 2017
Posted in Theatre
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We had Of Men and Poets again, last week. A one-off performance in the small garden of the small Virgilian museum in the small town where we like to think Virgil was born. On paper, it was perfect: the summer evening, the right place…
True, because of a couple of last-minute substitutions, and because it came in between other things, Nina settled on a reading, rather than a full performance. But we’ve done this before: it’s still lovely to see, and very effective, so nobody worried a whit.
But perhaps we should have. Continue reading
22 Thursday Jun 2017
Posted in Lostintranslation, Theatre
I have, o Readers, a riddle for you: How is maize like an Ottoman Sultan?
Let me tell you a story. Do you remember Ugo Foscolo and his Salamini/Little Sausages? Do you remember as both I and my friend Dave in the comments wondered how on earth could he have made such a tragedy-killing blunder?
Well, it may be that I know just how… Continue reading
15 Thursday Jun 2017
Now, gentlemen, betake you to your arms,
And see that Malta be well fortified;
And it behoves you to be resolute;
For Calymath, having hover’d here so long,
Will win the town, or die before the walls.FIRST KNIGHT. And die he shall; for we will never yield.
01 Thursday Jun 2017
So, Tamburlaine the Great, part II. Part I had been such a smashing success, and suddenly conquerors were all the rage in London playhouses, and one can easily imagine the Admiral’s Men pestering Kit Marlowe about a sequel… Continue reading
