tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post3991448378700062062..comments2024-03-26T07:58:59.761+00:00Comments on I'll think of something later: Donmar Shakespeare Trilogy: pure theatre goldDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-19867827140530571612016-12-10T18:44:05.787+00:002016-12-10T18:44:05.787+00:00And I wasn't wrong about the awfulness of the ...And I wasn't wrong about the awfulness of the RSC Henrys, was I? Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-28783647148649383302016-12-10T17:53:27.766+00:002016-12-10T17:53:27.766+00:00I am confident you will not have occasion to eat y...I am confident you will not have occasion to eat your bobble hat!Susan Scheidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09250142489341777926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-50496575255365528522016-12-10T16:55:49.516+00:002016-12-10T16:55:49.516+00:00If you're disappointed I'll eat my bobbble...If you're disappointed I'll eat my bobbble hat. And I think you should approve the very diverse choice of music. Fabulous application of 'I want to sleep with the common people' to Prince Hal...Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-41162256317726973842016-12-10T16:07:14.920+00:002016-12-10T16:07:14.920+00:00Can't thank you enough for alerting us to The ...Can't thank you enough for alerting us to The Tempest coming here, and, as you know, we have nabbed tickets. Sorry, indeed, we missed out on the Henry IV; hope it may come again. Interesting to see Joan Armatrading's name. Definitely a blast from the past for us!Susan Scheidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09250142489341777926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-1402192430886148132016-12-10T08:40:21.198+00:002016-12-10T08:40:21.198+00:00You limit the meaning of both plays. It's alwa...You limit the meaning of both plays. It's always going to be an analysis of the human predicament if the acting is fine. With this trilogy, sometimes you forget the gender, sometimes you're reminded it's women playing men, which allows for a double consciousness and especially for an extra questioning of men's role in war (as I wrote, boys with toys, but still deadly). <br /><br />I repeat: go and see and then tell me if your view remains rigid. Around the same time as I first saw this Henry IV, I also had to sit through the atrocious Greg Doran RSC production of Parts I and II. I'd always have said beforehand that Falstaff HAD to be played by a man, and a posh old man at that, but so abysmal was Sher in the role, so good the woman first time round, and so superlative Sophie Stanton this time, that I completely changed my mind. The Donmar Shakespeare is to the RSC's as night to day.<br /><br />I add that I haven't yet seen Glenda Jackson as Lear, and am rather nervous about that, but I ought to try. Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-23688328256852541562016-12-10T02:36:18.023+00:002016-12-10T02:36:18.023+00:00Yes but you are praising - I have no doubt correct...Yes but you are praising - I have no doubt correctly - a different play. Lear is about old men. Hamlet is about young men. As regards acting, yes if the woman playing Lear ( or in another case Hamlet) acts the man, maybe OK. But a woman is sexually different from a man, so Queen Lear is in a different world.. I suppose I am looking at that aspect above all others, because otherwise we are merely watching a drama, not an analysis of the human predicament. In the case of Hamlet, all men especially when young have a deep psychological relationship with their father ( living or dead - the play Hamlet deals with that), conscious or unconscious, which women do not have. I suppose that Macbeth is only a drama.The Greeks had it right with the dark forces of the mind explicit in the Eumenides etcDavid Damantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-75019716166171475482016-12-09T20:14:33.572+00:002016-12-09T20:14:33.572+00:00You cannot speak whereof you have not seen. The tw...You cannot speak whereof you have not seen. The two best Lears I've seen on stage have been played by women - Kathryn Hunter (as a man) and Ursula Mohan (as 'Queen Lear'). It's called acting. Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-47977314021853307052016-12-09T20:11:44.638+00:002016-12-09T20:11:44.638+00:00I am suspicious of women playing certain roles. If...I am suspicious of women playing certain roles. If they play Richard II as a man, OK let's see how she does it. If a women plays a man's role as a woman the drama is transformed. Worst of all is Lear. It is about old men. I cannot see that that can be done as a woman. Unless one takes it as an entirely different play. Sex is fundamental. Men and women are different. The selfish gene has said so.David Damantnoreply@blogger.com