BEST OF 2014: PLAYS, ACTORS, BOOKS, TRIPS AND MUCH MORE (PART II)

Best  Play

The Crucible - I was just sitting there, on the left, behind the girls ...

I've been to the theatre a few times this year (HERE,  HERE and HERE ) but, no doubt: The Crucible. seen at the Old Vic in London twice at the end of June, beginning of July. It was great not only because I could make a dream of mine come true - which was seeing Richard Armitage on stage - but because the thrill I experienced in the audience will always stay with me as one of the dearest, most exciting memories of my entire life. Here's my report of that incredible experience with pictures and anecdotes. 

" ... THEY CAN'T FIND THEM, THEY MAKE THEM." AT THE THEATRE: MRS WARREN'S PROFESSION BY GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them.”

It was a bit sad to be sitting in a half-empty theatre while  watching  this play,  one of George Bernard Shaw’s "Plays Unpleasant". The thought that The Eliseo is going to be closed at the end of the season, all those empty seats and what was said and performed on stage made me, in the end, quite melancholic. The "unpleasant" in the title is not a random choice. 

The cast was really good in the hard task to involve the audience in this not-at -all –easy- to - digest piece. You know, you can’t actually relate to any of the characters and you are constantly disturbed by the harshness of one or the hypocrisy of the others.

LONDON - THE CRUCIBLE EXPERIENCE

After all these years, at last 

I know you've been reading  all those excellent reviews the show has been getting after press night and I don't dare compete with them. This is just my totally biased account of an incredible adventure, the one my friends and I shared going to London to see The Crucible and, of course, Richard Armitage. Can you imagine how thrilling it might have been meeting him and, above all, seeing him in action on stage? I bet you can, if you know me at least a little. And can a dream come true meet expectations? Yes, unbelievably so, in my case. Even surpass them. Before you go on reading, here are a couple of due warnings: 1. you'll find some spoilers here and there 2. you may suffer from sudden fits of envy or jealousy. Sorry. 

ACTING AND ... CASTING THE RUNES - INTERVIEW WITH ANTONIA & NOEL BYRNE, THE BOX TALE SOUP

My fascination with the theatre and the acting job brings me to virtually meet interesting, fascinating people from time to time and I can't resist the temptation to discover more about their world. This is why I have invited Antonia and Noel Byrne, The Box Tale Soup, to tell us about their experience and everyday life as actors. Their new show, Casting the Runes, is going to debut soon and they are really busy with the rehearsals. They have accepted anyway to answer my questions and I thank them heartily. 

What is the history of your Box Tale Soup Productions?

Antonia - Noel and I met performing together in 2009 (we were playing Romeo and Juliet!) and after a while doing freelance acting work for theatre and television, we realised what we really wanted to do was make our own theatre. We decided, first of all, that we wanted our shows to be extremely portable, so that we might turn up almost anywhere and be able to perform. The first item we purchased, therefore, was a vintage trunk (seen in Northanger Abbey) and we decided that all the props, costume and set we used in the show had to fit inside it. We chose Northanger Abbey, as it's one of Antonia's favourites, and then everything else, including the decision to use puppets, flowed on from there. We now have three productions, Northanger Abbey, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and our newest, Casting the Runes.

AT THE THEATRE (AND NOT ONLY): THE GREATEST LOVE STORY OF ALL TIME OR THE MOST ANNOYING TEENAGERS IN LITERATURE? - MY ROMEO & JULIET WEEKEND

I've been recently involved in a discussion on Facebook about Romeo and Juliet, the young protagonists of Shakespeare's tragedy (1595),  who were included in a top ten list of literary annoying teenagers. I really couldn't agree with that dismissive judgement nor with the low consideration given to such finely written characters. Please, don't touch my Shakespeare!

I have myself kindly underestimated Romeo as a dreamer and an incostant lover at times (dying for love for Rosaline and suddenly desperately in love with Juliet?) but he is such a realistic embodiment of teenage fast crushes and violent passions, and that cannot be denied. I couldn't agree with whom  defined the two young lovers as annoying characters.

The audience at the Gran Teatro - Rome

Virtual discussion apart, my real life has been full of emotions connected to the story of the two star-crossed lovers from Verona of late.

Last Saturday afternoon I was at Gran Teatro in Rome with niece and sister and friends to see a musical: Romeo e Giulietta, Ama e cambia il mondo (adaptation of the original French work “Roméo et Juliette” by G. Presgurvic).

I had decided to join  them out of curiosity,  knowing nothing about the show and its cast. As you can

MUCH ADO ABOUT ... MY WEEKEND

It's been long since I last did so many different things in only one weekend!  But this weekend has truly been pretty busy and special.

On Saturday morning I was at school. What's so special for a teacher? Nothing but it is unusual for me, since Saturday is my day off. I had to be there since I was involved in a project and had to take part in two different meetings with two groups of our students to whom I  presented our "Project Anita B."  for the celebration of the International Holocaust Memorial Day (27th January). I'll tell you more about this possibly tomorrow.

FRANKENSTEIN AT THE CINEMA - MY REVIEW

Dannis Boyle’s Frankenstein, the  pluriawarded 2011 theatrical production,  has been a terrific success live on stage at the National  Theatre in London and it has after that also been shown worldwide in movie theatres in the original language.  It arrived in Rome yesterday (Cinema Lux) and it’ll be on tonight too (Cinema Barberini).

I can’t imagine how exciting it must have been for the lucky ones  in the audience at the theatre, but it was amazing and enthralling to watch it on screen last night for me. It was like being on stage with the cast, so with  a really privileged perspective on the spectacular staging.

I’ve always been astonished by the idea of a 19th century woman, Mary Shelley, writing such a modern,  evergreen, disquieting  story and at her young age (19 years old).  However, Nick Dear, whose adaptation Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee - Miller brought on stage, surprised and moved me with his brilliant work, which turns the novel into a  touching play.

The originality of the show is in the idea of a symbiotic relationship between created and  creator, the monster and the scientist who gave him life, unusually rendered with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee-Miller alternating and taking turns to play the two main roles, that of Victor Frankenstein and that of his unnaturally created monster.

The version I saw last night was with Cumberbatch as the creature and Lee-Miller as Victor Frankenstein. 

SHAKESPEARE & LOVE: TWELFTH NIGHT(1996) AND MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (2011)

Watching adaptations of classics is one of my favourite pastimes and I'm glad  I could recently add  two titles to my "watched" list: the film Twelfth Night (1996) and a recent London stage version of Much Ado About Nothing (2011). Two of Shakespeare's greatest achievements in comedy, these are two of the plays I've seen  performed on a stage more often (HERE and HERE), with The Taming of the Shrew and The Merry Wives of Windsor, and which I most appreciate for different reasons with As you like it. In both comedies we can recognize different takes on love by Shakespeare.

SHAKESPEARE & MEDIEVAL HISTORY ON BBC . GREAT DRAMA ONLINE.

Ben Winshaw as Richard II

Stellar cast for four Shakespearean  Histories 

BBC's  2012 schedule sounds quite interesting, even intriguing  for someone who loves costume drama and ancient history. BBC2  commissioned 4 films for their Shakespeare season  as part of the BBC’s contribution to the London 2012 Festival and the Cultural Olympiad. The four Shakespeare films will encompass  Richard II, Henry IV (part I and II), Henry V.

AT THE THEATRE - THE TWELFTH NIGHT, OR WHAT YOU WILL (LA DODICESIMA NOTTE)

Going to Rome , just one hour's drive from home, and walking around as a tourist, spending time with good friends or going to the theatre can be activities for a great weekend schedule, don't you agree? Well, it isn't  a schedule but what I did in the last couple of days. And it was great! It often happens and I must do it again: I must thank my very good friend K/V for being the generous,  incredible  host-lady she is and for making all that happen!

Now, to the main topic of my blogpost which  is not praising my friends' virtues - which are many! - but to tell you about the play we saw at The Globe in Rome, La dodicesima notte  (The Twelfth Night),  by William Shakespeare. 

ROMEO & JULIET , THE ETERNAL CONSEQUENCES OF LOVE

On Wednesday, 9th March,  I went to Rome to see "Romeo e Giulietta" with some of my colleagues. One hour's drive and we were in Rome. Then the underground  and a nice walk to the  Eliseo which is  in the central Via Nazionale. At the end, after three hours and a half, no bus  nor underground trains. A taxi back to our car park. Was it worth it? 

Juliet is one of my favourite heroines, so young but so determined, matter-of-fact, anticonformist, passionate. I've never loved Romeo very much, not my ideal man: a dreamer, inconsistent, volatile, too impulsive. I 've always liked the richness of this play: both comedy and tragedy, with a variety of love types, miscellaneous characters, a blend of linguistic registers and literary forms, with both high poetry and triviality, comic puns and refined metaphors. 

AT THE OLD VIC: A FLEA IN HER EAR. MEET ONE OF THE YOUNG PROTAGONISTS ON STAGE: GREG BALDOCK

As I told in one of my latest posts from London, I was at the Old Vic on 29th December to see  A Flea in Her Ear by G. Feydeau. I was so excited to be there on my own! I was quite proud of myself  for the first time in that prestigious theatre and going to attend a performance of two actors I had admired in  some of my beloved costume dramas: Tom Hollander,  I had seen in Wives and Daughters, Cambridge Spies and, of course, Pride and Prejudice 2005 , as well as Lisa Dillon,  who was one of the lovely protagonists in Cranford. But my enthusiasm was soon cooled down by the announcement of Mr Hollander's absence for a sudden indisposition that night.

If the start was so disappointing the end of it was total enthusiasm. If the success of a farce is based on how much the audience laugh, that performance of Feydeau's play was definitely and hugely successful. I couldn't stop laughing and neither the rest of of the audience! 

The pace of the performance was really  fast,  the cast brilliant, the rythm and timing almost perfect: each  door was slammed just at the right moment, each gag and paradoxical situation were manifactured with convincing energy, the sequence of misunderstandings were escalatingly hilarious, though stereotypical the characters were all extremely involving. My favourite ones were the jealous manic Carlos Homenides de Histangua, interpreted by volcanic John Marquez; Camille, the protagonist's nephew, whose speech impediment (being unable to pronounce consonants) leads people to lose their patience with him , played by  a sparkling blond talent, Freddie Fox; and,  last but not least, the young excellent understudy who substituted Mr Hollander  and carried out the hard task so stunningly well that I forgot my initial disappointment, Greg Baldock, who was  both Victor Immanuel Chandebise and his look-alike drunken hotel porter, Poche. Young Mr Baldock substituted a great name with great talent,  so I wanted to congratulate him but first I had  to get to know his name, which I hadn't caught during the announcement of Mr Hollander's substitution. Now I know his name and even something more about him, since he was so kind to accept to answer some questions of mine about himself, that evening, his career and dreams. Yes, I interviewed him!

MEET GREG BALDOCK

MG: Hi Greg! Glad to make your acquaintance, though only via the Net.  First of all, I must congratulate you for your performance as Chandebise/Poche in  “A Flea in Her Ear”.  I was there at the Old Vic few days ago, in the audience, and I was one of those who booed a little  when Mr Hollander’s sudden indisposition was announced. Honestly,  I was disappointed. Then, you appeared on stage after some minutes from the beginning and I thought “O my God, he’s so young!  It won’t work”. Well, after  a while  I had completely forgotten you were the understudy.  You were so self-confident and … brilliant! I enjoyed myself so much.  I couldn’t stop laughing, I think I’ve never laughed so much at the theatre. 

Now, it’s your turn, Greg. Can you describe your emotions on that evening? Was it your first great occasion or had you already worked on an important stage like the Old Vic?

GREG: Firstly, thank you for your compliments. This is my first, as I only graduated from Rose Bruford College Of Theatre And Performance in September 2010, so this is all very much exciting and amazing work for me to have achieved in such a short space of time. The emotions for that evening were a very heavy combination of adrenaline and an incredible amount of reaction to the great performers on stage. 

  

MG: How did you keep yourself ready to substitute Mr Hollander any time it was needed?

GREG: Really you just need to be on the ball all the time. As an understudy, I find it very important to keep watching the play every single night, and constantly make sure I’m updated with any new moves or changes to the structure of the performance. The real trick is to be off script when the play goes up in the preview nights, and then it’s just a roll of the dice if you have to go on at any point.

MG: The double role of Chandebise & Poche must be extremely exhausting both mentally and physically. You were very good at giving a different  posture, stride, speech to the two characters.  Was that the most difficult aspect of this performance?

GREG: Not at all, the script informs you of the characters with their different language rhythms and your physicality sort of develops from their speech patterns. I would actually say for me that the most difficult part of this job is to stay energized for the entire performance. I am a trained beach lifeguard, and that requires 16 lengths in under 8 minutes and a length and a half non-stop underwater, amongst other skills. In comparison, performing on stage for the most of the 2 hours in a farce is by far a lot more exhausting. I am usually drinking a pint of water between scenes, a banana before the play starts and one at the interval, and a whole host of multivitamins and isotonics wherever I squeeze them in. Because of cramping in my thighs, I’m also licking salt from the back of my hand just to get some into my system because I sweat it all out. 

  

MG: What is your relationship with the rest of the cast?

GREG: Pretty good actually. They are by the far best cast I have ever worked with and they are all very very supportive, not to mention utterly professional to a standard I have never seen before.

 

            MG:  In Feydeau ‘s farces the secret  of success is … ?

GREG: Tempo, tempo, tempo. You must never drop the rhythm. It’s  not quite like an English comedy, where you can afford to wait for laughs, but, instead, there is a ‘pressure cooker’ idea which builds and builds and builds, which is why by the time it gets to the third act, the speed is like lightning. 

  

      MG:  Have you substituted Mr Hollander again after 29^th December?

GREG: Yes. In fact I substituted him on Tuesday, on the night before. I will be covering him all the way up to Saturday 8^th January. Apparently he will be ready to go again on the following Monday.

      MG:  Now, Greg, can you tell us briefly something about yourself?

GREG: I’m only 23, I trained for 3 years at Rose Bruford College Of Theatre And Performance, and I’m originally from Merseyside. I’m a big fan of poetry, movies and music from the 1980s, and playing the electric bass guitar.

      MG: As a promising young actor I’ll keep an eye on you and your career. Sooner or later I’m sure I’ll see you on one of my favourite BBC dramas or in a new period movie. Why period, do you wonder? Because it’s my favourite genre. LOL!  However, would you like to work on TV or would you rather go on with  the theatre?

GREG: Hmmm. Well, I would like to do some more TV and possibly film, as I actually find them a little easier. If doing theatre is like running a marathon, then I would say TV is a bit more like sprinting. It’s great because you can sort of condense all your work into one brief moment. However , theatre is your art really, and it always gives an actor the opportunity to explore, play and constantly make new discoveries.

      MG:  What is your greatest dream as an actor?

GREG: For me? I’m pretty realistic, so for me, I would love to play a long term character on a long-running drama series for television. A lot of American television drama series can afford seasons with lots of hour long episodes. Either that, or a couple of stints at the Royal Court would do me just fine.

      MG: What’s next? I mean, after finishing at the Old Vic?

GREG: I have no idea. My agent is inviting as many casting directors as possible to the show this week, so I will have to see what crops up. I imagine I will get some understudy offers, but hopefully there will be a  chance to get to grips with a character of my very own.

MG: Good Luck, Greg, for anything in your private and professional life. Thanks for finding the time to answer my questions. 

GREG: Thank you!

Visit Greg Baldock's site

Read more about the play 

Watch a video on the Old Vic Facebook page

AT THE THEATRE - THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR

As usual once or twice in a school-year we teachers of English Language and Literature go to the theatre in Rome with our 4^th year students (17-18 year-old). Yesterday afternoon we were at the Teatro Eliseo to see “The Merry Wives of Windsor” (Le Allegre Comari di Windsor)  by Shakespeare. It was an Italian translation, of course, with Italian actors on the stage.

Falstaff was Leo Gullotta, very popular for his comic skills in popular TV shows but also a refined stage performer in more dramatic roles. The other actors in the pièce were not as popular as him (and many neither as good). Among them  I particularly liked the actresses acting in the roles of Mistress Page, Mistress Ford, Mistress Quickly and Ann Page.

There was music, songs and dance to enrich the hilarious sequences of misunderstandings, disguises, tricks and funny puns. The costumes were beautiful and the scenery was dominated by a giant semi-movable Virgin Queen. Queen Elizabeth was part of the show.

According to theatrical legend, Elizabeth saw Henry IV, Part I and so liked the character of Falstaff that she asked Shakespeare to write another play about him, allegedly allotting him only 14 days. Shakespeare may have put aside Henry IV, Part 2 to complete Merry Wives, and he included several characters who reappear from both plays, including Pistol, Nim, Bardolph, Mistress Quickly, and Shallow. Falstaff and his entourage supposedly were good friends with Prince Henry, later Henry V, which lends a monarchal touch to the more suburban events of Merry Wives.

The first performance of this play was said to have occurred in London on April 23, 1597, at a feast of the Order of the Garter (an aristocratic fraternity), which Queen Elizabeth attended.

Merry Wives is Shakespeare's most middle-class play in setting, subject matter, and outlook. It's also one of his most farcical works, using physical gags and linguistic jokes to establish a comic tone that influence the play's ultimate spirit of reconciliation, after all the intrigues have been sorted out.

Merry Wives gives an impression of life in an English provincial town as it was lived at the time of the play's first performance. It refers to other, older plays; the main plot closely resembles Il Pecorone, a 1558 Italian play by Ser Giovanni Fiorentino. This plot and the primary subplot also draw on ancient Roman comedy (Plautus) and medieval farce. Though the play does contain characters both above and below the middle class, as well as culturally stereotyped foreigners, ultimately everything functions to demonstrate the assimilating power of the middle class.

THE THEMES

Key themes of Merry Wives include love and marriage, jealousy and revenge, social class and wealth. Explored with irony, sexual  innuendo,  sarcasm, and stereotypical views of classes and nationalities, these themes help to give the play something closer to a modern-day view than is often found in Shakespeare's plays.

The play is centered on the class prejudices of middle-class England. The lower class is represented by characters such as Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol (Falstaff's followers), and the upper class is represented by Sir John Falstaff and Master Fenton. Shakespeare uses both Latin and misused English to represent the attitudes and differences of the people of this era. Much of the comedic effect of the play is derived from misunderstandings between characters.

Another prominent Elizabethan theme that runs through the play is the idea of the  cuckold. Elizabethans found the idea of a woman cheating on her husband absolutely hilarious and seem to have assumed that if a man was married then his wife was cheating on him. Because a cuckolded husband was said to "wear horns", any reference, no matter how oblique, to horns or a horned animal (for example, the "buck" basket where Falstaff finds himself) probably brought down the playhouse.

THE PROTAGONIST

Falstaff is hailed by Harold Bloom and other literary scholars as one of Shakespeare’s greatest creations.

What makes Sir John so entertaining? How is it, when his actions would repulse many in both a modern and medieval context, we find ourselves so attracted to this lying tub of lard? Speculation over the years has produced many possible answers, one no more likely than the next. Whether or not the Queen of England truly requested Merry Wives... for herself because she was so fond of the "huge hill of flesh" (Henry IV pt I, Hal, Tavern Scene), most do find some sort of affectionate connection. Possibly his openness in his crimes, his lack of loyalty being so apparent — essentially his frankness (not so much honesty) in life, and his grinning self-determination, self observance. 

At best, it can be said that Shakespeare's Falstaff reaches beyond merely making the audience laugh. “He is aware that life is a charade” and is markedly responsible for his situation. He besets our hearts, yea deeper still, to our diaphragms. We are his. He has been too great a humoristic character to forfeit all good impressions within the length of one play.

(—MacLeish, Kenneth, Longman Guide to Shakespeare’s Characters, Harlow, England: Longman, 1986. pp87-88)

The character of Falstaff seems to have been inspired by the theatrical forerunners Vice and miles gloriosus (Plautus), but Falstaff has a unique, and undeniable depth of character. Beneath Falstaff’s contagious panache, he is a Homeric burlesque, an iconoclast, a philosopher, and a paradox. Falstaff is closely scrutinized because his character is a revolution on the stage; he represents the transition from flamboyant, 'carnivalesque' comedy to the modern, aesthetic character. Leo Gullotta ended the play as a not-completely defeated Falstaff. I mean, he got his lesson, but before leaving the stage  he quotes from this sonnet :

'Tis better to be vile than vile esteem'd,
When not to be receives reproach of being,
And the just pleasure lost which is so deem'd
Not by our feeling but by others' seeing:
For why should others false adulterate eyes
Give salutation to my sportive blood?
Or on my frailties why are frailer spies,
Which in their wills count bad what I think good?
No, I am that I am, and they that level
At my abuses reckon up their own:
I may be straight, though they themselves be bevel;
By their rank thoughts my deeds must not be shown;
   Unless this general evil they maintain,
   All men are bad, and in their badness reign.

(Shakespeare , sonnet 121)

Watch a trailer of the show 

Read The Merry Wives of Windsor on line

AT THE THEATRE - MOLTO RUMORE PER NULLA (MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING)

At last I made it. I so wanted to see a Shakespearean play at the Globe and last night it became true. Well , I wasn't at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, actually. There you can see Miranda Raison (Jo in Spooks 4/5/6/7/8, on the left) as Anne Boleyn until 21 August. (HAVE A LOOK HERE)

I was at Shakespeare's Globe in Rome to see MOLTO RUMORE PER NULLA (Much Ado about nothing).

Shakespeare's Globe London (April 2008) - My picture

MOLTO RUMORE PER NULLA (MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING)

"Speak low if you speak of love”

There are two main plots: the Hero-Claudio plot, which belongs to the tragi-comedy type, and the Beatrice-Benedick plot, belonging to the comedy of wit. In this way we obtain different wiews of the same reality, views we might call respectively romantic and realistic.

The over-all theme of the play is “the power of report, of the thing overheard, to alter human destiny”. But most of all what is interesting in this text by Shakespeare is his analysis of the power of words in general. Words can destroy  a person's reputation and life but they can also manipulate their will, they can touch the most hidden corners of  a human soul and change it. For instance, the power of their friends' words , overheard "by chance", leads Benedick and Beatrice  to recognize their  feelings for one another, to believe they are in love with one another. The two have always denied their attraction and their sympathy to the other even to themselves.
Moreover, the power of words, even the words of a drunk man  like Borrachio, will lead to the unveiling of the truth.

The  performance  I saw is based on Loredana Scaramella's ( also the director and a brilliant Beatrice)  and Mauro Santopietro's (a handsome sparkling Benedick)  adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy and the surprise in the show were the songs , dances and music. Great, excellent, exciting choice. Shakespeare's play is set in an imaginary Messina , a city in Sicily. The company decided to sing and dance the "pizzica" ,  ancient popular tradition from the region of Salento (Southern Italy). The result was pure fun.

Excellent performances by the comic minor characters (excellent Balthazar , Carlo Ragone), who involved the audience in hilarious gags. Maybe purists won't like this kind of liberties. I personally think that Shakespeare wouldn't mind what they did of his text. He wrote for a popular mixed audience, his comic characters and their puns were trivial and even obscene. Music and dances popular at the time were not unusual in the staging of his plays.
It has been an unforgettable night with very romantic moments and spontaneous fits of laughter, with the audience clapping at the rythm of the pizzica and the actors joining the "groundlings" in a final dance.

AT THE THEATRE - HAMLET

Saturday afternoon in Rome, at the theatre, with students, colleagues and friends. Not my first Hamlet, of course, but I’m always happy to see a Shakespearean play on stage.

In this staging Hamlet (Alessandro Preziosi) is an intellectual on a crisis. The troubled indecisive Prince becomes really modern. Nowadays, the role of the intellectual has lost its strength, he is incapable of “feeling”   hence of “provoking” a reaction in his interlocutors.

The direction of Armando Pugliese underlines the cultural gap which separates Hamlet and his Wittenberg mates (Horatio, Rosencratz, Guildestern) – all dressed in white simple clothes - from a corrupt Danish court (Polonius, Claudius, Gertrude) wearing black/gold rich Renaissance costumes . Hamlet’s doubt is not only an oscillation of the soul but the necessity to make vengeance and justice coincide. His initial troubled reaction to the unusual situation of his mother's prompt re-marrying after his father’s death is lived in a dark claustrophobic bedchamber hinting at a mental asylum. The voice of his father’s ghost haunts Hamlet from the very beginning.

Lights and scenes(minimalist) and music (modern) and costumes were well chosen, they really worked at underlining the pathos of the situations. But ... though ... I am sorry to say it but ... the acting was plain, or too academic at times, monotonous, uninvolving, cold. No passion, little emotion. Alessandro Preziosi/Hamlet has a great stage presence, he was moved by the best intentions, anyhow I wished for something more: not only strength but energy, not only sensations but emotions.

I had already seen - and liked - Preziosi on stage as Edmund in King Lear as well as in  some TV or film productions. He became popular with  the Tv costume series "Elisa di Rivombrosa" but has never stopped working on stage.  I can't really say he was the worst in the cast, no, sincerely he was the best... I only was there wishing for "something more" all the time.

A CLIP

 
I saw Hamlet at the theatre last year too. Here are my impressions of that version:  A SHAKESPEAREAN SATURDAY AFTERNOON.

P.S. Italian most important national channel has recenlty broadcast a drama starring Alessandro Preziosi as St. Augustine that I couldn't watch but recorded for better times. I'm going to see it as soon as possible. I'm really curious of seeing his performance in that role too. St. Augustine is also a Hamletic character.You'll see.

A NIGHT LESS ORDINARY

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages.

As You Like It Act 2, scene 7, 139–143


Shakespeare thought that real life, the world we live in, is like a stage and all of us are actors playing one or more roles. If this were true, we all should feel at home in a theatre or feel like going there as often as we can. As for myself, I absolutely love going to the theatre, though it is not easy nor cheap. I live 72 km from Rome and the nearest theatres are just there.

Luckily, I've seen two plays this year, both -let's say - for professional reasons. I worked on two of Shakespeare's plays with my students and, after the class work, I took them to see OTHELLO and HAMLET staged in Rome (I posted something about the two experiences on LEARN ON LINE and on FLY HIGH). I love live performances greatly: when actors play there, in front of you, and you too are there sitting in silence and in the dark, it is as if magic happens... a story takes shape, emotions flows from the stage to the audience and vice versa , and you feel you are part of that whole. It is magic.

In my last trip to London, one of the most exciting sites I visited was Shakespeare's GLOBE THEATRE. I was there for the first time and I was so thrilled! (read about my visit HERE) . One of the things I'd like most is to see a show staged there next time I am in London. But, maybe, I'll have to be satisfied with a Shakespearean play at the Globe Theatre in Rome this summer. The 2009 Season proposes interesting plays for the next months. Let's see what I can do.

The fact with theatre is that it is quite expensive and, especially, young people are losing the opportunity of going and living the exciting adventure of a live show. My students go ( well, come, with me) at least twice a year but bus plus theatre tickets (reduced for students) are 22/25 euros each time. In this period of crisis it is not so little money. Now, here we are at "A NIGHT LESS ORDINARY". What is it ? A bid to encourage young people to visit theatres. Half a million tickets were given by this Arts Council England's scheme to get more under 26-year-olds to watch live stage shows. Rupert Penry-Jones ( Spooks, Persuasion, White Chapel) was one of the actors involved in promoting the scheme. (WATCH THE VIDEO HERE). When will something like that happen in Italy too? I hope very soon. Now I have to leave you but ... I'll leave you in good company: the famous touching staging of ROMEO & JULIET ... from... SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE.

RELATED POSTS:

SHAKESPEARE - HAMLET

SHAKESPEARE - MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

SHAKESPEARE - THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

A SHAKESPEAREAN SATURDAY AFTERNOON

Imagine you are a young university student ... Imagine you love Philosophy and Poetry ... You've got friends as well as a beautiful girl you start fancying about...But your happy ordinary world is suddenly turned upside down by the news of your father's death. You grieve and mourn and you can cope with it ...What you really can't stand is ... your mother's behaviour... After just few weeks (4!), she gets married again, with your uncle, your father's brother...You find it unbearable but nobody else seems to notice that unacceptable exhibition of joy and love. Then something even worse happens: your father's ghost comes back from hell, reveals you the tragic truth of his death and orders you to avenge him! Your uncle Claudius has murdered him and now he is your mother's new husband!
What would you do? Would you respect your father's will?
This is what happens in the first act of Shakespeare's "Hamlet", one of the most popular tragedies of all times.

I'm just back from Rome where I saw this play performed at Teatro Eliseo. Rome is wonderful in spring and we ( some of my students, some of my colleagues, the female part of my family and I ) enjoyed the warm afternoon. But let's say something about the performance. First of all, I especially appreciated Luca Lazzareschi as Hamlet and Nello Mascia as Polonius. Then I loved the wonderful lights and the impressive music that, with a minimal, very dark set design, have underlined the tragedy of Hamlet, the symbol of the crisis of modern man before his destiny and his responsibilities.
Shakespeare' s Hamlet is also a metaphor of the theatre as a vision of the world. One of the best moments in the play was "the theatre within the theatre", that is when Hamlet, who has been pretending to be mad for a while, asks a company of actors to perform "The Murder of Gonzago" at court. It resembles the story of the terrible murder of his father. So the actors became audience on the stage of a second play, and the actors of the latter were wearing masks - recalling ancient Greek theatre - which amplified the voices.

The show lasted four hours but we were all so involved in the dark atmosphere and waiting for the frantic bloody finale that ... we hardly realized.

If you want to know more about the play and its adaptations for the screen or its links and connections to other literary works....

CLICK HERE

And now I'll leave you with two lines from Hamlet:

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:

Words without thoughts never to heaven go. (Hamlet, 3. 3 )