'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time' adapted by Simon Stephens from the novel by Mark Haddon
30 May 2014
When
I heard that Mark Haddon's novel 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in
the Night-time' was to be made into a stage play, my first reaction
was that it felt like a mistake. Haddon's novel seemed a perfect
miniature masterpiece, showing the world through prose written by a
fifteen-year-old autistic boy and playing with the format of the
written word story. Any stage adaptation would surely dilute the
effect and end up as a poor substitute for the original novel. So I
didn't get around to seeing the National Theatre production of Simon
Stephens' adaptation. But last week I was persuaded to watch the NT
Live cinema broadcast of the play (at Cineworld in Milton Keynes) and
quickly realised the error of my lazy assumptions. This was an
excellent theatrical experience, played in the round with a very
clever set (by Bunny Christie), inventive use of physical theatre and
movement (by Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett for Frantic Assembly)
and wonderfully directed by Marianne Elliott. The play managed to be
true to its source while inventing a theatrical frame for the story.
I think this succeeded because the temptation to break the fourth
wall was indulged very sparingly: most of the action was a careful
and precise portrayal of events from the point of view of
Christopher. Similarly, some brilliant moments of humour were all the
funnier for their scarcity, with a serious tone set from the opening
tableau of the eponymous dog impaled on a garden fork, brutal in its
reality. The cast were all very strong and worked extremely hard in a
variety of individual roles and crowd scenes but Luke Treadaway's
performance as Christopher deservedly stole the show – 'A' star!Labels: Drama, Film, Theatre
BBC Young Musician 2014
19 May 2014
This
is the fifth time I have written here about the biennial BBC Young
Musician competition. Reading through my previous posts (you can read
them all at:
http://culturaldessert.blogspot.com/search/label/BBCYoungMusician)
I think I have probably done enough moaning about the TV coverage. I
have some sympathy for the points made in this article in The
Independent:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/features/bbc-young-musician-2014-forget-the-format-give-us-the-music-9364814.html
but, apart from my ongoing sadness that we are no longer treated to
five concerto performances in the final, I really enjoyed this year's
competition. Possibly for the first time, I managed to watch every
minute of the coverage on BBC Four (which is no mean feat if you want
to be ready to watch the concerto final live!). And my record of
spotting the winners is improving: this year I picked three of the
five category winners, correctly predicted the three who would make
it through to the final and identified the overall winner before the
start of the semi-final. More importantly, the 2014 concerto final
was the best I can remember. All three performances were worthy of
winning the title and all were immensely enjoyable – showcasing
three teenagers with a very special blend of technical virtuosity,
personality, musicality and emotion. It's a cliché but it is
incredibly difficult to compare Elliott Gaston-Ross's performance of
the percussion concerto 'African Rise/Manhattan Rave' by Dave Heath,
Sophie Westbrooke playing Gordon Jacob's 'Suite for Recorder and
Strings' and Martin James Bartlett performing the 'Rhapsody on a
Theme of Paganini' by Rachmaninov. But I think the young pianist was
the correct winner – an astounding performer in an outstanding
concert.
Labels: BBCYoungMusician, Music, TV
'Henry IV Part 2' by William Shakespeare
16 May 2014
On Thursday we were
back at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to see
Greg Doran's RSC production of 'Henry IV Part 2'. Seeing the play in
sequence after 'Richard II' (reviewed here in December 2013) and
'Henry IV Part 1' (reviewed here in April 2014), the historical
backdrop was much clearer. But I was struck by the fact that 'Part 2'
is a play without much plot and which is not remembered for its
poetry. What it does, perhaps better than any other Shakespeare play,
is to provide a deep and searching exploration of character. While
'Part 1' is Hal's play, in 'Part 2' Falstaff dominates, with a series
of opportunities, alone on stage, to address the audience directly.
Anthony Sher's Falstaff was wicked and mischievous, funny and
despicable, with an earnestly precise diction suggesting his
frustration at having to address a bunch of idiots. Sher is a
brilliant physical actor and Falstaff became a hobbling, unsteady
presence, constantly shifting from one leg to the other, as if trying
to balance himself on the rolling deck of a ship. Falstaff can
sometimes be a very unfunny clown, but the scenes where he was
reunited with Justice Shallow (the ever-wonderful Oliver Ford Davies)
were hilarious (with an unnervingly odd performance from Jim Hooper
as Silence adding to the effect). I must also mention the amazing
physical performance by Leigh Quinn as Wart (one of the members of
Falstaff's Scarecrow Army), bent into the most remarkable shape but
still managing to move around the stage. This RSC production used a
sparing stage set but created a series of realistic worlds through
incredibly imaginative lighting and sound design (by Tim Mitchell and
Martin Slavin, respectively). It was a very impressive production and
the climax, where the newly crowned Henry V publicly rejects Falstaff
was a stunning moment.
Labels: Drama, Theatre
Antwerp
9 May 2014
We
had a lovely holiday in Antwerp last week. Antwerp is Belgium's
second largest city and the de facto capital of Flanders. It was also
the main port in Northern Europe until overtaken by Amsterdam. The
historic centre of the city is very pretty and the main square, Grote
Markt, has a lot of similarities to the Grand Place in Brussels
(which we visited in May 2013) and the main square in Bruges (which
we visited in June 2009). Antwerp was the home of the painter Peter
Paul Rubens and it was interesting to see several of his works in
their original setting in Antwerp Cathedral, and to visit the
Rubenshuis museum to see the building where he lived and worked. We
also visited the Antwerp Opera House to see the Vlaamse Opera
production of Bela Bartok's one-act opera 'Bluebeard's Castle'
combined with a staged version of Schubert's 'Winterreise'. This was
a spectacularly bizarre evening in the theatre, which demonstrated
the incredible visual imagination of the director, Kornel Mundruczo.
It incorporated close-ups of the singers captured by an actor with a
video camera and projected on a large screen at the back of the
stage, an impressive model railway, two large flying fish and a huge
stage set which gradually exploded into its constituent parts. It was
fascinating to watch but somewhat distracted from the music – which
was excellent. All three singers (Stefan Kocan, Asmik Grigorian and
Toby Girling) and the orchestra (conducted by Martyn Brabbins) were
very impressive. Antwerp is also known for its restaurants and we had
some excellent meals, sampling French, Italian and Flemish cuisine in
some amazing old buildings. We also enjoyed a visit to Antwerp Zoo
which sits directly alongside the fantastic Antwerp Central Station –
one of the most beautiful railway stations in the world and the
setting for that brilliant 'Sound of Music' flashmob performance in
2009 (well worth another look at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k).Labels: Heritage, Holidays, Music, Theatre
