A Winter's Tale - A Rambling Review
Sun, 13 Mar 2005, 12:16 amWalter Plinge2 posts in thread
A Winter's Tale - A Rambling Review
Sun, 13 Mar 2005, 12:16 amA Winter's Tale - A Rambling Review by Alicia Smith
I've just got back from seeing Grad's production of Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale.
This is a tremendously difficult play, no mistake. This isn't a play to introduce a newbie to Shakespeare to. Nope. It's a schizophenic work, half of it is murder, death and Othello and Lear, and seems to pause in the middle where many of Shakespeare's plays end (ie everyone dead) and then goes on to become, oh - a bit of the Tempest, I guess, some 12th Night maybe and a suspiciously young Falstaffian fellow bounding about too.
And the verbage, my goodness, this really is Mr Shakespeare milking every paragraph for all that it's worth, words...words..words. We're positively drowning in them. The actors have really done themselves proud, instead of choking on all those words, they've presented them to us in an interesting and digestable way. A difficult play.
John Milson and Grads have taken on this challenge and done themselves proud. Despite the material, the audience was held throughout. I recommend this production in particular to people interested in sound and lighting effects, the scenes of Leontes (the indefatigable Stephen Lee) having a jealousy episodes were quite disturbing; the heartbeat, the whispers, the leering courtiers, the light; all like something out of a nasty Fauvist painting, and then foom! back to normal. Very disturbing.
And landing on the desert shore of Bohemia, *that*'s a good scene.
Oh, and watch out for the scene which everyone knows as "Exit: persued by a bear." Only in this case, due to masterful sound work, it's more like "Exit: pursued by the Monster From The Id from Forbidden Planet."
I very much liked the way that the play had sort of begun before it had begun, with the court standing about conversing inaudibly on stage, even if it did make me think I was late for the performance!
All of the cast and crew can't be faulted, their enthusiasm and energy, and passion fed back to us in the audience, and we wanted to know What Happened Next. It was a huge cast, and they all interacted well and performed a seamless whole. Good work folks! Thanks!
Highly recommended for Shakespeare buffs, theatre afficiandos, actors and production staff, come see how people successfully work with extremely difficult material.
This review is also available at www.lympago.com
What I do in the real world http://www.cafepress.com/aliciasmith
Thou pribbling hedge-born measle!
I've just got back from seeing Grad's production of Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale.
This is a tremendously difficult play, no mistake. This isn't a play to introduce a newbie to Shakespeare to. Nope. It's a schizophenic work, half of it is murder, death and Othello and Lear, and seems to pause in the middle where many of Shakespeare's plays end (ie everyone dead) and then goes on to become, oh - a bit of the Tempest, I guess, some 12th Night maybe and a suspiciously young Falstaffian fellow bounding about too.
And the verbage, my goodness, this really is Mr Shakespeare milking every paragraph for all that it's worth, words...words..words. We're positively drowning in them. The actors have really done themselves proud, instead of choking on all those words, they've presented them to us in an interesting and digestable way. A difficult play.
John Milson and Grads have taken on this challenge and done themselves proud. Despite the material, the audience was held throughout. I recommend this production in particular to people interested in sound and lighting effects, the scenes of Leontes (the indefatigable Stephen Lee) having a jealousy episodes were quite disturbing; the heartbeat, the whispers, the leering courtiers, the light; all like something out of a nasty Fauvist painting, and then foom! back to normal. Very disturbing.
And landing on the desert shore of Bohemia, *that*'s a good scene.
Oh, and watch out for the scene which everyone knows as "Exit: persued by a bear." Only in this case, due to masterful sound work, it's more like "Exit: pursued by the Monster From The Id from Forbidden Planet."
I very much liked the way that the play had sort of begun before it had begun, with the court standing about conversing inaudibly on stage, even if it did make me think I was late for the performance!
All of the cast and crew can't be faulted, their enthusiasm and energy, and passion fed back to us in the audience, and we wanted to know What Happened Next. It was a huge cast, and they all interacted well and performed a seamless whole. Good work folks! Thanks!
Highly recommended for Shakespeare buffs, theatre afficiandos, actors and production staff, come see how people successfully work with extremely difficult material.
This review is also available at www.lympago.com
What I do in the real world http://www.cafepress.com/aliciasmith
Thou pribbling hedge-born measle!
Walter PlingeSun, 13 Mar 2005, 12:16 am
A Winter's Tale - A Rambling Review by Alicia Smith
I've just got back from seeing Grad's production of Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale.
This is a tremendously difficult play, no mistake. This isn't a play to introduce a newbie to Shakespeare to. Nope. It's a schizophenic work, half of it is murder, death and Othello and Lear, and seems to pause in the middle where many of Shakespeare's plays end (ie everyone dead) and then goes on to become, oh - a bit of the Tempest, I guess, some 12th Night maybe and a suspiciously young Falstaffian fellow bounding about too.
And the verbage, my goodness, this really is Mr Shakespeare milking every paragraph for all that it's worth, words...words..words. We're positively drowning in them. The actors have really done themselves proud, instead of choking on all those words, they've presented them to us in an interesting and digestable way. A difficult play.
John Milson and Grads have taken on this challenge and done themselves proud. Despite the material, the audience was held throughout. I recommend this production in particular to people interested in sound and lighting effects, the scenes of Leontes (the indefatigable Stephen Lee) having a jealousy episodes were quite disturbing; the heartbeat, the whispers, the leering courtiers, the light; all like something out of a nasty Fauvist painting, and then foom! back to normal. Very disturbing.
And landing on the desert shore of Bohemia, *that*'s a good scene.
Oh, and watch out for the scene which everyone knows as "Exit: persued by a bear." Only in this case, due to masterful sound work, it's more like "Exit: pursued by the Monster From The Id from Forbidden Planet."
I very much liked the way that the play had sort of begun before it had begun, with the court standing about conversing inaudibly on stage, even if it did make me think I was late for the performance!
All of the cast and crew can't be faulted, their enthusiasm and energy, and passion fed back to us in the audience, and we wanted to know What Happened Next. It was a huge cast, and they all interacted well and performed a seamless whole. Good work folks! Thanks!
Highly recommended for Shakespeare buffs, theatre afficiandos, actors and production staff, come see how people successfully work with extremely difficult material.
This review is also available at www.lympago.com
What I do in the real world http://www.cafepress.com/aliciasmith
Thou pribbling hedge-born measle!
I've just got back from seeing Grad's production of Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale.
This is a tremendously difficult play, no mistake. This isn't a play to introduce a newbie to Shakespeare to. Nope. It's a schizophenic work, half of it is murder, death and Othello and Lear, and seems to pause in the middle where many of Shakespeare's plays end (ie everyone dead) and then goes on to become, oh - a bit of the Tempest, I guess, some 12th Night maybe and a suspiciously young Falstaffian fellow bounding about too.
And the verbage, my goodness, this really is Mr Shakespeare milking every paragraph for all that it's worth, words...words..words. We're positively drowning in them. The actors have really done themselves proud, instead of choking on all those words, they've presented them to us in an interesting and digestable way. A difficult play.
John Milson and Grads have taken on this challenge and done themselves proud. Despite the material, the audience was held throughout. I recommend this production in particular to people interested in sound and lighting effects, the scenes of Leontes (the indefatigable Stephen Lee) having a jealousy episodes were quite disturbing; the heartbeat, the whispers, the leering courtiers, the light; all like something out of a nasty Fauvist painting, and then foom! back to normal. Very disturbing.
And landing on the desert shore of Bohemia, *that*'s a good scene.
Oh, and watch out for the scene which everyone knows as "Exit: persued by a bear." Only in this case, due to masterful sound work, it's more like "Exit: pursued by the Monster From The Id from Forbidden Planet."
I very much liked the way that the play had sort of begun before it had begun, with the court standing about conversing inaudibly on stage, even if it did make me think I was late for the performance!
All of the cast and crew can't be faulted, their enthusiasm and energy, and passion fed back to us in the audience, and we wanted to know What Happened Next. It was a huge cast, and they all interacted well and performed a seamless whole. Good work folks! Thanks!
Highly recommended for Shakespeare buffs, theatre afficiandos, actors and production staff, come see how people successfully work with extremely difficult material.
This review is also available at www.lympago.com
What I do in the real world http://www.cafepress.com/aliciasmith
Thou pribbling hedge-born measle!
Walter PlingeSun, 13 Mar 2005, 11:23 am
Re: A Winter's Tale - A Rambling Review
What I forgot to mention last night 'cause it was late and I was very tired was that there's a particularly fine example in this play of Mr Shakespeare doing his "Tell, don't show" trick. There's a huge great significant scene, but we only hear about it 2nd hand from blokes in the street.
That the actors playing those gentlemen were able to make it as interesting as the missing climatic scene might have been itself is a credit to them and their director!
-leece
What I do in the real world http://www.cafepress.com/aliciasmith
Thou goatish hedge-born giglet!
That the actors playing those gentlemen were able to make it as interesting as the missing climatic scene might have been itself is a credit to them and their director!
-leece
What I do in the real world http://www.cafepress.com/aliciasmith
Thou goatish hedge-born giglet!