Over on My London Your London I’ve a review of In Extremis, the new play at the Globe about Aberlard and Heloise. The philosophy is brilliantly represented, ditto the conflict between Bernard and Aberlard, but it does fall down on the love story. Still, well worth seeing should you get the chance.
Over on My London Your London I’ve a review of Techniques of Breathing in an Airlocked Space. If you know anything about Belarus politics you’ll know that there’s precious little free air for a theatre company there, but this is no heavy political piece, but a really delightful play in which the politics is beneath very human stories. Highly recommended.
The Guardian’s “history” piece today is the review from 1957 of Titus Andronicus, “given performance tonight for the first time in Stratford-on-Avon’s history”.
Peter Brook, who is responsible for sound, for stage pictures and for direction, has produced the play with dazzling simplicity out of a terrifying tawny darkness. The horrors were not laid on crudely. There was little running gore, and only the lopping of Titus’s hand is really sickening.
But the murderous spirit of the piece is marvellously caught with the shadows and the harsh shapes. Sir Laurence Olivier begins the much-wronged Titus on an almost jovial note, then rising like an Elizabethan Oedipus to the scene where, confronted with his lopped and ravished daughter Lavinia, he has his own hand amputated, and going on superbly through the scenes of feigned madness to the final Feast.
I struggle to see Olivier as Titus, but perhaps that is a failure of my imagination.
(My review of the recent Globe show.)
Over on My London Your London I have up a review of Sugar Mummies, the Royal Court’s new play about female sex tourism. It has provoked vast numbers of column inches, little of it great informative value, on the issue, as Kate on Cruella has discussed.
Unfortunately the play is about the same standard as the discussion.I’m thinking about writing up something for CommentisFree – not quite sure if I’m ready for the storm however…
Jon has an informative, lively review of the above over on My London Your London. It is now in rep for the rest of the season, although if you are only going to see one of the current shows, I’d recommend Titus Andronicus, provided you’ve a strong stomach.
Over on My London Your London I have up a review of The Vegemite Tales, a rollicking comedy that portrays the Australian expat life in London. It is an excellent evening with more depth than you’d expect from the number of laughs.
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