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    I’m watching the Maxine Peake Hamlet in Amazon Prime.

    I must confess that I’ve never really understood why Hamlet is such a dick to Ophelia.

    And then her subsequent mental break doesn’t quite feel “earned.” I suppose it conforms to stereotypes of female mental illness that were prevalent at the time. I’m confident seven million pages of feminist theory have been written on this, but I don’t really feel like reading it.


    I always feel like Hamlet and Ophelia should be younger. But I guess not many young actors can do the part. Romeo and Juliet has the same problem.
    Last edited by Hot Pepsi; 09-05-2019, 01:32.

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      Originally posted by WOM View Post
      Sounds like a pared-down Iceman Cometh. I love a good 90 minutes play, too.
      Slight spoiler but this was one where the iceman doesn't cometh but relationships fray while they're waiting for him.

      I have never been to see one of the big O'Neill plays, trusting my gut feeling of dread at the running times. I couldn't face Gatz, the onstage reading of The Great Gatsby, a couple of years back. It sounded fantastic but eight hours in a Victorian theatre seat very much wouldn't be.

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        Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
        I always feel like Hamlet and Ophelia should be younger. But I guess not many young actors can do the part. Romeo and Juliet has the same problem.
        The text mentions that Juliet is 13 and Romeo, while his exact age isn't specified, is presumed to be a couple of years older. I think it'd be a hard sell to a modern audience without effectively raising their ages by casting older actors. Actually, I'm not sure how widely it is performed anyway; I don't want to see it again so don't keep an eye out. Despite being so well known, I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't make the top ten of most performed Shakespeare plays.

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          So, it turns out that R&J doesn't make the top ten most performed for the rest of the world, but comes in at number two for the US.

          Shakespeare is the most important writer in the history of the English language. Which play is his seminal work?

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            Originally posted by Benjm View Post

            The text mentions that Juliet is 13 and Romeo, while his exact age isn't specified, is presumed to be a couple of years older. I think it'd be a hard sell to a modern audience without effectively raising their ages by casting older actors. Actually, I'm not sure how widely it is performed anyway; I don't want to see it again so don't keep an eye out. Despite being so well known, I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't make the top ten of most performed Shakespeare plays.
            Really? I'd have thought it was in the top 5, because it's fairly easy to understand the plot.

            When kids read it in junior high or high school, they often get the idea that it's a story about a great love or that that's what romance is supposed to be like. But I don't think that was WS' intention. It isn't just about love. It's about young stupid love, which is more exciting and beautiful in many ways than proper grown-up-people-making-smart-decisions love, but always ends in tears. Or, as the case may be, blood.


            In the Baz Luhrman film version, Clare Danes was 18/19 and Leonardo DeCappreo was 25/26, so that worked ok. But I've seen it with somewhat older people and, even if they're good, it doesn't quite land the same way. I keep thinking "You two need to get a fucking grip."


            Likewise, Hamlet is really just a story about a rich college kid with depression who hates his step-dad, doesn't know what to do with his life, has fallen-out with his high school girlfriend, and no longer trusts his college buddies. That makes more sense in a 22-year old than a 35-year-old.

            It's also about a young woman/girl with an overbearing sexist dickhead for a dad. Her meltdown makes more sense if she's younger. That was one of the elements that really worked in the Ethan Hawke version (which nobody but me has seen, I think). Julia Stiles is Ophelia. She was about 18 at the time. Bill Murray is Polonius and treats her like she's 5.

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              Originally posted by Benjm View Post
              So, it turns out that R&J doesn't make the top ten most performed for the rest of the world, but comes in at number two for the US.
              That makes sense. I'm surprised A Midsummer Night's Dream is number one with a bullet.

              I'm not sure I've seen A Midsummer Night's Dream. I want to see them all, but I don't get much chance to see anything live so I'm depending on films, which aren't always good.

              I always get MND mixed up with As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and Much Ado About Nothing.

              Hamlet is my favorite of the ones I know.
              Last edited by Hot Pepsi; 09-05-2019, 22:17.

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                That's a good point about the age of the lovers informing the nature of the experience rather than it being a one size fits all deal. Antony and Cleopatra has lots of stuff about middle aged regret and the sense of time running out, as well as each of the protagonists being very self conscious about how this late episode might detract from their accumulated glories and achievements.

                I remember seeing the Laurence Olivier film of Hamlet, made when he was 40 odd, and thinking that, while he could still nicely fill out a pair of tights and do the jumping around, he was a bit long in the tooth for the role.

                Edit: the board seems to be loading replies slowly this evening.

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                  MND is at the top because it combines being "considered accessible", is a comedy and is attractive for ensemble casts (a number of decent parts for both men and women, with none of them being terribly hard).

                  The cast of the 1999 film illustrates this rather well, as does its frequent appearance in the Public Theater productions in Central Park.

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                    Also the comedies largely follow the same pattern (mistaken identity, harmonious resolution) which may favour the market leader because the less well known titles don't necessarily offer anything very different. The tragedies and history plays each tend to have a stronger individual identity.

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                      Very much so.

                      Though I am a bit surprised that Much Ado isn't higher in the rankings, as it became a "thing" here after the Branagh/Thompson film and is even more of a staple with the Public Theater (they are doing it again this summer). A key part of it recent popularity is that it lends itself to "themed" productions better than MSD.

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                        I turned the Cup final off at 1-0 on Saturday to go to the theatre (what's happened to me?) and had a far more engrossing time watching Rosmersholm, a magnificently intense, full-on yet subtle political drama. Recommended.

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                          Originally posted by Ray de Galles View Post
                          Tomorrow night I'm going to see 'The Life I Lead' at the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park, a place I've never heard of before.

                          It's a one man play with Miles Jupp playing David Tomlinson (Mr Banks in 'Mary Poppins' and Professor Browne in Bedknobs & Broomsticks') who had a peculiar back story.

                          It might be a bit of an oddity but I love Jupp's work and it's got really good reviews so giving it a punt.
                          This was great, by the way. A wonderful script and performance - funny, compelling and quite touching in places. I mention it now because it's getting a short West End run at Wyndham's Theatre in September (following 'Fleabag', no pressure eh?).

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                            Off to see Rutherford & Son next week at the National, only as my parents are down and wanted to go. I know nothing of the play, but it does have Roger Allam as the lead at least.

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                              I went to see Death Of A Salesman at the Young Vic on Saturday. It was brilliantly played by all the cast, especially Wendell Pierce and Sharon D Clarke as Willy and Linda Loman. I had seen it as a teenager but had forgotten how fragile Willy's grasp on reality is; there's much more going on in his interior life than just being over the hill. The Lomans were cast as African-Americans but the connotations for that upon Willy's situation (working for and owing money to white boss and neighbour) were implied but not laboured. The end was very moving. Unfortunately Saturday was the last night but the production is moving to the West End in the autumn and I can't see any reason for it not to transfer well. Recommended.

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                                It is a genuinely great play.

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                                  Absolutely. I saw the Young Vic production of A View from The Bridge with Mark Strong that transferred to Broadway a few years ago and that brilliantly realised the material but DOAS is just on another level as a play.

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                                    On Thursday, I went with my family to see Hello Dolly at the Clear Space Theater in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The company does a rotation of three musicals all summer. The other two they're doing are Mamma Mia and The Wedding Singer. My parents are going to see The Wedding Singer when my aunt visits in a few weeks. It's based on the Adam Sandler movie, but has mostly new songs. It is not, as I would have guessed, a "juke-box" musical full of 80s music.

                                    By coincidence, my friend's daughter recently played the lead in the Upper St. Clair High School's production of Hello Dolly. And I got to see some video of that performance last night. She absolutely crushed it. The whole production was really impressive. (Though our other friend who played the trombone at a high level and has judged band competitions told us that the trumpets in the pit orchestra were flat).

                                    I'm frequently amazed by how good student and local productions can be. I guess that just highlights how mindbogglingly talented one has to be to even be an understudy in the big time - Broadway, West End, etc.

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                                      Originally posted by Benjm View Post
                                      I went to see Death Of A Salesman at the Young Vic on Saturday. It was brilliantly played by all the cast, especially Wendell Pierce and Sharon D Clarke as Willy and Linda Loman. I had seen it as a teenager but had forgotten how fragile Willy's grasp on reality is; there's much more going on in his interior life than just being over the hill. The Lomans were cast as African-Americans but the connotations for that upon Willy's situation (working for and owing money to white boss and neighbour) were implied but not laboured. The end was very moving. Unfortunately Saturday was the last night but the production is moving to the West End in the autumn and I can't see any reason for it not to transfer well. Recommended.
                                      That sounds really compelling.

                                      I recall that during high school, we watched a video of a version with Dustin Hoffman and, I think, John Malkovich. It was a real downer, as I recall.

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                                        Just read that Dear Evan Hansen is closing in Toronto after a money-losing 4 months. It's a smash on Broadway and they were expecting at least a two year run here. Come From Away is moving back to the (much better) theatre that DEH was using.

                                        We saw DEH and enjoyed it, but not enough to talk it up to our friends.

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                                          Surprising. It won a bunch of Tonys, I think. My brother's family saw that and really liked it. It's a huge hit on Broadway.

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                                            I went to see the excellent Small Island at the National Theatre last night. It's a large scale production, making full use of the space and revolving stage in the Olivier Theatre, but very acute emotionally. For the second time in a week, I was quite lumpy in the throat at the end. The story interweaves the stories of Jamaican and British characters during the second world war and afterwards. The production design evokes the run down and grimy aspect of London in that period very well. The slights and insults suffered by the newly arrived migrants really sting. The cast are outstanding and each of the main characters is a fully realised person rather than a vehicle for a theme. Even the least sympathetic is given context and understanding. I haven't read Andrea Levy's novel, or seen the TV adaptation, but Mrs Benjm is a big fan and thought that the show does it full justice. A more diverse than usual audience for the NT gave a standing ovation at the end. This run finishes in August but it will be a surprise if it doesn't return next year, as recent NT hits like Follies and Amadeus have.

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                                              I went to the RSC Measure for Measure in Stratford at the end of July. It's no doubt a cliche to say it's a play that's gained new resonance in the 'me too' era ; in any case, I remember it making my flesh creep when we read it for A'level. Those feelings very much came back, when Sandy Grierson's Angelo asked, 'who will believe thee, Isabel?' A very good, unsettling production.

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                                                This is something

                                                https://twitter.com/nytimesarts/status/1161278789395144704

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                                                  Hello, you may remember me from such series as When Audiences Attack and Dress Circle Killers.

                                                  I haven't seen anything like that in the subsidised theatres. I'd be interested to know the extent to which corporate guests feature in the tales of opera hooliganism.

                                                  As well as the cost of tickets, the sheer physical discomfort of sitting in many of the Victorian playhouses doesn't lend itself to a relaxed and good natured atmosphere.

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                                                    Has there ever been a stage show where the actors have worn body cameras? That would be interesting.

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