Le weekend

[strange_complex]

Doctor Who

It actually just gets better and better, doesn't it? I mean: the little pile of M&Ms by the red telephone, the many alternative Tardises and, best of all, the Massive Weapons of Destruction. Did the old Who ever boast such delightful symbolism or topical resonance? I propose from this day forth always to say 'Massive Weapons of Destruction' in everyday conversation rather than 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' in tribute to this weekend's episode.

And if that all weren't enough, we have the Daleks to look forward to next Saturday night. * faints from excitement *

Lysistrata at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast

I went to see this on Saturday evening with my colleague, John Curran, our three MA students and one of their boyfriends. It was OK, but I think I've been rather spoiled by the stunning tragedies put on by the Actors of Dionysus, not to mention a bright and breezy student adaptation of the Birds which I saw while at Oxford, and which had translated all the references to contemporary Athens into references to modern-day Oxford instead. While AoD's tragedies are innovative, fresh adaptations, which offer profound contemporary relevance and stunning choreography and manage to strike at the very core of one's emotional being, and the Oxford Birds at least drew on the real experiences of its cast and crew, Saturday's Lysistrata was merely... average.

A pity, because Aristophanes' writing at the time was incredibly bold and topical, and of course there is plenty of local significance that could have been drawn out of a play between two warring communities whose women decide to draw the conflict to an end themselves by holding a sex strike. But the attempts made to do so were half-hearted, the translation sounded suspiciously to me like what I remember of the Penguin one, and many of the lines came across as simply being spoken: not meant. This will probably sound like the most snobbish thing I've ever said, but it felt... provincial.

Still, it was nice to go out with our students, and I'm sure we did much to promote intra-departmental bonding in the process. And I enjoyed some very nice pan-fried duck with a summer fruits sauce in a bistro where we ate before the performance. So by no means a wasted evening.

Comments

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Yes, that would have been it. About 1998/9ish, I think. Actually I remember the Iphigeneia as very good too: I have vivid memories of emotional intensity of the girl who played Clytemnestra, who I think might actually have been crying real tears as she begged Agamemnon to spare her daughter.

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

I don't recall Clytemnestra. I do recall being very irritated by the Chorus, and not thinking much of Agamemenon.

It's quite likely that I wrote about this somewhere. I think I'd stopped reviewing for Didaskalia about this time (what they wanted me to write about the performances I'd seen and what I wanted to write having shifted too far apart for there to be space for compromise), so it's probably in some obscure apa publication somewhere. I should search it out for Lorna Hardwick's database, really.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Ah, well clearly we differ widely in our tastes, because I thought the Chorus was really good! All that stamping and chanting they were doing: they remain the one and only modern representation of a Greek dramatic chorus I have ever seen that even tried to convey the musical aspect of the original. In every other production I've ever encountered, the choruses have simply been spoken (although the Actors of Dionysus do usually have some physical choreography going on, at least).

Actually (he said belatedly ...)

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

... I like music and choreography in a Chorus in theory. But often it doesn't work in practice, and I felt that this particular Chorus was one of those. It did work in the RSC production of Hecuba (which I will write up after I come back from Italy), though it got a little Les Mis at times.

Re: Actually (he said belatedly ...)

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Ah, now my sister saw that Hecuba and wrote to me about it, and she didn't like the Chorus at all! But I will be very interested in hearing your take on it.

Have a great time in Rome, won't you? *is jealous*