Poorly Executed

I saw Julius Caesar. There was very clever staging with nice neat chairs for Rome and messy chairs for the final battles. People would enter and exit the area outlined by the chairs pausing for a beat in synch when scenes changed. That was very effective. There were a couple of microphone stands used for whispered asides and crowd scenes and such. That was good too.

But mostly it was dull. The costumes were black and grey. Anger, grief, love, pride all required shouting and more shouting. A few people hung their head or stared painfully goggle-eyed for a while, but nobody actually cried. Portia died off stage, possible even during the interval.

Also, it was a little confused. Cassius was played by a lady and the pronouns were changed, but not the rest of the script so "she" was still a "man". Portia's "I have a man's will but a woman's might" line was nonsense because at the same time Cassius was orchestrating Caesar's assassination. And at the end an elaborately staged theatrical device suggested Rome was restored, contrary to the battle results.  ¶ 17:44 0 comments

  Uncharacteristic

I saw Untrained and I think it could have been much better. Without the characters the show is just two men doing dance exercises and two men doing dance exercises poorly. About half way in the characters began to emerge and it began to be interesting, and then it was all over. It didn't need to be longer, it needed to start sooner and not to spend half the show warming up.

Also, it was the first night, so the audience was full of friends of the performers and sections tried valiantly to applaud every action on stage - which didn't help.  ¶ 09:20 0 comments