These are the confessions - such as they are of a non-drinking, monogamous, heterosexual, omnivore.
The Ginger Mumbly is a humorous and humourous, satirical, column. People who like this will probably like reading books.
They'll be interested in second hand books.
I also write about cafes - both in Brighton, where I now live and in Cambridge, where I used to live.
I spend a lot of my time in Cafes and have very strong opinions about what makes a good one.
And sometimes I write about travel, I like Paris, Berlin, Athens.
It's a secular, militantly agnostic site, so there probably isn't much point sending ads for religious organisations.
They will probably like reading authors like Hunter S. Thompson, P J O' Rourke, Saki, Mark Twain, James Thurber, Charlie Booker, Damon Runyan.
They might like TV shows like "The Thick of It", "The Mighty Boosh", "The Wire", "Arrested Development".
The might like films like "A life Aquatic", or "The Big Lebowski"
Something for Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
The European Theatre Group
ADC Theatre
January 14th 2004
It always feels like a privilege to see a European Theatre Group production.
It's a pretty good recipe - a cast of Cambridge University's brightest young
things; a play by old beardy; and a good long run in Europe to knock all the
corners off, smooth out all the wrinkles and make the cast feel like conquering
heroes.
Even so, this production showed itself to be better than the sum of all those
parts. It wasn't simply the smooth patina of a long run that made this a joy to
watch. Almost all the playing showed signs of thoughtful casting and even more
thoughtful rehearsal. Ben Kerridge as Leonato is a born character actor. How
could someone do so much with so little beard? Alex Lamont also powered through
the play as Margaret making something interesting out of almost nothing (is she
really captain of the Newnham belly dancing team?). Max Bennett gave a Billy
Idol-ish performance as Don Jon. Then after a quick change he managed to point
up the comedy of the tricky "clown" scenes, playing Dogberry in a way that
allowed you to laugh, even if you hadn't read the footnotes in the Arden
edition. If you think this isn't hard you should see Michael Keaton try to do
it in the film.
This isn't one of those fancy deluxe Shakespeare plays where all the lovers
have to do is a bit of sighing and snogging. There aren't going to be some
faeries and rude mechanicals along in a minute to relieve the tedium. This is
just your basic romantic comedy and the principals have to provide all the
frills themselves. Most of the responsibility for making the play worth
watching falls on the shoulders of the young lovers, Benedick (Adam Shindler)
and Beatrice (Susanna Hislop). Shindler was more than up to the task,
delivering a laddish performance somewhere equidistant between Martin Clunes,
Hugh Grant and Darren Gough. Some of best moments of the evening were when he
was alone on stage, tirelessly helping his lines off the page (at one stage
literally flirting with audience participation) and always making the maximum
sense of Benedick as a full-rounded character who spells Benedick with a
capital BLOKE.
It was only when Beatrice and Benedick were on stage together that some of the
expected fireworks failed to occur. The spine of the play is this spiky
relationship. Sadly this was the one thing that was slightly limp. Maybe this
was a directorial problem of not getting the volume levels right. Benedick
needed to be turned down a couple of notches from "eleven" to give Beatrice a
chance to shine. Or maybe it was that Susanna Hislop wasn't really comfortable
in a role that needs something more than the straightforward romantic lead.
And then there's the broken rail in the path of true love's smooth running.
Claudio's denunciation of Hero (the girl he is suppose to be marrying, but who
he thinks he saw snogging a ginger-haired bloke the night before) was played
too straight to allow it to fit with the rest of the play. If Claudio does hate
Hero at this point, and her father really does want her dead, the play teeters
over into melodrama and the plot jack-knifes. This is after all a comedy.
There's going to be a wedding scene along any minute and we're going to have to
like these people again and feel happy that they're getting married. Surely the
only way to play this scene is as one of terrific uncertainty and tension.
Claudio and Leonato are denouncing Hero against their better judgement, they
are saying things that they can still hardly believe. If we believe that
they believe what they're saying, there's no clear way back to the happy
ending.
Ah well everything turned out all right in the end. The baddy ran away
(probably to sit on a motorbike and snarl) and all the expected marriages
occurred in the right places. I left the theatre knowing that I'll be back next
year expecting yet another glorious European Theatre Group production.
16th January 2004
These are the confessions - such as they are of a non-drinking, monogamous, heterosexual, omnivore.
The Ginger Mumbly is a humorous and humourous, satirical, column. People who like this will probably like reading books.
They'll be interested in second hand books.
I also write about cafes - both in Brighton, where I now live and in Cambridge, where I used to live.
I spend a lot of my time in Cafes and have very strong opinions about what makes a good one.
And sometimes I write about travel, I like Paris, Berlin, Athens.
It's a secular, militantly agnostic site, so there probably isn't much point sending ads for religious organisations.
They will probably like reading authors like Hunter S. Thompson, P J O' Rourke, Saki, Mark Twain, James Thurber, Charlie Booker, Damon Runyan.
They might like TV shows like "The Thick of It", "The Mighty Boosh", "The Wire", "Arrested Development".
The might like films like "A life Aquatic", or "The Big Lebowski"