And talking with new friends. When a partnership breaks up and a new
character is involved in the break-up there is a time for re-assessment and
review. Meeting the new partner for
lunch yesterday must have been much more trying for him than it was for
me. Being paraded in front of new acquaintances
and feeling that you are being compare with what has gone before must be nerve
wracking. However, the meal went very
well. We went to Jamie Oliver’s and I
had a small portion of scallops and squid ink dyed spaghetti that was more than
acceptable and left room for the next meal that I was due to have before the
evening’s entertainment!
When we left Jamie Oliver’s we went to an
adjacent pub where I had my first pint of SA for many months. I had every intention of limiting my intake
of Skull Attack to just the one-pint, but the company and the cooling weather
and the insistence of my companions saw me weaken and almost match them pint
for pint. I suppose it is one way to
cement a relationship!
Alison was duly met in Barroco’s and we had
another meal before going to “Macbeth”.
This National Theatre production was a live broadcast from a
deconsecrated church in Manchester where the action was largely set in the nave
of the church with the live audience on steeply raked seats at each side giving
the appearance of a jousting arena. This
was a widely and enthusiastically awaited production and I hated it.
The direction was shared between Rob
Ashford and Ken Branagh and at times I wondered where it was. I could see no real connecting idea which
linked the action of the play and the speed of delivery of lines meant that
much of the detail which could have expanded the meaning was lost in a welter
of English.
The church setting was referenced from time
to time but not enough was made of it in my view and I kept feeling omission
rather than accretion as the action progressed.
The relationship between Macbeth and Lady
Macbeth was unconvincing and in spite of a few moments of action I felt it
lacked passion. Lady Macbeth (Alex
Kingston) worked hard, but her key scene, the Sleepwalking Scene, was performed
on a sort of raised stage and looked more like some sort of puppet show with extreme
actions and a multitude of voices so that it became something of a farce rather
than the chilling re-telling on the whole murder.
Because of the accelerating pace the
internal logic of the progression of action was largely lost for me and the
declamatory style of delivery emptied the words and lost sense.
It was deeply disappointing, but I think
that the idea of producing a live broadcast to a variety of national and international
cinemas is a wonderful one and I will certainly be looking out for further
productions and hoping that they will be shown in Barcelona.
The drink with Alison (who had found out
about the production and who had bought the tickets) was a somewhat subdued
affair as I was beginning to feel the draining process myself and tiredness
clumped up towards me.
Today is a calmer day with only lunch with
Hadyn planned and then tomorrow I get the flight back to Barcelona. For a rest!
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