I liked The Habit of Art because I am normally interested in plays which explore the process of putting on a play. When the audience enters the auditorium they are faced with a very cluttered set. What becomes clear is that this is a set within a set. In the middle is a desk with piles of books around…
Read more The Habit of Art (The National Theatre, 1st May 2010)
Having just moved Miching Malicho over here to Between the Acts, I have been a little bit more interested in what other Theatre/Culture blogs look like this week. In reading through some blogs I came across Cultural Tales of Two Cities. I really like the way that the blog focuses on the two cities of Manchester and London,…
I wouldn’t say that this was gripping theatre and some of the effects were just a little bit cliched. All those flashing lights on the white set with phrases about life in the 1980s such as ‘Greed is Good’ and ‘Material Girl’ and all that music from the 80s that was about power and material items,…
Read more The Black Album (West Yorkshire Playhouse, 21st October 2009)
I saw the National production of All’s Well That Ends Well in July and thought it was a fantastic production with its focus on the fairytale elements of the play. I felt at that time it will be interesting to see how the cinema experience captures the wonderful set. For the most the screening, as part…
Read more All's Well That Ends Well (NT Live – City Screen, York, 1st October 2009)
I was thankful that on this visit to the National Theatre, I saw the whole play. As it was the night after seeing half of Mother Courage and Her Children, that experience was still fresh in my mind. It was certainly worth the visit as well. The play was humorous and extremely well acted. I…
Read more The Pitman Painters (National Theatre, 11th September 2009)
Yes – I was there that night. That’s my feeling looking back at my experience at the Preview of the National Theatre’s Mother Courage and Her Children. The pre-show was a busy chaotic affair and it felt like the lines between setting up the show and the show itself were blurred. The sound of an explosion every…
Read more Mother Courage and Her Children (National Theatre, 10th September 2009)
I said that I would write about the live experience of seeing Phedre at the National Theatre in contrast to seeing it at the cinema. I did enjoy the cinema experience, but I enjoyed seeing the live production much more. I felt that it was much more physical live and the story was more powerful. I…
Once upon a time……. in a castle on the mountain where the ravens croaked, the young girl mourned the death of her physician father brought up by the Countess Rossillion. Rossillion was a dark place. Then Helena fell in love with the Countess’ son, Bertram, and it should have ended happily ever after. For her…
Read more All's Well That Ends Well (National Theatre, 11th July 2009)
Film and Theatre are very different, and this is why it felt so strange in a cinema watching actors with bold gestures projecting their voices so the back of the stalls can hear them. The experiment, I think was a success, but only because I was always mindful that this was a live stream from…
Read more Phedre (City Screen/National Theatre, 25th June 2009)
On encountering Antony Sher’s large work The Audience in the foyer of the Lyttleton Theatre at the National Theatre, I realise that the subject matter also touches on my own life as at points I’ve encountered the portrayals characters in the painting. Richard III was the first play, I saw at the RSC, and twenty…
Read more Antony Sher Exhibition (National Theatre, 20th June 2009)
Julie Raby 