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King Lear and Ian McKellan
Jun. 23rd, 2007 11:11 amI've been meaning to post about this for ages but just haven't had the time, what with work and all.
Back at the end of May, Anna and I took a day trip down to Stratford Upon Avon to see the RSC production of King Lear. The RSC have been running through all of Shakespeares works over the last I don't know how long and they have been saving this for one of the last productions with Ian McKellan as King Lear.
Thanks to Anna we were able to get tickets for the (sold out before it started) production at the added in press matinee showing towards the end of the run. The original press showing had been cancelled earlier in the run as Francis Barber (playing Goneril) had injured her knees and her understudy had to step in for the bulk of the run.
Once in our seats we began our usual ritual of going through the programme to see which of the actors had been in 'The Bill' (and the answer was as usual, quite a lot of them!) but we also discovered that Sylvester McCoy (the seventh Doctor )would be playing the Fool. So that would be two big names to add to the "Ooh, I've seen them live you know." list for the price of one. We were mildly confused though as to why the his bio in the programme said that "He played the spoons with the London Concert Orchestra at the Barbican Hall". We did wonder if they had thrown him out of the Hall for it, but really didn't think too much about it.
I hate to say it, but the production itself only turned out to be average/good rather than the really great that I had been hoping for. The majority of performances were good, but a number of times lines were rushed and became somewhat mangled. Quite a bit of the Fools lines where drowned out by McCoy accompanying himself on the aforementioned spoons (which he plays well) and so we lost a lot of the wordplay that Shakespeare puts into his Fools dialogue (The character of the Fool, turns up in a number of plays and is used to tell the truth when no-one else could).
At the hight of Lears madness out on the heath, came a sight we really hadn't been expecting. Throughout the play, Lears clothing had been reduced (in my mind at least) as a symbol of his decline. Early on he has full kingly regalia, once he stands aside he wears a kind of Military uniform, as he is bounced between his daughters it is reduced to shirt and waistcoat and in his descent to madness, barefoot with ragged shirt and pants.
And so at his lowest point, he tries to divest himself of even these last trappings of position. Anna had been resting her eyes just before this point and so opened them to see Ian McKellan with shirt around his neck, pants around his ankles and not a stitch in between.
Admitedly, had we paid attention on the way in, we would have seen the sign warning us of 'flashing lights, sudden bangs and brief nudity' during the play, so we can't really blame the RSC.
I think I probably went to see this with to high an expectation of the performance. The idea of McKellan playing Lear just seemed so perfect. As it was I enjoyed the performance a great deal (my hands where sore after applauding the cast) and we had a good (if very long) day out.
Finally, Behind the cut there's a couple of scans of some postcards from the production, just for you.
Back at the end of May, Anna and I took a day trip down to Stratford Upon Avon to see the RSC production of King Lear. The RSC have been running through all of Shakespeares works over the last I don't know how long and they have been saving this for one of the last productions with Ian McKellan as King Lear.
Thanks to Anna we were able to get tickets for the (sold out before it started) production at the added in press matinee showing towards the end of the run. The original press showing had been cancelled earlier in the run as Francis Barber (playing Goneril) had injured her knees and her understudy had to step in for the bulk of the run.
Once in our seats we began our usual ritual of going through the programme to see which of the actors had been in 'The Bill' (and the answer was as usual, quite a lot of them!) but we also discovered that Sylvester McCoy (the seventh Doctor )would be playing the Fool. So that would be two big names to add to the "Ooh, I've seen them live you know." list for the price of one. We were mildly confused though as to why the his bio in the programme said that "He played the spoons with the London Concert Orchestra at the Barbican Hall". We did wonder if they had thrown him out of the Hall for it, but really didn't think too much about it.
I hate to say it, but the production itself only turned out to be average/good rather than the really great that I had been hoping for. The majority of performances were good, but a number of times lines were rushed and became somewhat mangled. Quite a bit of the Fools lines where drowned out by McCoy accompanying himself on the aforementioned spoons (which he plays well) and so we lost a lot of the wordplay that Shakespeare puts into his Fools dialogue (The character of the Fool, turns up in a number of plays and is used to tell the truth when no-one else could).
At the hight of Lears madness out on the heath, came a sight we really hadn't been expecting. Throughout the play, Lears clothing had been reduced (in my mind at least) as a symbol of his decline. Early on he has full kingly regalia, once he stands aside he wears a kind of Military uniform, as he is bounced between his daughters it is reduced to shirt and waistcoat and in his descent to madness, barefoot with ragged shirt and pants.
And so at his lowest point, he tries to divest himself of even these last trappings of position. Anna had been resting her eyes just before this point and so opened them to see Ian McKellan with shirt around his neck, pants around his ankles and not a stitch in between.
Admitedly, had we paid attention on the way in, we would have seen the sign warning us of 'flashing lights, sudden bangs and brief nudity' during the play, so we can't really blame the RSC.
I think I probably went to see this with to high an expectation of the performance. The idea of McKellan playing Lear just seemed so perfect. As it was I enjoyed the performance a great deal (my hands where sore after applauding the cast) and we had a good (if very long) day out.
Finally, Behind the cut there's a couple of scans of some postcards from the production, just for you.
