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Monthly culture: December 2020
Tuesday, January 12th, 2021 06:48 pmBetter never than late ...
05DEC20: Elysium and Tangled: The Musical (double bill!)
Elysium: A live-streamed multimedia production (featuring a friend's goddaughter) about a virtual afterlife: I don't think it quite came together, but it was cleverly constructed and well-performed.
Tangled: live-action musical version of Disney movie, as produced for the Disney cruise line. I'd probably have enjoyed this more if I'd ever seen the film! But it was very polished, and the songs were solid musical fare.
12DEC20: Macbeth (2010 film)
Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood starring in a production with a Cold War, Eastern European ambience: Stalinist iconography, monochrome landscapes. Marvellously clear diction, actors savouring their lines rather than rushing them, the shock of nurses removing their face masks. (Face masks and hand-washing: eerily prescient.) This Macbeth is less vulnerable, more threatening, than usual: Malcolm also very menacing. Lady Macbeth is fearsome, well-lit and utterly credible psychologically. This may be the best production of the play that I've seen.
The brightest -- and sometimes the only -- colour in this play is red.
19DEC20: Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier
A retelling of the Disney Aladdin, from the Vizier's point of view. "Eaten by its own irony," was one comment on our theatre chat. Aladdin here is not especially likeable, and I wasn't sufficiently familiar with the Disney film to appreciate this transformative work. The second half was better than the first, which is unusual.
27DEC20: Dick Whittington (National Theatre)
Shades of Ben Aaronovitch, echoes of Gilbert and Sullivan, some bouncy songs (including one about Covid, and 'Mr Brightside' by the Killers), a socially-distanced pantomime horse, and some excellent lighting. It didn't really grab me but then I am not the target audience. (Indeed, I related more to the villain, Queen Rat, who wanted to convert all sweet shops to cheese shops. Apparently this is a bad thing?) Lawrence Hodgson-Mullings was a very good Dick, and you can quote me on that.
31DEC20: A Midsummer Night's Dream -- Shakespeare (the Bridge production, rewatched for New Year)
Still immensely uplifting: made me nostalgic and a bit tearful, missing the kind of live theatre that sweeps you up in its exuberance.
Early to bed as all real-life socialising impossible. Goodbye, 2020: you were weird.
05DEC20: Elysium and Tangled: The Musical (double bill!)
Elysium: A live-streamed multimedia production (featuring a friend's goddaughter) about a virtual afterlife: I don't think it quite came together, but it was cleverly constructed and well-performed.
Tangled: live-action musical version of Disney movie, as produced for the Disney cruise line. I'd probably have enjoyed this more if I'd ever seen the film! But it was very polished, and the songs were solid musical fare.
12DEC20: Macbeth (2010 film)
Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood starring in a production with a Cold War, Eastern European ambience: Stalinist iconography, monochrome landscapes. Marvellously clear diction, actors savouring their lines rather than rushing them, the shock of nurses removing their face masks. (Face masks and hand-washing: eerily prescient.) This Macbeth is less vulnerable, more threatening, than usual: Malcolm also very menacing. Lady Macbeth is fearsome, well-lit and utterly credible psychologically. This may be the best production of the play that I've seen.
The brightest -- and sometimes the only -- colour in this play is red.
19DEC20: Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier
A retelling of the Disney Aladdin, from the Vizier's point of view. "Eaten by its own irony," was one comment on our theatre chat. Aladdin here is not especially likeable, and I wasn't sufficiently familiar with the Disney film to appreciate this transformative work. The second half was better than the first, which is unusual.
27DEC20: Dick Whittington (National Theatre)
Shades of Ben Aaronovitch, echoes of Gilbert and Sullivan, some bouncy songs (including one about Covid, and 'Mr Brightside' by the Killers), a socially-distanced pantomime horse, and some excellent lighting. It didn't really grab me but then I am not the target audience. (Indeed, I related more to the villain, Queen Rat, who wanted to convert all sweet shops to cheese shops. Apparently this is a bad thing?) Lawrence Hodgson-Mullings was a very good Dick, and you can quote me on that.
31DEC20: A Midsummer Night's Dream -- Shakespeare (the Bridge production, rewatched for New Year)
Still immensely uplifting: made me nostalgic and a bit tearful, missing the kind of live theatre that sweeps you up in its exuberance.
Early to bed as all real-life socialising impossible. Goodbye, 2020: you were weird.
