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Post by marion on Mar 1, 2018 9:50:45 GMT
I went to see this yesterday and got lost trying to find "London's newest theatre" whilst sliding around in the snow and ice. So not in the best of moods when I got there. I quite liked it as a theatre, the entrance with the wooden floor and long bar reminded me of The Rose at Kingston. Plenty of ladies' loos!!!!!
This version is..... well I don't know what adjective to pick! It felt more like being in the middle of an art installation than watching a play; one review likened it to a happening. It is played in the round and the stalls pit is now filled with promenaders who are the Roman mob. They describe the promenade tickets as "immersive" but I found it pretty immersive in Gallery 1! Especially when they staged the battle scenes with explosions all over the place. There should be 400 promenaders but we had nowhere near that number, possibly thanks to the weather.It starts with a Trump-like rally and we get a 15 minute set of pounding rock music. Very innovative staging, although not too much of a shock to the system if you go to the National or The Young Vic.
Ben Whishaw plays a thoughtful Brutus and David Morrissey an electric Mark Antony. David Calder is JC. The casting is gender blind with women playing Cassius and Casca, which did work very well. Michelle Fairley I found very effective as a tense Cassius.
All in all I enjoyed it and it fairly zipped along at two hours with no interval.
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Post by Miranda on Mar 1, 2018 10:08:37 GMT
Sounds a good version! JC is one of the plays that lends itself to many styles. Whatever suits the politics of the time.
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