А вот и первый отзыв о спектакле.It’s exciting to see Trafalgar Transformed back after an amazing first season, in which I was blown away by The Pride and quite liked Macbeth. The newest play in the season is Richard III starring Martin Freeman. An interesting choice to play Richard III and certainly got me excited.
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Jamie Lloyd’s production is curious – as you walk into the theatre and see the stage set-up in a kind of 70s cabinet office, you start trying to piece Richard III together with what you know about the 70s. To be honest, I don’t know much. I spent the whole of the play trying to understand why it was set during that period, and it wasn’t until I was on my way home on the bus reading the programme that I realised I was just ignorant of the 1979 Winter of Discontent. I was born in that year, yet have little knowledge of it. Is it therefore a strong enough part of history that the reference will be clear to the average audience member? I don’t think so, personally, but time will tell.
So the set theme doesn’t really add to the experience of the play, but that doesn’t wholly matter. (Although you really are asked to use you imagination when Richard cries out “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!”) There’s strength in the pacing, the movement and, of course, the acting. I was pleasantly surprised by Martin Freeman’s performance. I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that he just plays Martin Freeman, so to see him let go of what I think are his acting crutches (certain facial expressions) and really embody a character was great. He was so committed and really took command of the role.
Freeman’s Richard is not the caricature I generally imagine Richard III to be. We’ve seen the hunchbacks with pronounced limps and walking sticks, but here he is much more understated. He has tons of charisma and plays the comedic elements well, grabbing the attention and sympathies of the audience from the outset in his opening monologue. Freeman is very adept at delivering the dry humour of Richard III, something I think is probably quite natural for him.
Jamie Lloyd has chosen to stage a bloody Richard III with deaths happening on stage, rather than off, as it was written. It increases the tension and the action; I have no idea how traditionalists will feel about that. But I am not a traditionalist and I enjoy a bloodbath on stage. In fact, I often feel with Shakespeare that the deaths are not tangible, real things -I like gritty, dirty theatre, so I appreciated the impact that the deaths had on me in this production. I was also on the front row, so there’s a very real connection you make as an audience member to the play as a whole when someone is strangled right in front of you. (Splash back from the blood is not as bad as we were lead to believe, so don’t worry on that front!)
The performance got a full standing ovation from everyone aside from myself and friend. It’s a first preview and there were mistakes. We got a tumble from Gina McKee, a nipple slip when someone’s boob popped out, a fumbled line here or there – it’s a first preview, this is completely acceptable, but leave the standing ovation to when a performance is so perfect it knocks your socks off! I understand Martin Freeman is popular, but I have no bigger pet peeve than everything getting a standing ovation these days…I rarely give them…
@темы:
Martin Freeman,
театр,
Richard III