1,245 posts
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Post by joem on Oct 15, 2016 11:49:36 GMT
Two late plays ("I Can't Remember Anything" and "Clara") by Miller on the related theme of memory.
These really feel like vignettes more than one-act plays. "Clara" has more dramatic possibilities but also fizzles out in a haze of indeterminate dialogue. Perhaps that was Miller's intention but I get the feeling his mojo sadly left him in his last years.
Sparse staging as you would expect, and you don't need much more for this, and the actors have a decent stab at the unpromising material.
Thanks to Theatro Technis for having the courage to stage this, thus giving me the opportunity to see it on what was my first visit to this Mornington Crescent venue, but it's Miller for completists. I hope there will be enough of those to make it worth their while.
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Post by Jan on Oct 15, 2016 13:36:32 GMT
I seem to recall these were on at Jermyn Street only a few years ago so maybe less of a draw for completists. There are better Miller rarities worthy of revival.
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Post by martin1965 on Oct 15, 2016 18:46:22 GMT
Isnt this the same double bill that the Young Vic did with Helen Mirren and the late great Bob Peck in i think 1989? I agree with Jan, there are lots more Millers worth doing!
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Post by joem on Oct 15, 2016 20:54:09 GMT
You are probably both right. But since I hadn't seen them on either occasion.... ticked them off my list!
To be fair there's (hopefully) a whole new generation of theatregoers now since 1989.
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Post by Jan on Oct 16, 2016 9:44:50 GMT
Isnt this the same double bill that the Young Vic did with Helen Mirren and the late great Bob Peck in i think 1989? I agree with Jan, there are lots more Millers worth doing! No that was a double bill of "Elegy for a Lady" and "Some Kind of Love Story". I never much liked Bob Peck to be honest, whenever he tried to do accents other than his own (Yorkshire or similar) he unaccountably sounded like a Jamaican. Mirren was pretty subdued in those plays - kept her clothes on. |
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Post by martin1965 on Oct 16, 2016 11:10:46 GMT
Ah, yep just double checked, my mistake. Most of Pecks roles were too far early for me so not really in position to say.
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Post by Jan on Oct 16, 2016 11:22:59 GMT
Ah, yep just double checked, my mistake. Most of Pecks roles were too far early for me so not really in position to say. Peck was one of those actors who achieved vast TV fame (by being very good in a TV series) and as a result people tended to overvalue his ability as a stage actor. Patrick Stewart is another. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2016 12:19:03 GMT
Bob Peck didn't do all that much work after Edge of Darkness and Jurassic Park but he was, before them, a mainstay of the RSC for many years. He played several lead roles, including Shakespeare's Macbeth and Edward Bond's Lear. Didn't his Caliban have dreadlocks? I might have remembered that wrong, but it could explain an intended Caribbean twang in that show.
I seem to remember reading that he came to professional acting quite late after being a successful amateur actor while doing a normal job. Latterly, he lived in our village and, as our village celebrity, opened the village fete or bazaar where he had a gentle conversation with Lady [village name].
B P: Do you ever go to the RSC?
Lady [v]: Yes, we do go occasionally.
B P: Have you seen anything recently?
Lady [v]: Well, we went to Macbeth. Were you in that?
B P: Yes, I was.
Lady [v]: Oh, what part did you play?
B P: Macbeth.
Lady []: (Hides face behind hands in mock embarrassment)
I heard that tale from his next door neighbour, who also told us of how Bob Peck had come round to warn him that he'd been woken up in the night on several occasions by the sound of intruders outside. The neighbour asked Bob Peck a few questions and then informed him that he'd heard the milkman delivering milk.
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Post by Flim Flam on Oct 16, 2016 12:46:58 GMT
Love those stories. I liked Bob Peck on stage in the very few roles I saw him in. I recall his Caliban as being very grungy indeed, with lots of wild hair. Not sure if they were dreadlocks though. Thought he was excellent in that role.
I also liked Patrick Stewart in Henry IV at the Barbican. I remember getting goosebumps at his 'uneasy lies the head that wears the crown' speech.
Mind you, thought Anthony Hopkins was awful in Antony and Cleopatra on the stage. I remember him being interviewed on t.v. at the time. The interviewer asked him if he understood all the lines he had to speak in the role. He said he didn't, but that he just shouted the bits he didn't understand. I thought that really summed up his performance.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2016 12:54:57 GMT
Bob Peck always spoke Shakespeare so that it sounded quite natural, as if he was saying what the character was thinking, and was gripping and easily understandable. I much prefer that approach to the present focus on "verse speaking" which seems to respect the text as literature, which makes it much more difficult to comprehend it. www.theguardian.com/news/1999/apr/08/guardianobituaries.lyngardner |
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Post by lynette on Oct 16, 2016 14:54:55 GMT
Ah, yep just double checked, my mistake. Most of Pecks roles were too far early for me so not really in position to say. Peck was one of those actors who achieved vast TV fame (by being very good in a TV series) and as a result people tended to overvalue his ability as a stage actor. Patrick Stewart is another. Patrick Stewart was doing the Shakespeare roles in Stratford before he went to Star Trek. I saw him in them and he was good and valued. He isn't one of my favourites, I'm seeing No man's land later this month so might change my mind, but he is an excellent stage actor and not just a tv product. |
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Post by Jan on Oct 16, 2016 14:59:38 GMT
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Post by Jan on Oct 16, 2016 15:02:11 GMT
Bob Peck always spoke Shakespeare so that it sounded quite natural, as if he was saying what the character was thinking, and was gripping and easily understandable. I much prefer that approach to the present focus on "verse speaking" which seems to respect the text as literature, which makes it much more difficult to comprehend it. www.theguardian.com/news/1999/apr/08/guardianobituaries.lyngardnerPeck had few leading roles, his Macbeth in a mis-firing Howard Davies production was unfortunately poor. He was a good company member in supporting roles, cast entirely according to type as a Yorkshire farmer in Nicholas Nickelby he was excellent. Patrick Stewart was an excellent company member too but the cast of No Man's Land is not a meeting of stage acting equals. |
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Post by lynette on Oct 16, 2016 16:20:49 GMT
I don't know what this means. A full stop? Is it the punctuation equivalent of 'I disagree' or what? |
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Post by Jan on Oct 17, 2016 6:40:06 GMT
I don't know what this means. A full stop? Is it the punctuation equivalent of 'I disagree' or what? No it is not an "emoji" (dread word), the explanation is more mundane. When you post stuff twice by mistake or due to computational failure there is no way to remove the duplicate post and there is no way to edit one of the posts to delete everything from it, it demands at least one character in every post. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2016 8:34:23 GMT
If the text of the post is changed to "duplicate post" then a passing moderator will probably clean it up.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2016 10:33:53 GMT
o
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2016 10:34:18 GMT
"duplicate post"
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2016 15:53:13 GMT
Duplicate interword space. |
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