Post by peelee on Sept 17, 2018 17:59:23 GMT
I recommend the production of poet Tony Harrison's verse-based Square Rounds that opened recently as a revival at the Finborough Theatre in Earls Court, which work some regard as a not-a-play but which at a Saturday matinee I found to be sit-up-and-take-notice theatre. Its staging here anticipates the approaching centenary of the end of the First World War, and shows that the centenary four years ago of the opening of the War had, artistically, not said it all. I did not even know of the existence of Square Rounds, let alone that it was staged at the Olivier at the National Theatre in 1992.
The all-female cast of six play characters like munition workers, war victims and mourners, although mostly focus on notable inventors, of scientific processes and industrial products that had peaceful uses and intent yet which were also used/misused in warfare in time for 1914-18 and years well beyond. Fertilisers, gases, machine guns, nuclear physics, X-rays: here woven into poetry.
How could this be entertaining? Yet the quality of Harrison's writing and this talented cast, ably assisted by director and designers, make this a serious, lively, often funny, informative and thought-provoking audience experience. It's one of the best things I've seen in a while. And not for the first time, here is a production in which multiple roles played by a handful of actors in a tight space and with very limited resources, knock spots off outfits with time, space and money to spare. Here is the spirit of Oh! What a Lovely War at Stratford East, of Major Barbara at the Orange Tree marking a Shaw anniversary, and of a brilliant Light Shining in Buckinghamshire as staged at the Arcola when still in Arcola Street. Read the reviews whether resentful or trying to be indifferent to Square Rounds through to those praising what Proud Haddock have staged, and consider seeing the kind of thing you don't usually get the chance to see and hear even on the fringe.
The all-female cast of six play characters like munition workers, war victims and mourners, although mostly focus on notable inventors, of scientific processes and industrial products that had peaceful uses and intent yet which were also used/misused in warfare in time for 1914-18 and years well beyond. Fertilisers, gases, machine guns, nuclear physics, X-rays: here woven into poetry.
How could this be entertaining? Yet the quality of Harrison's writing and this talented cast, ably assisted by director and designers, make this a serious, lively, often funny, informative and thought-provoking audience experience. It's one of the best things I've seen in a while. And not for the first time, here is a production in which multiple roles played by a handful of actors in a tight space and with very limited resources, knock spots off outfits with time, space and money to spare. Here is the spirit of Oh! What a Lovely War at Stratford East, of Major Barbara at the Orange Tree marking a Shaw anniversary, and of a brilliant Light Shining in Buckinghamshire as staged at the Arcola when still in Arcola Street. Read the reviews whether resentful or trying to be indifferent to Square Rounds through to those praising what Proud Haddock have staged, and consider seeing the kind of thing you don't usually get the chance to see and hear even on the fringe.