I’ve not read the novel or seen any other adaptations of it,
so I was coming to Rebecca fresh. But
regardless of my knowledge of the book, it’s clear that Kneehigh’s stage production
of Rebecca is a very inventive
adaptation.
As soon as you see the set, you know you’re in for something
special. Part grand house in ruins; part seashore; broken staircases running
across the stage. And the boat looming centre-stage throughout the first half,
reminding us always that Rebecca’s absence is a very real presence in the
house.
If any of the audience at Eastbourne’s Devonshire Park
Theatre (15th April 2015) was expecting a straight adaptation, with ‘realistic’
sets and the usual period drama tropes, they would have been taken by surprise
by Kneehigh’s Rebecca.
This is a much more stylised adaptation. Set, sound,
lighting, puppetry and music all combine to tell the tale and draw out the
themes. Such as the combination of jazz music on a gramophone and sea shanties
being played by the actor-musicians: the clash of the sophisticated and the
elemental.
Obviously if you’ve seen Kneehigh before, or know them by
reputation, then you know that they’re nothing if not inventive. Rebecca features their trademark music,
comedy and playfulness and ties these up in a full on, dark, ambitious
production.
I remember seeing Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge in the cinema when it came out, and having to take a
moment at the end just to recover from the force of the visual and aural
whirlwind that had just swept around me.
I felt a bit like that at the end of Rebecca.
Very much worth seeing.
Sunday 19 April 2015
Tuesday 14 April 2015
Shakespeare in Love - Noel Coward Theatre
Clever, fast-paced, energetically played and slickly
mounted, this stage adaptation of the film Shakespeare
in Love is worth seeing before it closes. I caught it on Saturday 11th
April 2015.
Like the film, the play is littered with references to Shakespeare’s plays and poems. Other well-known playwrights and actors of the period feature as characters – as do monarchs, come to that. The audience is expected to know these references and to recognise them quickly. The pace does not let up for a moment.
Being a regular Globe-goer, I appreciated how the set on the stage of the Noel Coward Theatre cleverly mimicked the Elizabethan-style theatre. The scenes where we were watching the characters backstage (in the foreground) looking out onto the actors onstage were particularly well done.
(It perhaps goes without saying that I thought the way the play within a play was handled here was much better than in Peter Pan Goes Wrong).
With Elizabethan-style music and a jig at the end of the play, Shakespeare in Love consciously echoes the conventions of Elizabethan theatre. I couldn’t help thinking how fun it would be to see this put on at the Globe. Some of the cleverness of the set might have to be jettisoned, but it would bring the kind of immediacy and sense of fun to the production that is a struggle to achieve in a proscenium arch theatre.
As it is, though, Shakespeare in Love has a pretty good go at recreating that atmosphere, and it’s undoubtedly a clever, witty show.
Like the film, the play is littered with references to Shakespeare’s plays and poems. Other well-known playwrights and actors of the period feature as characters – as do monarchs, come to that. The audience is expected to know these references and to recognise them quickly. The pace does not let up for a moment.
Being a regular Globe-goer, I appreciated how the set on the stage of the Noel Coward Theatre cleverly mimicked the Elizabethan-style theatre. The scenes where we were watching the characters backstage (in the foreground) looking out onto the actors onstage were particularly well done.
(It perhaps goes without saying that I thought the way the play within a play was handled here was much better than in Peter Pan Goes Wrong).
With Elizabethan-style music and a jig at the end of the play, Shakespeare in Love consciously echoes the conventions of Elizabethan theatre. I couldn’t help thinking how fun it would be to see this put on at the Globe. Some of the cleverness of the set might have to be jettisoned, but it would bring the kind of immediacy and sense of fun to the production that is a struggle to achieve in a proscenium arch theatre.
As it is, though, Shakespeare in Love has a pretty good go at recreating that atmosphere, and it’s undoubtedly a clever, witty show.
Sunday 5 April 2015
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
I’ve just realised that I’ve only been writing about theatre
recently, and haven’t told you about any of the books I’ve been reading.
The most recent one I finished was On the Road by Jack Kerouac. This is an incredibly vivid evocation of a time, a place and an attitude. So much so that you almost feel as if you’re experiencing it yourself.
Except that there are jarring points for a 21st century reader. You rush along with it up to a certain point and then you think – oh, hang on, that’s not on.
This is especially true, for me, in the depiction of and attitudes towards women. I’d be really interested in reading a Wide Sargasso Sea kind of novel from a female character’s perspective. Maybe one of Dean’s wives, or one of the Mexican prostitutes, or even Sal’s aunt. What are their stories?
But On the Road is about capturing one man’s impressions of his travels and of his friends and of the people he encounters. And what it sets out to do, it does perfectly. You can definitely see why it’s called a classic.
The most recent one I finished was On the Road by Jack Kerouac. This is an incredibly vivid evocation of a time, a place and an attitude. So much so that you almost feel as if you’re experiencing it yourself.
Except that there are jarring points for a 21st century reader. You rush along with it up to a certain point and then you think – oh, hang on, that’s not on.
This is especially true, for me, in the depiction of and attitudes towards women. I’d be really interested in reading a Wide Sargasso Sea kind of novel from a female character’s perspective. Maybe one of Dean’s wives, or one of the Mexican prostitutes, or even Sal’s aunt. What are their stories?
But On the Road is about capturing one man’s impressions of his travels and of his friends and of the people he encounters. And what it sets out to do, it does perfectly. You can definitely see why it’s called a classic.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)