Review: NTLive Encore - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

This is more than a little late, my apologies. I saw this NTLive Encore screening on 22nd May and have been meaning to write a review ever since.

Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Media: NTLive Encore showing
Cast:
Luke Treadaway
Una Stubbs
Niamh Cusack
Nicola Walker
Paul Ritter
Matthew Barker
Howard Ward
Nick Sidi
Rhiannan Harper-Rafferty
Sophie Duval
Director: Marianne Elliott
Summary: Christopher is 15 and described himself as "a mathematician with some behavioural difficulties". His neighbour's dog Wellington is killed in the night with a garden fork and his desire to solve the mystery of who killed Wellington takes him on a journey that will change his life.

The only real way to begin this review is by saying this stage production is utterly amazing. If you have NTLive in a cinema near you and this production ever comes on again, go and see it. You will not regret it.

For those unaware, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a novel by Mark Haddon which was adapted for stage by Simon Stephens and it is mind blowing.

It is never explicitly stated, but is heavily implied that Christopher is a high-functioning autistic boy who has Asperger syndrome and hence has difficultly relating to the world around him in the same way others do. The play sets out to give us a glimpse of how he perceives the world while solving the mystery of Wellington's death. It does this with the most amazing lighting and computer generated effects and sounds projected onto the stage along with some of the finest acting I have ever seen.

This play is an assault on the senses and on the emotions. I cried a lot and I so wish this was available on DVD so I could cry again and again and again. I also laughed out loud because there were bits that were incredibly funny. I was reminded of the Joss Whedon quote: "Make it dark, make it grim, make it tough, but then, for the love of God, tell a joke." This production is beautifully balanced.

Luke Treadaway deserves so many awards for his performance. There is no doubt I believed I was watching an autistic boy on the stage. His disconnect from the normal world and yet his depth of emotion were utterly captivating. His earnestness, his confusion, his focus, his bravery; it was all there. I could not look away for even a moment.

The rest of the cast are also brilliant. If this was Disney some would be princes, others would be villains and yet, in this, they are real people. No one is perfect, no one is evil, they are simply real. Their pain and heartbreak at certain things is so clear and so is their joy.

The way it is staged is innovative and captivating. There is little scenery and a lot of structure is formed simply by light. When Christopher is on a train it is only some boxes with people sitting on them, but it is still a train. When he is walking through the busy station it is a stage with only a handful of people on it, and yet it becomes a busy station. The skill of the cast and the crew is simply amazing.

This play will tear your heart out and then put it back together for you. It will make you lean forward in your seat to experience everything and shy away when the cacophony is too loud. It will take you from the real world into the mind of "a mathematician with some behavioural difficulties" and bring you back out again, at times with a bang.

I want to see this again so badly.

Review: King Lear NTLive

King Lear NTLive
Director: Sam Mendes

So we went to the cinema on Thursday and saw the ntlive broadcast of King Lear. I wasn't blown away.

I'm not saying it was a bad production, there were moments of brilliance, I just didn't think it was amazing. The versions of Hamlet, Macbeth and Coriolanus I've seen in London have all had me raving about how wonderful they are, but, unfortunately, not King Lear.

Looking at the whole thing I think it stems very simply from one cause: as we were told in the interval presentation, Simon Russell Beale was trying to portray Lear as a man suffering from the early stages of a form of dementia. He did that fantastically; he's a superb actor - I just don't think it was the right decision for the play. It lead to a complete lack of subtly throughout the whole first half and it didn't gel for me.

We were also told in the interval presentation that they were trying to present Lear in the first scene as a dictator surrounded by yes men where Cordelia is the only person willing to not flatter him. Because of the use of the dementia angle, I don't think that came across at all well - in fact I didn't realise that's what they were going for until the interval presentation told me. There was no glimpse of the strong, respected man who was feared, at least, not for me. I really got nothing from the first scene, which was a problem because it's the set up for the rest of the play.

Then there was where they actually put the interval. It's not a good sign when every time there is a new scene I was going, 'oh god, not another one'.

I can always tell when a play has me riveted because I don't notice how I am sitting. During Coriolanus, for example, my behind went completely numb because I barely moved, same with James McAvoy's Macbeth and that was probably the most uncomfortable theatre I have ever been in. During King Lear I was fidgeting because I was uncomfortable and Cinewold has quite comfortable seats in comparison to most London theatres.

However, that said, some of the individual performances were superb, even if I don't think they came together as a cohesive unit.

Simon Russell Beale gave a fantastic performance; he hit the nail on the head for what he was going for. The man is outstanding. In the second half he shone. The moment when he is sitting with Gloucester in the corn field and he finally recognises him was simply amazing. I just wish the first half hadn't been all shouting and ranting and had had the same contrasts as the second half.

Then there was Sam Troughton as Edmund and I thought he was one of the highlights of the first half. The way when he was pretending to be good he wore his glasses, but when he was monologuing to the audience about his nefarious plans he took his glasses off was superb. He was good all the way through, but his early scenes were simply brilliant.

Then we have Kate Fleetwood as Goneril and Anna Maxwell Martin as Regan who were fantastic in several of their scenes. I felt sorry for Goneril when she was trying to deal with Lear to begin with, even if she did go about it entirely the wrong way. I never felt sorry for Regan, however, which was a nice contrast; she was always conniving.

The scene that stands out for Goneril for me was the one where she was with Edmund and it was as if his attentions freed her (not a good thing as it turns out :)). There was a lovely visual cue with her skirt, where when she was with Edmund it was unzipped to the thigh and when her husband appeared she zipped it back up again. Kate Fleetwood played it perfectly.

For Regan the best scene was by far the blinding of Gloucester. She always had something of the sociopath about her, with the way she flirts with her own father for a start, but in that scene we finally saw the reality of how vindictive she actually is. The way Anna Maxwell Martin just kind of devolved in the scene was superb.

Another fantastic performance, possibly the most outstanding one in the play actually, has to be Adrian Scarborough as the Fool. The nuances of his character and how he delivered his lines were brilliant. I really wish Shakespeare hadn't killed off the Fool mid play :).

Then the final mention goes to Tom Brooke as Edgar for when he was pretending to be Mad Tom. For starters anyone who can play naked in front of that many people and deliver their lines that well deserves a medal and secondly he has a very nice body ;).

So, as you can see, I really did like parts of the play. The problem was the moments of genius mostly seemed to be individual to me and the whole thing didn't come together. There was also no contrasts during the first half and so my brain eventually had enough and stopped really caring.

There were also scenes that got lost for me. When the Fool is killed by Lear my brain went 'oh' and I'm pretty sure there should have been more shock than that. Then in the final scenes I had no idea Regan had been poisoned until she rolled under the table and stopped moving. I did not get what was happening until it was completely over. I thought she was throwing a tantrum or something until she didn't get up.

I know for a fact other people totally don't agree with me :) because we met one lady in Morrisons the next day who we had bumped into on the way in to King Lear and she thought it was an amazing production. Her husband, however, seemed to be of the same opinion as we were.

I really wanted to enjoy this play; it's one I hadn't seen before, but it fell short for me. On the one hand the director, Sam Mendes, seemed to have had some great ideas, and on the other some that caused a complete lack of subtlety.

Coriolanus - or the death march for my calm professional blogging tone (okay, I know that was a stretch anyway ;))

First of all a moment of silence for my dignity, because after you've read this you're all going to know I'm a sqeeing fangirl of the first order :). Pictures are courtesy of the Donmar website.

So, yesterday I was in London with my sister and my hubby to see Coriolanus, and wow and once again I say wow!

Now before you tell me I only went to see it because Tom Hiddleston was in it I would defend myself and say I love Shakespeare and this is a play I have never seen or studied. Also I would counter with, yep, and that's a very good reason to see any play he's in, especially Shakespeare, because the man is a genius on stage :D.

There was one disappointment, but it wasn't with the play. I went to Forbidden Planet hoping to find some Loki merchandise I can't usually lay my hands on, and they had nothing - not a one. When asked the customer services lass said they do get stuff in, but it sells immediately. Now, personally, if I had been them and I knew my shop was less than 2 mins walk from Tom Hiddleston central (I kid you not, it's across a road, up a street and round a corner to the Donmar), I'd have built a Loki shrine in the corner of my shop for the duration and watched the pound signs tick up. They had three shelves of Thor and if I'd been able to get a Loki I probably would have bought one of those too!

But enough of that, on to the actual play.

First of all, I love the Donmar - it's cosy. The bench style seats are also roomy - there were several of us on our row of twelve who were, shall we say, not the smallest of lasses and we all had plenty of room. The depth of the seats is slightly less good, but it was much more comfortable than the Trafalgar Studios. The staff are absolutely lovely as well and kudos to them for being able to deal with the craziness surrounding Tom.

Secondly, thank you god for the most amazing seats. We were in the circle at the top in the back, but that makes no difference; the view is unbelievable, especially since two vital parts of the play were played right into our corner. I was able to stare into Tom Hiddleston's eye not once, but twice ... oops, there I go again, please forgive the metaphorical squeeing. I'm still trying to work out how the man can act and convey such amazing emotion without actually moving.

Thirdly I would like to pile gifts and awards on the costume designer. Leather and tight jeans - oh my word; those jeans left nothing to the imagination. Let me be base for a moment, wow, were there some nice backsides on display and I'll stop there.

The staging is minimalist to say the least; they have a ladder and some chairs and occasionally members of the cast paint things on the floor or the back wall. That's it. The chairs were genius. They were used as seats in the senate, casual chairs, a war throne and even battle lines. They helped change scenes along with the magnificent music that was perfectly judged.

There were three people who stood out for me as being above excellent: Tom Hiddleston as Coriolanus; Deborah Findlay as Volumnia; Mark Gatiss as Menenius. Don't get me wrong, the whole cast were good, none of them let the production down, but those three were astonishingly brilliant.

Tom is amazing enough on screen, but on stage he is mesmerising. The man oozes presence and delivers Shakespearean lines like they're modern English so it doesn't matter if the phrases are unfamiliar, you know exactly what he's talking about. He is sex on legs; there I said it, but I'm pretty sure there were people in the audience who didn't fancy him and were still gobsmacked. It would be very easy to dislike Coriolanus because he is a snob who cares nothing for the common people, but he also has honour, courage and nobility. The way Tom plays him, he has layers and he remained the hero for me, the very flawed hero all the way through. The moments of mummy's boy that made the whole audience laugh were also superb and brilliant.

Speaking of mummy, Derborah Findlay was stunning. By the time the production was barely a third of the way through it was obvious who Coriolanus' problem was. Volumnia created her son in the image she wanted when he was very young and then never stopped. Only she can manipulate him and in trying to build him up she is the one who ultimately pulls him down and Deborah plays her beautifully.

She's not domineering all the time. She's always strong, but sometimes she cajoling, her voice soft. Then the next minute she roars like a lioness and Coriolanus melts before her and promises to do whatever she tells him. A magnificent performance.

Mark Gatiss is also fantastic. He goes from confident, funny man, to desperate, empty and depressed and it is a stunning performance.

Menenius is the middle ground character, the negotiator and the way he despairs at Coriolanus even as he understands him is superb. Every scene Mark was in was lifted by his presence and he speaks Shakespeare as well as Tom.

We were discussing it in the car on the way home and what stood out about these three to us is how they seemed to understand everything about their characters. They knew them intimately and so could give us, the audience, all the subtlety and flaws of real human beings with real motivations. Simply brilliant.

Coriolanus is a political tragedy. It could have been the most deadly play imaginable, but this production made it the most exciting. There are sword fights and blood, but that wasn't what made it so entertaining; that was totally on the actors. Long speeches were delivered with such skill that I was hanging off every word and body language was used with such perfection that the whole stage came to light.

The most harrowing part was not the death scene or the fall from grace, but the pleas of Volumnia to her son as he waited to sack Rome. Deborah Findlay had all the words and Tom Hiddleston stood in one corner with his back to her and his face to us and it was the most amazing scene. It would have been so easy for one to steal the scene from the other and yet they didn't. It was impossible to know who to watch. Deborah moved around the stage using some of the other actors as her puppets and Tom barely moved and yet they balanced. Deborah was all desperate emotion on display and Tom was all internal, barely controlled pain and it was awesome.

My favourite Shakespeare play has always been Macbeth, but if every production of Coriolanus was like this one I'd have to change my mind. We're seriously considering going to the NT Live version on the 30th now as well, it was that good.

I wish we had been able to stay and try and get autographs, but it just wasn't possible. My feet were wrecked thanks to a taxi driver who dropped us off at the wrong end of Shaftesbury avenue when we asked him to take us to Forbidden Planet, it was just starting to rain and we had to get back to our car and then drive all the way home. I hope the brave ones who stayed got the autographs they wanted.

So, yes, it was brilliant and I will leave you with one part that ticked every box I have and there wasn't even any dialogue :D. What more could a fangirl ask when the production even gives us hurt/comfort?

James McAvoy as Macbeth is Bloody Brilliant

This weekend my husband and I had a long weekend in London, mostly so that we could go and see James McAvoy in Macbeth, and boy was it worth it. I can say that this production of Macbeth is bloody brilliant and I meant that quite literally.

Now if you don't like the sight of blood this is not the production for you. Half the cast are covered in it for half the play and the floor gets covered at least twice. That being said, the blood is not over the top since this is a very violent version of the play.

Please be aware this review will contain spoilers for the staging of the production, I'm pretty sure most people reading this already know what happens in the play ;).

For those who do not know, this version uses the original text, but is set in a distopian Scotland of the near future. It is all about conflict and it shows it in spades. It is definitely the most exciting version of Macbeth I have ever seen.

First of all there was one thing I was slightly unimpressed with, but that had nothing to do with what was going on, on the stage. The theatre is small and the seats are cramped and not very comfortable. However, I was so enrapt in the play that I only noticed these things when the actors left the stage, i.e. the interval and the end. That was when I discovered my bum was numb and it was stiflingly hot. Take water if you are going to see this; you will need it.

It's a slightly odd layout in that the front rows at both the front and the back of the stage are actually on the stage. It looked very exciting to be on the front row, a little too exciting for some people. At one point I think one lady thought she was about to be decapitated by a machete and I am sure one chap shrank about a foot when he was yelled at by Macbeth.

Okay, on to the play.

It grabs your attention straight away with a bang and then never lets go. I was thoroughly impressed with the whole cast who delivered their lines in such a way that it was totally understandable. I know Macbeth quite well, having studied it at school and never forgotten (well done Shakespeare and Miss Spittle), but Rob didn't know it as well and he thought it was incredibly clear. I've seen some plays where the cast have delivered the dialogue so badly it's unintelligible, but this production didn't have one speech I didn't get.

Then there is the acting. James McAvoy is stunningly good. He entered the stage and immediately owned it. The fact he was banging a machete and an axe on the ground probably helped, but he didn't really need it. He was commanding and engaging and, boy, is he strong and fast. In his soliloquies he filled the stage, which was a hell of a job with the audience all round, and when he was sharing the stage he gelled with all the other characters.

Macbeth's decent from hero to tyrant was shown in every word he spoke and every action he made. He was marvellous from his first hug with Banquo (Forbes Masson), to his final, bloody death throws thanks to Macduff (Jamie Ballard). This is an incredibly physical production; no standing around just spouting lines and McAvoy shows his strength and flexibility at every turn. There is also beautiful chemistry between him and Claire Foy as Lady Macbeth.

Which is a nice sidestep onto Lady Macbeth, for she was also fantastic. Her "Out damn spot..." was a work of utter beauty. It's really a shame that Lady Macbeth doesn't have a huge death scene like Macbeth, because she would have been epic. She went from conniving wife, to completely batty with wonderful fluidity and the way she and Macbeth get very cosy a time or two was nicely hot.

The one scene where McAvoy basically drags Foy around the stage it utterly amazing. The tension is incredible.

As I have said before the whole cast were marvellous and I could go into raptures about all of them, from the witches to Macduff's son, but it would take me far too many words. Hence I will mention the other two stand out performances for me: Forbes Masson as Banquo and Jamie Ballard as Macduff.

Banquo was every bit the firm friend to Macbeth. There was no doubting they were comrades in arms and men who had had each other's backs. It was there in all their interaction and made is so much more poignant when that fell apart. Masson was wonderful throughout, but he really shone in the banquet scene, where he ends up nose to nose on a table with Macbeth before being drenched in blood from the ceiling.

Then there is Macduff. The scene where he finds out about the death of his wife and children actually made me cry. There is a part where Ballard actually howls in grief and that just did it for me. That was it, I blubbed. I think it was the most heart-wrenching scene from Shakespeare I have ever seen on stage. Simply amazing.

I wish I could go back and see it all again, even with the uncomfortable seats and incredible heat. It was utterly fantastic. The best Macbeth I have ever seen and not just because I am a huge fan of James McAvoy.

Then there was the standing outside the stage door to get an autograph from James. The first thing I have to say, is thanks to my long suffering husband for standing with me and taking pictures. I would have liked to grab a few of the others for autographs too, but it's really quite hard to figure out who are actors when everyone is bundled up in hats and scarves and not covered in blood - who knew ;).

We waited for quite some time, but it was worth it. James came out and signed and talked and had photos taken. He is such a lovely man; genuinely sweet and so nice to everyone.

Thank you James.

I'm pretty sure I didn't make a complete idiot out of myself, although I did discover that silver sharpies do not like the cold. It worked, but barely.

And there you have it, the highlight of my weekend.

This is a superb production and, if they aren't completely sold out, you should all go and get tickets.