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Post by Mr Crummles on Feb 29, 2016 21:05:46 GMT
and the guillotine in Danton's Death at the National was pretty amazing..... I still remember the ghastly silence in the audience. If a feather fell on the carpet, you would have heard it.
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134 posts
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Post by Mr Crummles on Jan 30, 2016 13:37:49 GMT
After all the somewhat less-than-brilliant reports about Les Liaisons Dangereuses, I was surprised how much I enjoyed this Donmar production. I guess lowering one's expectations is the best way of ensuring a good time in the theatre (well, actually in the cinema, as this is where I saw this).
But, what surprised me the most is how good - in fact excellent - I thought Dominic West was.
I'm a great LLD fan. The book always struck me as a brilliant masterpiece on how civilised society is a great danger to itself. How the conventions we establish, and little games we play exploiting it, can be lethal to the more vulnerable.
I always felt that for an adaptation of the novel to work in cinema, theatre, tv, radio, etc., it was crucial to get the actors perfectly right. My problem with Stephen Frears' film was the choice of Glenn Close and John Malkovich. I always felt they were too brutal and obviously predatory to deceive people, even less sophisticated ones. John Malkovich was too vulpine and not too subtle for someone who was supposed to be a charming dissembler. I thought Dominic West was just great. He was a perfectly witty, spoiled, frivolous, entitled and vain society gentleman, completely blasé about sex, who enjoyed it less for the passion it afforded than for the poker game it was in Europe at the time, in which he could boast of his prowess, conquests and victories. West's Valmont was obviously surprised by the feelings a woman was stirring in his heart and one could keenly feel the great struggle shaking him inside between his vanity and his love. As Madame Meurteil points out, though, vanity and happiness can never coexist, and tragedy ensues. Noticed no fluffs in the evening performance.
I thought the rest of the cast was very good, with Elaine Cassidy playing an absolutely heart-rending Madame de Tourvel. The scene in which she asked the viscount to spare her broke my heart (and I was completely at odds with those in the audience who laughed at it - well, maybe nervously). Edward Holcroft was a great Danceny. Lost in a storm of confusing feelings, he managed to bring a secondary character pretty much to the fore. Janet McTeer was her usual brilliant self, and so was Una Stubbs. Even small parts, such as Azolan's (Theo Barklem-Biggs), Valmont's cynical page, were played to great attention to detail.
I should have taken the plane from Dublin to see this at the Donmar.
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134 posts
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Post by Mr Crummles on Jan 28, 2016 14:53:03 GMT
Unlikely, the cast do seem to be the busy sort. Out of interest, has anything transferred from the Donmar since Frost/Nixon? For sure, in Josie Rourke's period, "The weir" and "Julius Caesar" have transferred. And Red, directed by Michael Grandage.
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134 posts
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Post by Mr Crummles on Jan 26, 2016 13:59:14 GMT
I just wish to really thank you all who organised this transition and managed to keep our community together. Unfortunately I wasn't able to help with anything, but I was completely blown away by the way everything was conducted; the efficiency, the democratic, and civil, discussion on how to best proceed, the great ideas, and that absolutely brilliant summary provided by John_Rebus. John, may a thousand fantastic productions of Newsies pop up in every capital of Europe. BurlyBearR, Matthew, and all those whom I'm not mentioning because I have a sclerotic mind, thanks for all your work in securing a new, safe home for us. I wish I could erect a statue for all of you at the very centre of the West End.
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