Shakespeare

Well an interesting 24 hours of Shakespeare.

First Julius Caesar last light and then a visit to Anne Hathaway’s cottage today.

Blip is of Anne Hathaway’s cottage from the gardens of the cottage. Hardly anyone around as it was cold, wet and very grey. The cottage had all its windows open so it was very cold inside.

We went to the play in the knowledge it would be a reimagined and have an updated version of the play. Actors played by different genders was one of the favourites for us in guessing what they might do. Don’t have a problem with this. Saw Glenda Jackson play King Lear and gender was invisible.

Mrs C and I discussed the merits of the production on the way home and then continued over breakfast this morning. I don’t think we deliberately tried to pick holes but we certainly unpicked some key moments in the play  and how they were presented. For me the gender choices created some challenges and caused confusion. The use of man, he and she caused problems of continuity for the actors and for me. The type of relationship between Caesar and Brutus was blurred. The voices needed to be projected strongly but at times I felt this was lost.

Some of the staging was lost on me. Maybe I am just too old and not cultured enough to understand the purpose of some of it. However what did stick in my mind was the setting for the Mark Anthony “Friends, Romans, Countrymen etc” speech.  Who was he presenting to? Were the audience the common people of Rome?  The actor providing the reaction to what he was saying should have been positioned within the audience IMO. At times this person walked in front of Mark Anthony to deliver the lines when Mark Anthony needed to be front and central at all times.

Still the evening prompted great discussion and triggered us visiting Anne Hathaway’s cottage.

Much more interesting my daughter and family survived the long flight to Japan and then three rail journeys to get to Nagano to visit the Snow Monkey’s tomorrow.

Perhaps we should have taken Shakespeare’s advice “Beware the Ides of March”. So Mr Chrispy will take on his cultural! persona once more my fellow Blippers when you lend me your ears as I have tickets for Cymbeline and Hamnet.

Please note
The real Mr C was on leave today and he will revert to type for tomorrow’s Blip.