BALLET BLACK at Stratford East / HANSARD at Lyttelton - Bite-size Theatre

Constant Reader, you will know that I have an ongoing bloggy-thing where I will review my dvds in exactly 150 words - my last one was Vivien Leigh's 1948 ANNA KARENINA - so I figured as the last two theatrical entertainments back-to-back would last about the length of a proper show I would do the same thing to blog about them:

First off the rank: BALLET BLACK at Stratford East

I passed on seeing Ballet Black this year as they performed the same day as Madonna's MADAME X was released... and you know, priorities.  So, as Owen liked them, we went to see them at Stratford East.  We usually see musicals there so it was good to see a dance production although we both felt the works were compromised by the stage's width.

The first piece was called PENDULUM, created in 2009, which was aptly titled as the choreography see-sawed between Sayaka Ichikawa and Mthuthuzeli November but I preferred the zoot-suited snap and sass of Sophie Laplane's ensemble piece CLICK which showcased the remarkable Isabela Coracy, resplendent in yellow.

INGOMA, choreographed by Mthuthuzeli November and based on a South Africa miner's strike in 1946, impressed with it's sombre intensity and it was well-danced by José Alves and Ichikawa, but I came away quietly impressed rather than intensely moved.

 

The next sliver of theatre was HANSARD at the Lyttelton Theatre, a debut play from actor-turned-playwright Simon Woods.

1988: Tory MP Robin Hesketh returns to his Cotswolds home for his birthday but finds his wife Diana in a combative mood: she reveals she knows that he has spent time out of the office allegedly with her and she wants answers.

30 years of marriage evaporate as Diana rips Robin's conservative government's values to shreds while delighting in ridiculing Thatcher; Robin responds with jibes about her excessive drinking and her slovenliness.

But The Thing They Don't Talk About is finally revealed through Diana's hatred of the newly-introduced Clause 28... can you guess what it is?  Woods' play - while full of cutting putdowns - was like watching a mash-up of David Hare and Edward Albee - WHO'S AFRAID OF MARGARET THATCHER anyone?  The middle-class audience laughed at all the jokes about Etonions and scruffy Labour leaders.

Alex Jennings and Lindsay Duncan are excellent but deserve a less obvious play.

Dvd/150: THE HOLLOW CROWN: RICHARD II (Rupert Goold, 2012)

This trilogy of films based on four Shakespeare history plays, commissioned by the BBC for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, are excellent examples of intelligent, gripping stage-to-screen adaptations.

All three are cast to perfection: Ben Whishaw is marvellous as Richard, fey, capricious and remote, who, like Lear, initiates his own downfall by banishing his cousin Bolingbroke to six years abroad then appropriates his cousin's fortune and lands when Bolingbroke's father John of Gaunt dies.

Rory Kinnear is fine as the conflicted usurper Bolingbroke, their scenes together have an electric quality especially in the riveting abdication scene.

Excellent support comes from Patrick Stewart as John of Gaunt as well as David Suchet, Lindsay Duncan and David Morrissey among others.

Goold, whose adaptation with Ben Power has a fast-paced clarity, directs in a fluid style which leaves no symbolism unchecked and has a slight over-reliance on slow-motion detailing.

Shelf or charity shop?  I'faith my lord, shelf.