Richard III, The Birds, Biopsy and Other Musings

Bloody Shakespeare, had to ruin the alteration of my title by not re-writing the name of historical kings.  I s'pose I'll let him off, but that's nowt to do with how "talented" he is and more to do with how forgiving I am.  In some ways, I find the success of his work rather curious, but that should be a blog post all to itself!  On Sunday night, I went to the the theatre! (Am Sonntag Abend, bin ich ins Theater gegangen!)  The play was Richard III, the venue was the Old Vic and therefore Kevin Spacey himself was in the lead (Sam Mendes allegedly directed - more on that later).  My goodness, what a performance.  For my money, the first half of that play is some of the greatest stuff the old Bard ever wrote and Mr Spacey was easily able to conjure a truly wicked and comical performance, both verbally and physically (yes, there was the old pillow in a shirt routine).  Unfortunately, I can't say much for the rest of the cast.  True, the play is focused completely on its lead (and all the better for it, old Kevin was doing plenty of heavy lifting), but had any of the other players been required to do more stage time, I believe the production would have fallen apart.

Let me stress that I am most certainly not an expert in either theatre, the works of Shakespeare or the works of any of his peers (haha, yes, as if that wasn't made perfectly clear by the stupidity of my opinions above).  Most of my criticisms therefore could probably be explained away by either "the motivations of character X aren't explicitly explored in the text" or "that was the style of theatre of the time, if you wanted something more naturalistic, go and see "Streetcar..." instead".  That's not going to stop me from writing them down though.  My main two issues with the production were as follows.

One.  If you were an actor not called Kevin Spacey, then when anyone else was performing their lines, you were standing awkwardly not quite knowing what to do with your hands.  My amateur dramatic career was completely comprised of high school drama (plus an amateur version of Cider with Rosie (I think I was 13 then)), but watching some performances really reminded me of some of my performances, in that I found it incredible difficult to react to what was meant to be going on around me in a convincing manner.  Perhaps though this is intrinsic in Shakespearian performances though, as the focus is on the wordplay?

Two.  My goodness, this play tail ends.  After introducing us to a truly interesting and complex character, Richard becomes nothing but a boogie man in the second half.  Richmond, allied with just as dastardly a group as Richard, is rather idolised to the point of nausea.  Oh well.  Worth it completely for Mr Spacey and a big shout out to who ever designed Annabel Scholey's dress.  Yowza.

Right, and if you haven't lost all your respect for my opinions, just you wait.  I'm going to chop down Hitchcock next.

Being a bit of a film nut, buying me a box set of 14 Hitchcock films is a very good idea, especially considering that I had only seen Psycho prior to the purchase.  I've had this box set for two and bit years now, so I can add Rear Window and (as of Friday night) the Birds to my list.  I've decided enough is enough, so the housemates and I are going tackle these 14 films over the next few weeks.  I really enjoyed the Birds, but I don't think it's a great film by any stretch.  Watching it, it is impossible not to see its influence on films like Night of the Living Dead and Jaws, but both of these are vastly superior films for three reasons (acting, script and the ending).

I really love that, despite my negative reaction to the film as a whole, I have so much more respect for Hitchcock as a visual director.  The playground sequence is a complete stroke of genius, which makes me pine for better visual directors.  Let me round this off now by discussing the ending.  That is not a ending.  That is a story running out of steam and just finishing.  Personally, I am a huge fan of anti-"is that it?"-type endings.  John Carpenter's The Thing (or even Halloween for that matter) is a great example of this.  I even enjoy a well delivered incredibly slight ending (see Funny Ha Ha for that).  This unfortunately is just an embarrassment.  It plays like a straight faced version of Monty Python's Holy Grail.

In other news, today I had a hospital appointment.  A doctor stuck a needle in my neck and scraped about a bit.  Comically, I think I made more of a mess on my face shaving today than the biopsy caused.  Not a terribly pleasurable experience.  I rate it C-.  I wouldn't recommend it.

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Other musings

How about that Game 7 eh?  Watching Vancouver in that game was pretty much the equivalent to watching a man try and open a pull door by pushing it and then, finding that didn't work, pushing it hard and harder and then quitting after 40 minutes.  Of course, this analogy only works if the door cross checks the man in the face twelve times and he does nothing about it.

The inaugural Stanley Cup Stake of Steaks Payout was last night.  Rob and I went to our favourite Canadian pub in London (The Maple Leaf, Convent Garden, do go and say hello to the lovely staff), had a pair of 12 oz Sirloin Steaks (yes, capitals are needed) and slipped them down with a few too many bottles of Mooseheads.  Still got up and exercised this morning though.  Go me.

I've had another idea for a screenplay.  If I start this one, that'll be 7 started, none completed.  Quite the batting average.

I've been on an absolute book binge lately.  Today, while I was waiting for my needle prodding, I started the Moviegoer by Walker Percy.  Really enjoying it so far!  I've also been reading Fragments (the collection of Marilyn Monroe's diaries/letters/poems).  I must admit, that I never understood the Monroe hysteria until I flicked through this.  Strangely enough, it's the photos that really caught me.  She has this bizarre quality that makes every photograph look like a shared intimate memory.  I'll try and share some of these some time.

Rome in two weeks yesterday.  Swimming pool body nearly perfected.  Pull up bar has helped immensely.