Virginia Woolf Essays at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

Last week we went to a reading of two of Virginia Woolf's most famous essays, 'A Room Of One's Own' and 'Three Guineas', at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in Shakespeare's Globe. The readers were Hattie Morahan and Joan Iyiola. Both essays were abridged so each lasted about 1:30 hours.

I think it's a great idea to hold readings in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse since it's small and intimate, lit by candles and it's a nice, gentle way to spend an evening. I don't think I've ever been read to for one and half hours straight. The readers stood alone on stage, turning the pages and taking gulps of water now and then to keep going. It must take a lot of skill to be able to read aloud like that.

I read both essays many years ago (probably several decades ago) so it was nice to be reintroduced to them this way. It was also good to be reminded of Virginia's massive intellect and incisive vision, roaming around all sorts of idea and theories while never straying from her central themes.

Thank you Sam, I enjoyed the evening very much.

'Eastward Ho!' at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

On Sunday afternoon we went to a 'Read Not Dead' performance of 'Eastward Ho!' in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe. The 'Read Not Dead' series picks out little performed plays and gathers together a cast of players who have a single rehearsal on a Sunday morning and then perform the play, script in hand, that afternoon. 'Eastward Ho!' was co-written by Ben Johnson and that was enough to pique my curiosity so I booked tickets. I've only ever seen Johnson's 'Volpone' so it was an opportunity to see another of his works.

The Globe bill it as the tale of Master Touchstone's daughters, one haughty and one meek, but I saw a very different play. The daughters are in it but it's more about commerce, greed and power, using women as chattels to get funding, class and the ruling monied elite, the potential of Empire and, of course, morality and goodness against plain old selfish nastiness. That takes up a few more words, I suppose, but it's so much more than the tale of two daughters.

I loved it. It felt fresh and alive, many of the themes relevant to today and the thrill of almost sitting on the edge of your seat wondering whether they'll get it right. And, by and large, they did, which was very impressive. Well done to the troupe! I suppose it's that thing of getting the key essentials of the character right and then it doesn't matter if you don't get the odd line quite right or miss you cue, you still bring the 'reality' of the character to the fore. I particularly liked Michael Matus as Touchstone, Ralph Davis as his greedy apprentice and Daisy Boulton as Touchstone's haughty daughter who simply wants to marry someone/anyone who could give her the title of 'Lady' and a carriage. Well done people, and to everyone involved.

But Globe, please, why such uncomfortable seats? I know it's about recreating the Shakespearean experience but you've already relented by adding cushions so why not add a back to the benches? You don't have Shakespearean toilets so why insist on uncomfortable seats?

'The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk' at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

Last week we went to see 'The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk' at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe. I knew nothing about the play other than it was about the love of Marc and Bella Chagall so, naturally, I had to get tickets as soon as they went on sale. Bella was his muse for so many paintings - so many paintings of flying lovers, too - and I wanted to know more. The play is by Daniel Jamieson who wrote it 20 years ago but I've not heard of to before.

The play is essentially a double-header with just Marc and Bella for most of the time, joined occasionally by two musicians on stage. It opens with their first meeting before he vanished to Paris to learn his craft and to start becoming famous but not rich. He returns to Vitebsk in Belarus to marry Bella with the aim of returning to Paris but they get trapped there by the First World War and have to make the best of it. They survive through the Russian Revolution and eventually move on to France and then America where Bella dies during the Second World War. The play ends with Marc having lunch with the ghost of Bella - he's re-married by now but his new wife isn't his muse - and I loved the simple 'Sorry' to Bella for having re-married. She doesn't seem to mind.

This play is part of the 'Wonder' season, Emma Rice's first season as Artistic Director for the Globe, and is full of whimsy and simple magic. It fits right in with the 'wonder' theme - suspend your judgement and fall into the world this play creates, the magic and joy of love, and release your imagination. I loved it.

I wasn't desperately keen on the set with it's wooden poles sticking out all over the place but I loved the colour-washes that covered the stage with the newly installed lights.
  
Marc Antolin played Marc and Audrey Brisson played Bella and they had a lovely stage presence. I've seen Marc in plays before (including 'Into The Woods' and 'Taken at Midnight') and it was nice to see him in this dreamy production. Audrey is new to me and is definitely worth watching out for in future.

It's a gentle little play and I loved it. I'm very pleased that I've seen it. I even bought a programme.

End of the Winter Season at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

The winter season at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe is coming to an end with its final production, 'The Tempest'. I've seen all the plays this season - 'Pericles', 'Cymbeline' (see earlier blogs) and 'The Winter's Tale' - and a good season it's been.  The Sam Wanamaker is the indoor theatre at the Globe with it's beautiful, golden, panelled wood stage and backdrop, it's cushioned benches and the candles to light the stage, all very atmospheric and delightful. Now that the days are getting longer and (at least in theory) warmer, it's time to start readying the open-air Globe for its glorious summer. But not just yet.

I saw both 'Pericles' and 'Cymbeline' earlier the season and saw 'The Winter's Tale' a few weeks ago. I saw Kenneth Branagh's version with Judi Dench before Christmas and loved that production, opening with a Christmas set and carol singing just in time for that great time of year. I've seen it before (there was an awful production at the Old Vic 6-7 years ago) and it's not one of my favourite plays. In part, that's due to the characters.

We have Leontes of Sicilia who grows insanely jealous of his wife with no reason whatsoever, turns on a lifelong friend and forces a servant to try to kill him, imprisons his heavily pregnant wife and, when the Oracle at Delphi says she's innocent, refuses to believe her and his son dies. What a pleasant man. There are lots of ways of playing this role, almost slyly like Branagh or in wild fits of rage as in this production. I liked the rage.

I also find Hermione a bit problematic, Leontes wife who sees a loving and tender husband grow into a green monster overnight. And while denying adultery, she accepts everything her husband does to her, including imprisonment. Um, c'mon lass, have some backbone. And then, when she hears her son has died and she swoons into a feint and is pronounced dead to save her, she hides away for 16 years despite the whole kingdom being aware of Leontes grief and remorse at her passing. And in the end, she still loves him. O come on.

We also have Paulina, wife of Leontes chief aid, who is right about everything and I do mean everything. It can either be a powerhouse of a role or a damp squib of righteousness coupled with game playing and pulling the wool over Leontes eyes. It's not an easy role.

'The Winter's Tale' also has some of the most annoying 'rustics' in the whole of Shakespeare (and he wrote quite a few). We meet them endlessly in the second half of the play set in rural Bohemia with its farmers and farm girls, it's country dances and annoying accents. The vagabond rogue gulling daft farmers right, left and centre, making his fortune only to lose it again. O yes, it's all in there somewhere.

But at the heart of the play are two love stories, stories about friendship and trust and, as ever with Shakespeare, consequences. If you pay attention you'll learn a lot about jealousy and unthinking rage, about relationships and friendships and about love. It's always seemed strange to me that the big reconciliation scene takes place off stage and we simply have it reported by courtiers afterwards. Why is that? But it paves the way to the next reconciliation scene when Leontes and Hermione finally meet again after 16 years (and don't appear to have aged much, strangely) after she poses as an unloving statue only for Leontes to touch her and she comes alive.

John Light as Leontes, Rachael Stirling as Hermione and Niamh Cusack as Paulina were all excellent as were, to be fair, the rest of the cast (yes, even the annoying rustics). If I had to pick one word to describe this production it would be visceral.

'The Tempest' is very different territory and one of my favourites, a tale of magic and mystery, of revenge and love and of freedom and slavery.

You know the tale of Prospero, Duke of Milan, who is deposed by his brother who is supported by the King of Naples, and set sail only to be shipwrecked on a noisome  island where he raises his daughter Miranda. He finds Caliban already on the island and frees Ariel, a magical creatures from incarceration in an oak tree to do his bidding. His brother and the King are sailing nearby and Prospero calls up a tempest to shipwreck them on his island so he can take his revenge. The King's son falls in love with Miranda and she with him and they are betrothed before the gods so Prospero can forgive his former enemies, renounce his magic and return to his dukedom. The end.

It's a simple - and quite a lovely - tale, the kind of play it's easy to see an older man writing but there's a lot packed into it such as the nature of slavery with Caliban and Ariel, power and corruption with the King of Naples' brother plotting to emulate what happened in Milan, with drunken colonists and how they treat the native populations, o yes, there's so much to explore in this play.

I have great admiration for the set designer and the sheer imagination let loose on this play. The Tempest demands magic and there's not much scope for special effects in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse so creativity is required. I loved the opening scene when Prospero summons the storm and an ornately painted sea-scape is brought onto the stage with two people rocking the waves and the boats by hand - loved it! And I loved the actors falling en masse from one side of the stage to the other to simulate the rocking of the ship. So simple and yet so effective. And later when Ariel descended from the ceiling on ropes with her cape as wings like a vengeful angel to berate the King's company. And later still, we see the gods descend in similar fashion. Very impressive and unexpected.

There were also more simple techniques of bringing on stage a miniature island and using it as a prop in various scenes. For each scene, the island was turned round lightly to make it clear that the scene  was taking place in a different part of the island. Very simple and yet very clever that!

I suppose you're getting the impression that I liked this production? Well, you're right, I thought it was smashing and the best and least pretentious version of the play I've seen! It's marvellous! It brings out some of the humour in the play that's easily missed, such as Miranda's admiration at her first sight of men even though we in the audience can see they're nothing much and the actors feign embarrassment at the praise. And Ferdinand reminding Miranda with a gesture that she's forgotten to take a log off stage when he's completing the tasks demanded by Prospero. There was a good chuckle there.

There's marvellous storytelling and beautiful poetry in this play, as well as some harsh political lessons. Every now and then the poetry just shines from that stage and you marvel at it, wanting to roll it round your tongue and speak the lines.

Full fathom five thy father lies, of his bones are coral made. Those are pearls that were his eyes, nothing of him that doth fade, but doth suffer a sea change into something rich and strange...

There are hints at magic and the ceremonies of John Dee, of the empire to come in strange, far off lands, of exploration and danger that make this one of Shakespeare's more interesting plays, at least to me.

Phoebe Pryce and Dharmesh Patel made a nice couple as Miranda and Ferdinand, our young lovers, Joseph Marcell was a solid Gonzalo (he also plays Cymbeline in the play of the same name) and Paul Rider was a trustworthy Alonso, King of Naples (who is also in 'Cymbeline'). A shout-out also to Dominic Dromgoole as Director of the production and Jonathan Fensom, the designer.

I wasn't terribly taken with Tim McMullen as Prospero or Fisayo Akinade as Caliban but I was quickly won over by Pippa Nixon's Ariel. I liked how she switched from almost magisterial in some scenes to a puzzled aborigine in others, marvelling at these strange creatures that have invaded her island. In other scenes she was almost a wild animal padding round her potential prey and, at the end when she is finally freed by Prospero, she stops and turns round once to check that he's not playing some game, before fleeing quicksilver-fast without a word. I wasn't sure at first but she's a powerful and potent Ariel. Well done Pippa!

The winter season is only on for another three weeks so, if you can, you'd be well advised to try to get tickets for either of these two plays. For me, I'm looking forward to the new summer season at The Globe, the Wonder season, with 'The Taming of the Shrew' in the first week of June. 

'Ellen Terry with Eileen Atkins' at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

I went to see Dame Eileen Atkins playing Ellen Terry at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse a couple of years ago and I saw her again on Sunday as she played another season of her 'one woman show', again at the Playhouse in the Globe. Just Eileen, a desk, some papers and a glass of water on the stage, candles lighting the stage and the polished wood and gold shining. Eileen rarely still, pacing the stage, standing and being contemplative for a moment before setting off again.

Eileen plays Ellen Terry, one of the great Victorian actresses renowned for her Shakespearean roles, giving one of her lectures about Shakespeare in her later days. The lecture is about Shakespeare's women based on her experiences of playing many of the women and enhanced by her own tales of her stage performances. Eileen was terribly impressive, not least for remembering all those lines since she doesn't stop talking for about 80 minutes. It's a joy to hear her talk about Shakespeare, his creations and her (ie Ellen Terry's) interpretations of them, such as that Juliet should not be played by a young girl but by a more mature actress with greater powers capable of interpreting her great lines and emotions. Her Juliet's death-bed scene was a wonder to behold.

Eileen - or is she Ellen - talks about and performs as a number of Shakespeare's heroines and she discusses their strengths and weaknesses. We get Rosalind and Beatrice, Portia and a brave Emelia (from Othello), Juliet and closing with Ophelia (as well as others such as Mistress Page from the Merry Wives). She gives a masterclass performance and this should be filmed for mandatory study by anyone wanting to play Shakespeare. She was truly marvellous and had us in the palm of her hand throughout. The intimacy of the Playhouse (i.e. small!) helped but it was Eileen's sheer power and conviction that completely won over the audience (and me). Go and see her if you can.

'Cymbeline' at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe

Some of the lovely things about the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the little indoors theatre within The Globe is that it's small, it's covered in shiny wood and it's candle-lit. That makes for a great atmosphere, especially when it puts on unusual productions and that's where I saw 'Cymbeline' last week, a Shakespeare play that I've never seen live. I have now.

King Cymbeline's daughter Innogen has married Posthumus, the man she loves, rather than Cloten, the man Cymbeline's chosen (who just happens to be the son of his new wife). This is a bad thing so Posthumus has to flee the kingdom to live in Rome. While there he brags about his wife and her gentility and fidelity to him and generally, the superiority of British women. One of the young Romans, Iachimo (boo hiss) challenges Posthumus to a bet that he can seduce his wife and the foolish Briton accepts. The die is cast for tragedy aplenty, misunderstandings and international travel in the blink of an eye. So yes, Iachimo (boo hiss) meets Innogen and by trickery gets into her bed chamber while she sleeps and he's generally cad-like but Innogen's honour is intact. 

When Posthumus is gulled into believing Iachimo (boo hiss) he instructs his servant who is conveniently now working for Innogen to kill her but he can't do it. He tells Innogen the truth and she dresses as a boy to head off to Rome to see her beloved husband and put things right. And that's where the play starts branching out all over the place. Cymbeline had two sons who were stolen away as babies and we meet them as young men in the wilds of Cambria (ie Wales) with a banished general of Cymbeline's who they think is their father. Somehow Innogen meets her unknown brothers and becomes great friends when suddenly she seems to die and they go off to fight the Romans. They trash the Romans and save Cymbeline's kingdom and then come the big reveals. There are so many things to reveal that it goes on and on and nothing is straighforward. There's also a  great dream sequence in which Posthumus is visited by his dead family and by Jupiter ("sorry Jupiter!").

I won't go into the twists and turns of the plot bacause you should see it with an open mind - other than for Iachimo (boo hiss). This is a great, fun production that brings Shakespeare to life in a way that rarely happens. There's blood on that stage and boldness and fearlessness in a way not often seen. As I said immediately I was outside, that if that was the first play you'd ever seen you'd be hooked on Shakespeare and the theatre for life! Or you might run away and join a troupe of travelling players and perform it yourself. It's a mighty production that deserves to be seen by as many people as possible! 

Before the play began Trevor Fox (who seems to be the Globe's resildent Geordie actor) came on to mention that one of the actors had broken his foot the night before and because the Globe keeps it real and doesn't have understudies, he would attempt to play his part on crutches. But, we shouldn't be surprised if someone else comes on to read his lines from the script if he couldn't continue. He didn't say who the actor was or which role but it turned out to be Eugene O'Hare as the cad Iachimo (boo hiss) and he did very well indeed, making the audience wince every now and then, especially when he worked without his crutches in one scene. Well done Eugene - hope you're walking better by now! (but I still boo hiss Iachimo, obvs).

The star of the show for me was Emily Barber as a surprisingly modern Innogen, never meek or mild, but a strong central character (far more so than Cymbeline himself). I was very impressed with her, whether as princess or as a boy, her central character retained it's strength and power. Good on ya Emily!

I wasn't so sure about Jonjo O'Neill as her erstwhile husband Posthumus but that might have been because it looked like he was wearing jogging bottoms underneath his doublet. He seemed stronger to me in his British scenes with the Roman scenes being a bit stereotyped. I loved Pauline McLynn as the evil queen and stepmother with her asides to the audience - o yes, we're in on your plan all right queenie even if you've duped your husband and the court. I thought she was great fun.

I thought this was a great production that brought Shakespeare to life and makes you think he was having fun with this play - let's throw in every plot device imaginable and it still works! Now that's great writing and it's a great director that brings it all to life. Thank you Sam Yates. Yes, I loved it!

'Pericles' at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at The Globe

'Pericles' is one of those Shakespeare plays that I've never quite got round to, either seeing it or reading it, but it's on at the lovely candle-lit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe so it's a good opportunity to see it. It's one of those oddities that seems to have the first half written by another playwright and the second half written my Mr Shakespeare - and it shows. The quality of the writing - and the story-telling is vastly different and the second half is obviously better, and, let's face it, more interesting.

It's the picaresque tale of Pericles, the Prince of Tyre and his adventures, most of which seem to involve the sea and storms and shipwrecks. Pericles seems to be a nice enough bloke but he doesn't half get into some scrapes. He seeks the hand of a princess and when he discovers she's in an incestuous relationship with her dad the king he runs back to Tyre. From there he's advised to flee and get shipwrecked only to fall for another princess (it happens) who he wins and marries.  When she's heavily pregnant they decide that's the opportune time to head back to Tyre and she dies in childbirth, is buried at sea and the resultant daughter fostered to another king and queen.

The second half starts 16 years later and the baby has grown up into a virtuous young lady who is kidnapped and sold as a slave to a brothel but Pericles is told that she died. But she uses her wit to retain her virtue and is eventually brought on board yet another ship to try to cheer up an old man with her conversation. And that's when she learns that the old man is her father and Pericles learns that his daughter is alive. It's all rather convoluted and goes on a bit but it's nice to have finally seen it, and seen it at the Sam Wanamaker with candle all over.

I can't pretend it was one of my favourite plays of the year - the acting was solid but the material doesn't send it flying. James Garnon was good as Pericles and Jessica Baglow as fun as his daughter, Marina. I'm pleased to have seen it at last.  And here's the real Pericles...