Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
I do not have a problem with “physical drama” in itself. I accept that it can be a perfectly valid way of enhancing the text. What I find difficult is that it is so often thought to be a shortcut to being edgy or innovative, whereas countless school plays and theatre trips has shown me that it has been done a hundred times before, by professionals and GCSE students alike. As a result, productions that view themselves as pioneering frequently end up clichéd and frankly, boring. Simply by reading the show’s press release I felt I already knew what I was going to see but I tried to keep an open mind as I went to the York Theatre Royal.
Agamemnon’s plot can be split into two sections; the first concerns the people of Argos (a city, the shop didn’t exist when Aeschylus wrote the play) awaiting Agamemon’s return from the Trojan wars, the second is about what happens when he comes back. The story is told through a series of speeches directed at the audience. At times this Brechtian approach seemed cold but there were moments when this did work. The closing speeches given by Agamemnon (William Poskett) and Clytemnestra (Agamemnon’s wife, played by Annie Duffield) were very beautiful and full of emotional vibrancy.
A few good speeches, however, were not enough to save Agamemnon from itself. The combination of minimalist set, androgynous costumes, silhouettes and ladder-climbing gave the impression of a dramatic exercise rather than a truly effective piece of theatre.
Overall, this was only forty-five minutes long and it could have, in all fairness, been a lot worse. I would say this, however: there was a whole block of seating in the auditorium taken up by a sixth form drama class. They were obviously watching it so that they could write a piece on the theatrical techniques employed and probably produce their own, similar plays. Just in the second row was a young student with his head in his hands, doing just what I was doing when I was at school: developing a life-long aversion to physical theatre that will mar plays like Agamemnon, no matter how good some of the speeches are.
Agamemnon is running from 27 November to 1 December at York Theatre Royal, go here for more information and box office.
I have to say, I completely disagree. It was an extremely well directed piece and was visually stunning. The inclusion of the music was an inspired decision. The cast dealt very well with the language and the quickness of the pace served to produce an exciting piece of theatre. Give me 45 minutes of Agamemnon rather than 2 and a half hours of the Theatre Royal's recent, deadly piece of crowd pleasing theatre otherwise known as 'Enjoy'.
Please ignore this if you were planning to go. I myself went and can assure you that there was no element of physical theatre in the piece. Why the reviewer is discussing her hate of physical theatre is some what of an oddity. See it.
Personally, i too, am somewhat bemused at the 'review' of this play. It was fast paced, intelligent and the chorus were outstanding. I think it is a great shame that i know more about the reviewer's preference of theatre than what the reviewer's opinion of this production was. The only criticism i have about this play is that the length of the speeches were rather long and required an obscene amount of concentration. However, i was under the impression this was an Arts section - not a Biography section.
I am the director of this show and i thought, that instead of telling you what i thought of 'my own production' - perhaps The Press review should be looked at; it gives an informed opinion about this production of Agamemnon as opposed to the preference of the reviewer. Hopefully people will be able to make an informed decision:
Lisa Blair
Can we have some decent reviewers please?
Surely there isn't anything wrong with having an opinion about something you're reviewing? Isn't that the point of reading a review, that you get the critic's opinion about what the play is like, not just a bland write up of the plot?
You cant say the reviewer hasnt stimulated a reaction, there was so much written about this article that I went and got tickets myself.
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