Macbeth was fantastic. There are no bad seats in that theater. The performance was amazing. Liev Schreiber has my everlasting respect as an actor. Jennifer Ehle played Lady Macbeth very close to the chest, which I appreciate. She was like the most conniving, blonde country-club wife. Not the ham-fisted dripping-with-evil interpretation. Just an overly ambitious trophy wife playing with forces she doesn't understand. I'd never seen it performed before, so this was a treat. The weather was fantastic, and considering it's really just a ghost story, the weather was really conspiratorial. There were times when a breeze picked up that were uncanny considering the dialog on stage. And there were bats, of course, drawn by the lights. Also appropriate.
But the highlight for today is the first in-depth thematic review of Macbeth, by Mr Moreno-Uribe of El Espectador Venezolano. As you might've guessed, it's in Spanish. For once the Babelfish translation is somewhat comprehensible; below is a loose cleaned-up excerpt. The complete review puts great emphasis on the contemporary war theme and is really worth a read, especially for Hispanophones. This photo accompanies the review, click to enlarge it.
Everything demonstrates the great professional quality of those participating in this singular "artistic war" against war. There is no time to become bored or to escape that beautiful theatrical space in the middle of the forest, although we recommend that the interval be cut, because the public can thus have more time to go to therapeutic cafes and bars to converse about the sight [?] and to praise the good performances in general, but particularly those of Liev Schreiber and Jennifer Ehle, who incarnate the monstrous Macbeth couple, models of those who pursue both power and pomp, without realizing that everything must have a end, and who paid with their lives and their eternal condemnation if a punishing God truly exists.
Catholic and lefty, how confusing!
To wrap up the Macbeth stuff for today, Magpie finds parallels between Harry Potter and Macbeth...! There's also a note by Dave - a different one - who says that Gwynneth Paltrow's mum attended the show
Moving on to The Coast of Utopia - Douglas Henshall fan Dianne speculates that Ms Ehle might be doing the roles that Eve Best played, which appears highly plausible. Those characters are Liubov Bakunin, Malwida von Meysenbug and Natalie Herzen. Incidentally Mr Henshall was in This Year's Love with Ms Ehle as well as some of the RSC plays. He performed in the 2002 production of Utopia.
Finally Missyisms (who did the Pride and Prejudice roundup before) reviews The River King.
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