I foolishly went back to see The Beggar's Opera again yesterday. I think I should perhaps have let the magic live on, untouched by second opinions. For much as it was still spectacular second time around, Joyce's scathing words echoed about my head as I watched it and I thought that hmm yes, perhaps the dialogue was a little clunky and primitive. Perhaps the band did rather dominate proceedings. Perhaps it was a triumph of spectacle over substance. And looking at the programme notes (thanks, Ross) fuelled my scepticism. Devised piece, ofren devised in silence. Well, that would explain the dialogue.
Having said all that, it still did look beautiful. They had adjusted the sound levels so you could actually understand the smoking man and the band didn't drown out most other audible sound. I was sorry about this last point actually as I'd unnaturally enjoyed the giant volume first time around. I was not, however, sorry that I'd settled for a slightly restricted view in the front seat of the first shelf. The Grand Circle I think it's called. I saved three precious pounds, got to see it from above and realised that the better view is indeed delivered in the stalls. You live and learn (and I should learn - again - not to get drunk before I go to the theatre).
The evening saw us viewing Martin McDonagh's rather fine Beauty Queen of Leenane. Which is a cracker of a play. It was on - one night only - at the Brunton, produced by some touring theatre company. It's such a great script - packed with enough bleakness to keep me more than happy - that it feels like it would be hard to go wrong with a production, assuming you get the accents right.
They did. They had a lovely little box set with artfully raggedy walls and what appeared to be a fully working kitchen (cue a laborious discussion between Siobhan and Ewan about how you could make the taps appear to work...). A suitably downtrodden Maureen. A witchy (but is she really witchy?) mother. An effervescent errand boy and a hard-lifed sad-eyed gentleman caller.
I hadn't ever seen it staged before and look forward to seeing the Lyceum take on it in February next.
Having said all that, it still did look beautiful. They had adjusted the sound levels so you could actually understand the smoking man and the band didn't drown out most other audible sound. I was sorry about this last point actually as I'd unnaturally enjoyed the giant volume first time around. I was not, however, sorry that I'd settled for a slightly restricted view in the front seat of the first shelf. The Grand Circle I think it's called. I saved three precious pounds, got to see it from above and realised that the better view is indeed delivered in the stalls. You live and learn (and I should learn - again - not to get drunk before I go to the theatre).
The evening saw us viewing Martin McDonagh's rather fine Beauty Queen of Leenane. Which is a cracker of a play. It was on - one night only - at the Brunton, produced by some touring theatre company. It's such a great script - packed with enough bleakness to keep me more than happy - that it feels like it would be hard to go wrong with a production, assuming you get the accents right.
They did. They had a lovely little box set with artfully raggedy walls and what appeared to be a fully working kitchen (cue a laborious discussion between Siobhan and Ewan about how you could make the taps appear to work...). A suitably downtrodden Maureen. A witchy (but is she really witchy?) mother. An effervescent errand boy and a hard-lifed sad-eyed gentleman caller.
I hadn't ever seen it staged before and look forward to seeing the Lyceum take on it in February next.
posted by Claire at 5:46 pm
1 Comments:
We saw The Beggar's Opera on Saturday and we're firmly with you on this one. I suspect there's probably a big generational divide at play on this one but I'm certainly not prepared to dismiss it as all style and no substance - that's exactly what we felt the show was about. Interested to read your reaction second time round as I'm considering going again when it reaches Glasgow.
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