The Scottish Play with extra atmosphere

The wind has been strengthening all day, noticeable on the motorway drive, and more so as we picnic on the stately 'picnic slope' at  Tolethorpe Hall before the play.

We follow the sun, minor heliotropes, shifting our chairs, balancing our plates. We are not of those who dine on weighted down but flapping tablecloths.

"This evening's performance will begin in five minutes."

We take our seats and watch the branches dancing , and hear the leaves whooshing or soughing.  Better than a painted backcloth and a worthy background for the initial meeting of the weird sisters, and the general mood of the play.

Another thoroughly enjoyable production by the Stamford Shakespeare Company, with particularly strong performances in the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

Henry V at Tolethorpe

Preparing to picnic

Excellent evening out and very enjoyable performance - I'd forgotten how much comedy there is in this play, as well as the more serious matters of state and war. 

     

A Midsummer Night's Dream at Tolethorpe, Stamford.

This is a play I studied when I was eleven and it's one I remember pretty well. Sure, Leonie had reminded me of the "wild thyme" speech - she was learning it by heart with her kids, and involved me.

The play is ideal for an outdoor setting, and the Tolethorpe stage , with its back drop of trees, and its imaginative use of lighting and height was just the job.  Romance, comedy, fantasy, fairies, magic potions, a jealous Oberon and a careless Puck all add to the magic.  Very neatly set off by the workmen's acting of Pyramus and Thisbe.

Very entertaining.

Stamford Shakespeare Company in Twelfth Night

Entertaining, easy to follow, and the twins were alike enough for suspension of disbelief to work. Usual magical setting, and good weather.  Excellent Toby Belch and Andrew Aguecheek, but why would Viola ever fall in love with a drippy duke Orsino - the character, not the actor!

Macbeth at Roundhouse - TV

Dark, dramatic (at first it seemed a bit much) but very gripping.

The King and the Playwright - TV

A BBC 4 TV series about how Shakespeare developed after 1603 and the death of Queen Elizabeth I.
His plays reflect the turbulence of the reign of James I, with the Gunpowder Plot, Enclosures of land, and James's need to legitimise his position as rightful king of England, united with Scotland.

Plays such as Measure for Measure (corruption and lawlessness) ,  Timon of Athens (money and greed), and King Lear (inheritance and divided kingdoms. Then the theme of 'equivocation' with Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus, the commander who couldn't equivocate, and didn't win the love of his people.

Food for thought.

Finally the third episode - Legacy, includes The Winters Tale, The Tempest and Henry VIII, in collaboration with John Fletcher.  In parallel with James's concerns about the survival of his dynasty, the death of his very popular son, Prince Henry, after bathing in the Thames, and the marriage of his daughter Elisabeth to the King of Bohemia. She became known as the Winter Queen, after the couple were overthrown and exiled.

I has certainly helped me to see the plays in a wider context.

 

Shakespeare in Italy (TV)

Is this where Will spent those 'lost years'?
Shakespeare in Italy

Romeo and Juliet, Merchant of Venice, Othello.

Crollalanza - a Sicilian name!!

Merchant of Venice Film

from 1973, with Laurence Olivier as Shylock, Joan Plowright as Portia.  Raises the usual questions about anti-Semitism, context etc.  Always gripping.
A stronger than usual hint that Shylock has died with the last scene of Jessica holding a letter and in the background kaddish is sung.

Romeo and Juliet from Shakespeare's Globe on TV

Very well done. Lively acting, and the comic sections were excellent as gloom-breakers.

Another hodgepodge catch up

Watched on TV at the Globe - As You Like It, and Othello - both superb and in a theatre that seems ideal, so long as it doesn't rain.

Read China Miéville's The City and The City, 


 and Serpentine by Catherine Edmunds - a lot in there about the process of painting and the way the artist's mind works, all in a well-constructed plot that keeps you reading.


The usual promise of 'more later' - means I should put this awful rainy day to some constructive use!

A Winter's Tale at Tolethorpe

As usual a very enjoyable performance by Stamford Theatre company in their outdoor theatre at Tolethorpe Hall..  Some good set pieces - sword dance and morris dancing,  Especially liked ... as Paulina, ...as Autolycus, and ... as the young shepherd.