Pretty rough and ready, these were originally posted on Facebook, hence all the ‘saw this yesterday’ intros. I’ve removed the box office links for obvious reasons. Oh, and some contain strong language.
La boheme
Having not experienced a lot of opera and wanting to see what all the fuss was about, I went to see The Bohemians earlier this year. The plot concerns a bunch of self-obsessed artistic types who moan about having no money, getting a proper job obviously being totally out of the question. Nonetheless, they get enough cash to go out on Christmas Eve, but Rodolfo the poet (again, not an actual job) stays behind, possibly trying to find a rhyme for “orange”. Mimi wanders in claiming she can’t find her key and the pair fall in love within roughly three seconds, which is totally believable. Rodolfo wants to stay in so he can give her one, but she complains that she wants to meet his friends – actually that bit is pretty realistic. They sing O soave fanciulla which is spectacular. Then it’s off to town where they meet Musetta, another selfish tosspot, although she gets the other great aria, Quando m’en vo’. A few months pass, Rodolfo and Mimi’s relationship is on the rocks, which is astonishing considering what a strong base it was built upon. Mimi’s a bit poorly by now with consumption, but rather than coughing blood into a handkerchief she belts out a few more arias, Rodolfo uses his catchphrase – ‘Your tiny hand is frozen’, there is much talk of a muff (which is ALWAYS funny) and Mimi dies. Don’t start moaning about spoilers, how did you think it would end? Like most opera The Bohemians has moments of banality – singing about what’s for tea – but is also incredibly moving. Fuss well worth making.
The Importance of Being Earnest
This is the last in the Oscar Wilde season, which I must say has been mostly underwhelming. The productions have been good but I’m not convinced that Wilde was much more than a good one-liner merchant. Attempts to claim him as a feminist are on slightly shaky ground, was it just possible that his “women are better then men” lines were an attempt to compensate for his intermittent home affections? Anyway, Earnest deserves its reputation as his masterpiece, it’s actually funny and the characters feel like real people (in a somewhat heightened reality of course) rather than just empty vessels to deliver epigrams. Fiona Button and Pippa Nixon are excellent. I see that some of the reviews have been rather sniffy, but I doubt those critics would have settled for anything other than a loop of Edith Evans declaiming “a haaaaaaaaaaaandbaaaaaaaaaag”.
Rita, Sue and Bob Too
Excellent production as you’d expect, but it’s of a very mean-spirited play. Despite this supposedly being an authentic feminist / working class / anti-harassment (delete as applicable, see the troubled history of this revival hilariously mishandled by the Court) it portrays the working class as emotionally and intellectually stunted. The characters of Rita and Sue can be excused – they’re children. But Bob, the borderline (at best) paedophile comes across as a nasty piece of work, and his wife – the single sympathetic person on stage – is written quite disgracefully. I don’t want a morality play, but at least suggest that being a cunt isn’t something to aspire to.
Somewhere A Gunner Fires
‘A First World War play for those who hate First World War plays’ says the author. Ah bless him. Tell me, what is the point of using a theatre to stage a production where the cast stand motionless for the whole thing? This might work as a radio play (and Radio 4 will put any old shit on), but as a piece of theatre it’s pointless. Add in some anachronistic language (I’m pretty sure “hand-job” wasn’t a commonly used term in WWI), make it run at least forty minutes too long, and you get something that might have wowed your friends at university but is woefully lacking as a proper play for adults. No wonder some of the scant audience left at the superfluous interval. A massive disappointment.