Another day spent marking, for the most part. But I did make time to listen to a fair amount of sweet sounds provided by Ella Fitzgerald, Richard Thompson and David Bowie. Not a bad little list, eh?
And before you start thinking that my weekend's been a pretty sad one all in all, let me tell you that I got to accompany some students to one of the best productions of Romeo & Juliet I've ever seen (and, trust me, I've been to a fair few.) The company performing are from the UK and known as Action To The Word, and it's on at the Victoria Theatre - one of my old stomping grounds - up to 7 October. We were at an afternoon matinee performance yesterday and it was a blast: very youthful company, ultra-talented, with just 9 performers on stage; everyone seemed to be able to sing well and play at least one instrument and there was lots of music interpolated into the show - not exactly Shakespeare, I know, but Shakespeare never is exactly Shakespeare is he?, and the music was great fun; lots of nicely choreographed highly theatrical stage combat as part of a generally highly theatrical experience; Mercutio played by a young lady, which was completely unexpected, but worked surprisingly well, subverting all the usual Mercutio clichés; the verse spoken really well - oozing clarity and balance and genuine rhythm - oh, and the prose as well, including a Nurse who sounded pure Merseyside, to my delight.
My only criticism is a niggling one, but I'll mention it. I don't think they quite managed the mood in the final sequence, but it's incredibly difficult to pull off. Romeo expired a touch too noisily and evoked some inappropriate giggles (but what can you expect from a young matinee crowd?) And, not a criticism, but everyone looked too young to plug into the Bard's archetypes of youth and age that so dominate the play. Friar Lawrence particularly was entertaining but too young for my liking, and a bit too funny at the end.
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