Sunday, April 24, 2005
Popped up to London to visit the British Museum, and see Vanessa Redgrave in Hecuba. The Museum was great, as ever, and I'll post the two photos I took before I started to feel like a tourist rather than a scholar. Lunch was at Starbucks (a place I shouldn't like, but do, despite myself) with a falafel and houmus wrap and cheesecake. I tripped around Oxford street, and purchased 'Leon the pig farmer' on DVD in HMV. It was a toss between this ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006FN4F/qid=1114370354/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl/202-7862958-3123804) and Stalker (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000065BZ8/qid=1114370432/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_11_1/202-7862958-3123804), but I went with Leon, due to it being £4 cheaper. If only I had known the amazon prices, then I would have gone the other way around. The play was.. mixed. I haven't studied the text itself, so it was new to me. I knew the review s were mixed (http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,14936-1560690,00.html), but the comparison with the Iraq war was layed on with a spade. I giggled the first time the term 'coalition' was used, and when the chorus sang 'sexed up' a ripple went through the audience. Odysseus is given an American accent, and his costume and hair make him into a pantomime baddie. Costumes were generaly good (appart from one pair of chaps), and the suggestion of Islamic dress that the chorus wore was a good touch. If that had been the only touch, then I would have been grateful. Redgrave seemed like she was reading the lines, instead of acting them, and the 'dramatic' pauses seemed like the actor had forgotten the words, or had seen them in the script, and rigidly obeyed. Overall there seemed to be a lack of feeling, and the comparisons to world affairs made it hard to take seriously. Better than a kick in the teeth - 5/10
