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2,000 hamsters can't be wrong.

28 June 2006

Back to Theatreland 

Looks as if I will spend a lot of time wandering the streets in the West End these next months. I just cannot stay away from that bloody Adelphi Theatre and now I have even started buying cheap tickets for other shows as well.

Tonight I went to see Eh Joe by Samuel Beckett and starring Dumbledore Michael Gambon and Penelope Whilton. It was spot on for a reactiophiliac like myself (yes, I believe I just made up that word). The whole play (which lasted half an hour) was the voice of Whilton talking to a muted Gambon. All he did was reacting to her words and it was true theatre, the kind you wish they would do more often, really get into the soul of the profession. I am a great believer in the power of reaction and honestly think that the best acting lies in reacting. Therefore I love theatre because - contrary to the confined medium that is film and especially TV - you can watch the non-speakers as well. I love doing that. That is one of the reasons why I loved Noises Off on Broadway because the ensemble was such a drilled one that they seemed to be living their parts.

Speaking of Noises Off, I am going to see another one of Michael Frayn's comedies tomorrow. I must admit I didn't even know it was showing, but apparently it is. I am really looking forward to it, because I love Frayn's work and also James Dreyfus is in it, which is a good thing. Hopefully it is going to be infinitely better than the last performance I saw at the Comedy Theatre, which just happened to be the West End version of Noises Off, with the same director as tomorrow's play. Still, since he also directed the brilliant Broadway production I hardly believe the director's to blame for the last mess.

My next dream is to find super seats for Evita for next to nothing. Like I said, it is a dream, and they seldom come true for me. I will also be looking for tickets to see Avenue Q and Wicked (I love the albums from the recent Broadway productions) as well as The Rocky Horror Show which I haven't seen in six years. The last time was rather embarrassing, but it was fun too, so I would like to go again. Just...try to sit in the middle of the theatre, or next to very large people who are cumbersome to slide past. :-)

Current track: I can hear "We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz" being repeated in my head. I blame Wicked.

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Posted by: Ingaroo / 22:47
Comments:
..."non-speakers as well"

Not only that. Occasionally, there are those rare and magic moments during which a strong unifying relationship develops between actors and an audience being totally and collectively swayed by what happens on stage. This adds a dimension that I’ve never experienced as an individual in a cinema! Also, being part of an excited theatre (and concert) audience wholeheartedly thundering out standing applause easily gets me carried away with spine chills and all, a very enjoyable feeling albeit sometimes slightly tinged by mass hysteria :-) I never have a bad conscience about that though, such events being among the few occasions where WASPs and Scandinavians let go of themselves.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 30 June, 2006 13:27
 
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