Henry V, though one of the best known history plays, still presents a challenge when it comes to staging since the crowd scenes require some imaginative directorial moves. Unfortunately ATA's lifeless production lacked more than just imagination. Actors had successfully memorized the lines but their affectless delivery compounded with long periods of virtual immobility made the play's full three and a half hours excruciating to sit through. Gluttons for punishment, and loyal to our cause, we did so nonetheless, emerging starved and furious upon the end of a spring night with a lot more fire in our tirades than in the rants the French and English soldiers threw at one another. They were supposed to be showing a real battle, and they didn't even smolder. That the performance furthermore started at least fifteen minutes late was an added affront, explainable only by the fact that there were sixteen people including us in the audience. After intermission that had whittled down to eleven. The actors who made the play passably tolerable at rare moments were Kate Tenetko in the role of Hostess Nell, Cory Hibbs as Pistol, and Tobias Shaw as the Dauphin. My advice to them is to run a million miles from another ATA production. Sadly this is the second one we've seen and it certainly didn't make up for the last.
Thankfully, the next day we saw Peter Brook's refreshing interpretation of several sonnets in Love is my sin and were reminded how simple good acting can be. With careful and sincere gesture Michael Pennington in particular showed the sheer range of emotion that a simple face and body can transmit. I'd see him do the entire Henry V as a one-man show any day.
Showing posts with label American Theatre of Actors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American Theatre of Actors. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
What $9 In New York Gets You
* A one-day Metrocard "Fun Pass"
* A ride on the Coney Island Cyclone
* And, at the Strand, a hardcover copy of a 1972 of Acting Shakespeare, by John Gielgud.
What $9 does not get you, apparently, is anything close to a decent performance of Taming of the Shrew. This became abundantly clear after we forked over the change sat through nearly 3 hours of the American Theatre of Actors performance of the play.
Where to begin on this thing? With Gregory O'Connor's Grumio, who for some reason thought it wise to pirouette and fly across stage every time his master Petruchio bid him hence? With Michael Matucci's absurd too-cool-for-school Petruchio, which made him sound like he belonged unironically at this high school reunion. No line of Shakespeare could go unadorned in this production, but had to be met with an arched eyebrow, upturned palms or something that stage whispered, "Boy, these guys sure are c-c-c-razy!!!"
The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare's funniest plays. Only rarely did a chuckle ever escape the lips of the audience on Sunday, a damning indictment of a production of this play as possible.
* A ride on the Coney Island Cyclone
* And, at the Strand, a hardcover copy of a 1972 of Acting Shakespeare, by John Gielgud.
What $9 does not get you, apparently, is anything close to a decent performance of Taming of the Shrew. This became abundantly clear after we forked over the change sat through nearly 3 hours of the American Theatre of Actors performance of the play.
Where to begin on this thing? With Gregory O'Connor's Grumio, who for some reason thought it wise to pirouette and fly across stage every time his master Petruchio bid him hence? With Michael Matucci's absurd too-cool-for-school Petruchio, which made him sound like he belonged unironically at this high school reunion. No line of Shakespeare could go unadorned in this production, but had to be met with an arched eyebrow, upturned palms or something that stage whispered, "Boy, these guys sure are c-c-c-razy!!!"
The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare's funniest plays. Only rarely did a chuckle ever escape the lips of the audience on Sunday, a damning indictment of a production of this play as possible.
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