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kaberettA while back I spotted that the Globe was putting on Much Ado this season; given that It's My Favourite and there were tickets to be had for a fiver, there was no way I wasn't going, and I somehow managed to talk me_and into it in despite of the fact that he'd not seen any Shakespeare live previously and hadn't ever read Much Ado; on top of which he very kindly left work early in order that we could get to the Globe in sufficient time that I wouldn't be going above baseline anxious.
This turned out to be a very good thing. In that he'd booked online, and I'd subsequently phoned them up (go me) to book the wheelchair space in the Yard and had had it all confirmed, and we got there and another wheelchair user was already installed in that space. "Um," said front-of-house, and took our tickets, and disappeared down to the box office to triple-check. "Um," I said, and proceeded to fret quite a lot that I'd somehow fucked up the phonecall. (I hadn't. An actually sort of fascinating bug in their systems showed up, which they're going to fix for next time.) Right, said front-of-house, well, there's several options, we can ask the wheelchair user in place to move (... but they did book, it seems, and they did arrive an hour ago in order to make sure everything would be okay...) or we can offer you the other wheelchair-accessible space up in the box, come into the Yard and we'll point it out to you so you can decide, or we can ask people to move so you can be right up against the stage, or...? -- we're happy to take the box, please don't move the other wheelchair user, we said, and front-of-house vanished off to negotiate with people already up there and then reappeared to take us up via the backstage lifts, with a request to the actors en passant that they hold off another 3 minutes to give us time to install ourselves. And then one way or another we were squeezed in such that we could sit next to each other rather than having me up hard against the balcony edge and facesfriend perched behind me, and we were given a free copy of the programme so I can devour all the additional programme notes, and it was actually handled really well and I am duly impressed (and have e-mailed in to thank them some more).
It is perhaps relevant that I imprinted fairly hard on the Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson production. (I have also seen the Whedon Much Ado passim, in addition to a variety of live performances.) Consequently I expect Don Pedro and Margaret to be of an age with our protagonists, which they were not (being rather closer in age to Leonato); there are a couple of points where I think this doesn't... really work (specifically, the point at which Margaret is required to be mistaken for Hero; and the point at which Pedro proposes to Beatrice).
However! That minor gripe about casting aside, I was by-and-large very pleased: they did the Globe thing of having the actors provide music to bracket scene changes, partly with brass and accordions and a piccolo and partly with a setting of Sigh No More that was rather well done. Everything was tolerably audible to me despite the fact that we were above and behind the stage, and I therefore didn't get to lip-read much, though I should in saying that note that I'm very familiar with the play; and they did the kind of audience-participation that the Globe, as ever, does well, from the straightforward (Dogberry getting the Yard to yell back to him that he has been declared an ass) to the more involved:
... WHEREUPON he paused, and gazed thoughtfully at the other wheelchair user, who had bright pink hair. And he gazed at them some more. And the audience who knew what was about to happen started laughing and cheering, and I leaned over to facesfriend and whispered they know what's about to happen, see, and immediately thereafter Benedick shrugged and concluded
It was fantastically timed. I was delighted. Facesfriend, who had raised eyebrows at my aside to him, sort of laughed facepalmily. (It was in general pretty great to get to sit next to someone of whom I am fond and watch their first experience of My Favourite Shakespeare: he started out willing to be convinced, and ended up laughing and groaning in all the right places, and had the perfect moment of dawning realisation at To-morrow morning come you to my house/And since you could not be my son-in-law/Be yet my nephew: my brother hath a daughter/Almost the copy of my child that's dead/And she alone is heir to both of us... -- yeah. Yeah, I enjoyed myself.)
But that was sort of the flipside, too: everything was exaggerated so as to be visible and audible even from the top balcony, and this was mostly fine - the comic physical theatre was brilliant, and involved Benedick spilling oranges all over the stage at the end of the orchard scene, to which Leonato deadpanned My lord, will you walk? dinner is ready. -- but, again, there were a couple of points where it didn't quite sit right for me; in particular, Don Pedro's proposal to Beatrice (yeah, okay, I'm invested in that scene so I was being picky about it). For those of you not familiar, it goes like this:
I -- have a lot of Feelings, okay, about how Beatrice saying no and being startled but meaning it compassionately is what makes the emotional punch of Don Pedro turning around to set her up with Benedick, and Benedick's closing exhortation to Don Pedro get thee a wife as the former's about to marry Beatrice, work -- so having Beatrice braying-laugh "no, my lord!" and then pause for what feels like ever and then say the rest in a way that's self-consciously showing off her own cleverness with wordplay, as opposed to recognising the prince's intention and compliment and seeking to respond with kindness, didn't really do it for me.
Having said all which, I very much enjoyed myself; I am delighted to have seen one of the Globe's versions of Much Ado; and I have every intention of seeing it again next time they put it on. In the meantime, my mother's asked me what I might like as a present this winter, at just the right moment for me to remember that I don't own a copy of the Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson production and to ask for it. :-)
me_and into it in despite of the fact that he'd not seen any Shakespeare live previously and hadn't ever read Much Ado; on top of which he very kindly left work early in order that we could get to the Globe in sufficient time that I wouldn't be going above baseline anxious.This turned out to be a very good thing. In that he'd booked online, and I'd subsequently phoned them up (go me) to book the wheelchair space in the Yard and had had it all confirmed, and we got there and another wheelchair user was already installed in that space. "Um," said front-of-house, and took our tickets, and disappeared down to the box office to triple-check. "Um," I said, and proceeded to fret quite a lot that I'd somehow fucked up the phonecall. (I hadn't. An actually sort of fascinating bug in their systems showed up, which they're going to fix for next time.) Right, said front-of-house, well, there's several options, we can ask the wheelchair user in place to move (... but they did book, it seems, and they did arrive an hour ago in order to make sure everything would be okay...) or we can offer you the other wheelchair-accessible space up in the box, come into the Yard and we'll point it out to you so you can decide, or we can ask people to move so you can be right up against the stage, or...? -- we're happy to take the box, please don't move the other wheelchair user, we said, and front-of-house vanished off to negotiate with people already up there and then reappeared to take us up via the backstage lifts, with a request to the actors en passant that they hold off another 3 minutes to give us time to install ourselves. And then one way or another we were squeezed in such that we could sit next to each other rather than having me up hard against the balcony edge and facesfriend perched behind me, and we were given a free copy of the programme so I can devour all the additional programme notes, and it was actually handled really well and I am duly impressed (and have e-mailed in to thank them some more).
It is perhaps relevant that I imprinted fairly hard on the Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson production. (I have also seen the Whedon Much Ado passim, in addition to a variety of live performances.) Consequently I expect Don Pedro and Margaret to be of an age with our protagonists, which they were not (being rather closer in age to Leonato); there are a couple of points where I think this doesn't... really work (specifically, the point at which Margaret is required to be mistaken for Hero; and the point at which Pedro proposes to Beatrice).
However! That minor gripe about casting aside, I was by-and-large very pleased: they did the Globe thing of having the actors provide music to bracket scene changes, partly with brass and accordions and a piccolo and partly with a setting of Sigh No More that was rather well done. Everything was tolerably audible to me despite the fact that we were above and behind the stage, and I therefore didn't get to lip-read much, though I should in saying that note that I'm very familiar with the play; and they did the kind of audience-participation that the Globe, as ever, does well, from the straightforward (Dogberry getting the Yard to yell back to him that he has been declared an ass) to the more involved:
BENEDICK: One woman is fair [indicates an audience member], yet I am well [withdraws]; another [indicate an audience member] is wise, yet I am well [ditto]; another [ditto] virtuous, yet I am well [ditto]; but till all graces be in one woman, one woman shall not come in my grace. Rich she shall be, that's certain; wise, or I'll none; virtuous, or I'll never cheapen her; fair, or I'll never look on her; mild, or come not near me; noble, or not I for an angel; of good discourse, an excellent musician, and her hair...
... WHEREUPON he paused, and gazed thoughtfully at the other wheelchair user, who had bright pink hair. And he gazed at them some more. And the audience who knew what was about to happen started laughing and cheering, and I leaned over to facesfriend and whispered they know what's about to happen, see, and immediately thereafter Benedick shrugged and concluded
... shall be of what colour it please God.
It was fantastically timed. I was delighted. Facesfriend, who had raised eyebrows at my aside to him, sort of laughed facepalmily. (It was in general pretty great to get to sit next to someone of whom I am fond and watch their first experience of My Favourite Shakespeare: he started out willing to be convinced, and ended up laughing and groaning in all the right places, and had the perfect moment of dawning realisation at To-morrow morning come you to my house/And since you could not be my son-in-law/Be yet my nephew: my brother hath a daughter/Almost the copy of my child that's dead/And she alone is heir to both of us... -- yeah. Yeah, I enjoyed myself.)
But that was sort of the flipside, too: everything was exaggerated so as to be visible and audible even from the top balcony, and this was mostly fine - the comic physical theatre was brilliant, and involved Benedick spilling oranges all over the stage at the end of the orchard scene, to which Leonato deadpanned My lord, will you walk? dinner is ready. -- but, again, there were a couple of points where it didn't quite sit right for me; in particular, Don Pedro's proposal to Beatrice (yeah, okay, I'm invested in that scene so I was being picky about it). For those of you not familiar, it goes like this:
BEATRICE: Good Lord, for alliance! Thus goes every one to the world but I, and I am sunburnt; I may sit in a corner and cry heigh-ho for a husband!
DON PEDRO: Lady Beatrice, I will get you one.
BEATRICE: I would rather have one of your father's getting. Hath your grace ne'er a brother like you? Your father got excellent husbands, if a maid could come by them.
DON PEDRO: Will you have me, lady?
BEATRICE: No, my lord, unless I might have another for working-days: your grace is too costly to wear every day. But, I beseech your grace, pardon me: I was born to speak all mirth and no matter.
DON PEDRO: Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in a merry hour.
BEATRICE: No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there was a star danced, and under that was I born.
I -- have a lot of Feelings, okay, about how Beatrice saying no and being startled but meaning it compassionately is what makes the emotional punch of Don Pedro turning around to set her up with Benedick, and Benedick's closing exhortation to Don Pedro get thee a wife as the former's about to marry Beatrice, work -- so having Beatrice braying-laugh "no, my lord!" and then pause for what feels like ever and then say the rest in a way that's self-consciously showing off her own cleverness with wordplay, as opposed to recognising the prince's intention and compliment and seeking to respond with kindness, didn't really do it for me.
Having said all which, I very much enjoyed myself; I am delighted to have seen one of the Globe's versions of Much Ado; and I have every intention of seeing it again next time they put it on. In the meantime, my mother's asked me what I might like as a present this winter, at just the right moment for me to remember that I don't own a copy of the Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson production and to ask for it. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2015-09-08 10:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-09-09 01:30 pm (UTC)also the way he very clearly has All The Power but still respects her choice and then sets out to set them up but still-- he respects her choice, and in the B/T version at least I get the strongest feeling that if she had decided no to that as well he would have been all "benedick man it sucks but let's move on, we can find you someone just as great who actually wants you" and respected her choice because he, somehow, recognizes the personhood in women. and compare that to Hero's father, all "if the prince should approach you in that manner". especially after Beatrice has just been saying "hero you are also a person, and your choices matter." yes, Hero does like Claudio etc etc but I get the feeling that if she'd said "no" or "not yet, i'd rather wait a week/season/year/lifetime before deciding" she would have been Heavily Pressured into it with only Beatrice and Pedro on her side. although having Don Pedro on your side surely counts for a lot. (and also, "hey claudio, you two are both really young, you've hardly spent any time together, why don't you just get to know her and let her get to know you and then surely if it is meant to be it will be and if not better to find that out before marriage" that really I think only Pedro could pull off.)
now i have that song stuck in my head. honestly not a bad thing at all.
sad that i did not think to bring that with me up to here.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-09-09 01:49 pm (UTC)and that's why it's my favourite, right, like Beatrice is fucking AWESOME and is allowed to be AND SHE GETS TO FUCKING MAKE CHOICES.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-09-09 01:50 pm (UTC)and she isn't and she musn't be for it to work
(no subject)
Date: 2015-09-09 01:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-09-08 11:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-09-09 03:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-09-09 08:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-09-10 02:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-09-09 10:10 am (UTC)[p.s.
O RLY]
(no subject)
Date: 2015-09-09 11:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-09-09 10:24 am (UTC)It sounds like you had a fantastic time there.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-09-09 11:29 am (UTC)