“When we are born, we cry”
Entries #1, #2, #3 and #4 - and here's number 5.
Actually taking Lear to the White Cliffs of Dover seems like
a good enough reason to mount the entire Complete Walk project if you ask me, and
director Bill Buckhurst doesn’t disappoint. Belaris Free Festival’s
interpretation gets a wee whirl before we move to Kent where Kenneth Cranham’s
disoriented monarch comes across powerfully in jerky jump-cuts and voiceover
and then ultimately powerful soliloquy. Skipping to the end of the play, Joseph
Marcell then takes on Lear for a sensationally powerful reunion with Zawe Ashton’s
deeply considered Cordelia.
I must confess I do find it hard to get excited about King
John and despite a huge affection for the much-missed Trystan Gravelle, I saw
nothing here to change my mind. Filmed at Northampton’s Holy Sepulchre church,
with inserts that acted almost as a Shakespearean documentary in covering the
death of Shakespeare’s son at the time of writing the play, this one just didn’t
do it for me I’m afraid.
Philip Cumbus’ anguished Clarence in his cell; Prasanna Puwanarajah and Paul Ready giving subtly comic life to the murderers on his way to him; Clare Higgins’ Margaret looming ominously in the shadows, Michelle Terry’s (for yes, she directs too!) take on Richard III uses all the shadowy sinister atmosphere of the Tower of London to capture the mood of the play rather successfully. It is contrasted with a silent film version which is amusing to watch at first but spookily effective in the end in the way it portrays Richard’s climactic dream. (NB: click on the title for the full clip.)
Labels: Brendan O'Hea, Clare Higgins, Joseph Marcell, Kenneth Cranham, Matthew Tennyson, Michelle Terry, Paul Ready, Philip Cumbus, Pippa Nixon, Prasanna Puwanarajah, Shakespeare, Trystan Gravelle, Zawe Ashton
