Theatre on the big screen

November 27, AD 2015

Hey everyone, how’s November treating everyone?

Last weekend I went to see a live broadcast shown at one of my local cinemas of Henry V by the Royal Shakespeare Company. I believe people in Britain might know about this because I heard the Barbican’s production of Hamlet this year was shown at a lot of cinemas (I’ll talk about that as well) but for those unaware, a lot of the bigger theatres and drama companies mainly in England are beginning to film and live broadcast their productions. National Theatre Live is one of the main ones along with the RSC but I think even ballets and operas are catching on to it. While theatre has been filmed and put on DVD for quite a bit now, it is very new (at least for me) to be able to view it live across the world. Though I am unsure whether it is live or not just because of the difficulties that broadcasting it live would bring up but there was an intermission and everything as well as the final curtain call, though perhaps the intermission was just for people in cinemas to be able to leave for a bit, although it was mentioned multiple times by the ‘presenters’ of the live broadcast that it was indeed live. I don’t really know.

I really liked the RSC’s production of Henry V. I saw a production from one of the bigger Australian theatre companies, Bell Shakespeare, of it last year in which the play Henry V was being performed by school children during the blitz, which I thought was an original and interesting idea, especially with the sound effects and lighting used to mimic the bombs and the London Blitz. The RSC’s stayed straight to the original play however but it was a really good rendition of it nonetheless. Henry V makes up what is apparently referred to (only found this out just before I went and saw it) as the Henriad which is comprised of Richard II, Henry IV (Part 1 and 2) and Henry V. Over the course of the last 3-4 years, the RSC have been performing all of them under the same director, Gregory Doran. Alex Hassel has played Hal in Henry IV and returns in Henry V as the recently crowned king. His performance, I felt, was exemplary, his modest and insecure side shown before the battle at Agincourt, his roaring side portrayed amazingly during the siege of Harfleur and his softer side (yet again insecure) during the last scene in his courtship of French princess. Other standouts were the Chorus, played by Oliver Ford Davies with a real wit and humour and he really engaged with the audience. Simon Yadoo as Fluellen, the Welshman and Pistol and Nim played by Antony Byrne and Christopher Middleton respectively. While seeing it in the cinema was nowhere near how good it would have been to see it live, it’s rather expensive to buy plain tickets to England from Australia.

The Barbican’s Hamlet, which apparently stirred up quite the madness over in England (little to do with, I doubt, it starring a certain Benedict Cumberbatch), was also another play I saw in the cinema down under. This was my first Hamlet so I went in without any previous expectations. I was not disappointed at all. Cumberbatch, to me, delivered in the titular role, excelling in portraying the intelligent young prince who descends into madness. While it has apparently not been received too favourably, I felt the set design was stunning, at least from the cinema and the visual degradation of the palace symbolised the hell that everyone seemed to slowly descend into. Jim Norton as Polonius really made me sympathise with the character, presenting him more as an old fool, a bit too old for his job, who ends up on the wrong side of Hamlet not so much because of his own machinations. Sian Brooke as Ophelia was also really good. To me, at least, it was a really stunning production.

Anyway, I think that is all about the boring theatre. I promise next time I will have something more interesting to write about. I promise, I promise.

Best wishes,

Merchant