weekend whirlwind
Aug. 20th, 2007 01:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pallas_athenaThe Divine Suetekh, AKA ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pvcdiva, was in town this weekend: astoundingly, London is still standing (just barely.)
On Saturday, we got up horribly early to get to the ENO costume sale out at their warehouse in Limehouse. The estimablefracture242 joined us in the queue, which seemed to be composed entirely of Goths who hadn't been to bed after the previous night's opening of new club Tarantula. It was fun (if a shade frantic), and we all came away with some lovely pieces: Suetekh with a blue-and-white Victorian dress, some sparkly beads, several pairs of spats and some frilly bloomers; Fracture with a gorgeous Edwardian red satin ensemble; and I with an ivory-and-gold vaguely Klimtian-looking overdress. I also came out with a simple black dress (£5), a drapey black skirt with gold embellishment (£5), and the hugest hoop crinoline known to science (£20).
After trying to carry the crinoline over one shoulder while schlepping the Diva's bags and my own, it became obvious that the easiest way to transport the damn thing was to wear it. Cue me swearing my way down the King's Road clutching several bin bags full of costumes with my lower half in full sail. I trust I was able to make everyone's day that little bit more surreal.
After depositing our various purchases at our various homes, the three of us reconvened that evening for Love's Labours Lost at the Globe. The play is a favourite of mine; I saw the DC Shakespeare Theatre do it last summer, and adored that production. The Globe's had different strengths and weaknesses, but was overall very enjoyable, I thought. What made the evening for me was the interplay among the Princess and her ladies (very silly) and the King and his lords (even sillier.) The Holofernes/Nathaniel scenes were very well spoken, though I think they passed over a lot of the audience's heads. Don Armado's verbal pyrotechnics were somewhat weighed down with a thick 'Spanish' accent: whether that was the actor's or the director's choice, I thought it didn't quite work. Still, standout performances were too many to count: the Globe's company has been somewhat reshuffled under new artistic director Dominic Dromgoole, but it's still full of actors who excel at both physical and verbal agility. And the music, of course, was great as always, especially the concluding song.
Not a lot of people have the patience for this play. It's sort of like opera, where your desire to see a story told has to be balanced by a desire to hear good music. In Love's Labours Lost, the music is that of language: it's a textually brilliant play, and I believe Don Armado is Shakespeare's most textually demanding role. I confess I love this stuff: yes, I'm a textual fetishist.
So... if you can get to the Globe to see this, then do!
pvcdiva, was in town this weekend: astoundingly, London is still standing (just barely.)On Saturday, we got up horribly early to get to the ENO costume sale out at their warehouse in Limehouse. The estimable
fracture242 joined us in the queue, which seemed to be composed entirely of Goths who hadn't been to bed after the previous night's opening of new club Tarantula. It was fun (if a shade frantic), and we all came away with some lovely pieces: Suetekh with a blue-and-white Victorian dress, some sparkly beads, several pairs of spats and some frilly bloomers; Fracture with a gorgeous Edwardian red satin ensemble; and I with an ivory-and-gold vaguely Klimtian-looking overdress. I also came out with a simple black dress (£5), a drapey black skirt with gold embellishment (£5), and the hugest hoop crinoline known to science (£20). After trying to carry the crinoline over one shoulder while schlepping the Diva's bags and my own, it became obvious that the easiest way to transport the damn thing was to wear it. Cue me swearing my way down the King's Road clutching several bin bags full of costumes with my lower half in full sail. I trust I was able to make everyone's day that little bit more surreal.
After depositing our various purchases at our various homes, the three of us reconvened that evening for Love's Labours Lost at the Globe. The play is a favourite of mine; I saw the DC Shakespeare Theatre do it last summer, and adored that production. The Globe's had different strengths and weaknesses, but was overall very enjoyable, I thought. What made the evening for me was the interplay among the Princess and her ladies (very silly) and the King and his lords (even sillier.) The Holofernes/Nathaniel scenes were very well spoken, though I think they passed over a lot of the audience's heads. Don Armado's verbal pyrotechnics were somewhat weighed down with a thick 'Spanish' accent: whether that was the actor's or the director's choice, I thought it didn't quite work. Still, standout performances were too many to count: the Globe's company has been somewhat reshuffled under new artistic director Dominic Dromgoole, but it's still full of actors who excel at both physical and verbal agility. And the music, of course, was great as always, especially the concluding song.
Not a lot of people have the patience for this play. It's sort of like opera, where your desire to see a story told has to be balanced by a desire to hear good music. In Love's Labours Lost, the music is that of language: it's a textually brilliant play, and I believe Don Armado is Shakespeare's most textually demanding role. I confess I love this stuff: yes, I'm a textual fetishist.
So... if you can get to the Globe to see this, then do!