Showtime!

I won't be boring you with blow-by-blow accounts of shows we've seen...I've read blogs like that.


But there's a couple worth mentioning. We saw Chicago at the Garrick Theatre this week with the delightful young Emma Carpenter, St Peter's alumnus. She's doing her Gap year at a Croyden school, and comes to the West End whenever she can.  Emma is a talented actor, singer and dancer herself. One day, she will be famous, mark my words!


After the show, Nathan Roa (another ex-StP) turned up at the theatre, backpack and all, having just arrived from Scotland and Newcastle.

I took this at interval, hence the lack of actors on stage!

It was just great to catch up with them both, all so grown up.


The show itself was fabulous. It was a high energy production,  with the story conveyed by dance. Awesome staging, with the orchestra centre stage and an integral part of the show. Go, musos!

When it comes to Shakespearean plays, Richard III is a particular favourite of mine. (I TRY to convey this enthusiasm to my senior classes.) So this performance at the Globe Theatre on the South Bank was a highly anticipated highlight of our stay in London. And we weren't disappointed.

There were some interesting aspects to this performance. Firstly,it was an Original Practices production. That is, it was cast as if in the Elizabethan era, the women's roles played by men. Here on the left, Queen Elizabeth (played by Samuel Barnett) comforts her husband, the King.


And it took me a while to realise that the role of Queen Margaret had been completely cut from the production. If you know the play, you'll agree that this edit cuts down considerably on cursing, wailing and lamentating. Not necessarily a bad thing....


Richard himself was played by the Globe's original artistic director, Mark Rylance. I was somewhat bemused by his manner when he opened the play with Richard's famous soliloquy:


"Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York..."


I'm used to Ian McKellen's snarling, vindictive portrayal of the Machiavellian duke in Richard Loncraine's 1995 film. What Mark Rylance gave us was a diffident old man who played his opening speech for laughs. As he did with his manipulative proposal of marriage to Anne in scene 2.

Musicians playing on the balcony

He really played to the audience, especially the 'groundlings' who had paid five pounds to stand.


The Globe's programme notes talk about Shakespeare revealing "the gleeful comedian within the wilful dictator" and Rylance portrayed this perfectly.

And, on reflection, the horrific scene where Richard brings Hastings' head to the Lord Mayor of London (below) was given added impact by Rylance's transformation from bumbling comedian to cruel psychopath.

In the final scene, the director had the ghosts of Richard's victims come back onto the stage as he fought Richmond. They were there to hold Richard back from battle; essentially, he was fighting the ghosts - his conscience? - rather than the enemy.


And, in the  end, he was brought down by those ghosts from his past. A brilliant interpretation.


The play was certainly the thing.