Recently watched: National Theatre at Home

[troisoiseaux]

Watched Underdog: the Other Other Bronte (National Theatre, 2024), which was especially interesting to watch with osprey_archer's review in mind because I was coming at it from a completely different background: I love Jane Eyre, but I'm otherwise a total casual when it comes to the Brontës - it's only a slight exaggeration to say any preconception I had was just that one Hark! A Vagrant comic - and so I was perhaps more open to being sold on Underdog's take on the Brontë sisters and their respective literary legacies. It's also just a very fun play to watch! Great energy from the main actresses, clever use of a small ensemble cast playing both bit parts and Greek chorus and of weaving scenes from the Brontës' works into the narrative about their lives, and very fun effects. (I liked the one where, when the sisters send their first works off to publishers, they put their manuscripts into a basket that's pulled up out of view, only for the rejection letters to literally rain down.) What Osprey's review had not prepared me for was to be emotionally wrecked by the last ten minutes or so: as the Brontë siblings die, one by one, the actors hover on the edge of the stage, reacting to and commenting on Charlotte's narration; finally, Charlotte is all alone, and concerned about her family's literary legacy to the point of editing Emily's poems and suppressing Anne's Tenant of Wildfell Hall after their deaths, and she's so worried about legacy that she winds up trapped in a glass case in a museum with all the other polished things people remember out of context, and reader, I wept. (It doesn't end on a sad note - Anne helps her out of the museum box and everyone learns an important lesson about family or something - but that was the bit that's stuck with me.)

Watched As You Like It (National Theatre, 2016), which was charming. I've seen this play before, but even beyond the fact that particular production was a Beatles jukebox musical, it was cool to see what the two stagings did differently. The 2023 STC production tried to make it make sense by grounding it in a particular time (1960s) and place, while this production was a very vibes-based staging: for example, the 2023 one played Duke Frederick's court as a sleazy Vegas club with a wrestling show for entertainment/profit; this production also went the obvious WWE-style wrestling route for Orlando's fight with Charles the Wrestler, but set it inexplicably in the middle of an open-plan office, because why not. The set was very cool! When the action shifted from the court to the forest of Arden, the orderly rows of desks and chairs became a giant's mobile of furniture hanging from the ceiling. Celia stole the show in this one - with the melancholy Jaques as a close second, particularly for his dramatic "kill me now" interpretative dance during Amiens' song - but I was also surprised and delighted to recognize some of the actors in smaller roles: Fra Fee (one of the revolutionaries in 2012 Les Mis) as one of Duke Senior's courtiers-in-exile and Siobhán McSweeney (Sister Michael in Derry Girls) as the shepherdess Audrey (whose courtship by Touchstone is, I must say, much cuter when done as a duet of the Beatles' "When I'm 64").

Watched Present Laughter (Old Vic, 2019) with Andrew Scott as a flamboyant light comedy actor in the 1930s careening towards a mid-life crisis and a love triangle heptagon, which is in fact a great role for Scott, who does "guy trying to mask that he's achingly lonely" very well. (Interesting to watch this one after Vanya, since there's some similar... core to Scott's version of this character, Garry, and his Ivan.) This production genderswapped a couple of characters (and, presumably, some of the references to Garry's past flings?) to make it queerer: in the original, both Garry and his manager Morris have an affair with Joanna, the wife of Garry's producer Henry; here, Joanna is Joe and Henry is Helen (whose own extramarital flings, as referenced, are not genderswapped, and who is styled with shades of Dorothy Arzner).

Comments

[cmcmck]

The father, Patrick (a poet) was curate of the church here in Welligton as a young man

[troisoiseaux]

I really should check out some non-fiction about the Brontës! I've been meaning to watch To Walk Invisible since 2016.

[asakiyume]

Wow, yeah, that sounds really intense and sad--people ending up isolated and disconnected. I'm glad Anne helps her out of the museum box.

[troisoiseaux]

The rest of the play was so fun that I guess the heartstring-pulling at the end hit me even harder! I also just... don't think I knew that Charlotte outlived all of her siblings? (When I say I went into this with very little knowledge of the Brontes as historical figures...)

[asakiyume]

She definitely outlived Emily! But not sure about the other two...

[troisoiseaux]

Branwell and Emily both died in 1848, and then Anne in 1849. :(

—wait, I'm back from Wikipedia, and I didn't know that Charlotte got married?????? And died from pregnancy complications??? In 1855, which is what I went to check, because that part was not in the play, but neither was the fact that Charlotte was married????

[asakiyume]

Actually now that you mention it, I think I knew this, because what she died of was extreme morning sickness, which my friend had (like vomiting every hour on the hour--my friend needed to be on an IV--they didn't have this kind of treatment back in the day!)

[troisoiseaux]

Oh wow. (Thank goodness for modern medicine!)

[a_t_rain]

IIRC, there's a letter Elizabeth Gaskell wrote to a mutual friend shortly after Charlotte's death, where she says she wished she'd been on the scene and hints pretty strongly that this is because she knew how to perform an abortion and would have done so. It's fascinating!

[osprey_archer]

I am afraid that I assumed everyone into the Brontes enough to watch a whole Bronte play would know that all the Bronte siblings died one by one, till Charlotte was alone, and then she died and the father Patrick Bronte was the only survivor of the entire brood.

(Also her husband later remarried and omg, can you IMAGINE a more Rebecca situation. You might be younger than his first wife, you might be prettier than his first wife, but his first wife was an international literary superstar and you are NEVER going to touch that.)

I intended to watch As You Like It because you reviewed it here, but then I want to NTAH and was seduced away by Macbeth because it stars Ralph Fiennes... simply too many bonbons to choose from!

[troisoiseaux]

Curious to know what you think of Ralph Fiennes' Macbeth! I saw that same production when it came to DC last year. (And if you want a palate cleanser: Indira Varma, who plays Lady Macbeth, is also in Present Laughter.)

ETA: correction, earlier this year. What is time???

(Anyway, not to add to your to-watch list, but I think Simon Godwin's Much Ado About Nothing is still my favorite show on NTH so far.)

[osprey_archer]

I watched the Much Ado About Nothing on NTAH a couple nights ago! (I'm assuming that's the Simon Godwin one?) DELIGHTFUL. Possibly my favorite show too. Behind on getting my reviews up! Don't want to swamp people with too many!

[troisoiseaux]

I'm assuming that's the Simon Godwin one?

Yes!

(Interestingly, I think the only show that there's more than one version of on NTAH might be Othello? I tried to watch the 2013 one, but it didn't really take... I might give the other one a shot, at some point.)

[osprey_archer]

Please let me know if you decide which is the preferably Othello! The fact that there are two has made it impossible for me to choose.

[lunabee34]

Oh wow. That reminds me of Margaret Atwood's Cinderella poem where the last lines declare the only way to have a happily ever after is to stay in a glass museum case.

[troisoiseaux]

I don't think I've read that one!

[lunabee34]

That's because I've lost my mind and it's a Sexton poem. LOL That's what I get for commenting after an 8 hour drive.

https://allpoetry.com/poem/8505487-Cinderella-by-Anne-Sexton

[troisoiseaux]

In fairness, I haven't read that poem before, either.

[lunabee34]

LOL

It's a good one.

[chestnut_pod]

Just reading your description was a gut-punch! And honestly, I am not sure I'd have been able to stand watching her come out of the case, only to die horribly of hyperemesis gravidarum :(

[troisoiseaux]

I mean, the play doesn't really go past the "all of her siblings died and then Elizabeth Gaskell wrote Charlotte's biography" of her story, which was why I was so surprised to discover that she did get married— you'd think they'd at least mention it, surely, especially since Charlotte having a crush on a guy who didn't like her back was a plot point not once but twice!

[chestnut_pod]

*sends daily gratitude to Heaven that I was born now and not any other time in history*

I DO like that Elizabeth Gaskell features!

[troisoiseaux]

It is not the most flattering portrayal of Elizabeth Gaskell, in that it kind of blames her for encouraging Charlotte to sand off the rough edges of the Bronte literary legacy, but she does show up! (Shoutout to the one guy in the ensemble who played all the female bit roles, including Gaskell; he was great.)

[osprey_archer]

Just recently watched the NTAH As You Like It! Really enjoyed the whole "forest of chairs" thing for the forest of Arden - I didn't feel sure about it at first, but then it completely won me over, I think because the lighting and the sound-effect crew actually sitting in the chairs gave it a perfect spooky yet oddly lovable forest vibe.

Adored Celia. And Audrey was Sister Michael! Amazing! Feel Audrey was probably better off with her original swain than with Touchstone but perhaps it will work out.

[troisoiseaux]

Audrey's original swain was particularly adorable, too! Ah well.

[osprey_archer]

I KNOW, I was like "Gosh I didn't remember Audrey having such a cute romance..." and then of course she didn't. Oh well, maybe Touchstone will die and Audrey can remarry.

[troisoiseaux]

I will say, I adored the Touchstone in the Beatles Jukebox Musical 1960s Hippie As You Like It I saw last year, because he was this flamboyant, funky little dude in platform heels. (In background of the first pic in this review— as you can see, he's getting dipped by Audrey rather than the other way around, which was very much their overall vibe.)

[osprey_archer]

The Touchstone/Audrey romance I think is one where you could mitigate the problems with the right Touchstone. He says things that make it sound like he really doesn't like her that much and intends to ditch her eventually, but he could say them in a way that implies that he's actually dead gone on her.