Apple-spitting

Last week's shows - Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy and a Polish company outdoor production of Macbeth - were wonderful. (Also saw Wives again at the Globe, and just as fun as the first time.)

Turns out I like Middleton - when done well - in performance. The Changeling (written with Rowley), seen weeks ago, was not done well, and hence not enjoyed (biggest problem was simply bad acting). This production (of Revenger's) was great, set as a (courtly) rave, with all the drugs, sex, and madness one would expect. Music was a blast - live, Gothic techno. Some of the actors seemed to have a difficult time embodying the text, as if they couldn't quite find their characters with it, but the main guy - Vindice, or something like - got his spot on.

The outdoor Macbeth was thoroughly disturbing. Most of the text went the way of the axe, nightmare-like images were favored. Perhaps a bit reductive as far as the psychological depth of the characters go, but then again, maybe not. The images seemed to retain and enhance something tonally that might otherwise have been lost with the cuts. One image I'm still thinking about - it worked, though not yet sure why. After the murder of Duncan, in a sort of coronation dinner for Macbeth, two servants, without using their hands, devour the same apple, sort of kissing it between them, and while one had the apple in his or her mouth the other chewed and spit their bits all over the face of the first. Weird, but again, it somehow worked, especially with the industrial chamber opera arias going on simultaneously. Other highlights, witches on stilts, real fire, operating motorcycles - I've thought it before and now again, there's something about the olfactory that lends itself to certain productions. (Sometimes it might be unduly distracting, for example - and not done here - like a yummy smelling dinner tantalizing those in the audience who weren't able to catch their dinner before their show.)

Weekend great too - though the rain tried to dampen it. Went to a jazz festival on Saturday and got soaked out in the afternoon but went back that night and saw the James Taylor Quartet; some wonderful, wonderful rock-like jazz. Back to the Victoria and Albert on Sunday with a friend, afterwards coffee; saw some good exhibits that I'd missed before though some we wanted to see were closed in prep for the fall exhibits.

Seeing The Winter's Tale tonight at The Globe; meeting with my mentor today to refocus.

In my "down time" at night I'll mostly be walking around (when not seeing shows) and I think the places I most hope to see that I haven't yet - hoping at least one is open on a Saturday - are the Tower and the Globe Exhibition Center. Hopefully!

Only two weeks left!

;(