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A Nice Break (2)Dateline: 18th July, 2004Friday was South Bank day. First the Tate Modern for the Edward Hopper exhibition. Many have raved, including friends who strongly suggest I should see it, but it left me cold. His work is very cinematic - more than a dash of film noir in many of the paintings - and it impressed without touching me. My response, I have to say, was more intellectual than emotional: the pictures made me think but not feel. Still, it was worth seeing and, as one friend suggested, it gave me some good ideas for stage sets! Then a light lunch at the Crêpes house at Gabriel's Warf and a stroll along to Theatre Square to watch part of the Watch This Space! festival, a street theatre performance by the Schalatans from Germany. When street theatre is good, it is hugely enjoyable, but when it's bad it makes me cringe. This was good: very traditional, in that it is based on an old circus routine, but very well done. In some ways it's a bit like pantomime: you know exactly what's coming but you still laugh. But isn't it the nature of comedy to be comforting? When we laugh at someone, it's because we aren't him/her or because, in satire for example, the laughter confirms us in our own beliefs. Comedy makes us feel good about ourselves. We call plays like A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It comedies, not because they are funny (although they are, in parts) but because the bad are punished, the good are rewarded, and all's right with the world - all, in fact, is well that ends well. It's comforting. And so we can laugh time and time again at TV shows like Only Fools and Horses or Dad's Army: familiarity adds to the sense of comfort that comedy gives us. Even shows like Fawlty Towers and The Office, whose lead characters make us squirm, are comforting because we are not like them. As soon as the show was over, I met Jonathan Holloway, the Events Manager of the RNT, whom I was to interview for the BTG. Theatre is indeed a small world. Talking about site-specific work, I mentioned a piece I had co-directed, Conversation Piece. It turned out that not only did Jonathan know about the show but had heard about it from my co-director! It was a fascinating chat and, as always, far more was said than could be accommodated in the space we have. But all good things come to an end and we went our separate ways, Jonathan back to work and my wife and I to a pub in The Cut, next door to the Young Vic. At 5.30 we decided we were hungry and so walked along Waterloo Road to the Thai Silk restaurant whcih I had last visited in 1999 or thereabouts and about which I had good memories. The memories didn't lie: we had an excellent meal (although there was far too much!) and we then made our way to the Old Vic for Trevor Nunn's Hamlet (see Philip Fisher's review). What a superb production it is! The young - very young - members of the cast, especially BenWishaw as Hmalet and Samantha Whittaker as Ophelia, were a real revelation. They were utterly convincing and I have to say that Wishaw is probably the best Hamlet I have seen (and I have seen a few!). It's not often I agree with Charles Spencer, the critic of the Telegraph, but this time we are in 100% agreement. Come to think of it, we were about Country Music, too. Hmm.... But the youngsters didn't have it all their own way. Nicholas Jones was - I am beginning to sound gushing! - an excellent Polonius and Imogen Stubbs an interesting Gertrude. If that sounds as though I am damning with faint praise, it isn't intended to be. I'm just not sure I am convinced by the interpretation of the character. It's a long play - it came down about 11.15 - so it was straight back to the hotel. A long but thoroughly enjoyable day. >> Saturday Articles Indices:
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