Royal Shakespeare Company

[Mary Chambers]

I'd have liked the last part of Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream to close the performance, but (unless I missed it somewhere) it was nowhere to be seen/heard.

[Stanley Stewart]

Probably inevitable that Puck's entreaty to the audience would close the performance.

"...So, good night unto you all,
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends." (exit)

[Mary Chambers]

Probably inevitable that Puck's entreaty to the audience would close the performance.

"...So, good night unto you all,
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends." (exit)

It closes the Britten opera, so everyone could have been happy!

[Nick Armstrong]

Indeed, mercia, the Guardian quote says it all. Thank you.

Apart from a few longueurs this was a dazzling evening. Anyone who've been in the biz will realise the energy required to organise these one-offs, particularly during an on-going season. Groups rehearsing in every corner of a large site with last night's performance riding on a wing and a prayer throughout. .... Reminders last night from Simon Russell Beale, Ian McKellen and Judi Dench on the importance of clear enuniciation which used to be the norm.

Stanley - I take your point fully about the energy and complexity of staging such an event, and also fully agree that those named performers - of course - stand out. I shall keep some sections of the evening - but as edited, it runs to under 20 minutes in all: Simon Russell Beale, the comedy 'To be or not to be' sketch with HRH coming on at the end, that extraordinary McKellen 'Thomas More' speech, and the number from 'Kiss me Kate' with the always-terrific Henry Goodman.

Other than that (i.e. the remaining 2 hours ) I still think that the results of all that energy were disappointing.

I also disagree about the Guardian quote

Despite many intrinsic challenges, Shakespeare Live! was an apt and vivid reminder of the playwright’s chameleon brilliance, his astonishing powers of assimilation, and the way in which the inspired juxtapositions of his language and poetry can ignite the cortical synapses of the imagination like no one in our literature

Guardian

It reads to me like damning with faint (though verbose and pseudy) praise.

Billington is closer to the mark in the same paper, I think.

[BBMmk2]

That RSC Celebration was a load of tosh1 "Could have done better!!" (My school could have! :)) Admitterdly there were some golden momnents, but like mary chambers said, not enough!

[Mary Chambers]

That RSC Celebration was a load of tosh1 "Could have done better!!" (My school could have! :)) Admitterdly there were some golden momnents, but like mary chambers said, not enough!

I kept thinking "Is this the best we can manage?". It was a very uneasy juxtaposition of popular culture and 'high culture' (not an expression I like, but I can't think of another).

[jean]

Has anyone done the Globe Shakespeare Walk anywhere? I could still manage a few of the films, but I'm afraid they might be irritatingly snippety. Will I regret it if I miss them all?

[Conchis]

I kept thinking "Is this the best we can manage?". It was a very uneasy juxtaposition of popular culture and 'high culture' (not an expression I like, but I can't think of another).

Nor me.

Frankly, I don't think Shakespeare belongs on the stage any more. He desperately needs to be relegated to the reading room in order to be saved from the current wave of 'interpreters'.

The only great Shakespeare productions I've seen are the ones I've seen in my imagination.

Another depressing aspect of last night's Shakes-jamboree was the way the 'names' got rounds from the audience as soon as they appeared. I thought that hoary old practice died out decades ago? The implication was clear: the audience was comprised largely of people who were there to see 'stars' and weren't all that fussed about what those 'stars' did, or how well they did it.

The Bostridge-Pappano moment that Mary mentions was probably the highlight: just a voice, a piano and words. With the three artists concerned, it was all that was needed.

[jean]

...the way the 'names' got rounds from the audience as soon as they appeared...

That happened at the cinema relay of the Met's Roberto Devereux last week. I had never seen it in an opera house before.

[Conchis]

That happened at the cinema relay of the Met's Roberto Devereux last week. I had never seen it in an opera house before.

The only time I've seen anything like it happen was a production of As You Like It at Manchester Palace many years ago: one solitary fan clapped Jack Smethurst (ex of notorious sitcom Love Thy Neighbour, who was playing Touchstone).

[mercia]

Has anyone done the Globe Shakespeare Walk anywhere?

is this the thing they are calling "The Complete Walk" ? in which case I thought it only existed on London's South Bank and ends today at 8pm ??

http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/whats-on/special-events/the-complete-walk

37 x 10 minute films. Perhaps they will go online so we can view them at home.

beg pardon, I see its in Liverpool too

http://www.cultureliverpool.co.uk/thecompletewalk/

[jean]

No, it exists (or existed) outside the London bubble too!

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/shakespeare-complete-walk-films-liverpool-11231457

[Conchis]

A helluva lot of money was obviously spent on that extravaganza. Just imagine what the numerous impoverished regional theatres could have done had the budget for that 'one night only' affair been redistributed amongst them....