Friday, November 10, 2006

theatricals

Last week we went to see Mine by Xavier Leret at the Bristol Old Vic (he's posted some extracts from the forthcoming film on his blog). The dialogue was mostly very realistic (as far as I could tell, never having been stuck in a minefield in the middle of the night with two psychopaths) and the moral dubiousness of journalists' desire for a "story" was brought out by the unfolding plot. The way in which the context of the locals' lives was brought out by the story about Huso and the brandy was very good, as well. Nick was at college with Xavier.

This week we went to see the play of The Marriage of Figaro (original by Beaumarchais, translation and adaptation by Ranjit Bolt). Bolt's version was set in Moghul India and performed by Tara Arts in a style influenced by Bhavai theatre. It was very high energy and very enjoyable, with great costumes, music and dialogue. I sat next to Ranjit Bolt in a theatre in Cambridge once (around 1991 or 1992), and we got chatting (this is before he was famous, but he was just about to hit the big-time). Very nice chap.

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