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smallhobbitYesterday I returned from a three night mini-break in London. So be prepared because over the next few days I shall be blogging about what I saw and did!
First up, Yerma. (Major spoilers below the cut.) This was one of the plays I'd been debating about seeing - it stars Billie Piper, who I like and was keen to see on stage. On the other hand, I knew nothing about the play, other than it's a rewrite of a play by Federico Garcia Lorca. Then a friend of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vix_spes asked if anyone wanted to go, and that tipped the balance into going to see a play I was interested in with friends.
The play is being staged at the Young Vic. The action takes place within a large perspex box, which sounds strange but works very well. The audience are seated on the two opposite sides of the box and so are looking through at each other, but because of the perspex those on the far side are not very clear. We were sat in the middle of the front row on one of the sides. The acts are quite short and captions are shown between acts, but from our seats we couldn't see them - it didn't affect our enjoyment.
The play is based on one woman's increasingly desperate attempts to conceive a child. Billie Piper takes us from a confident magazine editor who writes a caustic blog to one who will do anything, spend any amount of money and become completely obsessed with the idea, to the extent she loses her job, her home, her husband, and untimately her life. The descent is gradual and the audience are torn between feeling sympathy for the character and seeing her as a self-interested person. How each audience member ultimately relates to her will reflect their own situation and personality, but that's the power of Billie Piper's acting.
She's not alone of course. The other actors play their own vital part, which go to make up the whole. Brendan Cowell who plays the partner, then husband, has a similar effect, as he begins by putting his own desires and wishes first and then as he realises he's losing his wife to her obsession. I liked Maureen Beattie, who played the mother, as well. I suspect the whole audience liked the real-life baby, who had the role of the sister's child, and who smiled as Billie Piper carried him round to look at the audience.
It's clearly a very draining part, as the character, along with the audience, go through a real range of emotions. I'd thoroughly recommend seeing the play, although it's currently sold out. SM came up to London to join me on the Thursday (I saw the play Wednesday), and he'd decided to go just after the first couple of previews, when there were still tickets available. By opening night it had sold out, and when they released a further 1,000 tickets one day this week they all went in a matter of hours.
I'm not sure you would say you enjoyed a play like that, but I was incredibly glad I had seen it.
First up, Yerma. (Major spoilers below the cut.) This was one of the plays I'd been debating about seeing - it stars Billie Piper, who I like and was keen to see on stage. On the other hand, I knew nothing about the play, other than it's a rewrite of a play by Federico Garcia Lorca. Then a friend of
vix_spes asked if anyone wanted to go, and that tipped the balance into going to see a play I was interested in with friends.The play is being staged at the Young Vic. The action takes place within a large perspex box, which sounds strange but works very well. The audience are seated on the two opposite sides of the box and so are looking through at each other, but because of the perspex those on the far side are not very clear. We were sat in the middle of the front row on one of the sides. The acts are quite short and captions are shown between acts, but from our seats we couldn't see them - it didn't affect our enjoyment.
The play is based on one woman's increasingly desperate attempts to conceive a child. Billie Piper takes us from a confident magazine editor who writes a caustic blog to one who will do anything, spend any amount of money and become completely obsessed with the idea, to the extent she loses her job, her home, her husband, and untimately her life. The descent is gradual and the audience are torn between feeling sympathy for the character and seeing her as a self-interested person. How each audience member ultimately relates to her will reflect their own situation and personality, but that's the power of Billie Piper's acting.
She's not alone of course. The other actors play their own vital part, which go to make up the whole. Brendan Cowell who plays the partner, then husband, has a similar effect, as he begins by putting his own desires and wishes first and then as he realises he's losing his wife to her obsession. I liked Maureen Beattie, who played the mother, as well. I suspect the whole audience liked the real-life baby, who had the role of the sister's child, and who smiled as Billie Piper carried him round to look at the audience.
It's clearly a very draining part, as the character, along with the audience, go through a real range of emotions. I'd thoroughly recommend seeing the play, although it's currently sold out. SM came up to London to join me on the Thursday (I saw the play Wednesday), and he'd decided to go just after the first couple of previews, when there were still tickets available. By opening night it had sold out, and when they released a further 1,000 tickets one day this week they all went in a matter of hours.
I'm not sure you would say you enjoyed a play like that, but I was incredibly glad I had seen it.
