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Three Days in the Country
Aug. 9th, 2015 06:27 pmWhen my train to London was cancelled Saturday morning (apparently because of disruptive passengers - from Worcester at 8 o'clock in morning, really? - but more likely due to the previous day's signal failure) I was determined I was going to get to the play so hastily booked a coach ticket with National Express (and I hate travelling by coach).
The play is a reworking by Patrick Marber of Turgenev's A Month in the Country, and as the new title suggests, rather shorter than the original four hours. The initial attraction had been John Simm playing Rakitin, but then there was the further good news of Mark Gatiss playing Shpigelsky. My friend, a long-term John Simm fan, who I went with, was delighted, as she had never seen Mark Gatiss on stage.
The play was funny, and performed with excellent comic timing, and at the same time contained a sadder side, reflective of a lot of Russian literature of the period. I've always enjoyed seeing John Simm on stage. At the beginning his delivery was rather staccato (in a Noel Coward way). I'm not sure whether this was stage direction or a choice on his part, to show the affected nature of the character, but fortunately it changed and became more natural. And once again there was a wonderful change in pace of his delivery, which took the audience by surprise and showed the depth and complexity of the character.
Mark Gatiss was hilarious. His timing was impeccable and whereas sometimes I will dislike a comic character because their laughable misfortunes seem to me self-inflicted, in this case I felt complete sympathy.
The play itself I probably wouldn't want to see again, but as with all good performances, the actors totally made it for me.
The play is a reworking by Patrick Marber of Turgenev's A Month in the Country, and as the new title suggests, rather shorter than the original four hours. The initial attraction had been John Simm playing Rakitin, but then there was the further good news of Mark Gatiss playing Shpigelsky. My friend, a long-term John Simm fan, who I went with, was delighted, as she had never seen Mark Gatiss on stage.
The play was funny, and performed with excellent comic timing, and at the same time contained a sadder side, reflective of a lot of Russian literature of the period. I've always enjoyed seeing John Simm on stage. At the beginning his delivery was rather staccato (in a Noel Coward way). I'm not sure whether this was stage direction or a choice on his part, to show the affected nature of the character, but fortunately it changed and became more natural. And once again there was a wonderful change in pace of his delivery, which took the audience by surprise and showed the depth and complexity of the character.
Mark Gatiss was hilarious. His timing was impeccable and whereas sometimes I will dislike a comic character because their laughable misfortunes seem to me self-inflicted, in this case I felt complete sympathy.
The play itself I probably wouldn't want to see again, but as with all good performances, the actors totally made it for me.
