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The Night of the Iguana
Aug. 17th, 2019 06:06 pmBack from a few days in London, I have plenty to blog about. However, the first couple of days will be shorter play reviews, and then there'll be a couple of longer posts.
When I was deciding what to go and see on the Wednesday evening, I looked at the available plays, including Midsummer Night's Dream at the Bridge Theatre, and decided on The Night of the Iguana at the Noel Coward Theatre. Whether or not this was the right decision, I'll never know - it wasn't bad, but it wasn't excellent either.
The play was written by Tennessee Williams and set in September 1940 on the west coast of Mexico. It starred Clive Owen as Lawrence Shannon, Anna Gunn as Maxine Faulk and Lia Williams as Hannah Jelkes. The story is based around Shannon who is in the process of having a nervous breakdown and the reaction of the various characters to this.
I enjoyed the first half, despite having to lean forward to see part of the stage. I had a seat on the side in the upper circle - the three of us on our side all leaned forward so that was no problem - the rest of the seats there were emply. There was plenty of action which interrupted the dialogue.
But the second half had longer stretches of dialogue, with no breaks in it, which became slightly tedious, especially when it seemed to be going nowhere. The play lasted nearly three hours, including an interval, and I felt could have worked as well slightly truncated. There were four Germans, who rushed on and off stage, celebrating the bombing of London by the Luftwaffe, but they added nothing to the plot, apart from pinpointed the timing of the play, which wasn't really of importane.
The acting was good, and the set was excellent - giving an impression of out of season holiday accommodation.
I was happy to have seen it, but having just read some of the play's reviews, it seems I'm not alone in feeling slightly ambivalent about it.
When I was deciding what to go and see on the Wednesday evening, I looked at the available plays, including Midsummer Night's Dream at the Bridge Theatre, and decided on The Night of the Iguana at the Noel Coward Theatre. Whether or not this was the right decision, I'll never know - it wasn't bad, but it wasn't excellent either.
The play was written by Tennessee Williams and set in September 1940 on the west coast of Mexico. It starred Clive Owen as Lawrence Shannon, Anna Gunn as Maxine Faulk and Lia Williams as Hannah Jelkes. The story is based around Shannon who is in the process of having a nervous breakdown and the reaction of the various characters to this.
I enjoyed the first half, despite having to lean forward to see part of the stage. I had a seat on the side in the upper circle - the three of us on our side all leaned forward so that was no problem - the rest of the seats there were emply. There was plenty of action which interrupted the dialogue.
But the second half had longer stretches of dialogue, with no breaks in it, which became slightly tedious, especially when it seemed to be going nowhere. The play lasted nearly three hours, including an interval, and I felt could have worked as well slightly truncated. There were four Germans, who rushed on and off stage, celebrating the bombing of London by the Luftwaffe, but they added nothing to the plot, apart from pinpointed the timing of the play, which wasn't really of importane.
The acting was good, and the set was excellent - giving an impression of out of season holiday accommodation.
I was happy to have seen it, but having just read some of the play's reviews, it seems I'm not alone in feeling slightly ambivalent about it.
