| Monday, 23 July 2007 |
| the seagull |
I just came back from my trip to the Esplanade, where I caught the Royal Shakespeare Company's (RSC) performance of 'The Seagull', a rather famous tragic comedy written by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov.
With tickets costing 172 dollars each, this was probably the most expensive play that I have ever paid for with my own savings. I usually go for the 80-90 dollar tickets, but unfortunately, they were sold out.
Accompanying me on my trip where Eileen and Xinhui. I think I speak for the 3 of us when I say that neither of us are avid theatre fans. Its true that I have watched my fair share of musicals and concerts and stuff, but I never really got the opportunity to watch much theatre.
So I'm glad I made the effort (and shoulder the cost!) to go watch 'The Seagull', though I must admit, the whole draw of the play wasn't that I knew about the play or whatever, but it was more to watch Sir Ian McKellen acting in it.
For those who don't know who Sir Ian McKellen is, he starred as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and Magneto in the X-men Trilogy. When he isn't filming movies, Sir Ian's real passion is in theatre, especially Shakespearean theatre.
He's here in S'pore from 19th to 22nd July, to star in 'King Lear' and to play a supporting role in 'The Seagull'.
We wanted to catch 'King Lear' but tickets were already sold out by the time we made up our minds about going, which was a pity because we met a lady today who happened to watch 'King Lear' last night, and apparently it was darn good, and Sir Ian was on stage 98% of the time, working his magic.
But oh well, we had to settle for 2nd best. But at least he did have quite a meaty role in 'Seagull', so we did get a chance to watch quite a lot of his magic.
The play was good. But it was so awfully dark.
I think the 3 of us were quite confused initially, because there were so many characters and so many events happening that it was all very disorientating.
But after awhile, we managed to sorta keep up with events and followed the proceedings quite carefully.
It was a thought provoking plan, very dark and disturbing, very melancholic, but always humorous and funny (quite a feat considering the dark nature of the storyline).
The acting was the most captivating thing about the play. The RSC has a great ensemble, everyone was perfect and quite convincing in their roles. But of course, my personal favourite was Sir Ian, who's portrayal of the eccentric old man Sorin was so endearing that I just couldn't help thinking that he was just a Dumbledore in Muggle clothing.
Funny thing happened at the end of the play. Eileen didn't hear the last lines of the play because she was focusing on the wrong thing.
Instead of listening to the actors speaking out the last two lines of the play (which sorta revealed the fate of the protagonist), she was too caught up with a candle props being extinguished and one of the actresses laughing, so much so that she didn't realise that the play had ended.
As such, she left the theatre totally oblivious to what had just happened, and how the story ended.
Xinhui and I were totally amused, and spent the whole journey back to the MRT station trying to explain what she had missed and what the ending was about.
It was hilarious - I really don't think you should spend 172 dollars on a play and not understand the ending of it. *Chuckle*
I still think it was a pity that we couldn't catch Sir Ian in his full glory in 'King Lear'. What a waste.Labels: art, theatre |
posted by voldemort33 @ 00:37  |
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