Cycling and theatre

[nineveh_uk]

The Tour de France starts on Saturday, and I am looking forward to a long weekend and watching the race – or the five seconds or so as the peloton whizzes past. I am not particularly interested in cycling, but it will be An Event. I am recording the two Yorkshire days so as to enjoy the scenery at my leisure.* I could really do with a long weekend. Work has been very intensive this term, with a couple of very challenging things going on. I feel I’ve performed well in them, and have had strong feedback, but it has had its moments and I am in need of a break. Though probably not as much as the person who yesterday backed a scaffolding lorry into the stone gatepost to the drive outside my office building.

I finally managed to catch up with the broadcast of the Globe’s The Duchess of Malfi on BBC iPlayer the other night, and am inevitably kicking myself for not managing to see it live, because it was terrific. The Cardinal wasn’t my favourite – the actor’s facial features reminded me rather unfortunately of Tim Roth as Cardinal Richelieu,** which distracted me from a strong performance – but both the Duchess and Bosola were very engaging, and Ferdinand... Basically, David Dawson as Ferdinand was my platonic ideal of Ferdinand, with febrile eyes, pinched and haunted face, and general air of twitchy and pitiful psychopathy. Nor was the incest underplayed.*** Have some extracts here.

*Must make sure there is space on the DVR.
**Doubly unfair as I have never seen Roth as Richelieu, I just know he was in that recent, dire film.
*** The ‘strong-thigh’d bargeman’ line gets a mention in not a few reviews.

Comments

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

I am still quite miffed that despite doing a whole Renaissance literature paper at A level, we were the year that didn't get either The Duchess of Malfi or John Donne. The Revenger's Tragedy almost made up for it.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I got Hamlet, Winter's Tale, and Dr Faustus. I wish we could have had John Donne instead of Wilfred Owen, but alas! Winter's Tale was a bad A-level choice, because it was boring, but it wasn't hard, and Faustus was great, so I don't iobject too much.

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

Also Persuasion made up for Wuthering Heights, though I was alone in class in thinking so.