It's Chess, Jim, but not as we know it.

[nineveh_uk]

antisoppist and I spent Friday evening watching* Chess på svenska - the Swedish version of Chess first performed in 2002 and which we knew to make some alterations to the songs and running order. I knew it was going to be different to the ENO production I saw in May. I didn't know that it was going to be THAT different... It was great, and there will be a proper review in due course, but in the meantime, a poll:

Poll #20481 Chess!

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

View Respondents

Which one or more of the following does the Swedish version of Chess not include?

View Answers

One Night in Bangkok is not sung in Bangkok, but is a karaoke number.
3 (42.9%)

Molokov has a solo about his manpain.
0 (0.0%)

Anatoly/the Russian deliberately throws the final chess match.
0 (0.0%)

Svetlana is also a KGB agent.
2 (28.6%)

There is a comic play-within-a-play version of Romeo and Juliet, during which a swozzle can be heard.
4 (57.1%)

*In my case almost entirely through opera glasses, which I had remembered to take while leaving my actual glasses on the hotel table. Actually, my eyes are not so bad that I can't see what's happening on the stage without them, as you'd expect given that I got to the theatre without them, but I always wear them for cinema and theatre to enjoy the detail fully and I want to be able to see people's facial expressions properly!

Comments

[azdak]

It must be bunnies?
(Buffy reference, just in case you weren't a fan)

[antisoppist]

Too scared of vampires at the time. Coincidentally though I am unable to write my own review of Chess på Svenska until I have finished translating a novel sample with symbolic dead rabbits in it.

[azdak]

Dead rabbits do seem to be freighted with symbolism in their own right, so I am slightly worried about how symbolic they might turn out to be in the hands of a symbolism-inclined author.

[nineveh_uk]

If only it had been bunnies and everyone could have bonded through their fluffy strokeability!

Because there are too many thing on the internet, someone has indeed written a sort of Buffy/Chess crossover... It sets the end of series 2 to the Chess finale.

[azdak]

Truly, the world is more full of wonders than we can understand. Thank you for the link!