Early yesterday afternoon, Up in the Cheap Seats were seeing - ooh - Andrew Scott, in Sea Wall. Wouldn't you know it, this is the one - written specifically for him - that I missed, back in 2018! By minutes! Because of moving into my new flat, and I'd bought an expensive ticket 'n' all. Two minutes over, and they wouldn't let me into the Old Vic, and had nowhere for me to watch on screen. Tsk. Well, another I finally got to see.. and was really looking forward to. And I had just as good a view as I would have had on that occasion!
Started a little early, as usual - though apart from a couple of buffering issues at the start, it worked fine. It's a one-man show - in the film version, Andrew Scott starts the camera and starts chatting to you. Uneasily. The play is directed straight at the audience. And it meanders pleasantly, as you try to figure out what it's about.. he launches straight into a heap of anecdotes, without context or explanation.
You just know something is coming. So it's not entirely a surprise when it hits - what is surprising is the way it completely blindsides you. Make no mistake, the shortness of the play has no effect on the power of the message - and the aftereffects creep up on you so slowly that it's no wonder that several of us were crying on the call afterwards.
Beautifully written, beautifully acted. Natural speech, natural delivery - you have no warning of what's going to happen, or when - just as the narrator doesn't. Absolutely devastating. What a combo of things to watch this weekend.. although it was supposed to stop free streaming this evening, I think, it's now viewable until 9pm (BST) next Monday - because it's proved so popular. And for a review, check out the excellent Q+A with the playwright and Andrew Scott, which took place during its brief showing at the Old Vic. But make sure you've seen the play first, as - of course - there are spoilers. Seems to be based on the writer's personal experiences - intensely reworked. Fascinating to hear what Andrew Scott says about the connection between this and Hamlet. Also interesting to hear that this brief run was the longest it had anywhere..
See this. Oh, and you can pay $6 and download it..
The Jitsi call afterwards worked ok for me, although some had problems. And we were almost all blown away by the sheer power of the piece. As someone remarked, the silences spoke louder than the words..
Later that afternoon, London Social Detours (LSD) had an online game of hangman! Well-known play or book titles, which we had to suggest. So we learned to use Zoom's whiteboard feature - we'll all be tech wizards after this. And although we could all have annotated, the host did it all herself - entering the spaces for letters, with instruction from us, and drawing the hangman. I only got two, but hey. And I provided the only unguessable book title of the day - after which we ended the call - with Wolf Hall! which, you see, lacks many common letters..
Had to be up early this morning for a meeting - the week is chock-full of them. And what with watching supplementary videos about the play, it's taken forever to do this blog.
We've been given another round of the London Literary Walks quiz - well actually, its companion quiz. Which I've about half answered - will take another look when I get a chance.
And on Saturday, back with LSD for an NPG talk on Richard III.. specifically, on what a famous portrait of him can tell us about his true character..
No comments:
Post a Comment