Noughts & Crosses, Hackney Empire – 4/5
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Almeida- 3/5
An Enemy of the People, Arcola- 4/5
Happy Now?, Cottesloe, National Theatre- 2.5/5
The Year of Magical Thinking, Lyttelton, National Theatre- 2.5/5
Theatre Review: The Year of Magical Thinking
After sitting through 100 minutes of this monologue, I just realised it wasn’t for me, monologues I mean. I definitely won’t do them again, unless Simon Russell Beale did them. Sorry, got sidetracked there already. Going back to the subject of monologues, of course I knew that it was going to be a monologue even before I booked it. I had to deliberate it for a while but then I thought, well come on it’s Vanessa Redgrave, she’s a great actress, she’ll keep you focused. Well, did she? Not quite.
I realised that I just don’t have that tenacity nor attention span to sit through 100 minutes of just talking and reflecting. Should I have read Joan Didion’s memoir before seeing the production and maybe that would have changed things a bit? Maybe. Should I have drank 2 litres of Coke to keep me awake for the evening? Perhaps. I actually have been looking forward to this production because of Redgrave’s involvement in it, and the raving reviews it received on Broadway and the interesting subject of surviving grief and bereavement. I was hoping to have that attachment but I barely connected. I sort of blame the venue, the Lyttelton was just way too big for the speaker to connect to her audience. Perhaps a more intimate and smaller venue like the Cottesloe would have kept me interested, but I was gone after the first 30 minutes, and was doing my own magical thinking way before the curtain fell.
The Year of Magical Thinking: 2/5
Theatre Review: Happy Now?
Plot: A chance encounter at a conference hotel plays upon Kitty’s (Olivia Williams) mind as she struggles to balance personal freedom with family life, fidelity and a testing job. Her husband seems more interested in misplaced apostrophes than his marriage, her parents are looking down the barrel of oblivion and, although she might toy with joining a gym, Kitty’s running out of time for big changes.
I have been wanting to ask my friend eddie who is now a happily married working mum to join me in my theatre escapades. The first and last production we saw together was at the Almeida’s Five Gold Rings in 2004 so after telling her about my new found passion I also wanted her to be a part of it, albeit in small doses. We chose this play to break her in as it speaks closer to home, about a modern mum who’s got a lot up her sleeve to deal with left, right and centre, and the question she asks is where exactly does my happiness lie?
I thought that what the play was trying to address was the issue of happiness or lack thereof but it never really showed us how it was dealt with. There’s a lot of unhappiness around Kitty’s sphere, her dissatisfied friends Miles (Dominic Rowan) and Bea (Emily Joyce) whose discussion borders on the banality of choosing what color schemes to use, Johnny, (Jonathan Cullen) her dependent teacher of a husband is not any help either, then there’s her now ill father who walked out on them after Kitty went to uni and her mum (Anne Reid) insisting not to answer the phone thinking it was her husband trying to reach her. Their gay friend Carl (Stewart McQuarrie) also showed an air of discontent after things didn’t work out with toy boy Antonio.
With all these frustrations, save from Bea who eventually kicked Miles out, no changes were suggested, nor for our overly stressed heroine to change her situation, she nearly did after meeting up again with Michael, wonderfully performed here by Stanley Townsend. Perhaps we will never really know the answer to finding happiness. Perhaps it is a bit too late to make that change. And whilst we’re waiting for it, might as well just watch Will and Grace for now.
Happy Now?: 2.5/5
Playing at the Cottesloe, National Theatre until May 10
Film Review: Fool’s Gold
Plot: Ben “Finn” Finnegan (Matthew McConaughey) is an affable, modern-day treasure hunter who is obsessed with finding the legendary 18th century Queen’s Dowry-40 chests of priceless treasure that was lost at sea in 1715. In his quest, Finn has sunk everything he has, including his marriage to Tess (Kate Hudson). Just as Tess has begun to rebuild her life, working aboard a mega-yacht owned by billionaire Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland), Finn discovers a vital clue to the treasure’s whereabouts. Much to Tess’ consternation, Finn maneuvers himself aboard Nigel’s yacht and, using his roguish charm, convinces the tycoon and his celebutante daughter, Gemma (Alexis Dziena), to join him in the pursuit of the Spanish riches. Even Tess can’t resist the lure of finally uncovering the treasure that had eluded them for so long. But they are not the only ones after the prize. Finn’s one-time mentor, Moe Fitch (Ray Winstone), and a ruthless local gangster (Kevin Hart) are intent on beating Finn to the trove. Let the treasure hunt begin…
This is the first time that the entry about the film’s plot is longer than the review! Anyway…
Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson first came to our attention in the wonderful rom-com How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and I have been hoping for them to have a screen comeback, I didn’t expect it to be in a treasure hunt film called Fool’s Gold. Based on the trailer I knew it was going to be a dud but saying that, despite it being mindless, it still turned out to be entertaining, thanks to both actors sense of comic thinking and their still obvious chemistry. Great support from Sutherland and Winstone. If you missed it, rent it on DVD but take it for what it is.
Fool’s Gold: 2.5/5
Gobbets – Henrik Ibsen
“The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That’s one of these lies in society that no free and intelligent man can help rebelling against. Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of the population — the intelligent ones or the fools? I think we can agree it’s the fools, no matter where you go in this world, it’s the fools that form the overwhelming majority.” - An Enemy of the People, 1882
