I’ve already sung the praises of digital cinema screenings of live theatre shows, but in so doing have been faintly worried by the thought that such showings could be bad for the health of the theatres who produced the original stage productions. So I was relieved to hear this week that statistics now show that box-office takings for live shows which have been screened at cinemas actually increase after the broadcast. So, as they say at the BBC, “That’s all good…”
And especially good are the current RSC productions of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV”, both of which I’ve managed to see at cinema screenings. “Part One” at the Farnham Maltings during one of my recent excursions into Wessex, and “Part Two” last week at the Greenwich Picturehouse – more about this in a minute.
There will now be a pause for an Important Bulletin, especially important for those of you living in north-east London:
These screenings usually happen in the emerging network of genuinely local cinemas, a welcome alternative to the Hollywood-blockbuster-dominated multiplexes. Here in Walthamstow there’s now a chance that the once-famous but long-deserted Granada Cinema on Hoe St may be saved from the clutches of an evangelical church and turned into a local cinema and live performance space – in collaboration with Soho Theatre. This will clearly be a Good Thing, especially as both the independent Curzon Cinema chain and the Royal Shakespeare Company are also involved.
You can read about the inspiring vision behind this idea via the link at the bottom of this page. If you like it you’ll be in good company – so do lots of other wise and alert souls, ranging from Alan Davies, Shappi Khorsandi and Mick Jagger to our estimable MP, Stella Creasy.
The crucial decision will be taken at Waltham Forest Council on July 15th, so if you live locally please also look at the “Save Walthamstow Cinema” campaign website, which gives a list of email addresses for the local councillors whom it is really important to contact. Again, the link is at the bottom of this page. End of local news bulletin.
The RSC is of course resident in Warwickshire, but it seems to crop up all over the place at the moment – presumably not least because of the drive and energy of the excellent Greg Doran, recently appointed Artistic Director. He’s directed the two “Henry IV” shows. Greg’s life-long exploration of Shakespeare and his world (one of my most treasured possessions is a copy his “Shakespeare Almanac”) coupled with great skill in steering actors through tricky bits of text, generates two wonderfully clear and entertaining events.
Newcomers to Shakespeare – and even newcomers to British history – will follow the story with ease, and will find all the comedy, all the excitement, all the sheer zest only a top-quality live theatre show can supply. The less familiar of the two is of course “Part Two” – and you don’t have to have seen “Part One” to enjoy it in its own right. “Part One” is brilliant – apart from, one has to say, one inexplicable piece of mis-casting in one of the central roles.
But “Part Two” is pretty well flawless, with some glorious acting – especially in the scenes at the Boar’s Head tavern, and those set in rural Gloucestershire. Anthony Sher mines Sir John Falstaff for every last drop of bravado and chutspah, letting us see just how attractive great wit can be, be the bearer never so gross. There is wonderful work by Nia Gwynne as Doll Tearsheet and Paola Dionisotti as Mistress Quickly, two women ever-ready to forgive – and to love deeply – the appalling old rogue.
Nia, one of the RADA “Taffia” during my time – who also acts and sings beautifully in “Part One” as the Welsh lady in the Glendower scenes – was in the first company to play Shakespeare on the Atlantic ocean in the RADA Cunard project. Look out for her beyond Stratford – I suspect Nia’s moment has come…
When Falstaff goes into the country to recruit soldiers and visits his old pal Justice Shallow, the production becomes – and here’s a word I use but rarely – sublime. As Shallow, Oliver Ford-Davies, an actor of near-celestial talent, joins with Sir Anthony and Jim Hooper as Justice Silence to deliver scenes of comic brilliance, while tapping the into deep wells of humanity and pathos. Never will the great lines around “We have heard the chimes at midnight” be better served. Not an ounce of sentimentality – honest and daft, and thus mercilessly tear-jerking.
If beating a path to Stratford this summer is beyond your means, or just too darned difficult, there are still some cinema showings of “Part Two” this week – check the link below.
And far away from Warwickshire – but not that far from East Cheap, at London’s Aldwych Theatre – another company of RSC actors is performing stage versions of Hilary Mantel’s Booker-winning pair of Tudor novels, “Wolf Hall” and “Bring up the Bodies”. I went to hear Hilary Mantel at a “q&a” session at the new extension to Foyle’s bookshop (which is in fact the old Central St Martins arts school building). These brilliant novels are amazingly detailed, especially in characterising a great pragmatic schemer, Thomas Cromwell – and it was intriguing to hear that Ms Mantel is in constant discussion with Ben Miles, the RSC actor playing him onstage, combining author and actor’s imaginations to discover more and more possibilities for portraying this riveting, complex historical figure.
Yet further afield in the shires, I see Yorkshire is about to host the launch of this year’s Tour de France, which is, don’t you think, a rather demanding geographical concept to grasp? The entire two-wheeled cavalcade will then surge southwards towards the Channel ports, passing en route, it seems, through Walthamstow! A report will be filed. Perhaps our thoughtful readers in the north – for instance the robust thinkers at the Prescott Arms – will have some views to offer on this strange event, and its significance for those of us increasingly bewildered by our nation’s cross-Channel dealings?
RSC photographs by Kwame Lestrade
LINKS:
Walthamstow cinema project plans:
http://www.walthamforestcinematrust.org.uk
Campaign contacts:
http://savewalthamstowcinema.org
RSC:
RSC screenings: http://onscreen.rsc.org.uk
The Shakespeare Almanac by Gregory Doran:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Shakespeare-Almanac-Greg-Doran/dp/009192619X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404039864&sr=8-1&keywords=greg+doran
(My cherished copy was a retirement present from the drama department at St Mary’s Calne, a remarkable school with links to RADA)
Stage versions of “Wolf Hall” and “BringUp the Bodies”: http://www.aldwychtheatre.com
