This is an even more not-quite-review than normal as I’ve already discussed King Lear and Romeo and Juliet before, at length (ridiculous, ridiculous length). But I can’t not write something about these last two shows, as they feel slightly momentous to me in an oddly difficult to define way. I suppose it’s just that these productions have been a major part of my life over the last year and it’s still slightly hard to comprehend that I won’t be seeing them again. Plus even with the three Hampstead plays to go, this felt a little like we were saying goodbye to the ensemble (none of this is rational of course – but emotions generally aren’t).
I don’t have too much to add about King Lear since my previous mini-review. I still think Greg Hicks is amazing, I still love the clarity of emotion in Sophie Russell’s fool, I still think the way they have developed and drawn the relationship between Lear and his daughters is fascinating and there are still multiple moments when it all breaks my heart again and again (I am particularly looking at Darrell Da Silva and Geoffrey Freshwater here). It was a little less intense this visit as we were also using this as a chance to try out some of the restricted view seats rather than being right up the front (with mixed results) – but no less emotionally powerful and impressive for that. What I’ll really remember this performance for though was for the moment when Greg Hicks brought his longest supporter and his greatest critic, his 100 year old father up on the stage to a standing ovation – incredibly moving.
After a brief chip bap and an even briefer nap, we headed back to the RST for the third time that day for one final performance of Romeo and Juliet. Though I wouldn’t say this is my favourite production ever (that’s still The Drunks), it certainly comes close and it’s definitely the production I’ve seen the most number of times. In the end I amassed a slightly ridiculous twelve visits (I think, I may have got confused on my counting). It never got stale, it never stopped exciting me and taking my breath away and I never stopped noticing new things as there was so much rich detail woven through the piece (plus I think Sam Troughton changed his performance every single time I saw it). This time the performance seemed to be running on pure adrenaline, it was high paced and careening and sometimes lines got scrambled or forgotten (though the cast covered it well enough that I doubt many people noticed) – but it dragged you along with it and with them in an incredible way.
It also meant that I got a second chance to see and muse upon the new ending, introduced only since they started in the RST – which adds a lovely cyclical beauty to the story, even if I did miss getting a last chance to hear Gruffudd Glyn’s verse speaking (also it meant that there was a bit of me getting both excited and disappointed that this implies there’s a version of the play with Glyn as Romeo, but we don’t get to see it). I have a sneaking suspicion I will never see a Romeo and Juliet this strong again and I will miss it dearly.
And that was it, a mad three day show/bizarre goodbye over. Well... except for the night of drunken debauchery but I’m not going into that here. Let’s just say Shakespeare and whiskey – things that are beautiful and that go beautifully together.
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