OFFBEAT: Shakespeare Theater's 'Madness of King George' a spectacular spiral of intrigue

My favorite play in Chicago. No doubt about it.

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There are times when the audience winces or even feels the temptation to want to look away during the compelling unfolding of events in Chicago Shakepeare Theater's riveting production of "The Madness of George III."
These natural temptations serve as further proof of the sheer brilliance of the performance by three-time Tony Award nominee actor Harry Groener in the title role of a monarch on the verge of mental collapse at a time when medical science had little to offer the treatment of physical ailments, let alone, abnormalities of the intellect and reasoning.
Masterfully written by Alan Bennett, the Laurence Olivier and Tony Award-winning playwright of "The History Boys," this three-hour, one intermission dramatic masterpiece is directed by Penny Metropulos and runs through June 12 at the Courtyard Theater at Navy Pier.
Edge of the seat intrigue and amazingly ideal production values result in a story that quickly seems to swirl about as the audience is on the edge of their seats feeling compassion, confusion, sympathy and even moments of humor while absorbing this fascinating time of history.
"The Madness of George III" explores one of the most politically charged periods of Great Britain's history into a surprisingly heartfelt human story about loss-of mind, body and power.
The 13 Colonies of the "New America" have just been lost as King George III descends into madness and is forced to submit to his doctors' myriad 18th-century medical treatments, his personal and political affiliations are threatened.
Watching the descent of his father are his two sons, the thoroughly entertaining Richard Baird as the Prince of Wales and impish actor Alex Weisman as his brother the Duke of York.
But at the core of this story of royal intrigue are the King's relationships with his devoted Queen Charlotte, played by the ever-amazing Ora Jones and his closest advisers, who endure uncertainty as England's ruler struggles to remain in control of his own person and his government.
Readers might recall Bennett also received an Academy Award nomination for his 1994 cinematic adaptation of "The Madness of George III," which won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction, and starred the late Nigel Hawthorne as King George III and Helen Mirren as Queen Charlotte.
Actor William Pitt is a strong and encaptivating stage force playing the prime minister torn between serving the people, his government and a ruler who has left a lasting impact on himself and many others.
Other members of this incredible, capable cast include Kevin Gudahl as Captain Fitzroy, David Lively as Thurlow, Brad Armacost as Dr. Baker, Patrick Clear as Dr. Warren, William Dick as Dr. Pepys, James Newcomb as Dr. Willis, Steven Pringle as Papandiek and Patrice Egleston as Lady Pembroke.
And look for South Holland native and actor Kevin Cox, delivering an amusing and carefully balanced performance as Braun, one of the king's footmen.
Scenic Designer William Bloodgood provides a perfect, transforming set for the story to emerge, while the costume design by Susan E. Mickey is stunning.

CST's - The Madness of George III

Like I said - go to the chicago Shalespeare Theatre and see George III from Alan Bennett.
Harry Groener plays the King George and he is great.
Here is an article about the actor.

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Published on WBEZ (http://www.wbez.org)

The method in Harry Groener's madness

Laura Molzahn May 18, 2011

Harry Groener is passionate about being analytical. To prepare for his role as the king in CST's The Madness of George III, he read seven books—including one focused on the king’s 15 children. Or was it 16? Either way, he says, “If you look at the dates, that’s almost one a year!”

Alan Bennett’s 1991 play hews to the historical record, right down to the three bumpers of spa water George III drinks at Cheltenham, Groener says, in an effort to cure what ails him—probably porphyria, a disease discovered a century later. Cycling through all the character’s inexplicable, excoriating physical and mental afflictions, this Tony-nominated veteran of Broadway, television, and film manages to establish the character’s bedrock decency.

“George III has been demonized,” Groener says, “made into the crazy king who happened to be crazy during the American Revolution. But no, this was way after that, in the winter of 1788, 1789. The fact that they lost the colonies was something he could not bear till the day he died. Parliament was what he had trouble with. He wasn’t the one who said about the colonies, ‘Oh, they’re just misbehaving, treat them like children and give them a spanking and let’s not hear anymore about it.’ There are references to him saying, ‘Is there any way that we can resolve some of the grievances?’”

The so-called mad king, Groener says, “wanted to set an example to the country—a moral example, a religious example: be good, be honest, be honorable. Be true to your wife, monogamous—and he was.” Groener describes the king’s relationship with the German-born Queen Charlotte (a wonderfully warm Ora Jones) as “sweet, because it isn’t the norm, right? You get married, you don’t necessarily love the person, but your duty is to marry and have children to continue the line. Once you’ve done that, and have a few sons, you’re more or less done.” Not George III, apparently.

Nattering on about his favorite subject, Groener says: “He was very well educated, of course, but he also educated himself. He loved going to talk to the farmers, he loved talking about agriculture, of course he loved pigs—he loved pigs! He could exhaust you because he was so energetic and could just talk and talk and talk about ANY subject. This was before he was ill. When he was ill he would talk for hours and hours and hours. Some of it was nonsense, some of it wasn’t. And he was aware of the fact that something was going terribly wrong. He did hallucinate. The physical symptoms started first, and then they went to affect his mind.”

“We can all sympathize with the pain this person is going through,” says Groener. “And I think we can all relate to the caretaking theme. Penny Metropulos, our director—both of us were very, very well aware. She’s going through it now with her husband and her mother-in-law, and my wife and I’ve just gone through years of it, with friends and with our parents. I’m sure that at least 25 percent of the audience, if not more, on any given night are going through that at this very moment. The dealing with this person who’s becoming incontinent, and no one was equipped to deal with that—certainly not Charlotte, certainly not the sons. It was left to the doctors, the equerries, to deal with this man and his condition.”

“I loved reading about this, it really is fascinating,” says Groener. “A lot of it, you just have it in the background, it’s peripheral—you can’t play it, but you just have it back there, and it grounds you, so that when you look at these people you have a little bit more information about who that actor represents. For me it just gives it more weight, it colors it more, it fills in the blanks.”

Outgoing Tide on the Northlight Theatre in Skokie

Critics are raving about The Outgoing Tide! - and they are right.
We were at the reading last year (not with Rondi Reed) and it was already great. Deanna Dunagan was suberb and we hope to see the result later. now this year we really made it. And it was great. A sad but beautiful play.
We had the chance for a small talk with the director B.J.Jones. He was very friendly and pleased that we came back a year later.

Since we also met chris jones and hedi weiss during the symposium here are the reviews:

The Outgoing Tide' at Northlight:
Play about end-of-life issues shows Mahoney at his finest
by Chris Jones
Chicago Tribune
May 24, 2011

★★★½

Gunner, the memory-challenged central character in Bruce Graham's new play "The Outgoing Tide," is slowly losing his grip on the ebbs and flows of life. But whereas it must be tempting to play an elderly man suffering from the onset of Alzheimer's, or severe dementia, as a timid, nervous fellow, there is not a hint of that in John Mahoney.

Mahoney - whose performance in director BJ Jones' superb world-premiere production is, I think, the best work I've ever seen him do on stage - understands that the agony of suffering from progressive memory loss is not best reflected theatrically through trepidation and confusion. On the contrary, it is best expressed through strength. Only then do we understand what is being lost.

And thus, in a display of robustness that one does not typically associate with this most genial of actors, Mahoney shows us a proud, flinty man for whom the loss of lucidity is entirely intolerable. It is an exceptionally moving performance that hones in on one thing that family members dealing with loved ones in this all-too-common situation too little understand: the importance of dignity and personal pride.

"The Outgoing Tide," which is set on the shore of Chesapeake Bay, is, at its core, at exploration of how such a man as Mahoney's Gunner - forceful, well-prepared, a father, a husband, a kidder - can live with a seriously diminished mental capacity, and whether he is within his rights to not want to live with it at all. It is a very tightly focused piece about a family of three. Rondi Reed plays Peg, Gunner's earnest, straight-talking wife, and Thomas J. Cox plays his son. Events take place on a day when Gunner has called up his son and asked him to visit. Gunner wants to tell him about a plan to provide more for his family, and also to put himself out of his own increasing misery.

If you're in anything approaching this situation - with your parents, partner, or self - I think you'll instantly recognize how Graham zeroes in on recognizable truths.

There is the leadership vacuum that occurs when a powerful patriarch can no longer remember to wear his pants. And Cox carefully shows us the travails that come when a mild, only moderately successful middle-aged man must suddenly assert himself with his far stronger father, a relationship that is clarified through flashbacks that Jones interweaves beautifully into the action. There is the way that your parents' aging often hits you when you're least prepared to deal with it; you're stuck, perhaps, in a stressed-out slump of diminished career expectations and dealing with kids and a troubled marriage of your own. There are those tantalizing moments of normalcy, when you convince yourself that things are getting better or, at least, no worse. And, most moving of all, there is the impact of an aging parent on his or her spouse and the fundamental changes that take place, rarely for the better, in a relationship that may stretch back 50 years or more.

Which brings me to Reed. This is a quiet performance that's wholly the equal of the extraordinary work being done by Mahoney - and by Cox, for that matter. But there's something in its reticence, its truly agonizing reticence, that has been living with me since. As penned by Graham, Peg would rather get up from the table whenever anything being said around that table is painful. As she bustles around, rarely looking anyone in the eye, Reed submerges her famously forceful personality inside a woman whom we see, over a couple of hours of stage traffic, must finally try and face something. It is quite something to watch.

Gunner's desire not to live in a reduced way sends this play off into the thorny debates surrounding many end-of-life issues, which, in the final analysis, I find less interesting than the nuanced and very personal crises being forged by these actors. The play needs, I suppose, the dramatic tension posed by Gunner threatening to do one final, all-enveloping thing. But I confess to some resistance to that; in real life, when we are faced with the possibility of such loss, our tendency is to try and delay or soften it, rather than treat it as an all-or-nothing issue. That human impulse gets short shrift here in the interests of dramatic stakes.

But in terms of acting and directing, nothing whatsoever gets short shrift. This is a trio of towering performances, made all the more intense by the sense that any tower can, eventually, be toppled.

Read the review on chicagotribune.com>


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Two Tony winners, perfectly paired in ‘The Outgoing Tide'
BY HEDY WEISS
Chicago Sun-Times
May 24, 2011

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

There is a special timbre to an audience's laughter of recognition, and it was fully audible throughout Sunday's performance of "The Outgoing Tide," the Bruce Graham play now in its world premiere at Northlight Theatre.

There also is a special sort of pleasure that infuses a production in which two veteran actors, who have long since put a high gloss on their craft, get to play opposite each other. And you certainly can feel that as John Mahoney and Rondi Reed, each a Tony Award winner, give an informal master class in acting as they play a couple that has been married for 50 years and is now trying to negotiate the volatile currents of the end game.

The storyline in Graham's play is an increasingly familiar one these days as people live longer and must deal with the onset of Alzheimer's and other care-intensie diseases. There are decisions to be made - by the afflicted person who still can make them, by the aging but healthy spouse who clearly will need help caring for a deteriorating partner, and/or by the adult children of such a couple - a baby boomer already in full midlife mode. And invariably that classic question will arise: Whose life is it, anyway?

Graham has crafted a skillful, punchy piece that careens expertly between the painful and the comic, features a number of laugh-out-loud one liners (delivered with equal aplomb by Mahoney and Reed), and very deftly incorporates some elements of surprise. And director BJ Jones, along with the ideally cast Thomas J. Cox (whose wiry build and gaunt face suggests he easily could be Mahoney's son), captures the play's shifting moods ideally, putting its many other concisely limned themes (the father-son relationship, the plight of the only child, generational shifts in attitudes about marriage), into sharp relief.

Set on the patio of a wood shingle cottage on Chesapeake Bay (Brian Sidney Bembridge's handsome architectural set is down payment worthy), the play begins as Jack (Cox), pays a visit to his "old school" Irish Catholic parents, and finds himself caught in the middle of their opposing choices.

Gunner (Mahoney), well aware he is losing his mental faculties, is fiercely resistant to the sort of assisted living facility his exhausted and frightened wife, Peg (Reed), wants to move into. And he has his own dramatic alternative plan in mind - one that would insure the futures of both his wife (with whom he has a loving but prickly relationship), and his son (a father of three, now in the process of a divorce). As Gunner puts it, he has "loose ends" to tie up, and he knows time is running out.

Mahoney, whippet thin, fast-talking and sly, expertly captures the brutal frustration inherent in advancing Alzheimer's, while also suggesting the innate irascibility and cruelty Gunner was capable of as a younger man. Reed is wonderfully transformed in this role - determined and feisty, but softer than usual, and lighter of voice, so that she truly suggests Gunner's youthful emory of her as his working class Grace Kelly. And Cox deftly suggests that Jack is very much the product of his parents' long-running emotional tug of war.

Read the review at suntimes.com>

Tennessee Shakespeare Festival

The Tennessee Shakespeare Festival is at a critical juncture. Between last year's flood, this year's tornadoes, and an economy that seems mired in molasses, fund-raising for the festival has been more than challenging.

This year, I'm making a personal plea to the LD.com family to support this year's festival in any amount you can--$5 buys paint, $25 gets a costume, $100 pays an apprentice salary for a week (believe it or not--and I exploit them like 3rd World sweatshop workers, too.) $500 pays an Equity actor's salary, per diem, pension, health and welfare for a week.

Anyone donating will get a recent autographed 8x10 of me (actually taken within the last year!), and my eternal gratitude. Anyone donating $500 gets lunch at the Cracker Barrel with me, this summer or in the future. (Group donations count, but please have one designated donor.)

So please help if you can--as you all know, this festival is a dream near and dear to my heart. I'm hoping we can all look back in a few years and say, "Look what we did!"

To donate simply visit http://tennesseeshakespearefestival.com and simply click "donate".

Love to all,
Lane

if you are

in chicago right now go and watch the madness of george third from aln bennett. great play, great acting in the shakespeare at navy pier.

i also liked ratoun and die at victory gardens.

what else is on ?
mandrake at red orchid - funny and originell

the hot l baltimore at steppenwolf. strange play. i dont get why they did it.sorry.

the gospel according toj james at victory gardens. good but too long. they should cut one story but they wont.

the main actor andre .. is very interesting in person. we were at the premiere and today ont the symposium.
more later.

Chicago

Published on WBEZ (http://www.wbez.org)

Chicago: Theater capital of America - past, present and future?

Kelly Kleiman March 14, 2011

It’s easier to look back on an historical moment than to realize that you’re living in one. What if the past fifty years of Chicago theater have been not just fun and exciting but actually constitute the equivalent of Elizabethan England or post-Civil War New York–that is, an instance of the ultimate flowering of the art form?

That’s precisely the theory behind Columbia College Chicago’s decision to host a scholarly symposium on what we’re all right in the middle of. “Chicago: Theatre Capital of America–Past, Present, Future,” scheduled for May 18-21, will bring together scholars from across the country to debate how the Chicago theater renaissance got its start in the late 1950s, what factors caused it to flourish, how influential Chicago theater has been on the art as practiced around the world, and what will be necessary to keep it alive and well and living in our back yard.

The scholars–from Harvard, the University of British Columbia and the Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance in London, among many others–will share panels with Chicago theater practitioners.

The presenters’ roster is a who’s who of Chicago theater, from Martha Lavey of Steppenwolf to Terry McCabe of City Lit to Paul Barosse and other members of the late lamented Practical Theatre Company, which dissolved when its players were swept en masse onto Saturday Night Live.

Panels will address the question whether Chicago’s legacy of African-American theater actually outstrips that of the Harlem Renaissance; the role of various training entities, from Second City to Hull House; the varying experiences of playwrights, directors, performers and critics; and on and on.

Says planning committee chair Albert Williams, a Columbia College faculty member and long-time chief theater critic of the Reader, “There will be discussions of the economics of the industry–Valuing the Art, People First, with [Writers Theatre Artistic Director] Michael Halberstam, [is] also known as Pay Your Actors a Decent Wage. And [there’s] another panel called Patron Experience, because you’re not just doing [theater] for yourselves but for people who paid money to be there.”

Williams stresses that the symposium is open to the public. “Presuming that people love theater as fans, they will learn a whole lot more about Chicago theater. They will get to rub elbows with leading theater practitioners in Chicago, and also former Chicago theater professionals who may be coming back.”

The conference is awaiting confirmation of participation by Chicago veterans such as Joe Mantegna, Regina Taylor and Terry Kinney. “[Mantegna] said he’d love to do it if it works with his schedule,” said Williams.

Further details to come.

More Olivier Awards

Hallo, sorry for the lack of my post. RL - you know.

Here is the fb site from the Awards. Check out more photos.

http://www.facebook.com/OlivierAwards

I will go to chicago later this months to a conference. So it should be possible to post more than.

Und auch Barry Manilow war dort

Ich bin nicht sicher, ob er wirklich live gesungen hat, wenn man sieht wo sein Mikro war. Kerry Ellis hat auf jeden Fall gesungen, denn man hört deutlich wo der Text der beiden abweicht.

Wie auch immer, ich fand es toll. Und Barry Manilow ist und bleibt eine Legende.

More clips from the Oliver Awards

Tribute to Stephen Sondheim

I was there :)

Ok, ich muss gestehen, der Auftritt von ihr war eine echte Überraschung für mich. Und es war wirklich toll, sehr anrührend die Verleihung des Preises an Stephen Sondheim.

The Western Mail, 17.03.2011

Rowling's teacher who inspired Harry Potter's Prof Snape dies at 71

TRIBUTES have been paid to the teacher said to have inspired one of JK Rowling's most memorable characters.

Former head of science John Nettleship, 71, died after a battle with cancer.

He taught the budding novelist chemistry during her years at Wyedean School, Chepstow.

Mr Nettleship came to take pride in his fictionalisation as the severe potions wizard Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series that made Rowling a multi-millionaire.

Mr Nettleship discovered his link to Professor Snape when he was played by Alan Rickman in the record-breaking movie franchise.

He said at the time: "The first I knew was when a someone knocked on the door and said: 'You're Professor Snape aren't you'.

"I suppose I was quite strict as a teacher, but I said to my wife: 'They think I'm Professor Snape.' "She said: 'Of course you are - but I didn't want to tell you'."

After being initially unhappy about the comparison, Mr Nettleship is said to have come to terms with the connection and made guest appearances at Chepstow Bookshop, where Rowling shopped as a youngster.

Matt Taylor, the shop's owner, said: "It is very sad to hear of the loss of John. He was a lovely man and he will be very much missed."

Mr Nettleship also gave talks and created a pamphlet - Harry Potter's Chepstow - about the local landmarks that are heavily connected to many of the series' locations.

He told reporters at the time: "Authors can only build on their own experiences so characters to some extent are bound to be based on people they've met.

"Quite a lot of my ex-pupils recognise the original character when they see the film. They come to me and say, 'We saw you in the movie, sir'. But I just laugh about that. The great thing though is that Alan Rickman was picked to play the character and the ladies think he is good. That made things better."

Mr Nettleship remembered his former pupil as a quiet but smart child.

He was yesterday remembered by those who knew him as a highly-regarded community member throughout his life, through his profession as a teacher, Labour Party activist, Caerwent community councillor, and family man.

Labour councillor Armand Watts was 15 years old when they first met at a party meeting. The Chepstow councillor said Mr Nettleship told him of requests to do tours in America due to his Rowling connection.

He said: "I think he was genuinely proud of the Harry Potter connection. I think it was a bit of a novelty at first, but then the books began to reach a global market. It must have been overwhelming."

Mr Nettleship is survived by his wife, Shirley, three children and two step-children. Mrs Nettleship described her pride in her husband's achievement, saying: "He was a real advocate for people's rights, especially for women's rights. He was a dedicated campaigner for the Labour Party and always believed in fighting for the underdog."

A spokesman for JK Rowling said the author did not wish to comment.

The funeral for Mr Nettleship will take place at noon on Monday at Caerwent church.

BRENDAN HUGHES

John Gabriel Borkman in New York

The Irish Times, 15.01.2011

Abbey's snowy Ibsen takes New York by storm

THE ABBEY Theatre's production of Henrik Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman opened at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's (BAM) Harvey Theatre on Wednesday before a packed audience that included luminaries of the Irish cultural and diplomatic world and American sponsors of the arts.  The production, which features Fiona Shaw, Alan Rickman, Lindsay Duncan and John Kavanagh, broke box office records during its seven-week run in Dublin last autumn, said Abbey director Fiach Mac Conghail, who travelled to New York for the US opening.  The production will continue in Brooklyn until February 6th. Two-thirds of the tickets for the run had been sold before opening night.  Former US ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith, a fan of the Abbey since her years in Dublin, called the performance 'really beautiful' and 'so well-acted'. Anne Anderson, Ireland's Ambassador to the United Nations, and writer Colum McCann also attended.  At the opening night party in the theatre, Irish-American philanthropist and chair of the American Ireland Fund Loretta Brennan Glucksman, chief executive of Culture Ireland Eugene Downes and McCann reminisced about the series of informal suppers that led to the Imagine Ireland cultural season, of which the Abbey production is an important part. Niall Burgess, former Irish consul general in New York, and actor Gabriel Byrne, Ireland's cultural ambassador, also attended the suppers.  John Gabriel Borkman tells the story of a disgraced but unrepentant banker who has served years in prison for embezzling his friends' money. 'The spectre of Bernie Madoff looms large,' Mac Conghail said. The play also 'reminds our public here in the US that we might be in some financial and political trouble, that it's not all fiction,' he said.  Board members from the Abbey Theatre Foundation, a new US group still in the process of being formed, attended the opening. 'We have two objectives,' said Mac Conghail. 'To bring the best of Irish actors and Irish theatre to the US. The second is to raise money, because there isn't money left in Ireland.'  Glucksman said she was amazed that a century-old play could be so topical: 'We could put names on it -- which I shan't right now -- but it's in our newspapers every day, the curse of greed just doesn't change and we never learn.'  Rickman, Duncan and Kavanagh delivered excellent performances, 'But it is Ms Shaw, an actress of infinite cunning, who walks away with the production,' the New York Times said yesterday, describing the set as a 'snow-piled ice palace'. Shaw plays Borkman's estranged wife, who lives one floor below him and refers to Borkman only as 'himself, the bank manager'.  'Everything about Ms Shaw's Gunhild from her hobbled walk to the way she clasps her stomach, as if trying to contain the pain within -- evokes a soul crippled by years of cancerous confinement,' said the newspaper, which called Shaw 'an expert in the art of festering' and a 'human flame-thrower'.  At the opening night party, Shaw said the Abbey's production of Frank McGuinness's new version of Borkman shows Irish theatre must broaden its horizons. 'The repertoire in Ireland must, must now start to include everything in the 17th century that we forgot,' she said. 'We must start embracing Jacobean plays, Shakespeare plays. It's our century as well.'  The US audience seemed to treat Ibsen's dark tale of a family undone as a comedy, laughing even at the most tragic moments. 'New Yorkers are much more sensitive to irony, and that's what the laughter was about,' said BAM executive producer Joe Melillo.  The Harvey Theatre was created by Peter Brook and Harvey Lichtenstein when they brought Brook's adaptation of the Sanskrit poem the Mahabharata to New York in 1987. Like Brook's Bouffes du Nord in Paris, the Harvey was derelict and has been left in its distressed state, with ceiling frescoes and columns showing its former grandeur.  In Dublin, the set for Borkman showed a late 19th-century interior. In Brooklyn, antique furniture is placed among snowdrifts on the stage, which extends into the audience.  'This theatre has an extraordinary sense of layers of history,' said Downes. 'It's like a palimpsest, with all the ghosts and layers of time. It's a unique space. The Abbey has done it proud tonight. The Abbey has done Ireland proud.'

LARA MARLOWE in Brooklyn

Alan Rickman

Bonner General-Anzeiger, 22.02.2011

Der beste Bösewicht

Der jetzt 65-jährige Alan Rickman verkörpert mysteriöse Charaktere perfekt

KevinCostner soll nach den Dreharbeiten zu "RobinHood - König der Diebe" dafür gesorgt haben, dass die Szenen mit AlanRickman als Sheriff vonNottingham gekürzt werden. Costner wolle nicht imSchatten des Briten stehen, so munkelte man. Gelungen ist das nicht.In vielen seiner Filme spielt Rickman die großen Stars an die Wand. Selbst ist er trotzdem nie zumWeltstar geworden. Gestern nun ist der Schauspieler, der zuletzt als Lehrer Severus Snape in den Harry-Potter-Filmen zu sehen war, 65 Jahre alt geworden.

Rickman gehört zu den Schauspielern, die mit wenigen Gesichtsausdrücken und Augenbewegungen mehr erzählen können als andere mit großen Worten. Mit Bravour spielt er verschlossene, mysteriöse Bösewichte. "Als Schauspieler verurteilst du die Charaktere, die du spielst, nicht", sagte er einmal. Dass er nie den Sprung in die erste Reihe der Hollywood-Stars schaffte, scheint Rickman nicht zu stören. Im Privatleben ist er bescheiden und skandalfrei:Seit mehr als 30 Jahren lebt er in London mit einer Ökonomie-Dozentin und Kommunalpolitikerin zusammen.

Aufgewachsen in London als eines von vier Kindern einer Arbeiterfamilie, musste Rickman mit acht Jahren den Verlust des Vaters verkraften. Schon während der Schulzeit spielte erTheater, studierte dann aber Grafikdesign und machte das Schauspielen zum Hobby. Nach ein paar Jahren als Grafiker ging er - mit 26 Jahren - an die Schauspielschule. Er wurde zum gefragten Theaterschauspieler, war Ende der 70er Jahre zwei Jahre Mitglied der RoyalShakespeare Company. SeinenDurchbruch auf der Leinwand schaffte er 1988 als Gegenspieler von Bruce Willis in "Stirb langsam". Doch wechselte er immer wieder zurück an die Bühne - auch als Regisseur.

Den meisten dürfte er aber als die ambivalenteste Figur der Harry-Potter-Filme bekannt sein: Als Lehrer Severus Snape, der Harry und seine Freunde schikaniert - aber immer wieder dafür sorgt, dass Harry nichts passiert.
dpa

Bilder - The Olivier Awards, Part 2

Man wartet in der Schlange. In unser Nähe ein späterer Gewinner, ansonsten aber keine Stars. Die kamen über den roten Teppich.

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Hier ein paar Bilder. Ich erkenne allerdings niemanden :(


Der Entlass funktionierte ohne Probleme. Wir hatten die teueresten freiverkäuflichen Karten gewählt und saßen dafür wirklich gut.

End of the Rainbow

Update:

Am Freitag abend stand "End of the Rainbow" auf unserem Programm. Es gab keine Half-price-Tickets mehr, aber über das Hotel konnte man verbilligte Karten für 27,50 kaufen. Eine Summe, die sich gelohnt hat.

Hier kurz der Inhalt:
It’s December 1968 and Judy Garland is about to make her comeback… again. In a London hotel room with her young new fiancé at her side, Garland battles with a tornado of drugs and alcohol as she undertakes an exhausting series of concerts at the Talk of the Town to try and reclaim her crown as the greatest talent of her generation. Despite a series of failed marriages and a wrecked Hollywood career, Judy remains a tough, compelling, remarkable woman always armed to the teeth with her legendary razor-sharp wit.
With a breathtaking performance by Tracie Bennett, supported by a six piece onstage band, the production features Garland’s most memorable songs including The Man That Got Away, Come Rain Or Come Shine, The Trolley Song, and of course Somewhere Over The Rainbow. (End of the Rainbow)

Es geht um das späte Leben von Judy Garland und wenn man mehr über ihren Tod erfahren will, kann man auch hier Videos vom Biography-Kanal sehen (englisch)

Lebenslauf

Aber zurück zum Stück:

it was brilliant. Tracie Bennett plays Judy and sing her songs.

Sie kopiert Judys Bewegungen und ihre ganze Art und Weise und dann fügt sie Kleinigkeit hinzu und der Charakter auf der Bühne ist Judy und Tracy.

Die kleine Überzeichnung macht das Stück auf. Man ist auf einer Berg und Talfahrt und denkt ab und zu an Charlie Sheen, der das ja auch alles ganz toll findet. Dabei ist der Niedergang und die erniedrigung so sichtbar, dass es weh tut.

Am Ende hat man Mitleid mit ihr und die Hoffnung schwindet als ihr der neue junge Boyfriend die Pillen aufdrängt, damit sie auftreten kann und will. Ein tragisches Ende bahnt sich an.

Ganz toll auch der Pianist: Hilton McRae spielt ihn.

Die beiden Darsteller waren auch für den Olivier Award 2011 nominiert, leider haben sie ihn nicht gewonnen.

Aber wer in London ist, sollte sich das Stück nicht entgehen lassen. Wir hatten plätze in der ersten Reihe - einfach super. Beinfreiheit und man sieht einfach alles.

The Olivier Awards

Bilder vom Sonntag vormittag. Regen. :(

Bilder - In the forest ....

Noch immer gilt - das Stück war einfach schlecht. Klar, wenn man matthew fox 1 1/2 stunden lang fluchen hören will und es toll findet, dass er seine schwester als hure bezeichnet, dann ist man hier richtig. und wenn man sich langweilen will.
Meine empfehlung: keine

In the forest, dark and deep

what a boring play.

wirklich keine chemie. matthew fox is really bad. in fast jeden satz das fuck-wort . vollkommen unnoetig. hat keinen sinn es dauernd zu sagen.
ich war froh, dass es zu ende war. at least olivia williams was

olivier awards in london today

grosser ereignis in london. mal sehen wer gewinnt oder verliert. mehr informationen und bilder morgen.

William Petersen in "Red" ?

Nun ja, es ist nicht in VG. Aber Dennis Zacek, sein Mentor, hört dort zu Seasonende auf. Ich denke trotzdem nicht, dass er es macht. Aber man weiß ja nie.

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/3702742-421/red-is-coming-to-town--and-were-weighing-in-on-possible-casting.html

Olivier Awards - Nominierungen

Hier findet Ihr die Nominierungen:

http://www.olivierawards.com/nominations/by-show/

Red goes to Chicago

but not to the vg:

http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/the_theater_loop/2011/02/goodman-theatre.html#comments

The Pitman Painters in London

Based on Guardian art critic Bill Feaver's book on the subject, The Pitmen Painters gives us a dramatised account of a group of miners from Ashington in Northumberland who, under the tutelage of Robert Lyon from King's College in Newcastle, began to paint and gained national fame. Hall takes the basic story and, obviously, makes changes, including reducing the number of members of the group and fictionalising the characters, but the play remains true to the historical truth. In a laughter-filled evening, his acutely observed characters present us with an exploration, not just of art and culture, but of class and community, politics and people.

x

Nach einer Vorstellung im Dezember 2009 hatten wir die Gelegenheit mit den Schauspielern zu reden. Hier ein paar meiner Fotos

Richard Griffith Fotos von unserem Gespräch

Copyright: London Dezember 2009

The Sunday Times vom 19.12.2010 - John Gabriel B.

It's an emergency - quick, call the artists
They are pontificating in foreign newspapers, adapting classical plays to reflect our economic difficulties, and making bold documentaries and trenchant rap music. So what have they got to
say about the crisis, asks Harry Browne

...

Frank McGuinness turned to a more recent and neglected classic for his stab at financial relevance, an adaptation of Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman for the Abbey. McGuinness and actor Alan Rickman daringly pose the question: why shouldn't we be able to sympathise with the banker whose reach exceeded his grasp, just because he was ultimately brought down by scandal? They answer it too: because he is an absurd egomaniacal monster who allowed his greed to divorce him from his humanity. Like Walsh's suitors in Penelope, Borkman sees his fate sealed in real time, the clock literally ticking on the Abbey stage.
As the hit production ran into the winter, and the national crisis outside deepened into deadlines for Irish sovereignty, it seemed to tick for all of us. The pick of the bunch, though, was a play that seemed to take itself less seriously.

...

War Horse

Wir haben das Stück vor 2 Jahren gesehen und es war wirklich sehr gut. Ob das in einem Film möglich sein wird ? Hier ein Artikel aus der NZZ vom 13.1.2011.

Die Magie der Marionetten
Ein Bühnenerfolg, der kaum Vergleiche kennt - «War Horse» in London

«War Horse» begann seinen Siegeszug als Kinderbuch; gerade wurde der Stoff von Hollywood-Regisseur Steven Spielberg verfilmt. Dazwischen liegt die Theaterinszenierung. Sie ist noch bis
Februar 2012 am Londoner West End zu sehen.
Es war einmal. So könnte die Geschichte von Michael Morpurgos Buch «War Horse» beginnen, eine fast märchenhafte Erfolgsstory. Angeregt durch die Erzählungen eines alten Kriegsveteranen in seiner Stammkneipe, schrieb der Kinderbuchautor Michael Morpurgo die Geschichte eines Pferdes im Ersten Weltkrieg - aus der Perspektive des Pferdes. Anfang der achtziger Jahre erschien das Buch, wurde für den Whitbread Prize nominiert, ohne zu gewinnen, und verkaufte sich auch in der Folge nur mässig. «Es wurde in ein oder zwei Sprachen übersetzt und blieb nur dank der Geduld und Unterstützung meiner Verleger im Druck», erzählte Morpurgo dem «Independent». Das hat sich inzwischen geändert. Zufälle über Zufälle Zufällig suchte das National Theatre in London Jahre später geeignetes Material für eine Truppe südafrikanischer Marionettenspieler, und zufällig geriet Morpurgos Buch in die Hände des Regisseurs Tom Morris. Danach kam die «War Horse»-Erfolgs-Lawine ins Rollen - und noch ist kein Ende in Sicht: Nick Stafford schrieb eine Bühnenversion, die im Oktober 2007 am National Theatre Premiere hatte und so gefeiert wurde, dass sie, ans Londoner West End transferiert, bis zum November vergangenen Jahres von 878 500 Personen gesehen wurde und im März am Broadway Premiere haben wird. Ein weiterer Zufall führte die Hollywood-Produzentin Kathleen Kennedy in eine der Aufführungen, die sie so begeisterte, dass sie Steven Spielberg, dessen langjährige Mitarbeiterin sie ist, darauf aufmerksam machte. Der Oscar-Preisträger reiste nach London, sah das Stück, fing auf der Stelle Feuer, erwarb die Filmrechte und war sechs Monate später vor Ort in England, wo die Dreharbeiten im vergangenen Herbst abgeschlossen wurden. Die eigentlich für August vorgesehene Premiere des Films wurde auf Ende Dezember verschoben, um ihn bestens für das Oscar-Rennen 2012 zu positionieren. «War Horse» ist tatsächlich reinstes Spielberg-Material: die rührende Geschichte eines englischen Knaben und seines Pferdes, das im Ersten Weltkrieg zum Dienst an der Westfront eingesetzt wird. Der Knabe, obwohl erst 16, meldet sich zum Kriegsdienst und macht sich auf die Suche nach seinem Pferd. Dabei erlebt er die Schrecken des Krieges, lernt aber auch, dass der Feind
-gelegentlich - gutmenschliche Züge trägt. Wie durch ein Wunder findet er das Tier gegen Ende des Krieges, als er schon längst nicht mehr daran glaubt. Die humanistische Botschaft, die sentimental tiefenwirksame Geste mit direktem Appell an die Gefühle der Zuschauer, der Wunderglaube, die Kinderperspektive und in den letzten Jahren verstärkt das grosse historische Panorama - «War Horse» enthält alle Bestandteile eines typischen Spielberg-Films. Kein Wunder, dass der kommerziell erfolgreichste zeitgenössische Kinoregisseur dafür angeblich alle anderen geplanten Projekte, darunter eine Filmbiografie über George Gershwin, erst einmal zurückgestellt haben soll. Während sich das Filmpublikum auf Spielbergs technisches Raffinement und auf seine mirakulösen Arrangements einstellen kann, besticht die Londoner Theateraufführung, die unterdessen bis zum Februar 2012 am West End weiterläuft - derzeit am New London Theatre , durch einen ganz anderen visuellen Zaubertrick: Sie arbeitet mit lebensgrossen Pferdemarionetten aus Bambus, die von jeweils drei Puppenspielern bewegt werden. Die Mitglieder der Handspring Puppet Company arbeiten mit einer solchen Geschicklichkeit, dass zwei Effekte eintreten: Sie lassen ihre eigene Existenz völlig vergessen und ahmen die Bewegungen echter Pferde so elegant nach, dass sie die Aufmerksamkeit des gesamten Publikums auf sich ziehen - und dabei die hart am Kitsch vorbeischrammenden Effekte des Textes völlig vergessen lassen. Mehrwert der Auslassung Dabei deuten die so sensibel beweglichen Pferdefiguren - im Design von Basil Jones und Adrian Kohler - den Körperbau der Tiere nur in Umrissen, fast skeletthaft an. Auch Rae Smiths Bühnenbild lebt vom Mehrwert der Auslassung. Die Bühne ist schwarz und kommt fast ohne Requisiten aus. Einmal nur erscheint ein ebenfalls manuell bewegter, wie die Pferdefiguren halb durchsichtiger Panzer auf der Szene; des Weiteren ist eine Reihe abgezehrter Kriegspferde zeichenhaft erkennbar nur Kopf und Rücken sind ausgestaltet. Wie ein Ausriss aus einem Skizzenbuch - von dem im Stück auch die Rede ist ragt ein überdimensionaler Papierfetzen in den Bühnenhintergrund. Darauf werden im Stil von blassen Bleistiftzeichnungen Schauplätze und Daten projiziert. Die Schauspieler, die während der langen Laufzeit des Stücks öfters wechselten, kommen gegen die Magie der Marionetten kaum an. Aber darum geht es in dieser Inszenierung (Regie: Tom Morris und Marianne Elliott), die auf die Verführungskraft des Visuellen und die Anmut der Gliederpuppen setzt, auch nicht. Ganz sicher wird Steven Spielberg nicht mit Marionetten spielen. Spannend ist, was dann von «War Horse" übrig bleibt.