January 21, 2009
The Old Vic is a beautiful intimate venue though
Quick review: Meh*. At heart is the usual liberal American difficulty to distinguish the country from the government and the "am I a patriot or not" conundrum that ensues. It kinda bores me, as a patriotic leftist - perfect candidate for the Misfit Party - who can't understand what the trouble is. Also, I didn't find the dialogue engaging enough to compensate for the sparsity of action and that device of not giving enough context to start with and then filling in the blanks progressively didn't work for some reason. Moreover, it felt like the actors didn't know their lines properly and so the timings were lost. Poirot - I don't care who he is, he'll always be Poirot to me - kept me awake on a otherwise soporific play.
Also, there was a mob of American students sitting around me looking like a bunch of meercats trying to spot Kevin Spacey in the audience who, judging by the speed by which he got up from his seat and zoomed backstage as soon as intermission started, wasn't feeling as lethargic as I was. I kept imagining him as a football coach whose team is losing badly, doing his motivational speech and changing the strategy so I stayed for the second part. One thing is certain, he is no Mourinho.
*(almost) Monosyllabic Scale: Wow!, Weeeee!, Hmmm, Meh, Double Meh, Yuck!.
Posted by claudia