Shows week 6&7

These past two weeks I had to see shows number 15 through 19 for Dartmouth. We saw Welcome to Thebes at the National Theatre on Monday and the play was okay, not my favorite of the week, but it held my attention for longer than most of the shows we've seen at the National. Directed by the director of Notes on a Scandal and written by Moira Buffini in response to claims that women cannot write political dramas, this show was very ambitious. The play commented on democratic commitment to helping repair African states effected by war and genocide through the Greek tragedies and democratic Athens involvement in Thebes. The plot worked very well and was interesting, but I felt the show moved a bit slow for me.

Tuesday the 27th we saw a production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons at the Apollo Theatre in the West End. This was my favorite show of the week by far and incredibly well done. Set Post WWII, this play revolves around the Keller family whose father was suspected of having built faulty planes during the war but cleared, and whose son is a missing pilot. As the story unfolds, we discover the family's younger son now wants to marry the missing sons sweetheart and that the father is not as innocent as it seems. It was refreshing to see such an American play done so well and a very relatable story.

Thursday night our Dartmouth group went to see a stage adaption of the Swedish film Through a Glass Darkly at the Almeida Theatre in Islington. The lead actress, Zoe Wanamaker, played Jane Eyre in the film and was incredibly convincing in her role as a crazy woman. The show was definitely done well, but I just don't find stories about the mentally insane all that interesting...

Monday the 2nd's show at the National, The Habit of Art, was very pretentious and I was not a fan at all. The play was a play within a play and set at the National Theatre. The play that the actors in the story were putting on was about a gay poet and a gay opera singer and a rent boy, which is the English term for "male prostitute."

Thursday we went to see a Caryl Churchill play at the Arcola Theatre in the East End called A Light Shines in Buckinghamshire. The theatre was really cool and very fringey-it only sat 150 people. The stage was a dirt floor and very eerie, but the show itself was pretty much a dud. Its a historical drama about the Cromwell era, which is an even more boring bit of history than the puritans. I had to do everything I could to keep from sleeping!

To be continued when I'm back... Off to Edinburgh for the weekend!