Saw 2 plays last week, unfortunately, neither of them amazing.
Total Eclipse tells the story of the Rimbaud/Verlaine couple. The direction was very good, with the long stage in the middle of the room, with rows of chairs for the audience on both sides, allowing more freedom in the positioning of the actors. Daniel Evans was a very good Verlaine, caught under the spell of the younger poet. Jamie Doyle's Rimbaud was a bit one-toned (always sounding rebellious and condescending) but gave out a little sexual aura, despite the absence of even a little kiss between them in the play. All in all, a good night actually, thinking about it...
The Rose Tattoo was very disappointing to me. I loved reading the play a few years ago, it was all so crazy and dramatic. Apparently though, I misunderstood it totally because it is "a buoyantly comic celebration of life". What? the story of a superstitious woman overcome with grief, who finds solace in a man after 3 years of not getting out her house. Anyway. Sorry about that, Tenessee Williams, I misread you! I feel awful. Anyway, in my view, the high drama and camp would have come across much better than the jokes that were made. Plus some strong monologues got lost. When Seraphina says she is not a slut like other women, she repeats "I am happy just to remember! [what it was like to be in bed with my husband]", but we don't notice. When she says that, unlike other married women who send the double beds to the cellar, she was always happy to satisfy her husband: "it was like a religion". when I read the play, I found those bits quite moving, I mean, the despair of that woman... but here, people chuckled. Failing to really get into it, I thought it lasted ages, but finally, it ended, with Zoe Wanamaker running joyfully around. Seraphina is pregnant again, her life is back, mine too thank god!
