I watched three excellent shows recently. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is on tour in the UK and Ireland at the moment. It was my first time watching a National Theatre production live. It was amazing. I highly recommend it. Then I watched Macbeth at Globe Theatre in London. There are a lot of Macbeth shows going on at the moment, there’s a RSC production in Stratford upon Avon this autumn; there’s a Ralph Fiennes version in the UK from Nov to Feb and in the US in April next year; a David Tennent version in London from Dec to Feb. Lastly, I watched Phedre via National Theatre at Home online streaming service, which is also amazing.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a National Theatre production, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. It left a deep impression when I read it a couple of years ago. I set out to read a children’s fantasy story and I was shocked to find a very dark childhood experience.
The boy lived with his father and sister, and they had a lodger. One day the lodger committed suicide and the boy was taken to Lettie’s farm while his father speaking to the police. Lettie lived with her mum and grandmother, and they were clearly different, they could do magic, they came from a different, ancient world. Lettie and the boy became friends. A monster broke loose into the world. It took control of the boy’s home, seduced his father and enchanted his sister. The boy was locked up, utterly alone, terrified and helpless, except he had Lettie, if only he could get to her.
He had one last weapon, the stories in his books, in his head. Even in the darkest hours, the friends from Narnia and Alice in Wonderland stayed with him and helped him to get to Lettie. I love how much Aslan and the Narnia story is featured. When the world is scary, and his whole family is against him, the boy finds courage in Aslan. The line between reality and imagination is blurry. The stories and the characters might not exist in reality, but they are not less real.
Watching the boy fight his way to Lettie and get hurt again and again brought tears to my eyes. How hard it is to grow up. I remember, as a child, I felt it, the loneliness of not being understood, the loneliness of being scared and unable to explain myself. I’m sure a lot of us felt it, but when we grow into adults, we forget about it, like the boy’s father, and we terrorise children or act unsympathetically. I was told childhood was supposed to be the golden time of your life. I didn’t feel it that way.
I was in tears almost all the way through. First I watched the boy struggle. Then it was the beautiful friendship, especially the scene when the real Lettie finally appeared with her bucket tottering a bit under the weight, she unconcernedly stepped into the fairy ring, and she knelt down and gave the boy a long hug, saying well done you stayed inside the ring. The boy didn’t need to explain how much evil and temptation he had to fight off. She knew, she understood, and she said well done you did it. How wonderful to have a friend who moves heaven and earth to come to save you, and she understands. The only things to fight evil and nightmares with are friends and stories. Seeing the boy and Lettie so free and happy in the ocean brought tears to my eyes too.
I love the theme of salvation through great cost and sacrifice. I also love the way to stay safe is to hold hands. Hold my hand, do not let go. It’s such a simple thing to do. But do you have faith in something so simple and fragile to keep you safe? I don’t want to spoil the ending so will just stop there.
Visually, I loved the magic happening on stage. Among many many things, how they created the illusion of underwater and transformed the space into an ocean. I loved the music and the sound effects. I loved the actors and their performance. The monster reminded me of Professor Umbridge from Harry Potter. It’s so easy to hate her.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is on tour in the UK and Ireland all the way till November. Do go and watch it!
Macbeth
This production of Macbeth was the second show I watched at the Globe Theatre in London. Last time I watched a comedy, Much Ado about Nothing and absolutely loved it. This time it was one of Shakespeare’s darkest tragedies.
I made a video before I went. We talked about the storyline and the structure of the play, I told you what I’d be looking out for in a production specifically, and we looked through the rehearsal photos on their website together, to guess what was going to happen, how things were going to look like. Now I’ve watched it. This is going to be a bit of a response to my speculations and questions.
The show is still on at the moment, so I don’t want to give out too much. The setting, the costumes and the weapons are contemporary. The various visions, for example, the dagger, Banquo’s ghost, and the apparitions in Act 4 were achieved differently in each case. There was not much interaction between the actors and people standing in the pit.
In terms of the actors, I loved the children actors – they did a fantastic job. The three witches are very different to what I expected – it’s probably one of my highlights – just to say they all played more than one role. You can see what roles they play on Globe’s website. The original actor for King Duncan was replaced by someone else last minute. It was so last minute that she came on stage with her lines in her hands. I wonder if some disaster happened to the cursed play. Having a woman play the role of the King made at least one major difference, which I didn’t like.
I was curious what the fast scene change would look like. I didn’t notice and couldn’t remember what happened. So I guess they were pretty seamless. I do remember people kept coming on and off the stage. It was almost dizzying at some point. I wonder if that was deliberate to show the whirlwind of action in this play. I think Greg Doran would agree with me when I said in my previous video, if Macbeth slowed down and had a chat with Banquo, the story might have turned out differently. Greg Doran in his new book said something similar, everybody rushed around and no one stopped to think.
The Globe is an open air theatre. I was curious how the designer would create the dark murderous atmosphere without the possibility of turning all the lights off. The answer is they can’t turn the lights off. They wrapped the entire stage in grey fabric and the only background decoration is a massive bare tree branch. Apart from that, there was nothing to help the actors. The entire job to create the atmosphere depended on the actors, the performance and the speeches, which I think was hugely challenging. I said I think it’s harder to achieve a tragedy in Globe Theatre. Now I’ve seen the show, I stand by what I said. It’s definitely harder! I wonder what Shakespeare did when HE put Macbeth on stage?
Phedre
Phedre is a Greek tragedy about a woman who is consumed by her cursed love for her stepson, quoting the director, the “agony of hopeless sexual obsession”. My first reaction after watching it was that this feels very different to a Shakespeare’s tragedy. I’ve been thinking why and how they are different.
The story is from Greek mythology and the play is written by a 17th century French dramatist. So first of all there’s a foreign-ness to it, speaking from a British point of view. For example, it talks a lot about Phedre’s fear of the sun. In this production, a Mediterranean sun beats down on the stage and there’s a blue sky that almost burns the eyes. It’s a very different climate and weather to the foggy cold damp heath in Macbeth. That’s reflected in their costumes as well, which are simple and elegant. I love the plain white dress on Aricia.
Secondly like the Iliad, gods and goddesses interfere in human’s lives and fate mercilessly. Aricia said, “You know how fate has used me like the toy of a cruel child.” I feel like that’s the way gods and goddesses in Greek mythology treat everyone in general. The higher power in contrast makes human beings more powerless and their fate more tragic.
Thirdly, the language feels very different. The production uses the version translated by Ted Hughes. I know very little about Ted Hughes or his works. I didn’t even know the play was translated by him when I watched it. But I immediately felt the power and beauty as the actors started speaking. It’s forceful and breathtaking. There’s not a moment of respite over 2 hours of performance.
Phedre is played by Helen Mirren. Her dark desire and self-loathing were so strong and desperate. I was absolutely amazed by the energy and acting from her and all the actors. It’s SO intense. I felt exhausted just by watching. How do actors do this day after day for a whole season? Very high respect for wonderful actors!
Which one do you like the sound of best? Would you be interested in watching any of these?
A Day of Small Things 