". Arranged Words: Theatre

6 May 2013

Theatre



Photo by: Schlaier public domain via Wikipedia Commons
Shakespeare's Globe, London
Original Globe opened in 1599
Rebuilt and opened in 1997


Digital Theatre, one of  my recent on-line discoveries, offers wonderful performances from several different British theatres including Shakespeare's Globe.  And for less than the price of a movie ticket the viewer, with the click of a button, gets the best seat in the house!

Review of All My Sons

All My Sons by award winning playwright Arthur Miller delves into the sins of the father. The father played by David Suchet (famous for his portrayal of Agatha Christie's Poirot) dazzles as Joe Keller. Although opinionated, intense and set in his ways, jovial Joe (he provides the much needed comic relief) appears, at first glance, like a character the viewer can relate to.

Joe's tormented wife, played by the extraordinary actress ZoeWanamaker, who you may remember as Madam Hooch in Harry Potter, lives with an unspeakable secret. Unable to accept reality, Kate's denial of past events forces others to tip toe around her and serves to drive most of the play's action. 



Soon after the play begins, a storm knocks down an apple tree that was planted for Joe and Kate's son, Larry, who never returned from the war.  Rife with metaphorical connotations, the tree (a character in its own right) points to unfulfilled hopes and dreams, loss, ruin, death, moral degradation, banishment, and knowledge; with a further nod to the snake, or bad or rotten apple that will, before the play ends, have no place left to hide.

Based on true events, All My Sons is intense, gripping and depicts the dark side of humanity with alarmingly clarity. Miller's exceptional skill, evident by early alliances that viewer forms and can't quite break free from.

Emotionally taut with riveting performances, by the main characters and supporting cast alike, this play is one that I won't forget.                                      
All the world's a stage,
 The men and women merely players.

Shakespeare from As you Like It



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