Cheek by Jowl's 'The Tempest'

Today I strolled the streets of London...Brick Lane...Oxford Circus...Southbank... It was a lovely day - sunny and warm! London is fantastic like this!

I had a look at a gallery at The National Theatre called Postcards from the Future.

London as a Shanty Town...

It featured photoshopped images of 'postcard shots' of London, edited to give a glimpse of a future dramatically effected by climate change. Really cool.

 I also LOVE that the theatre has a space for a gallery. I want to have a professional display (not just a few rehearsal snaps and a review or two) at my shows in the future. Maybe with scraps from the making process, or video, and especially the design sketches.

±

Tonight I went and saw The Tempest by Cheek by Jowl directed by Declan Donnelan, at the Barbican.

It was magic! All in russian, with English surtitles (finally in English!). I know the play well so it was lovely to just sit and watch the actors.

Wonderful performances by Prospero, Miranda and Caliban. Big and clear and all with very different rhythms. 

This was a particularly cool effect - showing Ferdinand after the ship wreck. A bit of blue lighting, hanging upside down, and slow-mo drown acting was a beautiful image. The use of a wall with three doors as the major set piece was also very clever. It allowed for lots of simple 'magic' effects.

Ariel was played at times by up to 6 actors at the same time - all doing the same thing. It was a very cool simple way of creating the illusion that he's everywhere at once...The joys of having a large company of actors...

Ariel as the logs Ferdinand collects. Every time Ferdinand put a log down, it got up and walked back to it's starting place to be picked up again! 

Grand acting from a grand company. Very inspiring. Loved it.