Extracurricular is a feature which enables us to include items that are perhaps outside our normal remit . . . On a recent visit to Brussels, in a lull during lock-down, we came across the wonderful Théâtre Royal de Toone and made a little film about it. This is a theatre from another time and off the beaten track even though it nestles just a few hundred yards from the Grande Place. This is a must-see if you are in the Belgian capital.
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The story starts on the final day of the First World War and then, in leaps of approximately ten years, takes us into the late fifties. The tale encompasses all the trials and tribulations facing ex-soldiers in a land fit for heroes – the difficulty in finding gainful employment, adjusting to civilian life and so on, all issues we are familiar with today. But also the good, positive things like the creation of the Welfare State after WW2 .
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Brave New World, although dealing with similar themes to 1984, was sensible enough not to identify itself in a time period so specific as to make watching a play about what we all know didn’t happen thirty years ago a bit daft (à la 2001 – A Space Odyssey). The world depicted in the story is one where people are created in laboratories to fulfil certain tasks – top of the pile are the Alphas (no, not cars) and at the bottom are the Epsilons who are created without a sense of smell so they can work in the sewers.
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‘Falstaff’, the name itself conjures up certain epithets and expectations around the notion of ‘rollicking’ and ‘full blooded’. He was Shakespeare’s great hit, a character that took on a life of its own and demanded two further plays, Henry IV part 2 and The Merry Wives of Windsor in order to satisfy the public demand. That is all the public, high and low; he was even then in 1596, the embodiment of ‘Merrie England’. . .
Read More10th October – ANTONY SHER. Year of the Fat Knight: The Falstaff Diaries is Sher’s third book based on the journals he kept while preparing major roles. The other two were about working on Richard III for the RSC and the Primo Levi piece for the National. It is fascinating to see how an actor prepares a role and the daily processes through which he goes. It was not made clear whether the diaries are an aid to creating the character or are in some way cathartic after a hard day’s work at the coal face of Thespis. I suspect a mixture of the two.
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