Words and Music
Oct. 31st, 2005 06:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oanimationWell I'm back home and dead tired. I figured I would try a quick report while the memories are fresh. I checked out some of the boards and as expected there are rave reviews. In a nutshell, I thought that matinee was a bit awkward but James had moments of great scenes. The evening performance was great but he didn't completely blow me away like I thought he was capable of.
For those of you that don't know James did a short version of Macbeth. It was just him and a female actress Cheryl Puentes. He wrote a narrative summary to explain the rest of the play that required other players besides Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. It was an interesting concept to see. They were dressed in all black modern attire. There were four chairs on the stage. Two up front for them to use while in character and two in the back to sit on while waiting for a scene. The up front chairs were also representative of the characters because when Lady Macbeth died she dragged her chair to the back of the stage so only one chair was left on center stage for the final Macbeth scenes. ( During the matinee, she actually backed into and killed one of the lights on the stage. The poor light didn't work for the rest of the day)
I liked the concept, but I felt that the transition between James as the narrator and James as Macbeth didn't move smoothly. It moved better in the evening performance but it still was a little awkward in parts. Also it seemed that if it was a short Macbeth scene between narratives James didn't seem to have a strong performance compared to longer scenes. Almost like he was having difficulties transitioning between the two personae.
The performance itself was great. Like I said the matinee didn't go as well. There were some flubs and prop malfunctions. A friend stated that it seemed more like a reading then a performance. Even then, there were a few scenes where James' power as an actor really shone through. Also, before I forget to mention. Cheryl was a great actress and played the role well. Just wanted to say that since most of this is about James. During the evening performance I sat there and went "hey, this is much better" The same friend said that she felt they didn't have the correct shakespearian rhythm in the matinee and they were spot on in the evening. I don't know if that was the case, but the evening definitely flowed better. Also I think they worked on things between performances because they played up the scenes the audience responded too in the matinee and there weren't any mistakes or prop problems like the dagger flying behind James when he drew it.
I hope I'm not coming off too critical of the performance. I really thought the evening performance was great. And it was amazing to see James perform. He can be so intense and a little frightening to watch and yet turn around and make you laugh with his timing. He is a great actor. I was just hoping for that magically moment that James has talked about in theater. It's a moment where there is complete silence in the audience because they are completely enraptured with the performance. Nothing else exists, but that moment of the performance. I didn't have that moment, but it wouldn't be a magical moment if it happened all the time now would it. I will definitely attend another stage performance if he does one as long as I can afford it. I'll keep looking for that magical moment.
Now on to some negative comments. I had a regular ticket for the matinee perfomance and bought a premium tickets for the evening. Mainly because I wanted to be close to the stage. But this is the direct quote from the JMLive website, "Limited premium tickets are available for each performance for front and central seats and also entitle theatre-goers to a special signed gift from James." Okay a special signed gift from James. I pretty much paid 25 pounds more for a closer seat and this gift. Well, the gift ended up being a signed trading card. In my opinion, it came across as a thoughtless "special gift". It was almost as if Steve was on the plane over to England and went "Oh damn, we promised them signed gifts. What extra junk do I have to give away?" That's just the way it seemed. Someone else had the suggestion that if they didn't want to spend a lot of money on this gift, they could have composed a simple note saying thanks for attending. Printed them out from any computer and have James sign those. Or create a one page program. Just something that would actually have been special to the event and would have required some thought. Okay rant over.
Overall, I am very glad I went. I do hope James will do stage from time to time. Now we will wait and see how his first feature role turns out. If you haven't already heard, James started to film Shadow puppet today and he is starring in it.
Happy Halloween.
For those of you that don't know James did a short version of Macbeth. It was just him and a female actress Cheryl Puentes. He wrote a narrative summary to explain the rest of the play that required other players besides Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. It was an interesting concept to see. They were dressed in all black modern attire. There were four chairs on the stage. Two up front for them to use while in character and two in the back to sit on while waiting for a scene. The up front chairs were also representative of the characters because when Lady Macbeth died she dragged her chair to the back of the stage so only one chair was left on center stage for the final Macbeth scenes. ( During the matinee, she actually backed into and killed one of the lights on the stage. The poor light didn't work for the rest of the day)
I liked the concept, but I felt that the transition between James as the narrator and James as Macbeth didn't move smoothly. It moved better in the evening performance but it still was a little awkward in parts. Also it seemed that if it was a short Macbeth scene between narratives James didn't seem to have a strong performance compared to longer scenes. Almost like he was having difficulties transitioning between the two personae.
The performance itself was great. Like I said the matinee didn't go as well. There were some flubs and prop malfunctions. A friend stated that it seemed more like a reading then a performance. Even then, there were a few scenes where James' power as an actor really shone through. Also, before I forget to mention. Cheryl was a great actress and played the role well. Just wanted to say that since most of this is about James. During the evening performance I sat there and went "hey, this is much better" The same friend said that she felt they didn't have the correct shakespearian rhythm in the matinee and they were spot on in the evening. I don't know if that was the case, but the evening definitely flowed better. Also I think they worked on things between performances because they played up the scenes the audience responded too in the matinee and there weren't any mistakes or prop problems like the dagger flying behind James when he drew it.
I hope I'm not coming off too critical of the performance. I really thought the evening performance was great. And it was amazing to see James perform. He can be so intense and a little frightening to watch and yet turn around and make you laugh with his timing. He is a great actor. I was just hoping for that magically moment that James has talked about in theater. It's a moment where there is complete silence in the audience because they are completely enraptured with the performance. Nothing else exists, but that moment of the performance. I didn't have that moment, but it wouldn't be a magical moment if it happened all the time now would it. I will definitely attend another stage performance if he does one as long as I can afford it. I'll keep looking for that magical moment.
Now on to some negative comments. I had a regular ticket for the matinee perfomance and bought a premium tickets for the evening. Mainly because I wanted to be close to the stage. But this is the direct quote from the JMLive website, "Limited premium tickets are available for each performance for front and central seats and also entitle theatre-goers to a special signed gift from James." Okay a special signed gift from James. I pretty much paid 25 pounds more for a closer seat and this gift. Well, the gift ended up being a signed trading card. In my opinion, it came across as a thoughtless "special gift". It was almost as if Steve was on the plane over to England and went "Oh damn, we promised them signed gifts. What extra junk do I have to give away?" That's just the way it seemed. Someone else had the suggestion that if they didn't want to spend a lot of money on this gift, they could have composed a simple note saying thanks for attending. Printed them out from any computer and have James sign those. Or create a one page program. Just something that would actually have been special to the event and would have required some thought. Okay rant over.
Overall, I am very glad I went. I do hope James will do stage from time to time. Now we will wait and see how his first feature role turns out. If you haven't already heard, James started to film Shadow puppet today and he is starring in it.
Happy Halloween.
