Marius Pontmercy

Pharaoh, on 16 August 2012 - 05:04 PM, said:

I was in the second row of the pit level and you can actually see the floor projections/lights just fine from there - the seats are quite a way off ground level. Not sure what the front row would be like - I think it's second price, so I guess you might miss a bit from there.

Well, I saw it on Monday and loved it, as did one of the people with whom I saw it - http://oughttobeclow...m-open-air.html - of the other two, one (dude-1981 as he is here known) liked it a lot and the other hated it so much she left at the interval. So suspect this is going to be a divisive one.

I liked the gypsy camp setting - I must admit my heart sank during the pre-show sequence as I couldn't see how it was going to work at all, but once the play got going I really took to it. In terms of matching the play it's not an absolutely watertight 'concept', but it doesn't try to be - the relationships between the characters, the arranged marriages and the (to us) rather peculiar morality of those scenes seemed to work in this setting. It also worked, for me, for the weddings - and I enjoyed the really sinister side that David Birrell brought to Theseus, which came across far stronger than in previous productions I'd seen (not a long list, admittedly).

And I loved the fairies! I actually thought those scenes were played fairly straight, and better for that. And their appearance in the closing moments of the play was lovely, but I suppose if you hadn't liked them so far you might not have thought so. (I also loved the completely bonkers Pyramus and Thisbe performance, but the same applies.)

It's funny, reading back what I've just written it sounds like exactly the kind of thing I would hate. But for whatever reason it really worked for me on Monday night, I had a great time watching it.