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The Triumph of Love at the Almeida – Review

On September 5, 1999May 14, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Hiding behind the mask of love

by Paul Taylor | September 5, 1999 | The Independent

HEROINES who go round disguised as men are as common in classical comedy as men who go around disguised as Barbra Streisand are in certain clubs. But few of the former breed are as single-minded as Princess Leonide, the central figure in Marivaux’s 1732 play The Triumph of Love, revived in a witty and beautifully judged production by James Macdonald.

The high curved hedges and sandy floor of Jeremy Herbert’s set evokes the rural retreat of the philosopher Hermovrate and his frumpy sister, Leontine, the kind of self-deceivedly high-minded couple to whom the mere mention of the word “love” is anathema. Since he was smuggled there as a child, this sequestered residence has been the secret home of Agis, the rightful heir to the throne usurped by Leonide’s family. Having fallen in love with him from afar, the Princess infiltrates the set-up in male disguise. Her aim is to win his hand and restore the kingdom to him. But as the daughter of his enemies, she can scarcely expect an immediate welcome and so feels the need to approach his heart via various incognitos.

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Print Media Reviews Triumph of Love

The Triumph of Love at the Almedia – Review

On September 3, 1999May 24, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Comic age of reason

by Michael Billington | September 3, 1999 | The Guardian

This is the third Marivaux play to hit London this year. Exactly like The Dispute and The Game Of Love And Chance, it takes a scientific look at sentiment. But what makes Marivaux such a brilliantly ambiguous writer, as James Macdonald’s revival shrewdly realises, is that he attacks the notion that you can treat people as guinea-pigs while analysing the human heart with merciless precision.

Written in 1732, the play is set in mythical Greece though the ambience is deeply French.The situation is also simple, even if the background is complex; both Martin Crimp’s otherwise impeccable translation and the production could do more to clarify the crucial exposition.

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In a Little World of Our Own Print Media Reviews

In a Little World of Our Own at the Donmar Warehouse – Review

On March 3, 1998May 14, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

A Protestant Northern Ireland Family Drama

by David Benedict | March 3, 1998 | The Independent

When a hardman in a play tells another character to stop worrying because he’ll take care of it, you know he’s in for a nasty surprise. Even if you know nothing about it before taking your seat at Gary Mitchell’s In a little World of Our Own, it doesn’t take long to realise what’s afoot. It may come on like a Protestant Northern Ireland family drama but it quickly becomes clear that what we’re really watching is a whodunnit.

Ray (cold and threatening Stuart Graham) has a well-founded reputation for violence off-set by his fierce concern for his mentally retarded kid brother Richard. Gordon, the third brother, is engaged to devout Deborah and together they’re on the brink of buying a house in which they can look after Richard, whose crush on the 15-year-old daughter of Ray’s rival threatens to land everyone in trouble. Ray returns from taking Richard to a party to meet her, but their stories don’t match, suspicions are aroused,and cover-ups, threats and reprisals rear their ugly heads.

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In a Little World of Our Own Interviews Print Media Stand and Deliver

Theatre: In a World of Whose Own?

On March 3, 1998May 8, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

She is an actress with a chameleon-like ability to swap accents, he is a writer whose work is anchored in his native Belfast. Together, they are on stage at the Donmar

by Jasper Rees | March 3, 1998 | The Independent

ACTORS fall into two broad categories: those who play themselves and those who play other people. One type gets recognised in the street rather more than the other. Last year, while Lynda La Plante’s Trial and Retribution was being screened, Helen McCrory found herself dragged into a pub debate about the moral issues thrown up by the series. “I assumed arrogantly that this conversation had been sparked off by the fact that they knew who I was. They asked me my opinion and I realised after about 10 minutes they had no idea.”

You can see why. McCrory is currently at the Donmar in In a Little World of Our Own, a new play by Gary Mitchell in which she puts on an Ulster accent to play a born-again Christian in the heart of Protestant Belfast. In Stand and Deliver, a BBC film by Les Blair, she plays a feckless English photographer in Glasgow. In The James Gang, a road movie directed by Mike Barker, she’s a Scot who fetches up in Wales. The Donmar play opens the theatre’s annual “Four Corners” season: it sounds as if McCrory could play all four corners herself.

Macbeth Print Media Reviews

Macbeth at Tricycle Theatre – Review

On October 31, 1995May 9, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

A Round Up of Reviews

by BBAShakespeare.co.uk | 1995

PRINCIPAL CAST: Tom Chadbon (Duncan); Ewen Cummins (Banquo); Lennie James (Macbeth); John Keegan (Macduff); Helen McCrory (Lady Macbeth).

This production ran from 20 October – 18 November 1995.

“Nicholas Kent’s production of a play that could hardly be better suited to the Tricycle’s intimate auditorium is pacy and racy but patchily acted….Christine Marfleet’s set of curved, beaten metal panels that gleam in the firelight suggest both the distant path but also some future state, and a canny use of percussion adds to the atmosphere….But too many of the actors are ill at ease with the verse. Not so Helen McCrory’s Lady Macbeth, whose performance is in a different league to the rest – passionate, focused and artfully spoken. A great classical career beckons.” ~ Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, 1 November 1995

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