lareinenoire: (Elizabeth)
Day #24: An actor or actress you would love to see in a particular role

There will be a list. Nobody should be surprised by this at all.

Jon Slinger in anything. ANYTHING AT ALL.

David Tennant as Richard II - His Henry VI made me wibble, and I loved him as both Berowne and Hamlet. And then there's Ten. Who has more in common with Richard II than he really should. And, really, who wouldn't want to hear Tennant do that final speech? (Note: I don't think he could do what Slinger did with the role. I frankly don't think anybody else could pull that off. But Tennant would be an equally fantastic Richard, if quite different.)

Tilda Swinton as Margaret of Anjou - Can you picture this? I can, and it is magical.

Kate Winslet as Desdemona - And, no, I am not just saying this because of my enormous crush on her. I do think she'd strike the right balance of innocence and sensuality (we get some hints of this in the way she played Marianne Dashwood) that I just haven't seen in any of the filmed productions so far.

Jeremy Northam as Iago - One of my problems with Kenneth Branagh's Iago was that he overdid the evil; part of what makes Iago so scary is how little he actually does to destroy the lives of everyone around him, and Branagh's style of acting just doesn't convey that for me at all. Northam is incredibly charming, and would probably, now I think about it, also make a fantastic Richard III. And, yes, I am also deeply amused by the irony of the same actor playing Thomas More and Richard III.

Sophie Okonedo as Cleopatra - Her Duchess of Malfi was just brilliant and I think she'd make a sublime Cleopatra. Also, further yay for Cleopatras of colour because there are simply not enough of them.

James Purefoy as Antony - WHO DID NOT SEE THIS COMING. The way he played Antony in Rome fits so well with the way I read Shakespeare's version -- impulsive and brilliant and so completely unaware that he could at any moment fail. Super massive bonus points for Simon Woods reprising Octavius.

Full List of Questions )
lareinenoire: (Default)
Disclaimer: These are long and they ramble a lot. I'm taking them more or less verbatim from my notes, though getting rid of bad grammar and things I don't think about when I'm scribbling madly. ;) I'm also adding in proper act and scene numbers so that the descriptions make more sense. Due to the vagaries of train travel -- as I mentioned in the previous entry -- I missed all of Act I and the first two scenes of Act II of Henry IV, Part I.

My review of Richard II, which I saw on 20 November 2007, is here.

Henry IV, Part I )
Henry IV, Part II )
Henry V )
Henry VI, Part I )
Henry VI, Part II )
Henry VI, Part III )
Richard III )

I do have overall thoughts as well, but most of them are so tied up with my dissertation that I'll spare you and put them into my Shakespeare chapter instead.
lareinenoire: (Hal)
I'm prefacing this with the admission that I don't actually know Richard II that well; most of my work has been on the other tetralogy. So some of the things I noticed might be completely obvious to people who know the play better than I do. Also, it's entirely possible that I might forget to mention things, so let me know if I miss something important.

Long review below the cut. )

As I said last night, it was a fantastic production all round, and I'm thrilled that I got the chance to see it.

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