King Lear - Sir Ian, Sir Ian, Sir Ian

I recently watched the RSC's "Great Performances" King Lear (2008) and then had to write my critical thoughts down about the acting...one can't help oneself when moved as I was by this exciting production.

Cast:

	Ian McKellen	...	King Lear
	William Gaunt	...	Earl of Gloucester
	Philip Winchester	...	Edmund
	Ben Meyjes	...	Edgar
	Frances Barber	...	Goneril
	Monica Dolan	...	Regan
	Romola Garai	...	Cordelia
	Sylvester McCoy	...	Fool
	Jonathan Hyde	...	Earl of Kent
	Guy Williams	...	Duke of Cornwall
	Julian Harries	...	Duke of Albany

Directed by: Trevor Nunn

What can one say about Sir Ian McKellan? Other than, brilliant, endearing, commanding, kingly, lowly, human, pitiable, enviable. In an interview after he says, for an actor, what comes after the everest of Lear? Indeed Sir Ian, indeed. "Lear is not a retrospective of a life, you're flung right into it."

If Lear is Gandalf than the Fool is his Bilbo..Seriously the actor reminds me so much of Ian Holm I was surprised to find out it wasn't him! He is also a genius. The fool is the ultimate tragic role in this, and his boyish charm and loyalty to his king is ultimately the most interesting dynamic - so much so that we are bereft without him after his death. His choices were refreshing and exciting.

Cordelia played by Romola Garai is clearly not classically trained for the speech, but she does a decent job at it. I do like her work for its innocence. I find she adds a tremendous amount of hand movements and gestures to highlight her lines at the end of them. Bizarre and uneccessary. She's also wicked bad at playing dead. Keep still woman!

Goneril is horribly ahead of herself, she bursts in fits of tears that do not connect. One second she's crying the next she looks up as if she wasn't upset in the first place - and then a second later back to tears. It takes only the best of actors to do this successfully, and should not be attempted by amateurs because it only makes them look like children trying to find their feet.

Regan is clearly in a league of her own, she's the actress in the scenes with her and Goneril. Quite a brilliantly, well thought out, clear performance. She's got an exciting face to watch, and the actress knows it. I could totally see her as Arkadina from The Seagull. She's also ALWAYS drinking - hilarious choice, considering how she croaks in the end. *UPDATE: I just read Frances Barber's (Goneril) bio on imdb - perhaps I was a little too harsh on her...she clearly has a lot of experience, oddly enough though, apparently she played Arkadina in the Seagull right after this production. Guess I got the sisters wrong!

Edmund was a bit of a conundrum for me. I thought at first that he certainly had the confidence to speak the text, but then I realised I was mistaking the fact that he was trying to make the text "sexy" because I think he's somehow linked evil to sexy. Evil can be and often is sexy, mainly because of the confidence that antagonists bear. But this Edmund only manages to play a villan, and not be one. He also does these overdramatic turns towards (and away from) the camera...making me wonder if he's had more dance training than acting lessons. I'll give him this, since I realise I've torn him apart slightly - his accent is impeccible. I'm pleased to see he has done his homework in that respect, considering he was born in the States.

Kent is very clearly a stage actor, with a great deep voice.

Cornwall is kind of non-descript. Nothing really registers in his eyes, although he has a solid voice...but the result of his lack of animation leaves one, most of the time, watching the performance of his wife.

Edgar started out kind of geeky charming...and then he took his glasses and his shirt off. YUM. But seriously, by the end he turns into a wonderful, believable and honest hero.

All in all, a production to see - and how fortunate that it was captured on film as a record of this great stage production. Shakespeare, come back and we'll get married. Okay?

Vegetally Correct

VEGAN SWEET POTATO MUFFIN RECIPE:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup mashed sweet potatoes
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp salt
• Ener-G egg replacer for 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries (optional)

Preparation:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease or line a muffin tin.

In a large bowl, combine the mashed sweet potatoes, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

Add the egg replacer, oil, and maple syrup, then the pecans and cranberries, stirring just until combined.

Fill muffin tins about 1/3 full with batter and bake for 15 minutes.

I tried this recipe and WOW delicious...I would reccomend mashing the crap out of those sweet potatoes before putting them in, I baked them while I measured the rest of the ingrediants and I think next time I'll bake them well in advance for a better texture. Mmm :)

I found the recipe here.
Here is an alternate recipe which I haven't tried but which uses applesauce.

Efter Brylluppet

I recently watched the Danish film 'After the Wedding' with Denmark's hottest Dane, Mads Mikkelsen. Seriously, a wonderfully looking man...and apparently he was a dancer? Who'd have known.. anyways - the FILM: Not what I expected from the trailer! (Which, on a side note, just goes to show you how trained we are nowadays to judge films based on trailers and how our expectations are normally met because technically with the length and spoilerness of them we've seen the whole movie before we've actually seen the whole movie. hrumph.)


I actually enjoyed the idea that is tossed around the whole film, the idea that we can be forced into roles that we never thought we'd fill within minutes. There are soap-opera like twists and turns through the film and not once did I want to roll my eyes. Mads is maddeningly pretty though, and that might have helped get me through some of the crazy moments. I enjoyed Susan Bier's direction in the tense moments, shots upon shots of eyes and mouths, waiting, anticipating, frightened, shocked. Very captivating and made it all the less overdramatic.


Also, on a final note, the little boy that plays Pramod who Jacob (Mads' character) has looked after in India is possibly the cutest child ever. I could have watched their scenes together for hours.

fancy pants

Yesterday I walked through Zellers and spotted the ever-addictive SALE sign. Never one to turn down a bargain, I was pleasently surprised with the styles of Alfred Sung's summer collection. So for fifteen dollars each, I bought a cardian (couldn't find a photo) and a shirt-dress that looks almost exactly like this one:

As well as these wonderfully stylin' pants that make me feel so happy (image is from the actual collection):Now, when I got home I started thinking - how am I going to wear these suckers? Well I scoured my files and files of saved photos which need to be deleted off my hard drive and came up with a few answers:

Lollipup

Among other wants, it would be nice to have something like this to look at and pick up from time to time :)

This General Specific

Non-Specifically Anything

Just a few outfits that please me on the inside and make my outside jealous.

(+ a gentle supple reminder that none of these images are mine :)