Alex de Campi: Gojira!

***

WHO

FILM & TV

COMICS & BOOKS

14.9.05 Sitting in a box, throwing words at the world...

...staring at the walls, staring at the girl in the mirror...

Doggerel continues.

I have updated the liner notes for Orpheus in Shoreditch to include English translations of the sampled lines from Orphee, as several of you emailed me and asked.

Saw Brian Friel's Aristocrats on Monday with Mr Nathan and The Pope. In brief: Upper-class Irish Catholic family reunites at Big House for wedding; drama and Bushmills ensues. It's not the most original of topics, but Friel has wrought from it something truly amazing, subtle, and searingly accurate. I have rather more experience with crumbling houses and crumbling families (especially of the left-footed variety) than I tend to admit, and I watched the play with that sort of horrified fascination that descends when one realises that oh my god, I know that family. Hell, I was married into it.

If your reaction to the line "Casimir was sent to the Benedictines at age six" is to think, "how horrible, what sort of beastly parent will do that", you'll enjoy the play. If your reaction to that line is "Hm, was H. bundled off to Worth at six or at eight?" you'll enjoy the play even more, and you'll be wanting a strong drink afterwards.

In contrast, The UN Inspector (also at the National) should be avoided. Shit-poor adaptation, starts shouting in the first five minutes, realises it has nowhere to go, so keeps shouting for the next 90 minutes hoping we won't notice. If Michael Sheen keeps appearing in dross like this, I'm going to forget about Caligula and fall out of love with his acting ability.

Torture Garden: Erghm. Ick. I am way too repressed to have enjoyed that. Also, I have now used up all my tolerance for bad techno music for the rest of 2005.

( 3:52 PM )

0 Comments: