Dublin Theatre Festival 2014

Boulevardier

I attended the Berlin Schaubuhne's German language production of Hamlet at the Bord Gais on Saturday, and was happy to see this large venue almost full for what had to be a challenging evening.

Regrettably, the evening did in fact prove too challenging for me and for my (German speaking) companion, and we left early.

I say "left early" and not "walked out" because I recognise that there was real talent on stage, and that this production was exploring Hamlet in an innovative way.

However, we both agreed that we were not sufficiently in the groove to face 2 3/4 hours of it and so we did chose to leave. Hamlet is a challenging play at the best of times, but I think this production was asking too much of its audience, or an anglophone audience at any rate.

miamee

I was at the opening night of this last Thursday. I wasn't really up for it but my friend convinced me to go along with him. Neither of us realised it was auf Deutsch until we got there. We were both a bit apprehensive about 2 and 3/4 hours of any play with no interval too. My friend said afterwards he could see why there was no interval - you definitely wouldn't go back in

It was spectacular. Visually spectacular and something that I will remember for quite a while. It was just impossible to follow both the text AND the action on-stage so at times I was missing out on one or the other by concentrating on one. I suppose if you knew Hamlet well enough, that wouldn't matter as you'd be fairly sure of what part of the story you were at. As someone said afterwards, that was Shakespeare as Shakespeare intended it to be. Physical, visceral, almost like a pantomime, over the top, some audience interaction and an unforgettable experience.

I won't lie, I drifted off several times in my mind ot think about other things and almost nodded off at one point - it was too long to keep my concentration. But I am glad that I went and had the experience. The opening show of the theatre festival is always something spectacular

miamee

Actually I saw another play from the festival on Saturday, 'After Sarah Miles', it is a one man show with Don Wycherley. I'd listen to him read the phone book to be honest but he was fantastic, it was really enjoyable. It was only on for 2 nights though. That was out in Axis Ballymun, they often have some good stuff on out there.
(Disclaimer: a friend works there )

Actually, I just had a look, it's on tour until October 11th.

Boulevardier

I have also been to "The mariner" at the gate. Much less demanding than Hamlet as a play, but in this case I did actually doze off for a few minutes!

It came across as something like as if Brian Friel had made "The real Martin Guerre."

Not as enjoyable as the Speckled people, and with very little to say about the issues touched on. Second rate, as the navy might say.

faceman

Really, it was in German? Does it stay loyal to Shakespeare's style of writing and Iambic Pentameter? I'm guessing not?

Boulevardier

Faceman, the original Shakespearian dialogue is put up in English in surtitles over the stage. However, the dialogue is not always in the order of the original playscript, so for example, parts of the "To be or not to be" speech are introduced at 3 or 4 points in the performance.

DoctorBoo

I saw A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, Spinning and Frequency 793. The first two were really good (Girl was outstanding) but the last one was a big disappointment.

Boulevardier

I saw the 2 Murphy/Druid plays at the Olympia. Certainly, without seeing Brigit first, I would have lost a lot of insight into the earlier work, Bailegangaire.

The acting in both was superb.

My companion and I agreed that Brigit was a bit too short and BG a bit too long, the latter in the sense that it could have made the same points, just as strongly, without the first 20 minutes or so. Both were wonderfully atmospheric and evocative of the time they were set.