Tuesday, September 8

Tag: Annabel Arden

Endgame – Pleasance at EICC
Scotland

Endgame – Pleasance at EICC

Probably Samuel Beckett's second most famous work after Waiting For Godot, Endgame is, perhaps not coincidentally, a much bleaker play than the one famously known as the play in which nothing happens (and twice). The play's mix of the absurd and the nihilistic are not for everyone. This material is not relatable or made of easily defined punchlines, and anyone coming in purely off the name of a famous comedy writer or the MCU team-up could be in for a shock. Set in a houser in a post-apocalyptic landscape, the play follows Hamm (director Henry Maynard), his servant Clov (Simon Gleave) and Hamm's two dustbin-bound parents, Nagg (Derek Elwood) and Nell (Annabel Arden). Maynard brings a Shakespearan gravitas to the seat-bound and petty Hamm, while Elwood and Arden in their bins a...
Opera North’s The Flying Dutchman – Leeds Grand Theatre
Yorkshire & Humber

Opera North’s The Flying Dutchman – Leeds Grand Theatre

The Flying Dutchman, often regarded as Wagner’s first true Gesamtkunstwerk (total artwork), has a somewhat problematic yet refreshingly straightforward narrative – at least compared to most operas.  There are no mistaken identities, hidden family ties, or scheming servants – just a simple, if slightly absurd, tale of love, obsession, and redemption.  Oh, and death.  Mustn’t forget the death. A sea captain, Daland, encounters the cursed Flying Dutchman, doomed to sail forever unless he finds true love.  Offered treasure, Daland promises his daughter, Senta, in marriage.  (What is she, some sort of chattel?)  Senta, previously obsessed with the Dutchman’s legend and oft to be seen worshipping his picture, eagerly accepts.  After their union, her former l...