The Complete Walk, from the comfort of your sofa

"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me!

Well I didn't really waste time, I just prioritised. Over the many ways in which Shakespeare's 400th death anniversary was celebrated and fitting in something of a social life, the Globe's Complete Walk - specially commissioned bitesize films of each of his 37 plays - just felt like a step too far, plus there was always the assumption (or should that be presumption) that the films would resurface in a more accessible way. And so it seems to be coming to pass, with three of them now available on the BBC's iPlayer.
   
Antony & Cleopatra

My favourite of these three was Antony & Cleopatra Starting with a plethora of snippets from both Rome and Egypt from Jonathan Munby's 2014 production starring Eve Best and Clive Wood, leading up to a stunning adaptation of Cleopatra and Iras' final moments filmed at the Red Pyramid at Dahshur in Egypt. Beautifully shot with real restraint from Mark Rosenblatt and gorgeously spoken by Eleanor Matsuura and Katy Stephens respectively, the superb musical accompaniment written and performed by Norwegian violinist Bjarte Eike with his baroque ensemble Barokksolistene combine to spine-tingling effect.


Richard II

Another film to combine Globe productions with the new was Richard II, Bill Buckhurst getting to film inside Westminster Hall at the Houses of Parliament for its added piquancy. There we find uber-present James Norton's monarch surrendering his crown to Dominic Rowan's Bolingbroke, spliced with Simon Godwin's 2015 production at the Globe with Frederick Neilson and Charles Edwards as the monarch at the beginning and end of his reign. I could watch Norton and Rowan for days, this only faded a little in comparison with the wonders from the Pyramids.



Hamlet

Oddly enough, the most formally interesting of the trio - Hamlet - was the one that stirred me the least. Though filmed at the Danish castle at Kronborg, Elsinore itself, the location didn't actually bring too much to the table for me. And the format from Dominic Dromgoole, passages from the play fragmented into 4 voices, didn't spark as much as I thought it would, even though those voices belonged to Michelle Terry, Alex Jennings, Nikesh Patel, and Ashley Zhangazha. 

Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,