The Sheila Variations

Anyone want to lend me a private jet ...

... so I can get to London ASAP and see these two productions? It actually hurts not to be able to see the productions in person. I can feel the excitement of them thru the reviewer's prose.

First we have Othello, with current theatrical superstar Chiwetel Ejiofor as Othello and Ewan McGregor as Iago.

It hurts just thinking about it.

Ejiofor made a huge splash in The Seagull last year, with Kristin Scott Thomas - which was yet another production where I moaned how much it hurt to not be able to see it - not that I could have gotten tickets anyway.

On Ejiofor as Othello:

His intensely human Othello is a major achievement. It ranks among the handful of truly great Shakespearean performances I’ve seen.

Ache.

Under these conditions Mr. Ejiofor takes us to a realm we too rarely visit at the theater: the innermost recesses of the human heart, in this case a heart torn apart by despair and rage. The beauty of Othello’s great speeches and the grandeur of the role’s conception can seduce actors into stultifying oratory or empty posturing. But there is not a single hollow or grandiose note in Mr. Ejiofor’s performance.

GodDAMMIT.

Mr. McGregor’s fine Iago has been somewhat overshadowed by Mr. Ejiofor’s achievement — some critics have dismissed it as a shallow interpretation — but this Iago too is scaled to the close dimensions of the theater. Here he is not a figure of glistening intellect and Machiavellian complexity but simply an ambitious, offended man subject to the same base instincts many are heir to: envy, a taste for mischief and malice, and the same sexual jealousy he recognizes in Othello.

Mr. McGregor’s piercing blue eyes glint like lit-up jewels in the crepuscular dimness of the production. His magnetism and charm match up terrifically with Mr. Ejiofor’s. For once the amity and trust Othello extends to this deceptive figure does not seem a gaping character flaw but a natural affinity.

I am in tears of rage right now that I will not see this production.

Not to mention the Much Ado that is also going on right now - one of my favorites of all of Shakespeare's plays.

On the unusual choice of casting middle-aged actors ( Simon Russell Beale and Zoë Wanamaker) as Beatrice and Benedick:

Love, it would seem, has long since passed these two by. Has their acid humor caused the opposite sex to give them a wide berth? Or has the pride born of years of solitude carved hardness into their hearts and sharpened the edges of their wits?

If nothing else, it has left both with a fondness for the consolations of drink. In the early scenes of the production, insightfully directed by Nicholas Hytner, the National’s artistic director, Ms. Wanamaker’s Beatrice grows looser of tongue and feistier of spirit under the influence of an ever-present goblet of red wine. But her quicksilver mood swings also descend into sad reflection...

The hallmark of both Mr. Russell Beale’s and Ms. Wanamaker’s performances is a limpid human truth that it requires an assured technique to achieve in Shakespeare. As opera singers must train rigorously to forget the little folds in their throats and disappear into a character onstage, so great Shakespearean actors have behind them years of repertory work and scholarly attention to the intricacy of Shakespeare’s language.

Marvelous. And yet horrible because an ocean is between me and IT.

Here's the review, again, in The Times.

More reviews:

Here is John Lahr's review of Othello in "The New Yorker"

Moor or less perfect - the review of Othello in The Daily Mail

Review of Much Ado in The Independent: "These two actors bring a fantastic, unforced chemistry to the sparring, emotionally defensive relationship between Shakespeare's witty, reluctant lovers. Looking like soulmates as if by natural selection, both of them are unconventionally attractive, dumpy, highly intelligent, and verbally gifted oddballs. And they're at an age where they can show that the pair no longer have all the time in the world. Making waspish wisecracks, Wanamaker's Beatrice has become the family comedienne to hide the melancholy which it is clear they haven't even noticed."

Fantastic interpretation.

I will live it vicariously. And resentfully. Because geographical distance should be made illegal.

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