Dido (National Theatre, 2nd May 2009)

The production used all the stage. The higher level was the God’s realm and then the inner rooms were revealed to us. It was an interesting use of the set, but the play really relies on Marlowe’s language and you have to listen hard to follow the complexities of the play. I thought that Anastasia Hille was stunning as Dido. I hadn’t read or seen Marlowe’s play before and I found it gripping and moving. There were so many echoes of Antony and Cleopatra in it and I felt Marlowe as a young man was really expressing obsessive love foreshadowing what a more mature Shakespeare was to do later in his career. Many of the reviews commented on the length of this production. I didn’t feel that this production was drawn out and needed the time for actors to develop speeches and for the plot to progress. It is the first time that I have been in the Cottesloe before and found it a really interesting experience.

Production details

http://www.nt-online.org/dido

Reviews and Previews

The Stage / Reviews / Dido, Queen of Carthage
Dido, Queen of Carthage at Cottesloe – Times On…
Dido, Queen of Carthage at the National Theatre…
Theatre Review: Dido, Queen of Carthage / Cotte…
Dido, Queen of Carthage, Cottesloe, National Th…
Dido without the fire Theatre This is London

Olivier Awards- Tennant is not up for an Award

As I am reading through my Reader and Google Alerts, I get information that David Tennant has not been nominated for an Olivier award. I feel a little sense of disappointment. Probably because I have felt that I have been tied up with this production for so long. Probably a little harder for David Tennant than me, though Patrick Stewart and Oliver Ford Davies have been nominated for the supporting actors’ category. So the National Theatre did Ok and Derek Jacobi has been nominated for his part of Malvolio in Twelfth Night. I am now looking forward to going to see this in a week or so’s time. What really struck me was that Tennant still grabbed the headlines even though he hadn’t been nominated. It was more Tennant missed out rather than who had actually been nominated. Michael Billington in his The Guardian blog didn’t focus on Tennant but was disappointed that Kenneth Branagh wasn’t nominated.
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