All of DC is a stage and right now there are some serious players in town

Yes I know it is not Poets Day (yet) and your normal schedule of badly written egotistical blather will resume later this week but I wanted to quickly throw some letters together and hope they make sense regarding the wonderful weekend I just had in Washington DC.

Firstly let’s talk about Othello starring Jonno Roberts (no relation unless he is doing a good show) and Faran Tahir. Sure the play is named Othello and in theory Faran was the star but it was a good show so in my mind Jonno get’s top billing J. I am not going to pretend that I like Shakespeare – hell, I never got to meet him so how can I, but I am guessing he would have bored the crap out of me a fair amount of the time unless he had an amazing cast like the one in DC telling his stories for him. It is ironic that people think that I am hard to understand and yet go and watch Shakespeare. Forsooth there are many parts of the bard’s work that are hard to follow given that we speak American English (well some of y’all do) and not an olde version of the Queens tongue.  However even an uncultured ass like me (I once lived in Brisbane so I lack culture completely) was totally enthralled and immersed in the STC production of Othello.

I am not a complete Willie Shakes virgin having seen Jonno (no relation) play with the bard a few times, and this production is my favorite thus far (no offense to the buttocks of Stacy Keach from the Lear production). The staging and lighting were awesome in their simplicity and effectiveness, the cast excellent and Jonno and Faran just wonderful. I went into the theatre expecting something special from my younger and incredibly talented brother and was not disappointed in any way at what the team on stage put together. It might not be short or easy to understand but it certainly was easy to follow and the journey was well worth the trip.

The next night I happened to get the chance to see 1984 performed by Headlong (a touring company from the UK). A bit like most of y’all I might have read 1984 in 1984 (funnily enough that is probably about right) but apart from the concept of big brother watching you in an Orwellian state I have forgotten everything about the book. Heading in to see this production I had zero knowledge and zero expectations (apart from the afore mentioned brother saying it was great) and bugger me was I glad that I went to the show. Talk about tight, movement queues were scary tight, lighting and effects were, well, very effective and the cast, an awesome team putting on a fantastic production. Yes it was a tad confusing, or some might say complex, and (a bit like in Othello) I laughed where others didn’t laugh and said ‘wow’ a few times but I was glued to the stage to make sure I didn’t miss a thing.

Both shows completely different and both shows completely brilliant.

Maybe the one thing that I have with enjoying shows (and life in general) is I tend to go in looking for the good and/or with no preconceived ideas. I am sure people got different things out of both productions than me but that is the beauty of seeing great theatre and great performances. Interpretation is in the eye of the beholder. All this person knows is that I would go back and see both shows again, knowing if I did I would get something different out of the productions each time.

The only bad part of the trip was seeing Jonno’s face up all over town.

'To thine own self be true', you have to know Shakespeare was a Poets Day fan J