Just in time before its last performance tomorrow I managed to see Racine's dramatic play Phèdre at the National Theatre. I am glad I was pursuaded to see it, and to overcome the pre-cast mindset of a Shakespearean-influenced bloke that I am. There is something endlessly intriguing and captivating, a starkly prolific black & white defiance of subtleness, that time and again lures me to French literature and plays. It feels refreshingly liberating at times to leave the tight corset of British traditionalism and American puritanism behind and jump overboard with the drama of love and death, intricately intertwined according to the world's greatest writers, and to feel swept away in a tsunami of emotions, sometimes of purest love, sometimes of sinister plotting.
Clearly, even after the post-show bubblies and the laughs with the gang of dear friends, I am still very much taken in by the play I watched. Weirdly enough, leaving the day job behind in exchange for artistic expressions, whether it be film, play or music, I often feel entering reality during such blissful moments of high culture, with the time of job and life blurred out and fading into a surreal obscurity.
A deeply moving evening indeed, in company of someone I have neglected far too often and for far too long.
2 comments:
Do you think Helen Mirren was the right person to play Phedre?
Did you enjoy the play?
Yes, I enjoyed the play a lot; very captivating and riveting.
Helen Mirren gave her trademark stellar performance, but I was not completely convinced that she was perfect for the role, solely because of her age.
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