RB Fan Reviews

Resurrection Blues
by anon

Resurrection Blues at the Old Vic.

First I should say that I have read the pretty damning and negative reviews of this play BUT whilst I find reviews interesting I am not guided or swayed by them; my opinions are formed by my experience. Often I don't look at reveiws until after I've seen the play - couldn't really miss them on RB at the moment - it often seems to me that the press resent the fact that the Artistic Director at the Old Vic (Kevin Spacey) is American; they have conflicting expectations and they want him to fail.

The evening didn't get off to a good start. I arrived practically at a sprint - despite leaving masses of time to get there (anticipating a pre-show glass of wine) the vagaries of the tube meant that I arrived on the spot of 7.30 which meant I didn't get time to pull myself together before the play started. <sigh> my fault but a lesson has been learned (better to have to spend longer in the bar than arrive as the play starts!).

RB is not a long play, there was a 15 min interval yet we were leaving the theatre at 9.20. The set was impressive with a central section that rotated to give different views and flights of stairs and entrance to the stage possible from 3 levels.

So what was it like? mediocre. there were some vaguely humourous moments (well quite a lot for some of the audience) but was this supposed to be satire or a comedy? whichever it was it failed at both. The secondary plot-line of Felix's impotency failed as far as I'm concerned - not funny, didn't add anything to the play (in fact it distracted from the main tale). The conclusion was unsatisfactory.
The acting was ... well yes mediocre. I'm still wondering why the actor playing Stanley had a faux Irish accent - it was irritating, as was his persona.

On a personal level having been reading various works concerned with post-colonialism and post-dictators (eg Death and the Maiden) this should have fitted into my reading but it didn't. I don't think this play will be one that people return to in years to come.

March 14, 2006

Driving Mr. Spacey!: The positively untrue life and times of Kevin Spacey,
with a few real facts thrown in for fun.

All collages and photo enhancements were done by me using Microsoft® Picture It!® 99