Kate Mulley

I’ve been meaning to write a post about plays that I love but haven’t seen for awhile, but never got around to it. The number one play on that list was Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, but last night (my second to last in London) I saw the new West End production directed by David Leveaux. The brilliance of Arcadia, in my opinion, lies in the connections that get made between seemingly different areas of research. Its academic nature might turn off some people (many actors I know think that Stoppard’s work lacks heart, which I disagree with), but sitting in a theatre for three hours with your synapses firing throughout the entire play is an absolute joy. During the interval, my flatmate and I were discussing how much we appreciate the amount of research that Stoppard put into the process of writing the play. And rather alienating the audience with its references to determinisim and botany and Romantic garden design, etc, because they are all couched in humor things that the audience would not presume to understand are much clearer by the end of the play.

Because it’s such a good play to read, I was worried that the production might not live up to my expectations (this happened with Angels in America when I saw it onstage for the first time about two years ago). But it was fantastic, despite only being the second night of performances. I recommend it highly!

I was in Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia) last weekend and during my train ride down from Vienna I met a woman who is a costume, lighting and set designer in Austria and Slovenia. She had recently moved back to Ljubljana after a few years in Vienna for professional and personal reasons and when she found out that my flatmate and I were playwrights, she told us we should check out the theatre in Ljubljana. She specifically suggested a pop-rock musical called Neron, which was about Nero.

When we got to the National Theatre there were two shows on that night, Neron and a Slovene translation of Boston Marriage by David Mamet. Though neither of us know any Slovene, we took a chance and bought some seats for Neron. The only ones available were in the balcony and were 7 euros. The show was crazy. We had been told that a weekend was just enough time to experience the “proverbial rustic eroticism” of Ljubljana and we got more than out money’s worth from the play. The music was catchy, the sexuality was throbbing (certainly compared to most plays on the London stage), the acting was a little uneven and the dancing/choreography was pretty mediocre. But it was quite a change from what I’ve been seeing and considering I usually judge a play for its dialogue, it was a shift in perspective.

Am in my final month in London and looking forward to what should be some good plays that I booked months in advance.

Sunday is Madame de Sade, which has gotten terrible reviews, but stars Judi Dench and Rosamund Pike, so it’s hard to say no to. And tickets were only £10.

After a week in Eastern Europe (Vienna, Ljubljana and Split!), I’m seeing Waiting for Godot with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan. How could I not see this when I’m here? Two stage and screen legends in a classic play I’ve never seen staged. Whoever came up with this idea was clearly very very savvy.

And my final week is Tom Stoppard week. I’ll see his translation of The Cherry Orchard, as performed by the Bridge Project on Monday the 25th and the revival of Arcadia on Thursday the 28th. I actually had the good fortune to meet Sir Tom over the weekend in the Madrid airport. He was absolutely lovely, asked me about my writing and upcoming play and wished me luck with everything. I tried to play it cool, but am still floating a little bit. How often do you get to meet your idol and talk about yourself? Not very