A Most Disturbing Realisation

I haven't been to the theatre or the cinema for a ridiculously long time!

I've just sifted through my usual London theatre haunts, and highlights include: -

Women Beware Women, by Thomas Middleton
The National Theatre, 20th April - 8th June

In the Italian court, where wealth secures power and power serves lust, the lascivious Duke can play wherever he chooses. He catches the eye of another’s exquisite bride, Bianca. Can a glance secure her fate, a bribe appease her husband?

It’s a witty age,
Never were finer snares for women’s honesties
Than are devis’d in these days; no spider’s web
Made of a daintier thread than are now practis’d.

Isabella’s father would marry her off to a rich young idiot, while Hippolito has won her trust and desires her truly. But he’s her uncle. These are her choices. If twice-widowed Livia conspires against her sex to gain a little clout, she’s only fighting to survive.

O the deadly snares
That women set for women, without pity
Either to soul or honour!

Corruption will not go unpunished in Thomas Middleton’s blackly funny, fast and ferocious tragedy.

Sin tastes, at the first draught,
like wormwood water
But, drunk again, ’tis nectar ever after.

Jerusalem, by Jez Butterworth
The Apollo Shaftesbury Avenue, until 24th April

A comic, contemporary vision of rural life in our green and pleasant land, Jez Butterworth’s epic new play is wildly original. In part a lament about the erosion of country life, and in part a rebuff to the antiseptic modern world, it features a landmark central performance from Mark Rylance as hellraiser Johnny Byron, ‘a performance so charismatic, so mercurial, so complete and compelling that it doesn’t look like acting’ (ES), and a superb ensemble cast including Mackenzie Crook who 'excels' as Johnny’s sidekick Ginger.

On St George’s Day, the morning of the local county fair, Johnny Byron is a wanted man. The council officials want to serve him an eviction notice, his son wants his dad to take him to the fair, and a motley crew of mates want his ample supply of drugs and alcohol.

King Lear, by William Shakespeare
The Donmar Warehouse, from 3rd December

An ageing monarch. A kingdom divided. A child’s love rejected. As Lear’s world descends into chaos, all that he once believed is brought into question. One of the greatest works in western literature, King Lear explores the very nature of human existence: love and duty, power and loss, good and evil.

With DEREK JACOBI!!!

Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, by William Shakespeare
The Globe, 6th June - 3rd October

Part 1
Prince Hal, son of Henry IV, seems to be squandering his life among the whores, boozers and petty rogues of Eastcheap. And the greatest of these rogues is the fat knight, Sir John Falstaff, a liar, glutton, lecher, cheat, braggart, fool and sponger who also possesses wit, warmth, intelligence and a gigantic sense of fun. But beside these scenes of glorious misrule gathers a nationwide rebellion led by the Duke of Northumberland and his charismatic son, Hotspur.

The first instalment of Shakespeare's gripping account of the rise of Hal from idle barfly to monarch-in-waiting combines compelling power politics with the hilarious antics of Falstaff, Shakespeare's greatest comic creation.

Part 2
Hotspur is dead and Prince Hal has proved his mettle on the battlefield, but Henry IV lies dying and the rebels, though scattered, show no sign of declaring their allegiance to the Crown. Even Falstaff is forced out of the taverns to raise a scratch militia in the country. But will his attachment to the rising Hal be rewarded with promotion and the life of ease he feels sure he deserves?

At least the equal of Part 1, Henry IV Part 2 includes some of the greatest moments in Shakespeare: the deathbed scene of the old King, when Hal contemplates the crown; the reunion of Falstaff with his old boon companion, Justice Shallow; and Hal's devastating rejection of Falstaff himself.

With Roger Allam! Recently in La Cage aux Folles in the West End, and winner the 2002 Olivier Award for Privates on Parade at the Donmar.

Any suggestions for big screen outings...?