Macmillan and Mr Y
Aug. 14th, 2008 07:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearThe 100% positive theatre trend continued on Tuesday, with an excellent play called Never So Good, which told the life story of Harol Macmillan. The writing, staging, acting and overall production quality were brilliant, and it was really interesting for me in particular because it built on all the things I'd read about Macmillan in the 60s history book I read earlier in the year. I have to admit, though, that if I hadn't read that book and already had background information on all the various aspects of Macmillan's political career, I wouldn't have had a clue what was going on most of the time.
There were two things about the play that I really liked. Each new stage of Macmillan's career was introduced by a group of dancers, performing the popular steps of the time, which I thought was a great way to show the passing of the years and the coming and going of new trends. Also, as Macmillan got older, and the main actor playing him (who turned out to be Jeremy Irons!) took centre stage, the younger version of him (a soldier in the First World War) stayed on stage the whole time, breaking into scenes with cutting comments and having interesting conversations with his older self.
The End of Mr Y, but Scarlett Thomas is a very odd book. It's a combination of modern and 19th century thrillers, with lots of really interesting ideas about philosophy, science and religion thrown in. It also explores the psyche of several very damaged people and is, by turns, intriguing, disturbing, unpleasant, surreal, fascinating and exciting. It's extremely difficult to categorise, and saying that it's about a student who finds a rare book that turns out to be cursed really tells you nothing of its subject and themes. I had a few problems with the ending, but overall it was well-written and absorbing.
There were two things about the play that I really liked. Each new stage of Macmillan's career was introduced by a group of dancers, performing the popular steps of the time, which I thought was a great way to show the passing of the years and the coming and going of new trends. Also, as Macmillan got older, and the main actor playing him (who turned out to be Jeremy Irons!) took centre stage, the younger version of him (a soldier in the First World War) stayed on stage the whole time, breaking into scenes with cutting comments and having interesting conversations with his older self.
The End of Mr Y, but Scarlett Thomas is a very odd book. It's a combination of modern and 19th century thrillers, with lots of really interesting ideas about philosophy, science and religion thrown in. It also explores the psyche of several very damaged people and is, by turns, intriguing, disturbing, unpleasant, surreal, fascinating and exciting. It's extremely difficult to categorise, and saying that it's about a student who finds a rare book that turns out to be cursed really tells you nothing of its subject and themes. I had a few problems with the ending, but overall it was well-written and absorbing.
