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A Man For All Seasons: Seagull True Story - Marylebone Theatre

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It's not often that you see a play that tells you not so much a story but gives you a sense of how it feels to be in a situation, how it feels to be silenced, how it feels to be marginalised, how the dead hand of consensus stifles your creativity. However, in Seagull True Story, created and directed by Alexander Molochnikov and based on his own experiences fleeing Russia and trying to establish himself in New York, we have a chance to look beyond the headlines and understand how the war in Ukraine impacted a a group of ordinary creatives in Russia. And how the gradual smothering of freedom and freedom of expression becomes impossible to resist, except for the brave or the suicidal. Against the backdrop of Chekhov's The Seagull, which explores love and other forms of disappointment, it presents a gripping and enthralling depiction of freedom of expression in the face of adversity. After playing earlier this year in New York, it plays a limited run at the Marylebone Theatre . Fro...
Moving from NW6 to WC1

Today I finalised getting a new place in Bloomsbury. Hello Central London. Farewell West Hampstead. Its a downsize but a sensible location. Rather than pack of course spent way too much time wandering around West Hampstead, which seemed a little daft given the light sleet/snow that was falling from time to time.

Theatre: Talk to the hand/ass/stigmata

Jerry Springer outing last night wasn't bad, although some of the principals were not performing and it showed a little (lacking a bit of style alas). I sat next to a man from New York (who was in London for a week and had seen at least a show a night - although he was a theatre teacher/director) who enjoyed it a lot and couldn't believe what he was hearing (or seeing)...

Unlike a Jerry Springer show, the characters in the Opera are quite likeable which gives the show its charm amongst all the profanities. The morality of it all is still a bit ambiguous. Is it a critique of modern TV - the celebrity culture where people will do anything to get attention - or is it reveling in the swill of it all? It leans towards the former, but it also celebrates the latter, which is definitely an explanation as to why it gets up people's noses.

Outside the theatre there was also a group of little old ladies and little old men handing out pamphlets from the Christian Voice. This organisation is an anti-gay, anti-established Church (it's too liberal apparently) and generally bemoaning the debauchery and sin of Britain... Well compared to Australians the British are a saucy bunch so maybe they should all emigrate if they weren't so preoccupied with wanting to save Britain...

Anyway the leaflet makes a few arguments about the blasphemy and depravity of the show (particularly in the second act), but omits the fact that the second act set in hell is taking place inside the head of Jerry Springer as he falls unconscious after getting shot.

It is Jerry's version of Christianity that is unfolding and I get the feeling it is meant to be deeply offensive yet funny at the same time. In a way the audience is laughing at the extreme liberalism of it all. Of course it still all comes down to interpretation so no doubt there will be pickets outside whatever theatres it plays when it goes on its national tour. No doubt a little controversy will help the ticket sales, as it isn't the most commercial show to tour...

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