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| Continued praise of Len Cariou | |
| Posted by: peter3053 04:04 am EDT 08/17/17 | |
| In reply to: re: I think Norm Lewis is my second favorite Sweeney - AlanScott 02:53 am EDT 08/17/17 | |
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| Ah, his Petruchio and Prospero, yes, and preserved on videotape! The most unfetteredly funny Petruchio one could see, and his Prospero is the only one I've seen who actually conveys such vengeful power and determination that his final rediscovery of the grace of mercy rings utterly relieving. (So often, too, Prosperos are too old to gather the energy needed.) Also, Cariou picked up on Prospero's gentle appreciation of the good things of the world, Miranda's "very virtue of compassion" and so on. But his courting scene with Kate in Taming is also unparalleled in my theatergoing experience. By "unfetteredly funny", I mean no director imposed some framing device or updating trick to "apologise" for arguably unsavoury aspects of Taming. Cariou's Petruchio took on Kate head-on, and believed every minute he had to tame a woman - and audience's then were intelligent enough not to be offended by what is clearly a comical twist on what Shakespeare and everyone else knows - that normally it is a woman who ends up taming a man. The play is a reversal for comic purposes. I have to add that, arguably, the best King Lear around is still the James Earl Jones one, for sympathetic intelligence; Kevin Kline was both a warmly intellectual and a heart-felt Hamlet, arguably none better; and Cariou conquered the two Ps. But then, after all, America and Canada are deeply Elizabethan era countries, so that may explain why some of the best Shakespeare happens West of the Atlantic. Cariou's Sweeney Todd was recorded for TOFT and the pleasure awaits the rediscover. |
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| re: Continued praise of Len Cariou | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 04:34 am EDT 08/17/17 | |
| In reply to: Continued praise of Len Cariou - peter3053 04:04 am EDT 08/17/17 | |
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| What I especially love about that Taming of the Shrew is that it's really a love story. As you say, most of the time in Shakespeare comedy, the woman teaches the man how to be a better person. This is really the one time that it's in reverse. I've never seen a clearer or more satisfying production of the play. Sharry Flett is a wonderful Kate, and the wooing scene is, as you say, incredibly funny. And they are great together in the sun and moon and budding virgin scene. The production predates Jonathan Miller's Subsequent Performances analysis of the play, but it reflects the same view of the play. And it's better than the Miller TV production. And, yes, it's incredibly moving when Cariou's vengeful and neurotic Prospero responds to Ariel's "Mine would, sir, were I human" with "And mine shall." And that's due in part to Ian Deakin's Ariel, and the relationship that Ariel and Prospero have in that production. Jones was my first Lear, I saw him twice, and I still like him, but I do wish he'd done it again later. And I wish I'd gotten to see Cariou one of the two times he played it. And i wish I could go back in time to see Louis Calhern, Morris Carnovsky (but not his last one), Lee J. Cobb, Paul Scofield, one of Gielgud's several (although perhaps not the weird one with the Noguchi-derived designs) and . . . a bunch of others, including Donald Wolfit's. Kline is far from my favorite Hamlet, but I only saw him in the television production. There have been a lot of very good Hamlets. |
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