Inside In-i: Juliette Binoche and Akram Khan

A performance co-directed and performed by Juliette Binoche and Akram Khan at the National Theatre, London.

The performance was about the relationship between men / women.

What I most liked was the minimalism of the cenario, which was basically a screen and two chairs and the plays with light and shadows.

No Man's Land, by Harold Pinter

No Man's Land, at Duke of York's theatre in London.























What an amazing play! Amazing actors! Amazing screenwriting!

Exactly a kind of play I like: Basically it was just four actors on stage (Michael Gambonm, David Bradley, David Walliams and Nick Dunning), in the cenario what is essencial and remained the same from the beggining till the end, as the story is passed in the same room, between an evening till the next morning. The dialogs are minimum and full of playing with words.

I liked so much that I had the urge to buy the book and go to watch another day!

An interesting quote from the beginning of the play:

"(...) there are some people who appear to be strong, whose idea of what strength consists of is persuasive, but who inhabit the idea and not the fact. What they possess is not strength but expertise. They have nurtured and maintain what is in fact a calculated posture. Half of the time it works. It takes a man of intelligence and perception to stick a needle through that posture and discern the essential flabbiness of the stance. I'm such a man." (Spooner dialog, act one, p. 3)

Sebastião Salgado in Berlin

"Sebastião Salgado - In Principio", an exhibition in C/O Berlin, showed black and white photos by the Brazilian photographer, who documented the landscapes of the countries of coffee growers.

I always liked Salgado's photographs and liked this exhibition very much. What I most knew about his work was the documentation of poverty and portraits of people in Brazil, especially from the North of the country. First time that I see theses photographs about coffee.

What I'm most interested in these kinds of photos is the fact that it is documenting time, people and history of a certain culture, in a very authentic way.

Link for the exhibition:
http://www.co-berlin.info/co-neu/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=500

Midsummer Night's Dream in Germany

Midsummer Night's Dream, a production by Senftenberg Theater, Senftenberg-Germany.

It was very interesting to watch another production of a play I've seen at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon. This production had a completely different approach, not more or less interesting, but different. As it was the opening of the season in the theatre, the play was placed in many rooms in the theatre. Each act was put in a different room. It took around 5 hours and at the end (when there is a wedding party), dinner and wine were served for the audience. Very interesting experience! Although I think it works mainly because it's a very light comedy.

Website of the play

Ivanov, by Chekhov

Ivanov, by Chekhov, a Donmar Warehouse's production at the Wyndham's Theatre, London.

I read this play some months before I went to watch this production. When I read it, I liked it very much, but watching this production was very disappointing to me. I didn't like the approach of this director, which in my opinion took away the most interesting aspect of Chekhov's play and made it an ordinary meaningless superficial comedy.

Ivanov who is in constant oscillation between ecstasy and depression (characteristics of his despair) was turned into this middle-aged crisis man, which was the whole time depressed with a defeated posture.

I don't mean the actors. The actors were all great! What I really didn't like was the direction.

At the end, I clapped especially to Kevin R McNally.

Website of this production