Sydney still continued

As promised the second exciting installment.

Are you ready for an ardously detailed description of a play you will never see? (I know you care Anthony, my dedicated cate Blanchett lover). Good, I hope you are sitting comfortably and I'll begin.

The War of the Roses covers 8 of Shakespeare's plays covering the lead up to and end of the War of the Roses. The play by the Sydney theatre company lasted 7 hours in total and condensed Richard II, Henry IV parts 1&2 and Henry V into the first half which I saw on Monday night and Henry VI and Richard III which I saw on Tuesday.

Act one was Richard the II. Cate Blanchett (!) played Richard and the set consisted of all the players standing on the stage whilst being showered by gold confetti for the most part. Cate (my good friend, we are on first name basis now) was very good and even though the set design sounds odd it was very striking. However, my favourite of the two nights had to act 2 of part 1 (Henry IV and V). The actor playing Prince Hal (to become Henry V) was mesmorizing. Absolutely amazing, I cannot stress that enough. He managed a very awkward scene where he commited oral sex on Falstaff then spat out the result of it and smeared it over his face. I know it wasn't real, but it look very icky and the whole audiene did audibly gasp when he did that. However, he managed to make it really distressing and sad, which I know sounds a bit crazy. Plus there was a bit more action in this half mainly consisting of murders made more dramatic by the actor playing the murderer getting a mouthful of fake blood and spitting it over the victim. I'm sure health and safety wouldn't have allowed it back home.

Part 2 was Henry VI parts 1-3 and Richard III. Any of you who know the play Henry VI will know that it is murders and plotting abound and quite a lot to squeeze into 2 hours. However, they managed it incredibly well by suspending an LED strip light thing form the top of the stage which changed as the scenes changed eg The murder of ....., the deposing of..... which really helped things run more smoothly. There was approximately 7 murders in the first act so as you can imagine there was literally gallons of blood being spat in all the actors faces. Definitely not hygienic (I can feel you shudder at the thought Kim).
The final act was Richard III and again they had a woman playing the title part. The stage this time was a childs playground with black confetti streaming down over the players. Richrad was mazing, she managed to bring humour and tragedy to the part.

So in short, it was good. I feel very poetic and dramatic and full of the luvvie spirit.

Now, in all my ardent love for Shakespeare, I forgot to tell you about meeting Al. To those of you who don't know, Al is my good friend Andi's boyfriend and he had come on holiday to Sydney to see his sister (thanks for letting me know Andi!). He gave me a text and we had a lovely lunch in the botanical gardens and a lovely walk around some of the areas I hadn't been yet in Sydney. It was so nice to see someone from the mother country especially so unexpectedly. Ah the joys of a holiday maker!

Anyway the spirals of time are once again against us and I must depart. Farewell, my dear friends, good night!

(Sorry, just way too much theatre....)