We went to see Anthony & Cleopatra by the Royal Shakespeare Theatre on Saturday night with a crowd from the HWC. We first went for dinner with the 10 of us and it was fun because we've all known each other for at least a year, and as everyone knows; in expat terms you multiply it by a factor of 10. So it was like being with friends from college or something.
I'd forgotten the intensiveness of the play itself and after 3 hours, came out of there exhausted from having to concentrate not only on the Shakespearean language, but on the plot itself. As you might be able to tell from the photo, that's Patrick Stewart in the role of Anthony, and he was provided a surprisingly good performance. I say 'surprisingly' because I've known Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise and I thought it would be difficult for me to adjust to him in another character. The "Make it so, Number 1"' and "Engage!" from Star Trek has a certain association of personality that I thought would be difficult to forget when seeing him on stage in a toga and hair(!).
I've been caught out like this before when we went to see Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in the spring. Kathleen Turner was fabulous in the lead role (the one played in the movie by Elizabeth Taylor), but the guy playing her husband George, is better known to most parents of small children as Mr. Noodle of Elmo's World fame. I really struggled to contain my smiles as Mr. Noodle was getting serious on stage and almost laughed out loud when he swore.
I think it's difficult to disassociate certain actors from memorable roles, but I asked myself why was it so hard for Mr. Noodle, but not Kathleen Turner. After all, she's had some pretty unforgettable performances in the Romancing the Stone series, and Body Heat. But I think it's to do with recurring roles in a television show that cements the character's idiosyncrasies for me that makes it almost impossible to see them as anything other.
Sorry, Mr. Noodle....
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