Ghost of a flea: The War of the Roses

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January 21, 2009

The War of the Roses

One advantage to my hypothetical riches would be to book a flight to Sydney and tickets to see Cate Blanchett star in The War of the Roses (Parts One and Two).

The rise-and-fall cycle of inheritance, greed, back-stabbing connivance and eye-for-an-eye warmongering culminates in the blood-and-bone wasteland glimpsed by Cate Blanchett's commanding and capricious Richard II in the first part of Act I. In a moment of sour-sweet reverie about graves, worms and epitaphs, the diminished, cornered ruler talks of writing with "rainy eyes . . . sorrow on the bosom of the earth" and of "the hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of a king".

Word.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at January 21, 2009 05:23 AM

Comments

I am sure that would be some fascinating theatre. Cate is interesting (and certainly talented) in nearly all of her roles.

For me, the gold standard in Wars of the Roses is the 1986-89 English Shakespeare Company show, by Michael Bogdanov and Michael Pennington. TVO aired it when I was a young tadpole, and it was gripping stuff back then. Especially Henry V in modern kit, a la Falklands War. That was pretty damn cool.

Had to spend a ruinous sum to buy it on DVD, as it was only available via some educators site whose highway robbery rates assume you're going to air the thing for thousands of students over the next decade or so.

Posted by: Chris Taylor at January 21, 2009 06:05 AM