It would be a witch hunt if I would admit that anywhere publicly. I will here, though. (God, this makes me feel as if my voice should be distorted and face blurred because I'm speaking out!) But yeah, quoting from my journal right after seeing it:
"I have to say that I was SO excited for this one. I love Martin Freeman's work, this was the first time I saw him live, so I had high expectations and I tried to like it, but I didn't.
First of all the staging didn't work for me at all. It's a seventies office building, working fax machines, televisions, telephones and lifts and all that. Which makes it sort of awkward when someone gets sent out to 'deliver a message', or when they get verbal reports from soldiers about the fighting, or the whole "A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!" when there, you know, are cars.
And Martin himself, god, as much as I love him, I don't think he's the best stage actor. He just didn't have that presence that is needed to be a main character in Shakespeare (especially compared to Tom Hiddleston, or Benedict, or Mark, or even any of the actors we've seen at the Globe...). It was nice to hear his voice, but a lot of his intonations and mannerisms (pointing his finger, putting his fist on the table when angry, even the way he swallowed) were pure John Watson. There was a lot more obvious rage in this character of course, and even some bits of humour, but I felt as if a lot of it was just over the top, the whole 'I am ACTING!' thing, while Martin is usually so subtle. The moments he reigned it in a bit he did shine, there's a lovely Gollum-like bit that really held my interest, but for a lot of it I was just... not engaged. I wondered if it was just me, perhaps, but jie_jie felt the same thing, and at the end there was only a short applause, and not a single person giving a standing ovation, so I have to think that most people were not terribly swayed by it either. But when I looked up reviews online they were all absolutely glowing, so who knows."
Since then I have seen some not-amazing reviews, but not many. His projection and his stage presence were just severely lacking in my opinion. I have seen some VERY good Shakespeare, and compared to that he was just... weak. Maybe we saw him on a bad day? I almost hope so, because otherwise it is just the mass hysteria surrounding him right now making him seem like a better (stage!) actor than he is. For the record, I adore him as John Watson, but seeing him as Richard was about the biggest disappointment of the year.
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"I have to say that I was SO excited for this one. I love Martin Freeman's work, this was the first time I saw him live, so I had high expectations and I tried to like it, but I didn't.
First of all the staging didn't work for me at all. It's a seventies office building, working fax machines, televisions, telephones and lifts and all that. Which makes it sort of awkward when someone gets sent out to 'deliver a message', or when they get verbal reports from soldiers about the fighting, or the whole "A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!" when there, you know, are cars.
And Martin himself, god, as much as I love him, I don't think he's the best stage actor. He just didn't have that presence that is needed to be a main character in Shakespeare (especially compared to Tom Hiddleston, or Benedict, or Mark, or even any of the actors we've seen at the Globe...). It was nice to hear his voice, but a lot of his intonations and mannerisms (pointing his finger, putting his fist on the table when angry, even the way he swallowed) were pure John Watson. There was a lot more obvious rage in this character of course, and even some bits of humour, but I felt as if a lot of it was just over the top, the whole 'I am ACTING!' thing, while Martin is usually so subtle. The moments he reigned it in a bit he did shine, there's a lovely Gollum-like bit that really held my interest, but for a lot of it I was just... not engaged. I wondered if it was just me, perhaps, but jie_jie felt the same thing, and at the end there was only a short applause, and not a single person giving a standing ovation, so I have to think that most people were not terribly swayed by it either. But when I looked up reviews online they were all absolutely glowing, so who knows."
Since then I have seen some not-amazing reviews, but not many. His projection and his stage presence were just severely lacking in my opinion. I have seen some VERY good Shakespeare, and compared to that he was just... weak. Maybe we saw him on a bad day? I almost hope so, because otherwise it is just the mass hysteria surrounding him right now making him seem like a better (stage!) actor than he is. For the record, I adore him as John Watson, but seeing him as Richard was about the biggest disappointment of the year.