"You're making too many enemies.... I don't give a shit."Bit of Theatre at the cinema tonight. This is a reimagining 21st century version of the 17th-century comedy by Molière that played at the Lyttelton Theatre last year Starring Sandra Oh (Killing Eve, Sideways) in her first UK stage production and adapted by Martin Crimp who had already adapted Molières novel previously in 1996 but this is a different adaption from that one. This version is directed by new National Theatre boss Indhu Rubasingham"As Baudelaire quoted the reader is a hypocrite." The new adaption see's the lead part of Alceste gender swapped to the female author Alice (Oh) and rather than just focusing on the novels Alcestes hate of dishonesty, flattery and false etiquette especially of high society it is now adapted to Alices distaste of 21st century things like social media, cancel culture, media spin, Gaslighting and the obsessions of image, things only intensify when Alice is the subject of a viral internet video which accuses her of inappropriate behaviour however this won't stop Alice speaking her mind at whatever cost to her or her career. "This is the angriest I've ever seen you."Good play, Sandra Oh is as great on a stage as she is on the screen and she's got a good cast around her, I particularly liked Tom Mison who played Stefan who is Alices lover actor boyfriend despite representing nearly everything she despises in the world. The show also had Paul Chahidi who I've seen in several TV shows this year (The night manager, Ponies, The Witness) playing the optimistic gay playwrite John who may just be Alices only friend, and there's also Abigail Cruttenden playing a very cynical similar role to her Not Going Outs Anna as Claire, Stefans agent. I can certainly see why the themes of Molières novel is ripe for everyday adaptions as it's basically people bitching about the world and the class system they are in, in a way Alice is no different to someone like Noel or Liam Gallagher who constantly hates everything in his modern world and is very outspoken but is regarded highly particularly by himself lol Alice is like a lot of famous people but I guess what the novel is trying to say is although you can moan endlessly you can't change the way things are so you either learn to play the game or you exile yourself from the world or the world exiles you which is ultimately what Alice chooses to do. There were large parts of this I did enjoy, I found this adaptions choice to turn everything into a ryhme very clever but a little strange, but the themes as I mentioned are certainly timeless which has proven to be the case with the amount of adaptions this novel has had over the past 300 plus years. "There's no excuse for bad writing."
