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A CurtainUp 
London Review
London ReviewArchitecting
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You're also a racist now.— film director to Margaret Mitchell
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Kristen Sieh and Jake Margolin (Photo: Eamonn McGoldrick) |
Like the curate's egg, there are parts of Architecting which are good. I enjoyed Scarlett O'Hara (Kristen Sieh) stammering and spluttering her words as Margaret Mitchell's (Lana Lesley) typewriter keys get stuck in a powerful visual interpretation of the relationship between the writer, the imagined character and the page. I also enjoyed the film script re-write of Gone With the Wind which includes a character who turns out to be Martin Luther King's grandfather and of course the device stolen from Rocky Horror of corsets (and crinoline boned petticoats) for all. Jill Frutkin's singing voice is lovely and I would have enjoyed hearing more music.
I felt the History of America according to Margaret Mitchell can only be one part of the picture. While Jake Margolin's geeky Harvard historian Henry Adams is working on his imperfect cardboard model of the most perfect building, Chartres Cathedral, I was set thinking about my response to the architecture of Reagan National Airport in Washington, which, with its stained glass windows, glass domes and marbled halls seemed to me to be as close as the modern age gets to cathedrals. The multipurpose but makeshift set with its door and drop hatch is used ingeniously as a bar and shop and there are some dramatic moments when the advertising tarpaulins drop.
We are told that the National Theatre of Scotland have had a hand in this production and there is a magnificent piece of their trademark, the choreographed movement in the second act, as they talk about the Katrina march. The people jump forward but they are thrown back only to reassemble. We hear about the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina with the fictional new housing estate Phoenix Meadows with its mansion-plexes which incense Margaret Mitchell with their incorrect columns and the advertising spiel of "There are no limits only edges in this closed community." >Architecting could do with more of both limits and edges. For Jenny Sandman's viewing of the play in New York with plenty of plot detail go here Architecting
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| Architecting
Written by the TEAM Additional Collaborating Writers: Davey Anderson, Nathan Wright, Lucy Kendrick Smith Directed by Rachel Chavkin With: Frank Boyd, Jill Frutkin, Libby King, Lana Lesley, Jake Margolin, Kristen Sieh Design: Nick Vaughan Lighting: Jake Heinrichs Sound: Matt Hubbs Video Design: Brian Scott Running time: Three hours with one interval Box Office: 020 7638 8891 Booking to 14th November 2009 Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 5th November 2009 performance at the Pit, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2 (Tube: Barbican/Moorgate) |
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