'Jeopardy!' asks which state represented by Gov. Bob McDonnell

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP1Hn2KTO6EdYngTRApPKBE02I4uApBKsuFib8VUvgrZ4mkgbB4eb3BDAdnIWVlNuvStxlRvigUQJGe9cumRBrPxwgtAJ7YKdCNG9IcF0EQVIFwyp6mIFL5y5tD4DBVXigvjh7uOW-EO0j/s1600/Bob+McDonnell+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP1Hn2KTO6EdYngTRApPKBE02I4uApBKsuFib8VUvgrZ4mkgbB4eb3BDAdnIWVlNuvStxlRvigUQJGe9cumRBrPxwgtAJ7YKdCNG9IcF0EQVIFwyp6mIFL5y5tD4DBVXigvjh7uOW-EO0j/s1600/Bob+McDonnell+1.jpg" /></a></div><br />We were watching "Jeopardy!" Thursday night with the kids when a very familiar name popped up on the screen with a response we all shouted out at the same time:<br /><blockquote><b>Answer</b> (read by host Alex Trebek): "On Jan. 27, 2010, Governor Bob McDonnell of this state gave the GOP response to the State of the Union addresss."<br /><br /><b>Question:</b> "What is VIRGINIA."</blockquote>Governor McDonnell and Virginia have arrived on "Jeopardy!"

Alex Trebek Bob McDonnell Jeopardy State of the Union Virginia 'Jeopardy!' asks which state represented by Gov. Bob McDonnell

We were watching "Jeopardy!" Thursday night with the kids when a very familiar name popped up on the screen with a response we all...

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Tenth Doctor Month: Quote Of The Day #18

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHfs6AivenGaOEcicvmQy0VrKQEgYDM17_zG83ayXvGo8lAAYsHt8vVXTvqiibtVdeSpFwCFBVBan5M9TmMKo0KG7iv_NsghLrWg0B6u-2Mlo6jcepwlrNFpKF9f5jt9HsfJGRVS-fsSg/s1600/man2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHfs6AivenGaOEcicvmQy0VrKQEgYDM17_zG83ayXvGo8lAAYsHt8vVXTvqiibtVdeSpFwCFBVBan5M9TmMKo0KG7iv_NsghLrWg0B6u-2Mlo6jcepwlrNFpKF9f5jt9HsfJGRVS-fsSg/s640/man2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Martha</b><span style="line-height: 20px; text-align: center;"><b>:</b> Where are we?</span><br style="line-height: 20px; text-align: center;" /><b>The Doctor</b><span style="line-height: 20px; text-align: center;"><b>: </b>Ah! Smell that Atlantic breeze. Nice and cold. Lovely. Martha, you've met my friend.</span><br style="line-height: 20px; text-align: center;" /><b>Martha</b><span style="line-height: 20px; text-align: center;"><b>:</b> Is that? Oh my god, that's the Statue of Liberty.</span><br style="line-height: 20px; text-align: center;" /><b>The Doctor</b><span style="line-height: 20px; text-align: center;"><b>:</b> Gateway to the New World. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”</span><br style="line-height: 20px; text-align: center;" /><b>Martha</b><span style="line-height: 20px; text-align: center;"><b>: </b>That's so brilliant. I've always wanted to go to New York. I mean the real New York. Not the New New New New New New New... </span><br style="line-height: 20px; text-align: center;" /><b>The Doctor</b><span style="line-height: 20px; text-align: center;"><b>: </b>Well. There's the genuine article. So good they named it twice. Mind you, it was New Amsterdam originally. Harder to say twice. No wonder it didn't catch on. New Amsterdam, New Amsterdam.</span></span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px; text-align: center;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px; text-align: center;">Daleks In Manhattan (2007)</span></span></span>

Doctor Who Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Tenth Doctor Month Tenth Doctor Quotes Tenth Doctor Month: Quote Of The Day #18

Martha : Where are we? The Doctor : Ah! Smell that Atlantic breeze. Nice and cold. Lovely. Martha, you've met my friend. Martha : Is t...

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There is Still an American Idol in the Billboard Top 100 Albums

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgscLMy5fjebW9ouux7ggWN_dRdbDZ8c1xTleebwXqMrTdiS4_xz2FTy9zN-moe3oMGb63l2rjCaS7ynIdsBDQsWrEzPlRj6gsDQsa0JrD2PEnr5lmLotfuYTsjFr8pJpjrZY2iXHuWad9r/s1600/bb200-20131018.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgscLMy5fjebW9ouux7ggWN_dRdbDZ8c1xTleebwXqMrTdiS4_xz2FTy9zN-moe3oMGb63l2rjCaS7ynIdsBDQsWrEzPlRj6gsDQsa0JrD2PEnr5lmLotfuYTsjFr8pJpjrZY2iXHuWad9r/s400/bb200-20131018.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />It is fun to watch how the <a href="http://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-200" target="_blank">Billboard album chart positions</a> shift around from week to week with the <a href="http://www.mjsbigblog.com/billboard-chart-date-102613.htm" target="_blank">American Idol alumni albums</a>. This week Carrie Underwood's "Blown Away" drops back out of the Top 100 after a one week blip back at #93 last week, but Phillip Phillip's does his part by releasing a special iTunes Sessions album that helped boost the sales of "The World From The Side of the Moon" from #107 to #96. Kelly Clarkson also saw a nice improvement on the chart position of her greatest hits album, improving from #192 to #152 this week. Her new Christmas album, "Wrapped in Red",  debuts in just a couple weeks, so that will put her back on the charts in a much stronger position. Kelly has been very diligent in releasing an album for the last three years right before the holiday shopping season, "Stronger" in October 2011, "Greatest Hits" last November, and "Wrapped in Red" this year. Somehow I am guessing by early 2014 she will soon have yet another gold certified album.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9SHd7berMT5L4kuNGwqo01qGRIPBhuAtLzvop86RJZgujb-Rio42AloIpPqt9bHrRc2GozhKFt4Q0KjHVZXzBUN9MzN0Hk3A3WIvbBA0NWKJfRgXFkV-fX3H1t3d8t7xIa5yvZr2O_G0g/s1600/hdd-rm-20131018.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9SHd7berMT5L4kuNGwqo01qGRIPBhuAtLzvop86RJZgujb-Rio42AloIpPqt9bHrRc2GozhKFt4Q0KjHVZXzBUN9MzN0Hk3A3WIvbBA0NWKJfRgXFkV-fX3H1t3d8t7xIa5yvZr2O_G0g/s400/hdd-rm-20131018.png" width="400" /></a></div>Speaking of RIAA certified Christmas albums from American Idol winners, the winner who scored gold last year with "Christmas with Scotty McCreery" is hoping to repeat with another gold album this holiday season. <a href="http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/news/rumormill.cgi" target="_blank">HitsDailyDouble</a> has bumped up its estimate for "See You Tonight" to be 45K to 50K, which should give it a stronger starting point than last year's Christmas album to try to hit gold as well. This will mark another #1 Country album for Scotty and yet another Top 10 BillBoard album. From here out it all depends on promotion, appearances and the all important radio airplay to push the album into gold territory. It would be sad if "See You Tonight" does not hit gold since it is actually a better album than either of his previous top sellers, and should produce the most hit singles if radio would only give his songs a chance. If you are a fan and have not purchased his album go buy it now for around $10 from just about anywhere. I know you can probably find it now leaked online, but you can also get a legal copy for free if you just earn 900 points on <a href="http://www.swagbucks.com/" target="_blank">Swagbucks</a>, redeem it for two $5 Amazon gift cards, and then buy the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EV1AT96/ref=dm_rogue_cd" target="_blank">CD (with free MP3 downloads) from Amazon for $9.99</a> (that is what I did!) Help out a college student by giving him a legitimate sale!

There is Still an American Idol in the Billboard Top 100 Albums

It is fun to watch how the Billboard album chart positions shift around from week to week with the American Idol alumni albums . This week ...

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fess up friday - abby m interiors

I see that smile on your face. I've got one too - it's Friday after all! But I'm also smiling because the lovely Abby from <a href="http://www.abbyminteriorsblog.com/" target="_blank">Abby M Interiors</a> is here for Fess Up Friday!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ZtoOGuvWAMsyGdtVkwjvhHJBpQa6UQsSWEqXkJ-njQQXUcf6zJTuf3Ev-D4qjybA55OdV-3edN83sGHI5sLlt6oElftSghu0aUoMjQQhmVRuzXPyaTveCjQj_4_XlcyDYVWFeQCXhszz/s1600/FessUpFridaylogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ZtoOGuvWAMsyGdtVkwjvhHJBpQa6UQsSWEqXkJ-njQQXUcf6zJTuf3Ev-D4qjybA55OdV-3edN83sGHI5sLlt6oElftSghu0aUoMjQQhmVRuzXPyaTveCjQj_4_XlcyDYVWFeQCXhszz/s1600/FessUpFridaylogo.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br />Abby is one of the first people I started to follow on <a href="http://instagram.com/abbyminteriors" target="_blank">Instagram</a> and I've been <strike>stalking</strike> following her ever since. Girlfriend can put together a glam dining room or a lakeside cabin like no other and I want each and every space she touches. But enough gushing, Abby the floor is yours...<br /><br /><br /><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Hi all!  I'm <u><a href="http://www.abbyminteriorsblog.com/" target="_blank">Abby M.</a></u> and I'm so excited to be visiting Elizabeth's blog.  She's like my style sister--when I see the rooms she designs, I can't believe how much I love them.  I mean did you see the stripes she painted on her floor this week?!  Genius.<br /><br />It's confession time.  Let's talk about this little piece below that's supposed to serve as a laundry basket.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinaa4dJ4bjWKujTQvaf5-WmsalnUU1uhSQ2CWt1K-0RxXZzn7kEewn4gM_dqmRIxW8BNH9SSrUPntwJGkXqkN8f-S_ia6hAoaiwi-9fTgf0Yq2EDjRHxZ1i6zR-k4kRvB5wX2nDHcQ4_LZ/s1600/19f8eab658b125be8a792f64d678e5b6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinaa4dJ4bjWKujTQvaf5-WmsalnUU1uhSQ2CWt1K-0RxXZzn7kEewn4gM_dqmRIxW8BNH9SSrUPntwJGkXqkN8f-S_ia6hAoaiwi-9fTgf0Yq2EDjRHxZ1i6zR-k4kRvB5wX2nDHcQ4_LZ/s1600/19f8eab658b125be8a792f64d678e5b6.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This is my must-have item for entertaining.  Why?  Because right before someone comes over to our house, you can bet I'm running around with a laundry basket throwing random items in there that need to be put away.  I want to answer the door all breezy and casual, but rest assured, I've practically run a marathon right before you arrived, throwing anything I can in this laundry basket to be dealt with later.  </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJxgEYwkBed0UWYAsGP_udrldrjkLcs3Qi3KgWHWydsFdznWj1Tboq6XIT9Spmd1dpOrDxUige1eVyHZFaFGlH1vp-p90cEJesww3agDfW71qU6wX7YguPUzvNHKk5MPTk_X-x8yUpwXEA/s1600/c9dffc279c08aaad4322c9c83b0c3ac7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJxgEYwkBed0UWYAsGP_udrldrjkLcs3Qi3KgWHWydsFdznWj1Tboq6XIT9Spmd1dpOrDxUige1eVyHZFaFGlH1vp-p90cEJesww3agDfW71qU6wX7YguPUzvNHKk5MPTk_X-x8yUpwXEA/s320/c9dffc279c08aaad4322c9c83b0c3ac7.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">There you have it!  And if it's ok with Elizabeth, I'll make one more confession--I don't like beige.  Like ever. I want to love all colors but when it comes to beige and brown, it's just not my favorite.  I don't think "beige is a safe color."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Thanks for having me Elizabeth!  I hope I'm not the only one running around with a laundry basket. :-)</div><br /><br /><br />You are not the only one Abby. At least you have a basket, I just kind of throw everything into our walk in closet. And I'm sure you can guess how I feel about beige. :) Thanks for sharing!<br /><br />Do you have to do a cleaning sprint before company? Ever answer the door in a sweat because of last minute prep? Who wants to take bets that Martha Stewart has a 'quick cleanup' basket?</div>

fess up friday - abby m interiors

I see that smile on your face. I've got one too - it's Friday after all! But I'm also smiling because the lovely Abby from Abby ...

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Patterson to Pastors: Don't Talk to the Press, They Can't Possibly Get it Right in the "World of Unbelief"

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEeWx0Z4aA0-c1fJSpuxK1cnDUFCElt3AGovwfkjPwOovsURTjV5vHLsaD2NIY-_dsNLzp71PxwQqb0Gv62lrJ7neGSrK7E5a4t1RHgNH1JqXk-04O92et3IyLvJk5nREK_om7jGCnHFwg/s1600/Patterson-Oct13.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEeWx0Z4aA0-c1fJSpuxK1cnDUFCElt3AGovwfkjPwOovsURTjV5vHLsaD2NIY-_dsNLzp71PxwQqb0Gv62lrJ7neGSrK7E5a4t1RHgNH1JqXk-04O92et3IyLvJk5nREK_om7jGCnHFwg/s320/Patterson-Oct13.png" width="291" /></a></div>More lunacy coming from leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention. <a href="http://www.abpnews.com/faith/theology/item/8941-patterson-don-t-take-church-matters-to-press#.UmEexhCjQYI" target="_blank">As Bob Allen reports today in the Associated Baptist Press</a>, Paige Patterson told the soon-to-be men of God at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in chapel this week:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>“This also means that you don’t take matters to the press. What goes on in the church of God doesn’t go to the press...I’m not going to talk to the press about things that are matters internal to the church of the Living God. It is none of their business. <u><span style="color: red;">And they can’t possibly get it right, and they don’t get it right, so why do you take it to the world of unbelief</span></u>? Whether that be the court, whether that be the press? 'Well there’s just no other way to handle it.’ Yes there is. Commit it to the Lord God Almighty.” </b></i></span></div><br />I hope the students at SWBTS can see just how stupid this is. Telling pastors that they should not talk to members of the press because they are "the world of unbelief".<br /><br />First of all, why the presumption that the press "can't possibly get it right". What is "it"? He must mean that they can't accurately report truth or facts about something that happens in a church that might be of interest to the public. If the press can't get it right because they are "the world of unbelief", and that pastors should "commit it to the Lord God Almighty", then why does that JUST work in matters of the press? Why not in medicine? Why not just commit your health to "the Lord God Almighty"? Why go to a doctor, after all he or she operates in the "world of unbelief".<br /><br />This is just another example of how pastors in the SBC are being trained to think they are some special anointed class of Christian that answers to absolutely no one but God himself. <br /><br />And another reason why religious institutions will eventually lose their tax-exempt status. They don't want to participate in the basic rules of right in our society - like the press being a force to keep large institutions in check. Pastors and their churches are above answering to the local reporter apparently, they are "the church of the living God" and don't answer to anyone in the press.<br /><br />Not to worry, the common folk will get the word out about misbehaving pastors and idiotic theology and doctrine via blogs, and the common folk in churches will continue to talk to the press when it is necessary.<br /><br />And pastors, whatever you do, don't talk to recalcitrant bloggers. And don't go to those doctors who use science and medicine to heal people - they are in the "world of unbelief". Just trust the Lord God Almighty to heal you.

Patterson to Pastors: Don't Talk to the Press, They Can't Possibly Get it Right in the "World of Unbelief"

More lunacy coming from leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention. As Bob Allen reports today in the Associated Baptist Press , Paige Patt...

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Listen To David Tennant's Richard II Speech 'Of Comfort No Man Speak'

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg54V2BFQIkfVx7Xuz0m9VI3JsHR5BMgtz-C3MoYsTbB_XItkTNWy7oUgE5F_VPBhk5kcEhwz_dyFDcdkiqk-wLCn5K0DBfUpOOMnrjP97a8iTdx0Q9Y7t6EEbRmbGAXI4Y5Dp21BUadg4/s1600/r10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg54V2BFQIkfVx7Xuz0m9VI3JsHR5BMgtz-C3MoYsTbB_XItkTNWy7oUgE5F_VPBhk5kcEhwz_dyFDcdkiqk-wLCn5K0DBfUpOOMnrjP97a8iTdx0Q9Y7t6EEbRmbGAXI4Y5Dp21BUadg4/s1600/r10.jpg" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /><br />The soundtrack to the Royal Shakespeare Company's Richard II is now available to listen to via Spotify.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You can listen to David Tennant's speech 'Of Comfort No Man Speak' from Act 3 Scene II below:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="580" src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:track:13Di0zphMl770cb666FP7X" width="500"></iframe><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=400753648428227326" name="144" style="background-color: white;"><br /></a><b>Richard II: </b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No matter where; of comfort no man speak:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes,</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth,</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let's choose executors and talk of wills:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And yet not so, for what can we bequeath</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Save our deposed bodies to the ground?</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our lands, our lives and all are Bolingbroke's,</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And nothing can we call our own but death</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And that small model of the barren earth</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And tell sad stories of the death of kings;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How some have been deposed; some slain in war,</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some poison'd by their wives: some sleeping kill'd;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All murder'd: for within the hollow crown</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That rounds the mortal temples of a king</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits,</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Allowing him a breath, a little scene,</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To monarchize, be fear'd and kill with looks,</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Infusing him with self and vain conceit,</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As if this flesh which walls about our life,</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Were brass impregnable, and humour'd thus</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Comes at the last and with a little pin</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With solemn reverence: throw away respect,</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tradition, form and ceremonious duty,</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For you have but mistook me all this while:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I live with bread like you, feel want,</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus,</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How can you say to me, I am a king?</span><br /><br />

audio David Tennant Richard II Royal Shakespeare Company Theatre Listen To David Tennant's Richard II Speech 'Of Comfort No Man Speak'

The soundtrack to the Royal Shakespeare Company's Richard II is now available to listen to via Spotify. You can listen to David Tennant&...

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REVIEW: Richard II Starring David Tennant - A Stunning Return To Stratford-upon-Avon

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNoTsOMiDRPlJpy2RUnY7bFSTt0uh6BTEeljN_82AaeITZq80efmWumd1CPOqKd0ASeuAEhhbxUUiHorcuI1BEfk7nfABxDdd6TB329AgP9h6VFnYJjzBqlNs7pTz86NHadCRU6xk6dNeh/s1600/WoS07.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNoTsOMiDRPlJpy2RUnY7bFSTt0uh6BTEeljN_82AaeITZq80efmWumd1CPOqKd0ASeuAEhhbxUUiHorcuI1BEfk7nfABxDdd6TB329AgP9h6VFnYJjzBqlNs7pTz86NHadCRU6xk6dNeh/s1600/WoS07.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gregory Doran’s much anticipated staging of <i>Richard II</i> opened last night at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in <st1:place w:st="on">Stratford-upon-Avon</st1:place>. The production also marked the return to Stratford of David Tennant, taking the title role in his first collaboration with Doran since <i>Hamlet </i>and <i>Love’s Labours Lost</i> (2008). Expectation has been high since the announcement of the play in January; those expectations have indeed been met and the outcome is stunning.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David Tennant, it must be said, is superb in one of Shakepeare’s most challenging roles, giving the misunderstood, self-absorbed and unlikeable king both pathos and a wry humour. His Richard is a lofty creature, a spoilt child in the body of a man, vain, haughty, capricious and selfish. Tennant floats around the stage, an androgynous figure clad in flowing robes with his lengthy locks cascading as, with head held back, sneering down his nose, he makes decisions seemingly on a whim. Yet the power of David Tennant is that we can go from recoiling in horror from Richard at his mistreatment of the dying Gaunt to, just a few scenes later, choking with emotion along with him as he realises that he has taken his divine right to kingship for granted and that his power is now slipping from his grasp. The turning point in our feelings towards Richard must be the point at which he learns of the fate of Bushey and Green: the numbing shock and horror is clear on Tennant’s face and the emotional charge runs on through to a poignant ‘death of kings’ speech. Tennant captures the mercurial quality of the king’s character with ease and his deep understanding of the text shines through as he draws subtle meaning from the words and brings what could be stilted verse to sparkling life.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyQRdgR4RuNpZUu80HbT3mjgGmjfNeaTMtv-O9nPVDHp6F-hYs78EhgcWk_J54P6DdkzoSluzcmjHRdF0fRcbkzGpzzvVHvZVEX4p_SI0jLKD3dQH2HUE26QapcpoaRtxntI6mAg4IZbhQ/s1600/WoS13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyQRdgR4RuNpZUu80HbT3mjgGmjfNeaTMtv-O9nPVDHp6F-hYs78EhgcWk_J54P6DdkzoSluzcmjHRdF0fRcbkzGpzzvVHvZVEX4p_SI0jLKD3dQH2HUE26QapcpoaRtxntI6mAg4IZbhQ/s1600/WoS13.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, it’s not all for David Tennant to carry the weight of the complex narrative and thankfully there is not a weak member of the cast. Nigel Lindsay is perfect as a commanding Bolingbroke: even in the early scenes it is possible to see the king that this nobleman and warrior will soon become. Michael Pennington plays John of Gaunt with a fierce dignity, railing against injustices and standing up for what he holds dear right to his dying breath. Oliver Ford Davies gives an astounding performance as the Duke of York, an honourable, traditional man who finds himself suddenly encumbered with the great burden of governing a fractured nation. He is torn and bewildered as he struggles to reconcile his obedience to his king with what he realises to be the ethical course of action. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Richard II</i> is not a play known for its wealth of strong female roles. Emma Hamilton finds in the role of the Queen a sense of loyalty and love, even though that love might be unrequited. Her performance is bookended by those of two older women. Jane Lapotaire makes an explosive return to the RSC in her single scene as the grief-wracked Duchess of Gloucester, while Marty Cruickshank as the Duchess of York wrings humour out of what could be a grim situation as she pleads for the life of her son, Aumerle.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oliver Rix also has to be commended for his loyal and emotional Aumerle. Richard’s gentler moments are shared with his kinsman, and as Richard’s fall becomes unavoidable, the young man struggles to accept what his king has already understood. Their obvious tenderness is overplayed by neither Rix nor Tennant.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The open space of the theatre lends itself to a stark yet atmospheric set. Greg Doran spoke during development of the verticality that he perceived in the play and through the minimalist designs of Stephen Brimson Lewis he makes the most of the building’s height, from upper galleries to the understage and including a mechanical gangway from which the King distances himself from his subjects. Ironically as Richard falls he becomes less cruel and feckless and more humble and human and almost likeable. There are distinct parallels, certainly suggested by his appearance, with a Christ-like figure on the road to crucifixion. Doran has given the climax of the drama his own sharp twist, which is signposted by an ambiguous moment: a genuine display of love which is equally a betrayal by a Judas figure.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWCluIhxvtpEMfOwESXSPLh-HZUWh4ttBEbBNAXTv4wKyqu7iRQfA8hr9BnQaGagIZ0voQOA7Z_ggGODmeax53HZjL3J_1o0ji7iYRINpaY5ot_envInM8pfR0LpmMIWAJPI21qy5aVMsy/s1600/RII-15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWCluIhxvtpEMfOwESXSPLh-HZUWh4ttBEbBNAXTv4wKyqu7iRQfA8hr9BnQaGagIZ0voQOA7Z_ggGODmeax53HZjL3J_1o0ji7iYRINpaY5ot_envInM8pfR0LpmMIWAJPI21qy5aVMsy/s640/RII-15.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The production is staged in traditional dress. However, it is notable that the themes of political wastefulness, ambition, greed and backstabbing and general public dissatisfaction remain as relevant now as they were when it was originally performed. Our public figures, the great and the good, are never more than a few errors in judgement away from falling from grace and there is always someone waiting in the wings to take their place. David Tennant has achieved the task here of ensuring that his fallen king is neither hated nor mocked but instead has the ready sympathy of the audience. And he has done so with consummate ease. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Richard II is in residence at The Royal Shakespeare Theatre in <st1:place w:st="on">Stratford-upon-Avon</st1:place> until 16th November 2013. It transfers to the Barbican in <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city>on 9th December where it plays until 25th January 2014. Both runs are currently sold out but returns are available: call the RSC on 0844 800 1110 to check availability </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.david-tennant.com/2009/id194.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">More information about Richard II starring David Tennant is available on our website</span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>

David Tennant Gregory Doran Richard II Royal Shakespeare Theatre Theatre REVIEW: Richard II Starring David Tennant - A Stunning Return To Stratford-upon-Avon

Gregory Doran’s much anticipated staging of Richard II opened last night at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon . The prod...

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Today's Teamster News 10.18.13

<a href="http://www.teamster.org/content/chicago-teamsters-secure-five-year-agreement-nearly-700-workers-0">Chicago Teamsters Secure Five-Year Agreement for Nearly 700 Workers</a>  teamster.org   ...For approximately 700 Chicago area valet drivers, Teamsters Local 727 has secured a new contract that includes union health care coverage for full-time workers at dozens of companies...<br /><a href="http://www.teamster.org/content/suburban-chicago-printers-choose-teamster-power" rel="nofollow">Suburban Chicago Printers Choose Teamster Power</a>  teamster.org   ...Web press operators and full service print production workers in suburban Chicago overwhelmingly joined the Teamsters Union and ratified their first union contract last month...<br /><span style="color: #333333; display: none; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-hide: all; mso-no-proof: yes;"><img alt="http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/std/normal.gif" height="17" src="file:///C:/Users/IBT/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_18" width="15" /><!--[endif]--><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_17" o:spid="_x0000_i1026" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/std/large.gif" style='width:11.25pt;height:12.75pt;visibility:visible;mso-wrap-style:square'> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\IBT\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image002.gif" o:title="large"/></v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><img alt="http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/std/large.gif" height="17" src="file:///C:/Users/IBT/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.gif" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_17" width="15" /><!--[endif]--><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_16" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/std/largest.gif" style='width:11.25pt;height:12.75pt;visibility:visible;mso-wrap-style:square'> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\IBT\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image003.gif" o:title="largest"/></v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><img alt="http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/std/largest.gif" height="17" src="file:///C:/Users/IBT/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image003.gif" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_16" width="15" /><!--[endif]--></span><span style="color: #333333; display: none; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-hide: all;">Font Resize</span><a href="http://www.timesheraldonline.com/news/ci_24328242/american-canyon-managers-reach-employee-contract-deal" rel="nofollow">American Canyon, Teamsters reach employee contract deal</a>  Vallejo Times-Herald   ...A long-awaited contract deal with the city's middle managers represented by Teamsters Local 315 has been approved that includes restoration of furlough days and a 1.5 percent raise over the next three years...<br /><a href="http://wabe.org/post/dekalb-county-opens-door-teamsters-representing-sanitation-workers" rel="nofollow">DeKalb County Opens Door to Teamsters Representing Sanitation Workers</a>  WABE News   ...Starting next year, DeKalb County’s 450 sanitation workers will have a new route to air their grievances, and they will have a union with them...<br /><a href="http://www.theolympian.com/2013/10/17/2779473/grocers-unions-talk-prepare-for.html" rel="nofollow">Grocers, unions talk, prepare for possible strike</a>  The Olympian   ...Talks resumed Wednesday between major Puget Sound area grocery chains and unions, including the Teamsters, that represent 21,000 of their workers...<br /><a href="http://www.teamster.org/content/local-union-communications-social-art-educating-members-be-held-december-3-4" rel="nofollow">Local Union Communications: The Social Art of Educating Members' TLA to be Held December 3-4</a> teamster.org   ...This two-day Teamsters Leadership Academy (TLA), hosted by Local 986 in Los Angeles, will explore effective ways Teamster affiliates can communicate with members through the use of social networking, fliers, newsletters, websites and media...<br /><a href="http://www.joc.com/port-news/longshoreman-labor/international-longshoremen%E2%80%99s-association/ila-strike-continues-baltimore_20131017.html" rel="nofollow">ILA Strike Continues at Baltimore</a>  Journal of Commerce Online   ...A longshoremen’s strike that has idled the Port of Baltimore continued into its second day yesterday. The workers struck on Oct. 16 after rejecting a proposed contract with the Steamship Trade Association of Baltimore. The port’s other ILA locals refused to cross the picket lines...<br /><a href="http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2013/10/17/organized-labor-criticizes-county-for-its-union-dealings/" rel="nofollow">Organized labor criticizes county for its union dealings</a>  Chronicle-Telegram   ...Labor leaders criticized Ohio’s Lorain County leaders for how they deal with unions, including paying large sums to a law firm that specializes in union busting to handle the county's contract negotiations and human resource issues…<br /><a href="http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2013/10/investors-are-increasingly-challenging-states-constitutional-court-decisions-in-investor-state-tribu.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eyesontrade+%28Eyes+on+Trade%29" rel="nofollow">Corporations Now Using Foreign Tribunals to Attack Domestic Court Rulings</a>  Public Citizen   ...This dangerous trend of private three-person tribunals assuming the authority to contravene domestic court decisions at the behest of multinational corporations should raise the ire of those who support the independence of courts, the sovereignty of nations, the rule of law, or even the core democratic notion that a system of legal decision-making should be accountable to those who will live with the decisions...<br /><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/republican-shutdown-goal_b_4063703.html" rel="nofollow">Reich: Their Real Goal: To Make Us All So Cynical About Government, We Give Up (opinion)</a>  Huffington Post   ...Then they're free to take over everything...<br /><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/17/elizabeth-warren-government-shutdown_n_4114818.html" rel="nofollow">Why Elizabeth Warren Is 'NOT Celebrating' The End Of The Government Shutdown</a>  Huffington Post   ...Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) emailed supporters late Wednesday to say how glad she is that the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/16/government-shutdown-debt-ceiling_n_4111483.html?utm_hp_ref=politics" rel="nofollow">government shutdown ended</a> and the U.S. didn't default. But she made it clear she isn't celebrating...<br /><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/16/middle-class-neighborhoods-dying_n_4109084.html?utm_hp_ref=business" rel="nofollow">Dying Middle-Class Neighborhoods Being Replaced By A Segregated Society</a>  Huffington Post   ...The divide between rich and poor isn’t just growing in America’s bank accounts. It’s also splitting apart its neighborhoods, cutting the country in two, according to a new study...<br /><a href="http://muscatinejournal.com/business/washington-budget-fight-hurts-auto-sales/article_6baffae8-56d2-5e77-8d73-968851a08448.html" rel="nofollow">Washington budget fight hurts auto sales</a>  Muscatine Journal   ...Auto sales tailed off last week, and some dealers and experts are pointing the finger at bickering politicians in Washington. Collected data shows that sales fell in the second week of October as the partial shutdown of the government and the debate over the nation's borrowing dragged on...<br /><a href="http://www.sj-r.com/thedome/x450310736/Illinois-Supreme-Court-to-hear-lawsuit-on-lawmaker-pay" rel="nofollow">Illinois Supreme Court to hear lawsuit on lawmaker pay</a>  Associated Press   ...The Illinois Supreme Court has agreed to hear Gov. Pat Quinn's appeal of a ruling that his veto of money for lawmaker pay was unconstitutional. Quinn said the lawmakers didn't deserve to get paid until they address Illinois' nearly $100 billion pension crisis...<br /><a href="http://www.hollandsentinel.com/newsnow/x529840701/Michigan-to-withhold-payment-to-Xerox-over-Bridge-Card-outage" rel="nofollow">Michigan to withhold payment to Xerox over Bridge Card outage</a>  Associated Press   ...Michigan will withhold money from Xerox Corp. because a technical problem crashed the state’s debit card-style food stamps program. People in 17 states from Alabama to California were unable to use their food stamp cards on Saturday morning…<br /><a href="http://www.bendbulletin.com/article/20131017/NEWS0107/310170356/" rel="nofollow">Mortgage settlements helped few</a>  New York Times   ...The $25 billion national mortgage settlement has fallen far short of the original predictions, and more people gave up their homes in short sales than received debt reduction that would have allowed them to stay in their homes...<br /><a href="http://www.sbsun.com/business/20131016/walmart-contracted-warehouse-fined-for-unsafe-working-conditions" rel="nofollow">Walmart-contracted warehouse fined for unsafe working conditions</a>  San Bernardino County Sun   ...A warehouse contracted by Walmart to move suitcases has been fined by California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health for a number of unsafe and illegal working conditions...<br /><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/16/news/uk-regulators-currency/" rel="nofollow">U.K. joins currency manipulation probe</a>  CNNMoney   ...A global crackdown into foreign exchange trading is gathering pace as U.K. regulators investigate possible misconduct by a number of firms in the $5.3 trillion foreign currency market...

Today's Teamster News 10.18.13

Chicago Teamsters Secure Five-Year Agreement for Nearly 700 Workers   teamster.org   ...For approximately 700 Chicago area valet drivers, Te...

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Eileen Gray

<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;">We visited <a href="http://www.imma.ie/en/page_236727.htm">IMMA</a> last night to view the retrospective of Eileen Gray, designer of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-1027">E1027</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoRf0VcYa87QPJuI4_k7Daj3pQyHXvdLFG6ZxtUUzguFqJZxEZpDnlSBG-tI-cPmLzy_3wcmKJqaqfv6f8dCe8DEU0igalqT8-Z26aztHU4VTALYoBTKWy7elMkL9q50oTiyD90iS8UC5P/s640/blogger-image--1615680456.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoRf0VcYa87QPJuI4_k7Daj3pQyHXvdLFG6ZxtUUzguFqJZxEZpDnlSBG-tI-cPmLzy_3wcmKJqaqfv6f8dCe8DEU0igalqT8-Z26aztHU4VTALYoBTKWy7elMkL9q50oTiyD90iS8UC5P/s640/blogger-image--1615680456.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;">Architect Fiona O'Herlihy gave a talk about the work of Gray - Here's the blurb: </span><strong style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Architect’s Response | Ruth O’Herlihy</strong></div><strong style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Thursday 17 October, 7.00 – 8.00pm, Galleries, IMMA</strong><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Eileen Gray regularly commented on how her Enniscorthy family home was the genesis for her architectural and design practice. As a frame of reference to discuss her retrospective exhibition Ruth O’Herlihy (Architect, Teacher, Director of McCullough Mulvin) reflects on domestic contexts, juxtapositions and the associated memories of spaces that act as a catalyst for her built work and ideas, coming from a rich architectural family context. Please note exhibition fee applies for gallery talks on the exhibition Eileen Gray </span><em style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Architect Designer Painter</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">.</span><br /><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjV4vKJ-cS5SIhdb3J2ggEhSpLuDN00T0_nQb84ue1U0kA3XP1xecxd6lTMM6aJM_VsJPn-X4WlLunOq6f3d5AbCPHmR429sl4SV2ZelXfLzq7xVghUUYN7OVPT0vcdvmkFIWhVOn7haM/s640/blogger-image--156567156.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjV4vKJ-cS5SIhdb3J2ggEhSpLuDN00T0_nQb84ue1U0kA3XP1xecxd6lTMM6aJM_VsJPn-X4WlLunOq6f3d5AbCPHmR429sl4SV2ZelXfLzq7xVghUUYN7OVPT0vcdvmkFIWhVOn7haM/s640/blogger-image--156567156.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">While O'Herlihy's talk was quite interesting I got the feeling that Eileen Gray and her work was not something that she was influenced by.  </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">I also am not convinced by her statement that Gray was a "good architect but not a great architect".</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;">Here's a few pics of some of the furniture pieces designed by Eileen Grey.  The side table pictured is hugely iconic.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqknE8l3_6UFv8NYkzGUQq9ac2-X-shce_QfZI5Z3CqWKUJDg7Pk9-glkbwtOpg79I9LTt2cKTi4dxJbUNa9SAmqqrtcG5x7gupEs_jVF1y8_GdJBJWY93wPIxTppz3eoZ16IZOVHSf6gw/s640/blogger-image--2089279790.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqknE8l3_6UFv8NYkzGUQq9ac2-X-shce_QfZI5Z3CqWKUJDg7Pk9-glkbwtOpg79I9LTt2cKTi4dxJbUNa9SAmqqrtcG5x7gupEs_jVF1y8_GdJBJWY93wPIxTppz3eoZ16IZOVHSf6gw/s640/blogger-image--2089279790.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;">This piece was designed for and built in to E1027.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxust89nBdENiJzarjLvp9MWbNRVrRS8FCJUpnDAVQevhNt2PC7TrYnjoN4rB4bCejTpESMzeprMC5n-C-f5l4Ro_DQ4JMPgGvDUO5b6HEVVgwN7k2GTqmyjPsGnqiCJ6Mp1JPtFpvL46_/s640/blogger-image--83915874.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxust89nBdENiJzarjLvp9MWbNRVrRS8FCJUpnDAVQevhNt2PC7TrYnjoN4rB4bCejTpESMzeprMC5n-C-f5l4Ro_DQ4JMPgGvDUO5b6HEVVgwN7k2GTqmyjPsGnqiCJ6Mp1JPtFpvL46_/s640/blogger-image--83915874.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;">A drinks trolley designed by Gray</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj082Xsj4kUC-_7uTbep-HiMPQtyFTAyjInDemyZ0q0HRzQPeeFvQX1Hmii2-CYbwr7xjL05L2PqTbFVu9uPSEzGMElSgvaFOMN4iAjfSqPEjVhxBnldL8aTzVovK-07LipP1N4MxXdS7b2/s640/blogger-image--550657782.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj082Xsj4kUC-_7uTbep-HiMPQtyFTAyjInDemyZ0q0HRzQPeeFvQX1Hmii2-CYbwr7xjL05L2PqTbFVu9uPSEzGMElSgvaFOMN4iAjfSqPEjVhxBnldL8aTzVovK-07LipP1N4MxXdS7b2/s640/blogger-image--550657782.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The retrospective in IMMA is on until early 2014 and I urge you to visit.  There is also the permanent <a href="http://www.museum.ie/en/exhibition/eileen-gray-introduction.aspx">Eileen Grey Exhibition</a> in Collins Barracks Museum.  I visited this a few years ago and thought it was quite brilliant!</span></div>

Eileen Gray

We visited  IMMA last night to view the retrospective of Eileen Gray, designer of  E1027 Architect Fiona O'Herlihy gave a talk about th...

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Escape Plan: A breakout surprise

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><b><i>Escape Plan</i> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span><b>(2013) • <a href="http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/summit/escapeplan/" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">View trailer</a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><b> </b><br /><b>Three stars. Rating: R, for violence and profanity</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>By <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/12885694730612878577" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">Derrick Bang</a></b></span></b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometimes it pays to approach a film with diminished expectations.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After the comic book nonsense of both <i>Expendables</i> flicks, not to mention January’s distastefully trashy <i>Bullet to the Head</i>, I held out little hope for Sylvester Stallone’s recent return to the big screen.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMAkmhfJbz28S0oYX61HPw_gGB0BsrKhW7J25QDpa7wf4ZHy1JYFUSQ9Cdol3V_kPCo3MHOekPIi1OCQQ7qdHJZbVeQXh5TBOUOZ-iG6oKKH5rFKKopOxFAeOv4Dz7fsgCIVpN9B_rz6Q/s1600/Escape+Plan+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMAkmhfJbz28S0oYX61HPw_gGB0BsrKhW7J25QDpa7wf4ZHy1JYFUSQ9Cdol3V_kPCo3MHOekPIi1OCQQ7qdHJZbVeQXh5TBOUOZ-iG6oKKH5rFKKopOxFAeOv4Dz7fsgCIVpN9B_rz6Q/s400/Escape+Plan+blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Although trapped in a maximum-security prison that offers little hope for any sort of<br />escape plan, Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone, left) and Emil Rottmayer (Arnold<br />Schwarzenegger) have a few ideas ... all of them highly dangerous, of course, and<br />with little chance of success. But it's not like they have anything else to do...</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And although Arnold Schwarzenegger cleverly parodied his advancing age in <i>The Last Stand</i>, also released in January, box-office disinterest made that little action flick’s title seem prophetic, with respect to <i>his</i> career. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I therefore haven’t been surprised by the disinterest in <i>Escape Plan</i>, which arrives in theaters today after a rather lackluster publicity campaign.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which just goes to show the folly of jumping to conclusions. Swedish-born director Mikael Håfström has uncorked a tidy little thriller, which gets much of its juice from a clever script by Miles Chapman and Jason Keller. The premise is intriguing, the execution is engaging — if occasionally burdened by exploitation flick clichés — and, yes, Stallone and Schwarzenegger acquit themselves honorably.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Indeed, they’re perfectly cast in this twisty prison saga, which seems to have been shaped with their strengths — and acting limitations — in mind. Håfström allows them to do what they do best, and they do it well; the result certainly won’t be more than a footnote in cinema history, but it’s a reasonably entertaining way to spend a night at the movies.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ray Breslin (Stallone) has a most unusual career: He’s a structural engineer who specializes in prison design, or — more precisely — the weaknesses of such institutions. As the “field agent” half of the Los Angeles-based security firm Breslin-Clark, he allows himself to be incarcerated into various prisons as an apparent felon, in order to escape and thus expose design and (more frequently) staffing weaknesses.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although ostensibly on his own, Breslin always is monitored by his operational partners: handler Abigail Ross (Amy Ryan) and genius hacker Hush (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson). Partner Lester Clark (Vincent D’Onofrio) acts as the company “face,” securing the assignments and managing the tidy sums that Breslin charges for his talents.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Following the completion of yet another routine assignment, Breslin is offered a tantalizing challenge by CIA operative Jessica Miller (Caitriona Balfe). Wanting to remove the political stink left by a decade’s worth of nasty headlines concerning Guantanamo Bay and extraordinary rendition, shadowy U.S. black-ops agencies have collaborated to construct a top-secret über-prison at an undisclosed location, well away from prying media eyes. The goal is to <i>keep</i> its dangerous occupants locked up, no matter how clever — or desperate — they might be.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That’s where Breslin comes in: If he can’t break out, then All Concerned will be satisfied that their “detention center” lives up to its promise.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><br /> <div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unfortunately, things don’t go quite as planned ... which comes as no surprise to us viewers, of course. Breslin’s tracking chip is savagely removed; he’s beaten by guards; and his attempted use of the fail-safe “evacuation code” draws nothing but an amused grin from warden Willard Hobbes (Jim Caviezel).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Breslin has been dumped into this high-tech facility on purpose, and all his “keys” have been thrown away. But why?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before he begins to suss out possible answers, Breslin is surprised by the helpful and downright friendly behavior of fellow prisoner Emil Rottmayer (Schwarzenegger). But while Rottmayer apparently can protect Breslin from the other inmates, that doesn’t help with the bigger picture; the situation seems hopeless.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chapman and Keller’s scenario is a riff on every classic heist thriller, all of which follow the same pattern: First set up “foolproof” security measures, showing us every intricate detail, and then grant our heroes the means to exploit subtle flaws in order to defeat said measures.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, so, Breslin faces his own impossible challenge. Cameras are everywhere; prisoners are electronically tracked by concealed bar codes in their clothing; individual cell walls are transparent, affording no privacy; all cells are built well above floor level; all guards wear dark masks, to conceal their identities and thus prevent any means of cozying up to a given individual; and so forth.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The prison is a genius set by production designer Barry Chusid, whose various genre credits include <i>The Day After Tomorrow</i>, <i>2012</i> and the fan-beloved <i>Serenity</i>. His work here is damn impressive: worthy of the volcano lair that Ken Adam built for <i>You Only Live Twice</i>, which was a jaw-dropping milestone back in 1967.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of this film’s key mysteries concerns the prison’s actual location, and the answer to that question is a genuine surprise, which further enhances the story’s “impossible mission” tension.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Håfström’s most important contribution is his insistence that this material be played straight; our heroes don’t drop jokey one-liners, and there’s no sense that whatever follows will be good-ol’-boy child’s play (as with both <i>Expendables</i> entries). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Granted, it’s an eyebrow-raiser to accept that Stallone is a genius engineer, scientist, metallurgist and even astronavigator, not to mention his ability to MacGyver a helpful gadget from rather sketchy raw materials. But Stallone always has been good with grim resolve, and that turns out to be Breslin’s primary emotion; the script even offers a good reason for this attitude.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Schwarzenegger actually comes off better, displaying levels of presence and charisma that hearken back to his glory days. If we’re not allowed to understand Rottmayer’s motivations — his eager cooperation seems <i>so</i> suspicious — at least ol’ Arnie successfully sells the congeniality that goes with it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, yes, thanks to cinematographer Brendan Galvin’s tight close-ups — and the fact that most of this prison’s “worst of the worst” felons are played by bit players and stuntmen who are shorter than our stars — the inevitable mano-a-mano beat-downs are persuasively choreographed ... and much more credible than, say, Stallone’s laughably overmatched fracas with the younger, larger and far tougher Jason Momoa, in the aforementioned <i>Bullet to the Head</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All this said, both Stallone and Schwarzenegger nonetheless have an acting range that extends no further than A to B, which allows Caviezel to steal the show. His subtlety is marvelous, particularly the half-smile that surfaces every time one of Hobbes’ “boys” misbehaves. Caviezel is the coolest villain I’ve seen in awhile, and his vile behavior here might upset folks who’ve grown fond of his kinder and gentler self on TV’s <i>Person of Interest</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The similarly talented Sam Neill also makes the most of his small part as Kyrie, the prison doctor: an inherently good man who begins to wonder if he has accepted the wrong assignment. Veteran tough guy Vinnie Jones is appropriately nasty as Hobbes’ thuggish lieutenant, Drake.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Its virtues notwithstanding, Chapman and Keller’s script doesn’t always stand up to close scrutiny, starting with the biggest elephant in the room: It’s difficult to believe that so much money would be spent to “bury” mega-baddies in such a facility, lost to public view for all time, when it would be easier and cheaper to kill them. (Either way, nobody would know, right?)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also was disappointed by the fact that Abigail and Hush, despite their mounting concern and much-ballyhooed investigative and computer skills, remain on the sidelines. Indeed, they play no part whatsoever in the climactic third act, which is simply wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Editor Elliot Greenberg keeps things going at a good clip, efficiently concealing the slightly too-long running time of 116 minutes. Composer Alex Heffes’ overbearing score, on the other hand, is painfully clumsy, badly placed and often irritating.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the most part, though, this is an entertaining action flick that builds to a highly satisfying conclusion. I guess Stallone and Schwarzenegger <i>do</i>have some big-screen life left in them.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment-->

2013 action Amy Ryan Arnold Schwarzenegger Faran Tahir Jim Caviezel Sam Neill Sylvester Stallone Vincent D'Onofrio Vinnie Jones Escape Plan: A breakout surprise

Escape Plan   (2013) •  View trailer   Three stars. Rating: R, for violence and profanity By  Derrick Bang Sometimes it pays to ...

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UPDATED: David Tennant's Richard II Opens In Stratford-upon-Avon To Rave Reviews

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqTZf1pw_weJTT-BasPX6EC8aCS0pFgCpnii4aMkXJGiIDmvCuQfsS5O6G5OP3zmmKTmsMOxxgi42JjPpVDcuVYr8nug_Z93abpAEboXDmQGuhnmwNiVLbC2jAizrTA72aEEK8-fkOijI/s1600/rich1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="568" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqTZf1pw_weJTT-BasPX6EC8aCS0pFgCpnii4aMkXJGiIDmvCuQfsS5O6G5OP3zmmKTmsMOxxgi42JjPpVDcuVYr8nug_Z93abpAEboXDmQGuhnmwNiVLbC2jAizrTA72aEEK8-fkOijI/s640/rich1.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /> <br /> David Tennant's latest theatre project, Richard II, has opened to rave reviews after it's Press Night at The Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon last night.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>It's a 4 star review from The Times with Dominic Maxwell saying:</b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He hasn't got a clue has he? You can see that from the moment David Tennant's Richard II arrives on stage with his chin uo, his hair Timotei-long, his robes and his diction refined to the point of self parody. This takes a moment to adjust to. So regularly do we root for Tennant as the heroic outsider, whether in Doctor Who or Broadchurch or even in his RSC Hamlet, that it's odd to see him back a losing horse. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When he descends from the ceiling on a golden throne, the gap couldn't be clearer between his notion of himself as a God-given ruler and our notion of him as a bit of a berk.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Not that Tennant's performance or Gregory Doran's RSC production turn out to be cartoonish. One of the hottest tickets of the year long before it opened, this is a clear, propulsive, absorbing three hours of a history play that is no cinch to stage. After all, it's in verse. It has no battles. At the first sign of uprising, the belly aching Richard pretty much deposes himself ("Let's talk of graves, of worms, of epitaphs..."). "Richard II is not an action packed drama", understates the introduction to the Penguin edition of the play. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here, though, it grips, aided by Paul Englishby's beautiful period music and Stephen Brimson Lewis's spare, guilded sets. And what Tennant does, brilliantly, is to suggest a man who feels as hollow as his crown. Who play acts at being himself. Who makes bad judgments, such as expelling his cousing Bolingbroke, soon to become Henry IV, that are a weak man's idea of being strong. He is hiding his true sexuality too, to judge by his long kiss with his cousin, Oliver Rix's Aumerle. And when he is trounced by Nigel Lindsay's stocky, gym-teacher-like Bolingbroke, he goes from ruler to martyr. he proffers the crown as if holding out a stick to a dog ("Here, cousin!").</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's electrifying.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We don't love him, but we get his grief in a play suffused with a sense of loss. Jane Lapotaire's Duchess of Gloucester mourns her husband and Michael Pennington's John Of Gaunt mourns what Richard has done to England in anguished moments that are both magnificent and a bit hard to absorb so early on. By the second half, though, Doran's production can sell everything from wit to desolation. Near the end, the Yorks, played by Oliver Ford Davies and Marty Cruickshank, row about his turning in their son, Aumerle as a traitor. It's pretty funny. It's also a resonant reminder of how the power play and posturing of politics is no job for amateurs. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8A69tkeeGVcT9vSElHkjmf3OaU_aRIpKvB_1uUKL74_zBV2b6sEYmRN52DF0urgVRLDXW5z1PIpOyw94Ci3CzX_A2DDVw1sVyaBlqe3PgZzzlY4TGQdHXw0lTLK5UrLq81IBtExt0vAE/s1600/r2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8A69tkeeGVcT9vSElHkjmf3OaU_aRIpKvB_1uUKL74_zBV2b6sEYmRN52DF0urgVRLDXW5z1PIpOyw94Ci3CzX_A2DDVw1sVyaBlqe3PgZzzlY4TGQdHXw0lTLK5UrLq81IBtExt0vAE/s1600/r2.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /><b>Writing a 4 star review for <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/first-night-richard-ii-royal-shakespeare-theatre-stratforduponavon-8887542.html#" target="_blank">The Independent</a> Paul Taylor says:</b></span><br /><div class="storyContent" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.546875px; text-align: justify;"><h5><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">They covered themselves in glory five years ago with Hamlet; now David Tennant and Gregory Doran join forces again for this lucid and gripping account of Richard II. Having played the most intellectually searching of Shakespeare’s protagonists, who is painfully miscast as a revenge hero, Tennant – in splendid form here – trains his talents on the most self-absorbed and inward-looking of the Bard’s monarchs, who is fatally miscast as God’s anointed deputy on earth.</span></span></h5></div><div class="storyContent" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><div class="body"><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In his gorgeous, gold-embroidered robes (and long, flowing hair extensions, to boot), this Richard is wrapped in the mystique of medieval majesty. But he occupies the Gothic throne with a slouch of disgruntlement, his features congealed in disdain. Admirably resisting any temptation to make the king likeable, Tennant vividly exudes the bored irritability that erupts in tyrannical caprice. And impatience is making him reckless, too. In this production, he brazenly hears the dispute between Bolingbroke and Mowbray at the (interpolated) ceremonial lying-in-state of the Duke of Gloucester, whose murky murder (and, implicitly, Richard’s involvement in it) is itself the bone of contention.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But then Richard is a monarch who would always choose theatrical effect over political prudence. With his great gift for playfulness, Tennant runs heavily sarcastic rings round his usurper in the deposition scene. Holding the crown at arm’s length, and with his back to the assembled company, he calls out “Here cousin”, in the tones of someone inviting a dog to play fetch. This is not a Richard who luxuriates in the lyricism of grief. Tennant delivers the plaintive, self-pitying arias with a scathing irony for the most part, flecked by tiny surrenders to abject panic – as though he were at once sufferer and observer of the tragic process whereby, when the royal persona shatters, it exposes the naked, insecure person underneath. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By contrast, Nigel Lindsay’s Bolingbroke presents himself as a plain-speaking bloke who has returned from exile solely to claim his rightful inheritance – though there’s a suggestion in his hooded watchfulness and the brutality with which he dispatches Richard’s flatterers that he has a devious, long-term strategy. He plays his cards close to his chest and is embarrassed by Richard, whose upstaging antics leave him having to force face-saving laughter in front of his followers.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Interestingly, though, Doran is more interested in the king’s relationship with his other cousin, the young Aumerle. I should perhaps issue a spoiler alert for the rest of this paragraph. This production gives the pair a charged, private sequence on the walls of Flint Castle (evoked by the mobile gantry that slices across Stephen Brimson Lewis’s excellent design). The monarch’s speech of speculative capitulation (“What must the King do now? Must he submit?”) reduces his devoted number one supporter to such heartfelt, quiet tears that Tennant’s Richard is touched to a moment of rare compassion for another creature – treating his cousin to a tenderly passionate kiss and a cradling on his breast. But Aumerle, whose riven emotional state is beautifully conveyed by Oliver Rix, turns into the production’s most extreme casualty of the world of divided loyalties. Shopped to the new king by his own father for his treacherous plots, to what desperate lengths might such a man go to prove that he’s been born again politically? </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There isn’t a weak link in the cast. Ferocious eloquence overcomes deathbed infirmity in Michael Pennington’s superb portrayal of John of Gaunt, and Oliver Ford Davies gives a fine edge of grumpy comedy to the Duke of York’s conscience-stricken dithering. Another palpable hit for the Tennant/Doran collaboration, the production transfers to the Barbican in December and will be broadcast live in cinemas on 13 November.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguYEUaQ91yFiBgZGmUqw-4NOCQlvFJdKb4iY2TGVYgrnkQ1IaIpV_qpGncUk81XgFFWajoklYMj02BYXstnt30EwLNrAmFsW1pYBVTBuml5Pa2MJkl6u1Cv4IG-TL1_U6qjcSUwrDBswM/s1600/r12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguYEUaQ91yFiBgZGmUqw-4NOCQlvFJdKb4iY2TGVYgrnkQ1IaIpV_qpGncUk81XgFFWajoklYMj02BYXstnt30EwLNrAmFsW1pYBVTBuml5Pa2MJkl6u1Cv4IG-TL1_U6qjcSUwrDBswM/s1600/r12.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://t.co/jjsNaSWmEC" target="_blank">The Guardian's</a> Michael Billington also gives 4 stars and heaps praise upon the cast and creatives:</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This show marks the start of Gregory Doran's six-year plan to present the entire Shakespeare canon. It's fair to say that his own beautifully crafted, richly detailed production sets a high standard for himself and others to aim at. David Tennant, in a mesmerising performance that grows in power as Richard's authority declines, also reminds us that the Royal Shakespeare Company is an ensemble that paradoxically needs stars.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's a sign of Doran's care that he makes clear the complex back-story that illuminates Shakespeare's play. An audience needs to know that Richard's original sin lies in sanctioning the murder of his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. Michael Boyd began his 2007 production by having Richard stepping lightly over the corpse of the dead duke. Doran, even before Richard's entry, shows us elaborate funeral rites with three sopranos singing religious anthems in the upper galleries and the Duchess of Gloucester bent in grief over her husband's tomb. This is clearly a court steeped in mourning.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The prelude also gives Tennant a vital context in which to work. His Richard, with his brocade gown and Christ-like hair, initially affects an air of listless boredom as his burly barons hurl accusations of treason at each other. But there's a thrilling moment when Tennant gives the banished Mowbray a piercing stare as if daring him to spill the beans about the king's part in Gloucester's murder. Tennant combines inner guilt with a careless disregard for realpolitik as he seizes the land and goods of John of Gaunt after his death: a point reinforced here by the fact that we see tuns of treasure being bodily transported.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tennant's strengths, as we know from his Hamlet, are a capacity for quicksilver thought and an almost boyish vulnerability. And, even if he might do more to convey the patterned lyricism of the language, what he brings out excellently is the fact that Richard only learns to value kingship after he has lost it. In his decline, Tennant casually tosses the crown away and, at one point, skittishly places it on the head of his adored Aumerle. But in the Westminster deposition scene, where Tennant is at his best, he challenges Bolingbroke to "seize the crown" and, when his rival rises to the bait, immediately inverts it to suggest a falling bucket. Tennant's great achievement is to attract our sympathy to what the gardener calls a "wasteful king" who abuses power when he has it and who achieves tragic dignity only in his downfall.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But this production, which combines period costumes with back-projections in Stephen Brimson Lewis's elegant design, is emphatically no one-man show. Nigel Lindsay's Bolingbroke is a palpably dangerous figure who treats Richard's remission of his initial banishment with surly disdain and openly scorns the deposed king's self-conscious theatricality. It is also good to see a number of RSC veterans operating at top form in key roles.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oliver Ford Davies is brilliant as the Duke of York in that he highlights both the comedy and pathos of a man torn between ancestral loyalty to the crown and a recognition of Bolingbroke's power. Michael Pennington's John of Gaunt is also a fine study of a dying man bursting with intemperate rage at Richard's betrayal of his country. And Jane Lapotaire turns the Duchess of Gloucester into a silver-haired figure whose widowed grief manifests itself in a burning appetite for revenge.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The packed houses for this production's run in both Stratford and at the Barbican may have much to do with Tennant's star presence. But this is the strongest company the RSC has fielded in years, and what Doran's production brings out is the rich complexity of a play that raises the eternal question of at what point it becomes legitimate to unseat a manifestly flawed ruler. Shakespeare's play may be set in 14th-century England. It remains, however, a timelessly political work.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPuqquCtmD2RVhKBWxItVSBrQn7mRqAG2k3jgUHOJRPU1tfv5FBkBHqtAT8h7YFBdrfaGUYcQLU71-2aBpTqDJ6SbwbrYtsoAriYK_D0FELCLBbfauR-wc9jYP0xWLsaxWN06FoLCXkbs/s1600/r13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPuqquCtmD2RVhKBWxItVSBrQn7mRqAG2k3jgUHOJRPU1tfv5FBkBHqtAT8h7YFBdrfaGUYcQLU71-2aBpTqDJ6SbwbrYtsoAriYK_D0FELCLBbfauR-wc9jYP0xWLsaxWN06FoLCXkbs/s1600/r13.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>It's another 4 star review from <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/10385663/Richard-II-Royal-Shakespeare-Theatre-Stratford-upon-Avon-review.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter" target="_blank">The Telegraph's</a> Dominic Cavendish:</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /> <span style="text-align: start;">Five years after his </span>spellbinding Hamlet<span style="text-align: start;">, David Tennant is back at the RSC and reunited with director (now artistic director) Gregory Doran for Richard II. Last time round there was a lot of hoo-ha about Doctor Who and a box-office frenzy. Maybe there’ll be more of that again, with Tennant joining Matt Smith for the 50th anniversary special next month. But for the moment, a calm air of focus prevails; Tennant, 42, is in his natural element – and day tickets are available.</span></span><br /><div class="secondPar" style="line-height: normal; text-align: start;"><div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">His hair takes some getting used to: great gingery-brown extensions trail girlishly downwards. Long, magisterial, quasi-medieval robes add to the effeminate impression. In Act III, at Flint Castle, beset by ruin, this Richard leans close and kisses his cousin Aumerle (the youthful, boyish Oliver Rix) on the lips. As with Hamlet, so with Richard – there’s an identity crisis at play (“remember who you are”, Aumerle counsels, as if that were possible), but here it’s of a sexual nature too. And in a further directorial flourish, Doran makes Aumerle the last face the imprisoned, ousted monarch sees, plunging the dagger into him.</span></div></div><div class="thirdPar" style="line-height: normal; text-align: start;"><div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Overall, though, this production is more reverent than radical. Doran has suggested he will work slowly, steadily, through the canon – and the first scene especially, in which Nigel Lindsay’s tough, gruff, almost too-too solid Bolingbroke squares up to Antony Byrne’s aggrieved Mowbray – each accusing the other of treason – feels slow and steady to a fault. Richard’s reign, some 20 years in at this stage (1398), was in severe trouble. Thanks to an emphasised aura of restraint – signalled by a stark, simple set from Stephen Brimson Lewis, augmented by subtle projections on towering screens – you don’t get much sense of the hurly-burly of this chapter of history or of events spinning wildly out of the king’s weakening control.</span></div></div><div class="fourthPar" style="line-height: normal; text-align: start;"><div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With his startled eyes and concentrated frown, Tennant is frail, pale and consistently interesting but the nervous energy he excels in is confined to quarters early on. Trumpets sound, sopranos trill sacred music as if wafting incense; the king is embalmed in ceremony, cloaked in remoteness.</span></div></div><div class="fifthPar" style="text-align: start;"><div style="line-height: normal; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s the older hands who galvanise proceedings with emotional intensity in the first half. A quivering Jane Lapotaire as the widowed Duchess of Gloucester, spilling over with unconfined grief, that perpetually stooped, hangdog actor Oliver Ford Davies as the fretful Duke of York and Michael Pennington, little short of magnificent as John of Gaunt – lending febrile and ferocious emphasis to his “This sceptr’d isle” speech and to those last-gasp accusations against Richard.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The evening is always lucid but only truly crystalises as things fall apart. Richard spasms with panic as he grasps the frailty of existence, crawling on the floor in abjection. He’s appealingly sardonic as he bows in exaggeration before his usurper, and at the end, having taken on the aspect of Christ, he appears aloft on a gantry, looking down in beatific accusation as Bolingbroke contemplates the blood on his hands. Tennant shines, but he has shone brighter.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVmBH9kWWElSe3qGXqrS9-eFFgic0h2B4_a1z027qu2Y8u9wUGiYi6SG0J67OzRkjEYVfYEDrqiT9tpXlfEFyVjRinktkGlX5kaVntZrHTr0YmMvTMuF_McCmfdd2cAEECbcBEcFMOWS8/s1600/r17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVmBH9kWWElSe3qGXqrS9-eFFgic0h2B4_a1z027qu2Y8u9wUGiYi6SG0J67OzRkjEYVfYEDrqiT9tpXlfEFyVjRinktkGlX5kaVntZrHTr0YmMvTMuF_McCmfdd2cAEECbcBEcFMOWS8/s1600/r17.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/theatre/437598/Richard-II-at-RSC-Stratford-upon-Avon-review" target="_blank">The Daily Express</a> gives a 5 star review with Neil Norman saying:</b></span></div><div class="p1" style="border: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Often represented as effete and capricious, even gay, Richard needs a very special actor to seek out all the crevices of his personality.</span></div><div class="p1" style="border: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David Tennant is that actor. From the moment he arrives on stage in a kind of gilded sheath with his long hair held back by a crown to attend his uncle Gloucester's funeral, he shows us with sly precision a man in thrall to his own vanity, seduced by his anointed position and intelligent enough to be aware of both. As his role becomes increasingly challenging and challenged by the remorseless Bolingbroke (Nigel Lindsay), Richard's doubts about his fitness to rule leak out as if from invisible wounds while the sub-textual debates - pragmatist v aesthete, philistine v artist - hover in the ether.</span></div><div class="p1" style="border: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gregory Doran's production is superbly orchestrated from the opening funeral in a soaring Gothic cathedral with three sopranos and musicians to Richard's abdication which turns into a tug-of-war over the crown with Bolingbroke.</span></div><div class="p1" style="border: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is a lucid, moving production packed with tremendous performances. From Michael Pennington's John of Gaunt, the last great Englishman, to Oliver Ford Davies's wonderfully bewildered Duke of York. Emma Hamilton as the Queen, Marty Cruickshank as the Duchess of York and Jane Lapotaire as the bereaved Duchess of Gloucester all make striking contributions.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The sense of England is prevalent throughout. Returning from Ireland Richard strokes the ground with a lover's caress, as if nourished by the earth itself. Whether sashaying around like a 14th-century David Bowie or stumbling like a Christ figure hauled before Bolingbroke's Pontius Pilate, Tennant captures Richard's androgyny, suggesting a man more asexual than bisexual. But he is no pushover. When the murderers come for him he goes down fighting. I was sorely tempted to cheer.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px;"><div style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Verdict: 5/5</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 20px; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 20px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjym_HFVfXyVynAKVr2yNb0trktrEhqQcsFO6JXWRsnNAmha64S6KiHEuXveI0nOTREvG87fTgFlyW5oOk-J4-8u6P7wsS05yFdgUbKMg7J4Tway9FkC2TKfXveOKBa_p8FhWg-8-ldrOg/s1600/r14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjym_HFVfXyVynAKVr2yNb0trktrEhqQcsFO6JXWRsnNAmha64S6KiHEuXveI0nOTREvG87fTgFlyW5oOk-J4-8u6P7wsS05yFdgUbKMg7J4Tway9FkC2TKfXveOKBa_p8FhWg-8-ldrOg/s1600/r14.jpg" /></a></div><div style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/richard-ii-royal-shakespeare-theatre--theatre-review-8888556.html" target="_blank">Henry Hitchings also rates the show as 4 star in The Evening Standard:</a></b></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Five years on from his electrifying Hamlet, David Tennant returns to the Royal Shakespeare Company to play Richard II. From the moment of its announcement this has been one of the year’s hottest tickets.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Tennant does not disappoint. He delivers a vivid, intelligent performance, at least as mesmerising as the best of his TV work. He is certainly not afraid to make Richard dislikable. Instead of the poetic soul we tend to see, his Richard is irritable. In the early scenes he is petulant and smug.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">With fluting voice and waist-length hair (Tennant sports mighty extensions) he is a picture of prissy narcissism. And he skips around the stage like a child who has had too many sweets.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">From the outset Tennant’s Richard is excitingly unpredictable and as his authority crumbles he transforms intriguingly from a gilded tyrant into a more vulnerable character — yet one who is capable of bursts of aggression. By the end he is a holy man in a flowing white robe.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Gregory Doran’s production moves slowly for the first hour or so but it is satisfying both visually and dramatically. It also benefits from the strongest RSC cast in a long time.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Tennant’s Richard contrasts nicely with Nigel Lindsay’s robust, manly Bolingbroke. Michael Pennington makes a poignantly eloquent John of Gaunt, while Jane Lapotaire and Marty Cruickshank bring real substance to lesser roles. Oliver Ford Davies deserves a special mention: his Duke of York is an unalloyed delight.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Doran places an unusual emphasis on the king’s cousin Aumerle (Oliver Rix) and it is Richard’s relationship with him — coloured by awkward lust — that defines the production.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">This is a clear, detailed and dynamic account of a drama that can often seem glutted with artful rhetoric and ceremonial formality. It is an impressive start to Doran’s campaign to stage all Shakespeare’s plays. Richard II will come to the Barbican in December, as well as being shown in cinemas on November 13.</span></span></div></div></div></div></div></div>

David Tennant Gregory Doran Reviews Richard II Royal Shakespeare Company Royal Shakespeare Theatre Theatre UPDATED: David Tennant's Richard II Opens In Stratford-upon-Avon To Rave Reviews

David Tennant's latest theatre project, Richard II, has opened to rave reviews after it's Press Night at The Royal Shakespeare The...

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Tenth Doctor Month - The Weeping Angels Named As Your Favourite Foe

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEXYBD6_w0RYfjFU3Js3Qhqey_JZ3IMnh2gBnGNe7WRlbpom844jgR36hQ2nBCYg2QfWNxlb4Znnlc_gCItJGm4n1S8L1iH585FyX7TphJCwkeiQyj16VgnIfmqgHrJBp2AFf4ttdcFsw/s1600/blink.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEXYBD6_w0RYfjFU3Js3Qhqey_JZ3IMnh2gBnGNe7WRlbpom844jgR36hQ2nBCYg2QfWNxlb4Znnlc_gCItJGm4n1S8L1iH585FyX7TphJCwkeiQyj16VgnIfmqgHrJBp2AFf4ttdcFsw/s640/blink.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;">As we celebrate Tenth Doctor month as part of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary year celebrations we asked you who your favourite for to battle with David Tennant's Doctor is?</span></span></span><br /><span style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">It was a close contest, but the winner was The Weeping Angels, who scored a massive 31% of the vote, scoring closely in second place was The Master with 28% and third favourite the Daleks with 13%.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://www.poll-maker.com/results35624x88015d14-2?v=99" target="_blank">View the full results here.</a></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: #fafafa; clear: both; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC-67-Ft56JvigVyFYvbxjjzfUcxb7ZC8TlObySyDE9smoDkD13pr3vJqgObjYhsF5613h84M98RYFkciLGIAHZG2DMK7QIZaL8mOVBzKF-wi7sgnRwAx63K5SIWlK1PfE_Qto6igeQOM/s1600/weepingangel.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC-67-Ft56JvigVyFYvbxjjzfUcxb7ZC8TlObySyDE9smoDkD13pr3vJqgObjYhsF5613h84M98RYFkciLGIAHZG2DMK7QIZaL8mOVBzKF-wi7sgnRwAx63K5SIWlK1PfE_Qto6igeQOM/s640/weepingangel.JPG" style="-webkit-border-image: url(data:image/png; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 9; border-image-source: url(data:image/png; border-image-width: 9px; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="640" /></span></span></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px;"></span><span style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px;"><b style="background-color: white;">Heart Of Stone:</b></span><br style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">The Weeping Angels are time-sensitive killers, as old as the universe, who thrived on chronon energy. They would send their victims back in time just by touching them, to live their lives in a different time zone, and the Angels would feed on the potential time energy created by the vanishing people's preordained lives being disturbed.</span><br style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">Once known as the Lonely Assasins, because they could never touch anything without sending it back in time, they could only move and attack if they weren't being observed; if they were seen, they immediately became quantum locked and froze in to solid stone. They could cross vast distances in the time it took their victim to blink. The Doctor used the unwitting Sally Sparrow to trap them - when Sally and her friend Larry accessed the TARDIS, the Angels gathered around it, hoping to feed of it's energy, but the Doctor had pre set a dematerialisation sequence, meaning that it vanished around Sally and Larry. Caught off guard the Angels were all left looking at each other when the TARDIS vanished and so the four of them were frozen for eternity, unable to close their eyes and unable to not see one another.</span><br style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: #fafafa; clear: both; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge7ylqQgrc3bIiOD2nQpLTj3GHvUx6nocrHE-zCymCSA7H415jJ6rgsrCeZtSX89jS6wzoptq2in-9noJy-coPQMgQco6xkOaOB62wFgP3EifGtyWvBdXSVgXb7FM1ZfF88GrmePKAcNA/s1600/angel1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge7ylqQgrc3bIiOD2nQpLTj3GHvUx6nocrHE-zCymCSA7H415jJ6rgsrCeZtSX89jS6wzoptq2in-9noJy-coPQMgQco6xkOaOB62wFgP3EifGtyWvBdXSVgXb7FM1ZfF88GrmePKAcNA/s640/angel1.JPG" style="-webkit-border-image: url(data:image/png; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 9; border-image-source: url(data:image/png; border-image-width: 9px; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="640" /></span></span></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div>

David Tennant Doctor Who Tenth Doctor Month Tenth Doctor Month - The Weeping Angels Named As Your Favourite Foe

As we celebrate Tenth Doctor month as part of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary year celebrations we asked you who your favourite for to battl...

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