Literature

Can't recall who it was, but he was a famous translator of Ibsen, said that he had spent the greatest part of his life being bored by the great works of literature. I felt like that this week when I had the misfortune to see a play and a film both of which had received glowing reviews. They were the play by Moliere called "The Misanthrope" at Bristol Old Vic and the film "Winter's Bone" at Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff. I have not seen a bad review of either and I went to them looking forward to having a good time. What a let down!
The film was directed by a woman and it was the same old stuff: hatred of brutish men. You can't help feeling that these women directors have it in for not just brutish men but all men. There was one guy in the film that showed a little sympathy for his neice who was searching for her crooked father but even he was brutish and mean most of the time he spent on the screen. All the other men were your standard stereotypes as depicted by most women film directors: callous rotters, villainous tyrants, borish brutes. While I had to admire the film in many ways - the girl playing the daughter doing the searching was superb - I found it an altogether miserable experience.
The Moliere play was, to me, an equally miserable experience - if not more so. And this was supposed to be a comedy. I didn't laugh once. I didn't even smile once. Yet the audience seemed to enjoy it. It was quite dreadful.
What I could not understand was why Andrew Litton of Bristol's Tobacco Factory theatre company decided to direct it. After all he does great Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory and he did a wonderful "Uncle Vanya" at the Bristol Old Vic a couple of years ago.
O yes, the play was presented in a translation by Tony Harrison in..... wait for it..... rhyming couplets. OK they may have been clever rhyming couplets but two hours or so of rhyming couplets is too much for me thank you very much.
I wonder if Moliere is any good. This play was trivial beyond reason. I recall seeing another of his plays some years ago - I didn't like that either.
I recall Parky on one of his chat shows which had Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice with him telling them what Bernard Levin had thought of "Evita". He said that Levin had written in his review that he had "never had such a miserable evening in or out of a theatre" in his life. Well, Bernard, I now know how you felt.