Antigone

We saw Antigone a couple of weeks ago, this is a play by Sophocles, so written more than 2000 years ago.  It's kind of incredible to think that something that old can still speak to modern audiences.  I mean we have Shakespeare, but that's only a couple of hundred years, and I always feel it needs a bit of judicious editing at some points.  There was certainly some editing to this version, they put it into a modern setting, though still 1970s police state, and the chorus had been split into individual characters, and there were perhaps fewer mentions of Zeus than in the original version.

It was really good, finally a non-Irish play at the National Theatre.  I guess I had gone in with quite low expectations, thinking it was going to be one of those weird Greek tragedies, with people in masks.  But it was actually really good, I quite liked the modern setting, perhaps some people think it's unnecessary, and perhaps it was, but I thought it was done well.  Creon was an ex-Doctor Who, the first one of the reboot, he didn't last long as a Doctor and was replaced by Tennant.  He was really good.  I think Antigone was a little bit weak, it was unfortunate, because the character is quite good, it's like she didn't know how to project her voice, which is a bit weird for an actor.

Chamber Orchestra

So we went along to a chamber orchestra performance the other night, it was just an amateur performance by the Bloomsbury Chamber Orchestra, but they can't be that bad because we have both hired instruments following the concert.  I've got a clarinet and Dave got an oboe, we got it from a shop where they actually make oboes.  The oboe's are waaay more expensive, if you're ever down on your luck and want to steal an instrument, chose an oboe over a clarinet.  To buy my clarinet it's about 300 pounds, Dave's oboe is 1300 pounds.  A bit of a difference, though to be fair mine is plastic whereas I think the oboe is wood.  I'm trying to remember all the fingering, but I'm keen to try and find some real beginners orchestra.

Though the problem with choosing a woodwind instrument is that orchestras generally don't need many of them, maybe 3 of each one, so they normally fill up the available slots pretty quickly.  And since you generally get solos at some point you have to reach a certain level before you can really play in a group.  The thing with strings is there seems to be always room for more, you just keep chucking them in, and since there's so many of them, I wonder if sometimes you can just hide in the masses, so you don't need to be quite as good.  Anyway I'm sure I'll find out once I start with the group whether these are just the standard woodwind stereotypes or whether there is actually some truth to it.