{"id":7019,"date":"2018-01-18T07:35:46","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T12:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7019"},"modified":"2018-02-08T08:00:29","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T13:00:29","slug":"farinelli-and-the-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7019","title":{"rendered":"Farinelli and the King"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mark

Mark Rylance as the King<\/p><\/div>\n

What a treat to see Mark Rylance in this new play, written by his wife Claire Van Kampen, playing at Broadway\u2019s Belasco Theatre. Rylance is one of those superb actors who can communicate a galaxy of information with a raised eyebrow or a stutter. (Rylance was unforgettable as Thomas Cromwell in BBC Two\u2019s Wolf Hall<\/em> and as the preternaturally calm Soviet spy in the movie Bridge of Spies<\/em>).<\/p>\n

This play is based on the maladies of Spain\u2019s French King Philippe V (Rylance), who lived from 1683 to 1746. He stayed in power for nearly 50 years, despite crippling depression and delusions, and his psychic demons could be tamed only by the soothing sounds of music\u2014specifically, the angelic, ethereal, and genderless voice of castrato singer Farinelli (Sam Crane)\u2014a sound, thankfully, now lost to us. In the play, Farinelli is lured to the court by the king\u2019s Italian wife Isabella (Melody Grove\u2014now there\u2019s an appropriate name!). His courtiers, not surprisingly, would far rather he abdicate. But he does not.<\/p>\n

\"Iestyn

Iestyn Davis & Sam Crane as Farinelli<\/p><\/div>\n

The actual singing is performed by countertenor Iestyn Davis (read more here<\/a>), in New York after a season at the Met. He appears behind or alongside Crane in an identical costume, as a sort of corporeal alter ego, a device that works fine. It is theater, after all.<\/p>\n

In addition to Rylance, Grove, and Crane, we enjoyed seeing Simon Jones again, a blustery Col. Pickering in McCarter Theatre Center\u2019s My Fair Lady<\/em> a few seasons back.<\/p>\n

The play opens with the king fishing for a goldfish in a bowl. No wonder his ministers have their doubts! Isabella is devoted to him, but her devotion is constantly tested and found to have limits. The preoccupations and imaginings of the king are sometimes brilliantly on point, sometimes hilarious, sometimes clear only to himself. He seems genuinely to want to do right, but has lost the capacity to know how.<\/p>\n

This sad and antic drama plays out in a rich setting, filled with period music. Adding to the intimate feel, a number of audience members have on-stage box seats, and the players interact a bit with audience members in the aisles. The audience plays its own part too, as the audience for a Farinelli concert. In addition to the play itself and the music, the beauty of the staging, the costumes, and the exquisite set design, with candles!, all contribute to a truly \u201ctheatrical\u201d experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What a treat to see Mark Rylance in this new play, written by his wife Claire Van Kampen, playing at Broadway\u2019s Belasco Theatre. Rylance is one of those superb actors who can communicate a galaxy of information with a raised … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Farinelli and the King - a rich theatrical experience, starring the brilliant Mark Rylance.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[265,366,104,147],"tags":[1218,1217,1219,91],"class_list":["post-7019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography","category-drama","category-the-morgue","category-theater","tag-broadway","tag-farinelli-and-the-king","tag-mark-rylance","tag-new-york"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1Pd","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7019"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7023,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7019\/revisions\/7023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}