RA Get Up Off of Your "MacDuff!"

RA, Get Up Off of Your “MacDuff!”


RA = Richard Armitage


"

Just a little taste of the “Blue-Eyed Wonder” who is the god now known worldwide as RA!


Have been sitting here tapping my fingers while awaiting the first reviews of tonight’s (14th Nov 2005)BBC broadcast of “Macbeth” on C19.*  Am sure that there will be some moaning about pigs heads and blood from the squeamish.

The “not enough screen time of RA” whiners will soon follow.

Luckily, the thotful, insightful reviewers will be right on their heels to really give me some meat to chew on.

And a little later, when all of my British sisters lay slumbering peacefully in their beds, I will capture it myself for some late night SoCal* analysis of my own.

Be back then with my first hand impressions of it, and of course, the god now known worldwide as RA’s interpretation of MacDuff.  And, oh yes, his general swoon-ability factor which I am positive just has to be evident in this dark, moody, Shakespearean tragedy…

Later then…fanRAbids!

Later has now arrived!

I’ve seen it and swooned…over the TDH* Peter MacDuff himself.  He looks so slender and tall, dressed mostly in all black.  His hair is neatly parted and combed.  The quintessential Head Waiter for a three Star Michelin restaurant.

However, I must join the whiners in their earnest lament….”Not enough screen time of RA.”  Somehow and somewhere between the bard’s own language and this modern-day adaptation, poor MacDuff lost some of his “puff,” as in consequence.  It appeared to my laywoman’s eye that they decided to focus the camera’s lens on and most of the action around the Macbeths, Joe and Ella.

Unfortunately, this focus meant that most everyone else had diminished on-screen time and/or hunks of their dialogue cut so the Macbeths could blather on more.

Of the two, I felt Ella was more compelling to watch, especially in the beginning when she was such a seductive and cunning black widow spider lady, whispering in poor, dumb Joe’s ear about how he deserved the accolades being tossed Duncan’s way.  And wouldn’t he like to do something about it like quit as Head Chef and start his own restaurant…Whoops!  What she actually said was why not stab Duncan to death and blame it on some poor Serbian immigrants as a botched robbery.  

Hmmm…sort of lost me about then, credibility wise.  And each successive murder by Macbeth and/or his lady seemed ill-planned and ill-executed.  By the time that Joe arranged for MacDuff’s wife and two daughters to be slain, I really had to suspend my belief  systems.  Everything seemed so rushed and ill-explained.

But, when it came time for MacDuff to deliver revenge served up cold; it was icy hot.  RA did a magnificent job at showing us MacDuff’s deep hatred for Joe in his last scene.  His eyes have never been such dark, icy shards before.  His whole body language was that of a man concurrently angry, hurt, and vengeful.

Joe, of course, was compelled to run off at the mouth as the Macbeth is wont to do in every scene while this MacDuff uttered not a word other than, “Macbeth!”  All of the emotion that RA conveyed was through his eye, facial, and body expressions.  Lots of good close-ups.  And, when he knifed Macbeth for the second and fatal wound, he appeared to lift his nemesis’ body upward and onto a table easily and decisively.  Reminded me a lot of when JS* was tossing the wanker (AL*) around so effortlessly in the fight scene in “SH.”*  Must be some fine power in those chesticles of his!

However, I didn’t find the scene where MacDuff learns of the murders of his family to be quite as moving as I had expected it to be.  A loud wailing sound was audible right before we saw him react.  Camera was off in Outer Mongolia so we only saw his silhouette collapsing to the floor.  Then he sobbed quietly but we were never given the supreme pleasure of seeing his facial reactions.  Cheat!  For my money, this director really blew it!  There is no actor around who shares his inner emotions through his facial and eye expressions like said god.  And subtly is his middle name…although his Mum might think its “Crispin.”  LOL!

There were, of course, a myriad of wonderful shots of said god’s face that were shared in C19 as screen caps almost immediately.  Some quintessential ones.  Handsome, smiling face.  Serious thinking Thorntonian* face.  Suspicious, sharp-eyed face.  And then a couple that would generally be classified as simply yummerific.  Those, of course, have now appeared here and there as brand new avatars in C19.  Claire’s* (yorkshirewoman) clips of the RA scenes magically appeared not too much later.

Back to Joe Macbeth pour un moment.  I was not as bowled over by his performance as were some of my British sisters.  This may be due to the fact that I have no acquaintance with his previous work.  But, and there is always a “but,” as we learned in “N&S,” I’d never heard of RA either before I saw him as JT.  And we know that he not only bowled me over, he rolled me up, and delivered me to the RAdoration Drool Pool by his performance in “N&S.”*  So, it could have been done by James McAvoy but it just wasn’t.

Joe seemed way too young to be the Head Chef of such a restaurant and very disheveled looking, almost to the point of being dirty,   In fact, all of the chefs and kitchen workers seemed very unkempt looking.  Long, stringy hair waving around as they sang out their dutiful song praising their head chef.  The rest of the time, they seemed to do nothing but stare meaningfully into the camera unless they had a line to deliver.

The whole production seemed way too stagy with a rather irritating fast pace that seemed unable to allow for real emotions to be shared.  Everything was delivered rather rapid fire in the short scenes.  It was almost like watching a play rehearsal in double time where the intent is make sure that everyone knows their lines and cues.  Scenes ended abruptly and then Macbeth was racing off to the next setting as though he were being timed.

JMcA never showed me any real hues and colors in his performance.  It started off at a high maintenance level and just seemed to get wilder.  I would have preferred seeing him raise his stakes more slowly as he descended into his madness.  Keeley Hawkes did a much better job of falling apart in front of the camera.  Her Ella was calm, cool, and collected in the beginning and gradually shared her emotional descent into suicidal mania.

The only character in the whole production who seemed like a real person the entire time was Billy Banquo.  Really nice, long, muscular legs also and gorgeous eyes.

I’m glad I saw it but I’m now wondering whether putting such a heavy drama in the schedule with three lighter productions was just a bit of an error in judgment.  Last week’s “MAAN”* was so enjoyable and flowed so much better.  “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Taming of the Shrew” portend to be of “MAAN’s” ilk rather than “Macbeth’s.”

Of course, I’ll watch the whole production again…most likely several times.  Hopefully, I will see nuances in the whole production that will cause me to re-evaluate some or all of my criticisms but I’m not inclined to think it will happen.  I keep comparing it to my reaction to “N&S” which needed no subsequent viewing to attract moi.  I was totally mesmerized from the gitgo by all of the elements of it.  Especially the acting and writing.

Onward and hopefully upward we charge toward “The Impressionists” and RA’s portrayal of the young Claude Monet.  Well, and we do have two more Shakespearean comedies upcoming in this series.

Wonder what RA has upcoming on his plate?  Although I appear to be in a minority at C19, I’d really like to see him do a second season of Doc Alec* on “TGH.”*  Being a lead character in a weekly series could do much for raising his visibility to the general viewing public which he needs in order to be considered for higher profile roles beyond TV.

Hopefully, “UF2”* is wending its merry way to moi as I type.  And I have every hope that his “ILM”* ep will be shown again, captured via DVD, and will find its way into my eager, greedy hands soon.

BTW, cold seems to be finally leaving my body!   HOORAY!!  It’s not really gone yet and I still have back pain from coughing so hard.  Did manage to finally wash dishes last night so now I can eat again and have already had two cups of tea!  LOL!  Now, if only laundry would sort, wash, dry, and put itself away, I would be a relatively happy woman.

Kitty boy, Tom Tigger, is just making that bed look way too comfy for a lazybones comme moi.  Guess, I’ll slip between the sheets and rest my weary eyes for a moment or two hundred.  All in the name of healing myself, you understand…wouldn’t have anything to do with being lazy!

Just had a lovely closing thot that I’d like to share…

RA Rulez!

LDB

________________________________


C19          =     http://c19.proboards53.com/(“N&S” and “RA” message boards)
SoCal          =     Southern California (as in the USA)
TDH          =     Tall, Dark, and Handsome (usually applied to RA or his character)
JS          =     John Standring (RA’s character in “SH”)
AL          =     Andrew Lawton (JS’ nemesis in “SH”)
SH          =     “Sparkhouse” (BBC, 2002}
Thorntonian     =     John Thornton (RA’s character in “N&S”)
N&S          =     “North & South” (BBC, 2004)
Claire          =     (aka “yorkshirewoman” on C19 and maker of fantastic clips, music and otherwise, of RA as well as of other performers)
MAAN     =     “Much Ado About Nothing” (BBC, 2005)

Doc Alec     =     Dr. Alec Track (RA’s character in “TGH”)
TGH          =     “The Golden Hour” (ITV, 2005)
UF2          =     “Ultimate Force – Series 2 (
ILM          =     “Inspector Linley Mysteries:  In Divine Proportion” (