The NTS play 'Kidnapped'
Oct. 2nd, 2023 10:32 amLast night I watched the National Theatre of Scotland play Kidnapped together with some other fans, which was lovely! I am not as starry-eyed as ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
regshoe about the play, but I did enjoy it.
Things I enjoyed:
- Davie and Alan were great! Davie as slightly lost and new to everything, but still stubbornly himself; and Alan as swashbuckling adventurer, vain as a peacock, but generous and loyal to Davie. Alan's blue coat was great! They got a lot of the relationship moments right, too: Davie's wide-eyed fascination at Alan's entrance, the 'Come to my arms!' moment after the fight in the roundhouse, the arguments and making up. And of course we got two lovely kisses, which are not in canon! Obviously this point is key--getting Alan and Davie right is the heart of it.
- I thought the introduction of Frances, the widow of Robert Louis Stevenson, was great! She occasionally stole the show with her narration and her asides and her songs. Of course the original canon barely has women in it, so it's a great opportunity to introduce the woman who was part of writing it.
- I liked the plot twist they introduced with Davie pretending to betray Alan in order to save him. Very tropey!
- I liked the songs and the musical part of it.
Things I enjoyed less:
- I do wish Alan hadn't had a moustache. I am a hard sell on moustaches, and while I know the play was cheerfully anachronistic and I was happy to go along with that in general, it's just wrong for the 18th century. Yes, the moustache is where I draw the line, not at the mention of wifi!
- The arguments that Davie and Alan have in the book are just better arguments than the ones in the play. Why would you give up Alan's 'I cannae!', or the back-and-forth about morality as they're running away from the redcoats after Glenure's murder?
- I was not much into some of the comedy stuff. For example, the comedy interlude with the crew of the ship seemed pointless to me, and I would much have preferred to use that time to include stuff from the book that was skipped. Also, the back-and-forth of the actor's lines is just so fast sometimes--I can usually hear what they're saying, but I'd prefer some more time to digest it. Of course, I don't watch plays a lot, so maybe I'm just unused to the style.
- Some parts of the plot struck me as difficult to understand (or would have been if one didn't know the plot), such as the role of David's uncle Ebenezer, which doesn't come across clearly to me, since it's obscured by comedy stuff.
regshoe about the play, but I did enjoy it. Things I enjoyed:
- Davie and Alan were great! Davie as slightly lost and new to everything, but still stubbornly himself; and Alan as swashbuckling adventurer, vain as a peacock, but generous and loyal to Davie. Alan's blue coat was great! They got a lot of the relationship moments right, too: Davie's wide-eyed fascination at Alan's entrance, the 'Come to my arms!' moment after the fight in the roundhouse, the arguments and making up. And of course we got two lovely kisses, which are not in canon! Obviously this point is key--getting Alan and Davie right is the heart of it.
- I thought the introduction of Frances, the widow of Robert Louis Stevenson, was great! She occasionally stole the show with her narration and her asides and her songs. Of course the original canon barely has women in it, so it's a great opportunity to introduce the woman who was part of writing it.
- I liked the plot twist they introduced with Davie pretending to betray Alan in order to save him. Very tropey!
- I liked the songs and the musical part of it.
Things I enjoyed less:
- I do wish Alan hadn't had a moustache. I am a hard sell on moustaches, and while I know the play was cheerfully anachronistic and I was happy to go along with that in general, it's just wrong for the 18th century. Yes, the moustache is where I draw the line, not at the mention of wifi!
- The arguments that Davie and Alan have in the book are just better arguments than the ones in the play. Why would you give up Alan's 'I cannae!', or the back-and-forth about morality as they're running away from the redcoats after Glenure's murder?
- I was not much into some of the comedy stuff. For example, the comedy interlude with the crew of the ship seemed pointless to me, and I would much have preferred to use that time to include stuff from the book that was skipped. Also, the back-and-forth of the actor's lines is just so fast sometimes--I can usually hear what they're saying, but I'd prefer some more time to digest it. Of course, I don't watch plays a lot, so maybe I'm just unused to the style.
- Some parts of the plot struck me as difficult to understand (or would have been if one didn't know the plot), such as the role of David's uncle Ebenezer, which doesn't come across clearly to me, since it's obscured by comedy stuff.
