So this evening I went to see an adaptation of Niccolo Machiavelli's famous political essay, 'The Prince. A milestone, in many regards. First, I'd never watched a French play before, not least a comedy, so this would be an interesting test of my French, which at time of writing still comes with an accent that is 'too' English. In the words of a Ukrainian, no less. Second, this impromptu soirée took place mere hours after my SECOND EVER gym session of 2015. *Insert sound of party poppers and tooters here*. I won't say how long it's been beforehand, but suffice to say the life I lead does not lean kindly towards my waistline and general sense of worth as a human being. Did you know I got through both series of An Idiot Abroad in just one week? Anyway, the Prince is also the first play I've seen since watching Birdman (my current view count of that stands at 3), the inarticulately awesome Best-Picture-Oscar Winner (for what it's worth), which will certainly linger longer in my mind than the over-inflated, plotless, admittedly well-soundtracked Boyhood will. I mention this because several moments in the Prince (which, for the most part, I understood. Guess the last few years haven't been a complete waste of time.) reminded me very much of Birdman, from a studio light falling on a character's head (I think this time it was intentional), to a cast member who was a dead ringer for Zach Galifianakis, to a character standing around in a pair of white briefs. I'm not ashamed to say I chuckled a fair few times during the show. Actually, I'm not ashamed at all, since each laugh signified that I'd understood something (unless it was visual humour, of which there was a lot). Now, I haven't actually read the Prince and couldn't even find it in me to speed-read the Wikipedia page, so my knowledge of the content before going in was somewhat limited. I was however intrigued to see how a political treatise could be transposed onto a stage, especially one that just seemed to be a list of bullet points for how to be a good prince. Quite well, as it turned out. So here's the rundown: the play is set up like a series of X-Factor auditions for aspiring princes (and one princess, though the term was never used). Niccolo Machiavelli himself presided, with the host/NM's PA rolling things along. The humourous outcomes of the various tests (including laser guns, a galette, and half a Peugeot - a 'coupé', if you will) was well interspersed with what I assumed to be actually quotes from the text on how to control the people and be a good prince in general. Still don't quite understand where the King stands in all of this. I'd do a more detailed summary but I'm nothing if not incredibly concise so to those left hanging I suggest reading the book or flying out to Tours to catch it before its runtime ends in a few days. So overall, solid acting, accessible humour even to an ignorant rosbif such as myself, minor (thank God) audience participation, a few bizarrely off-key moments and a pretty intelligent twist ending added up to a PRETTY DAMN GOOD evening out. Even though the people I was with were too tired to go for drinks afterwards so I missed jazz night at Strapontin. AH WELL.
Conclusion: great stuff, would be even better with Edward Norton in it.
