The Revenger's Tragedy

[xiphias]

When we were in DC for the Marlowe plays, we went out to lunch with our friend Akiva Fox, the dramaturg for the company. Over lunch, he'd mentioned that he'd found a movie version of Thomas Middleton's (or maybe Cyril Tourneur's) play The Revenger's Tragedy. It was filmed in 2002, and put together by Alex Cox, who was the director of Sid and Nancy and Repo Man. It's set in a post-apocalyptic Liverpool, and stars Chris Eccleston as Vindici (The Revenger), Derek Jacobi as the Duke who killed Vindici's beloved, and Eddie Izzard as the Duke's son Lussurioso (The Lecher) who is trying to seduce Vindici's sister.

Okay. Let's recap. A Jacobean revenge play, set in a post-apocalyptic world, directed by Alex Cox, and starring Christopher Eccleston, Eddie Izzard, and Derek Jacobi.

It took Lis WEEKS to track down a copy in any of the libraries we are members of.

We watched it last night.

Those of you who have Netflix? Put this one on your queue. It's not one I'd watch over and over again, but it was fun, and it's definitely worth watching, at least once.

Comments

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

*shree*

*that's a cross between a fangrrly squee and a shriek of glee*

My extreme reaction is based largely on the fact that the plot of my favorite novel, Pamela Dean's Tam Lin is extended by/enriched by/dependent on a production of The Revenger's Tragedy that some of the novel's characters produce.

And now I'm getting a vision of Christopher Eccleston (with bleached hair, unfortunately) as a grown-up version of the novel's romantic protagonist, who plays Vindice in the play-within-a-novel. Whoahhhh /Bill and Ted.

*zips off to start a Netflix queue*

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Forwarded to my daughter crankyinfrance, who ... um... may love it for a number of reasons.

Hem superat tots els límits.
S'imposa un retorn al desordre.
--Carles Hac Mor, Catalan poet

(on a T-shirt she brought me from Barcelona)

It really works?

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

I've gotten awfully jaded about post-apocalyptic versions of Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedies. I've seen several. The last one was a Macbeth. The entire cast was strong except for the Thane of Cawdor himself, which was bad enough in itself, and the sets and techno-acoutrements were really close to being too much. The phantom dagger, for instance, appeared on three TV monitors above Macbeth's head during the soliloquy, revolving constantly in shimmering red light. It sort of worked and sort of didn't.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thanks for the recommendation. I'm looking for some movies to watch over the holidays, when we won't be rehearsing, and this sounds like just my cup of tea. Especially if Derek Jacobi is involved.

[rosamund.livejournal.com]

Ye gods and little fishes, if I'd known neither of you had seen this, I would have pimped it ages ago.

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

You've convinced me to get a copy (used) on dvd... which tends to be how I get to see things these days (since we don't Netflix etc).

[yndy.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that review...
Given the recap, that one is going on the list for certain! :)

Theatrical porn

[aethelflaed2.livejournal.com]

Oh, lordy. Just the idea of this film makes me very happy!