- Click above to watch video shot by elizabethtoni at the December 17, 2009 “Press Night” for The Misanthrope starring Damian Lewis. The clip shows celebrities arriving at the play as well as footage from the stage door and shots of arrivals at the afterparty. Damian appears at 4:55 minutes into the clip and again at 6:00 minutes.
- Click here at The Misanthrope‘s official site to order tickets through March 13, 2010. Interested in getting together with other fans to see the play? Click here at the Yahoo! Group for more information.
- A couple of Warehouse Gallery updates for The Misanthrope:
» Click here for photos of Damian leaving the Comedy Theatre on December 18, 2009.
» Click here for more images from “Press Night” on December 17th.
- Thank you to Ryanne for sharing the link to her photos from the December 19, 2009 performance of The Misanthrope.
- Thanks to Leah for sharing links for more reviews for The Misanthrope:
Susannah Clapp tells readers of The Observer this is:
“…where you see the difference between an actor and a star. When Damian Lewis, the bilious anti-hero – or truth-telling hero – speaks, he makes you wonder why more plays aren’t written in verse. Alternately clenched with disgust and exploding into fountains of fulmination, he surfs the rhythm, and hits the rhymes as if they were thrown up by his disdain.
For the Times Online Christopher Hart describes Lewis’s portrayal of Alceste as a:
“…ranting, self-appointed social outcast, perversely proud of his gaucheries. And his rapid-fire delivery is excellent, like a Puritan hedge-preacher on full throttle.”
Susan Crompton at The National says:
“…In Damian Lewis’s biting performance, he rails against mankind, longing to live in a disinfected white box he hates human nature so much. But when faced with Jennifer’s beauty and allure, he goes all soppy, excusing her flirtatious behaviour with other men by saying: “She’s young and beautiful.”…
There is a strange double irony in casting an inexperienced film star in a play that holds up the world of celebrity to coruscating attack. But the greatest compliment that can be paid to Knightley is that she holds her own as part of an ensemble of actors in Thea Sharrock’s sharp and enjoyable production who are all on very fine form – most notably Lewis, who brings to Alceste the perfect mixture of righteousness and ridiculousness…”
According to Paul Taylor’s 4 star review for the The Independent:
“Thea Sharrock’s revival of this 1996 contemporary update by Martin Crimp of Molière’s great satire against both the amoral courtly rumour-mill and courtly malpractice is an excellent, platinum-cast treat.
Played by a brilliantly tetchy and (to just the right degree) faintly ridiculous Damian Lewis, the misanthropic Alceste is transformed into a terminally disgruntled playwright in Crimp’s adaptation. The world he hates is the sycophantic, nepotistic, nihilistic media village of sloppy, relativistic postmodernism. So if there’s a practice he’d be almost bound to abhor it is that of casting film stars in plays such as his, and he’d dislike it all the more because the major flaw in his armour is that he has allowed himself to fall for a bitchy Hollywood starlet called Jennifer.”
- Holiday TV viewing for US Damian Lewis fans (check your local listings):
» HBX2e will air Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker on Tuesday, December 22nd at 6:15 PM and again on Wednesday, December 30th at 6:55 AM.
» Spike TV is offering a Band of Brothers marathon beginning Saturday, Dec 26th at 11:00 AM (thanks to Ann for the information!)
» Cinemax will broadcast Dreamcatcher on Tuesday, December 29th at 4:30 PM.
Click here for the updated schedule.
- Enjoy this Damian Lewis montage posted on YouTube by iNeonCookies.