Jonathan Miller, RIP

[dirac]

Goodbye to Dr. Jonathan. I can’t say I’m sorry, he had Alzheimer’s and it’s sad to think of that freakishly quick mind gone blank. Only Alan Bennett left of the original Beyond the Fringe quartet.

Among many, many other things, Miller wrote one of the very few good Shakespeare parodies that I know of, a takeoff on the history plays called “So That’s the Way You Like It," A sample:

And so we bid you welcome to our court,
Fair cousin Albany, and you, our sweetest Essex,
Take this my hand, and you, fair Essex, this,
And with this bond we’ll cry anon
And shout Jack Cock of London to the foe.

 

(Increasing the tempo sharply) Approach your ears and kindly bend your conscience to my piece,
Our ruddy scouts to me this hefty news have brought:
The naughty English, expecting now some pregnance in our plan,
Have with some haughty purpose
Bent Aeolis unto the service of their sail.
So even now while we to the wanton lute do strut
Is brutish Bolingbroke bent fair upon
Some fickle circumstance.

 

Get thee to Gloucester, Wessex. Do thee to Essex, Exeter.
Fair Albany to Somerset must eke his route.
And Scroop, do you to Westmoreland, where shall bold York,
Enrouted now for Lancaster, with forces of our uncle Rutland,
Enjoin his standard with sweet Norfolk's host.
Fair Sussex, get thee to Warwicksbourne,
And there, with frowning purpose, tell our plan
To Bedford's tilted ear, that he shall press
With most insensate speed
And join his warlike effort to bold Dorset's side.

I most royally shall now to bed,
To sleep off all the nonsense I've just said.

RIP.

[sandik]

On 12/19/2019 at 3:08 PM, dirac said:

Goodbye to Dr. Jonathan. I can’t say I’m sorry, he had Alzheimer’s and it’s sad to think of that freakishly quick mind gone blank.

I hadn't heard about the Alzheimer's and I totally agree -- he always struck me as one of the smartest and most broadly educated people.  What a cruel twist for that mind to be dismantled.

I've been watching bits of his production of the Mikado for the English National Opera (does anyone here know who choreographed that?  I can't find a credit), but I first knew his work in "The Body in Question" -- one of those English television programs that tied together science, history, literature and anecdote.  It was wonderful stuff.  RIP.

[nanushka]

I remember reading his book Subsequent Performances in college and finding it very thought-provoking. Seems to be out of print, but I'll have to get my hands on a copy again.

[FPF]

12 hours ago, sandik said:

 

I've been watching bits of his production of the Mikado for the English National Opera (does anyone here know who choreographed that?  I can't find a credit), but I first knew his work in "The Body in Question" -- one of those English television programs that tied together science, history, literature and anecdote.  It was wonderful stuff.  RIP.

Anthony van Laast was the choreographer for the ENO Mikado. 

[sandik]

22 minutes ago, nanushka said:

I remember reading his book Subsequent Performances in college and finding it very thought-provoking. Seems to be out of print, but I'll have to get my hands on a copy again.

I have a copy around here somewhere.  We're moving soon, and it should surface.  I read it ages ago, but need to take another look.  Especially in reference to this new Dance Magazine article on revising older works. 

[sandik]

14 minutes ago, FPF said:

Anthony van Laast was the choreographer for the ENO Mikado. 

Thank you!