The Royal Hunt of the Sun

Last night we saw the Royal Hunt of the Sun at the National Theatre. It was written by Peter Shaffer who wrote Amadeus, Equus, Lettice and Lovage, and the screenplay for Sleuth among other things. The original London production was in 1964. In a nutshell the story is the conquest of the Incan nation of Peru by 167 Spanish soldiers. Or rather that is the framework for the story of the relationship between the Sun-God leader Atahuallpa and his captor: the Commander of the Spanish expedition Francisco Pizarro. I'm not going to get into a review of the play, there are obvious parallels between the current political situation and the play, which was probably one of the reasons it was revived. The production was amazing, they achieved many spectacular effects though the use of fabric. At various times it was used to convey, a river of blood, crossing the Andes, and melting the Incan Gold.
Today in class we had has our guest speaker Phillip Voss, who played the Royal Overseer. It was very interesting to hear about his career and his working process as an actor.

Tonight we are seeing Sunday In The Park with George.

The pictures were taken fron the terrace at the National Theatre. They are of St. Paul's and the London Eye.