norton-addiction:Round Church, Cambridge, - in a second time in the career of James Norton. As a stu
norton-addiction:Round Church, Cambridge, - in a second time in the career of James Norton. As a student of Cambridge…he decided to try his hand at directing andchose Arthur Miller’s Crucible, a play about theGod-fearing Puritan community of Salemimploding under accusations of witchcraftand its parallels with McCarthyism in the USin the fifties. One day, walking in Cambridge,he saw the Round Church and had anepiphany; here was a venue whoseclaustrophobic space could bring an audienceinto a state of paranoia and hysteria. It wasideal but never before used for plays. Hisrhetoric and enthusiasm convinced theadministrator and the tiny isolated capsuleof Christian Heritage provided an idealsetting for such an intense play. The play wasa total sell-out and attracted brilliant reviewsfor acting, direction and inspired choice ofvenue, “The audience is close enough to see theactors’ eyeballs glitter; between the arches abovethe actors you can espy church decorations of carvedfaces, peering down on every move below” saidthe reviewer in VarsitySourceI’m disproportionately excited about this. Twelfth-century architecture of this quality is rare (look at the geometric details!!) and the round church form is even more so. Also, this particular church was built by a fraternity dedicated to the Holy Sepulcher, and served as a pilgrim church… I have hopes that some of this, or other elements of the church’s history (defacement by Roundheads! Victorian reparations! WWII damage and recovery!) might turn up in Grantchester. -- source link
#medieval architecture#grantchester#cambridge#medieval history