Favorable
A live action spectacular brings the iconic chariot race to life with an impressive sense of realism and excitement.
It is an epic show beset by financial troubles and the scepticism of a great many nay-sayers, at one point it even seemed to producer Franz Abraham that it would never make it. But yesterday, Ben Hur Live’s 46 horses, 20 lorries-full of sand and 140 doves thundered, rolled and flew into London for the first time.
Unfavorable
I’d hoped against hope that Ben Hur Live would deliver the holy grail of epic theatre – thrilling, large-scale live performance. But these gladiators get two thumbs down.
If I have failed to mention any of the actors it is because none of them establish any personalities at all. And though the show may be called Ben Hur Live, I’m afraid it left me bored to death.
Additional Reviews
- BBC – List of other reviews.
Video:
- BBC – Video of the performance.
I’ve read some of these reviews too. It’s early days, but it looks like Ben Hur won’t be taking the Aramaic world by storm, as the Passion of the Christ did for Aramaic fans in 2004…
Hehe aye, indeed. The more reviews I see of BHL, the unfavorable are the emerging majority.
Another interesting quirk to note, I cannot find anywhere in the credits on their website the name of the individual who did the Latin and Aramaic translations.
Curiosity has gotten the better of me, and I’ve launched a small investigation to seek them out for an interview.
Peace,
-Steve
Thanks, Steve. It would also be useful to know what they based their Aramaic on – whether, for example, it contains words and phrases from the Peshitta, and which dialect of Aramaic it was based on.