Two Gentlemen of Verona
Feb. 8th, 2013 03:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidI am very behind on posting about plays; I went to this back in December.
I went to ASP's production of Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare) in the old Jimmy Tingle theater in Davis Square. It's a small theater, made smaller because they put two rows of seats at the back of the stage to make it into a theater in the round (ok, square). I ended up sitting in one of those rows, after the usher coordinator asked me multiple times whether is would be ok. I assured her it was fine as long as I wasn't the only one there.
The show itself: it's one of the fluffier Shakespeare plays, that feels rather like a high school drama of dating couples. The outspoken guy who is super-obvious about being in love has his attention easily diverted when there's a new girl around and the old one isn't for a bit, while the quieter on is steady once he falls in love. There's some politics around it, but it boils down to this. This production was notable for a couple of things: there was a wordless intro scene featuring people passing letters and notes which set the stage well for the rest of the play; there was a lot of music, both recorded (mostly rock or other popular stuff) and live, with a variety of cool instruments (one musician was to the side of the stage the whole time, while other actors picked up instruments at different times); and they chose to use an actual dog, I think an English bulldog, as one character's dog in the play. The dog was awesome, though it meant there were warnings before the show to give staff any food anyone had in the first couple of rows, to avoid distracting it (apparently some people had not paid attention at previous shows).
I liked the show, though it will never be one of my favorites.
However, there was a storylet I got to see that distracted me during intermission, that had me wondering about the lives I'm not leading. Since I was sitting on the stage, in the back row of two, which was close to the entrances, when a couple showed up late, the ASP staff had them duck into the audience as quickly as possible, which meant the back row on the other side. When it was intermission, they tried to leave the way they'd come in, but the door to the rest of the space blocked them leaving that way. Instead of going around, they stood just behind me, less than an arm's length away, and started making out. It surprised me because it kept on, not just a kiss or two. I could hear some of what they were saying between their kisses; she wasn't used to public displays of affection, so was sort of hiding the dark and his arms. It kept on, though, though all of the 15-minute intermission, and I overheard that she didn't expect a first date to go this way. Whoa. A couple of no-longer-young people meeting up and getting that hot and heavy in public! And then just as the second act started, they grabbed their bags and left; it seemed clear to me that they were about to go somewhere and lose their clothes. It felt strange to be privy to this little moment, actually, yet since it was happening mostly within a foot or two of me, I couldn't really avoid knowing....
I went to ASP's production of Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare) in the old Jimmy Tingle theater in Davis Square. It's a small theater, made smaller because they put two rows of seats at the back of the stage to make it into a theater in the round (ok, square). I ended up sitting in one of those rows, after the usher coordinator asked me multiple times whether is would be ok. I assured her it was fine as long as I wasn't the only one there.
The show itself: it's one of the fluffier Shakespeare plays, that feels rather like a high school drama of dating couples. The outspoken guy who is super-obvious about being in love has his attention easily diverted when there's a new girl around and the old one isn't for a bit, while the quieter on is steady once he falls in love. There's some politics around it, but it boils down to this. This production was notable for a couple of things: there was a wordless intro scene featuring people passing letters and notes which set the stage well for the rest of the play; there was a lot of music, both recorded (mostly rock or other popular stuff) and live, with a variety of cool instruments (one musician was to the side of the stage the whole time, while other actors picked up instruments at different times); and they chose to use an actual dog, I think an English bulldog, as one character's dog in the play. The dog was awesome, though it meant there were warnings before the show to give staff any food anyone had in the first couple of rows, to avoid distracting it (apparently some people had not paid attention at previous shows).
I liked the show, though it will never be one of my favorites.
However, there was a storylet I got to see that distracted me during intermission, that had me wondering about the lives I'm not leading. Since I was sitting on the stage, in the back row of two, which was close to the entrances, when a couple showed up late, the ASP staff had them duck into the audience as quickly as possible, which meant the back row on the other side. When it was intermission, they tried to leave the way they'd come in, but the door to the rest of the space blocked them leaving that way. Instead of going around, they stood just behind me, less than an arm's length away, and started making out. It surprised me because it kept on, not just a kiss or two. I could hear some of what they were saying between their kisses; she wasn't used to public displays of affection, so was sort of hiding the dark and his arms. It kept on, though, though all of the 15-minute intermission, and I overheard that she didn't expect a first date to go this way. Whoa. A couple of no-longer-young people meeting up and getting that hot and heavy in public! And then just as the second act started, they grabbed their bags and left; it seemed clear to me that they were about to go somewhere and lose their clothes. It felt strange to be privy to this little moment, actually, yet since it was happening mostly within a foot or two of me, I couldn't really avoid knowing....