Blue Window, etc.
Oct. 23rd, 2003 03:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidLast night I saw Blue Window (Craig Lucas) at Brandeis. It's a short play, 75 minutes running time, about seven people who come to a dinner party. The play shows before, during, and after the gathering. (No spoilers about plot below.)
The structure of the play uses techniques I've not seen before, ever. It reminded me of what I'd heard about a movie that came out a couple of years ago, which had the screen split into quarters for the whole film (I don't remember the title, and didn't see the movie). Some of the characters are on stage before the play officially starts, going about their business, as it were. There are five apartments in somewhat overlapping parts of the stage. Once the play starts, we can see the preparation for the dinner party, as the hostess frantically tries to arrange her space, cook the food, and come up with pleasant banter, with intermittent calls to a close friend, while other characters finish up other tasks, discuss what to wear, what to bring, etc. During the dinner, everyone is together, having entertaining, sometimes intellectual conversation, talking over one another sometimes. After the dinner, the people split back to four apartments. The surprising part was how often multiple people were speaking, with action happening on many more fronts than one. It managed to be not overwhelming, though it definitely took time to get used to.
The set was interesting, mostly moveable pieces except for a huge slanting grid indicating windows at the back. For some reason I was particularly entertained by the sheet of clear glass (plastic?) hanging as a 'mirror' during the first act, which was then used as part of a table in the second, after it was detached from the wires holding it in space. The lighting was effective, not obvious, just done well. And the actors were good. The two actors playing a lesbian couple were the same who played lesbians last year; I start to wonder if there's a reason they're the designated lesbians... I also wondered how much weight the actors will gain this week, since most of them end up nibbling through the play (carrots, dip, crackers, punch, pretzels, M&Ms, etc); there wasn't much left by the end.
Oh, also entertaining was that one of the actors reminded me incredibly of BubbleBabble, skinny, curly-headed, expressive face.... and a goatee :-).
On the whole, I enjoyed it, with lots of funny lines, and an interesting plot.
I had time for a walk into the Square yesterday, and noticed that the Harvard Lampoon building is dressed for Halloween. I also stopped in at Workbench, which is closing, and bought four dining room chairs (hooray for sales that make them less egregiously expensive!). Now it'll be less likely someone will end up on a folding chair, at least for smaller dinners :-). I carried one home then, and have to pick up the other three in the next couple of days.
It's been an odd week so far, filled with plans and (small) accomplishments, getting many things off my to-do list, yet in between the satisfactions, having many lows and feelings of being socially more isolated than I really am. I wish there were some way to force focus on the myriad good things, not let the other things push my mood down.
There's a Walt Disney Concert Hall, in L.A., which apparently has a 'cloud-like hardwood ceiling'. Looking at this picture, who would be surprised to find almost anything inside?
When writing; has too many partial stops; in the wrong places; it's got semicolon cancer.
The structure of the play uses techniques I've not seen before, ever. It reminded me of what I'd heard about a movie that came out a couple of years ago, which had the screen split into quarters for the whole film (I don't remember the title, and didn't see the movie). Some of the characters are on stage before the play officially starts, going about their business, as it were. There are five apartments in somewhat overlapping parts of the stage. Once the play starts, we can see the preparation for the dinner party, as the hostess frantically tries to arrange her space, cook the food, and come up with pleasant banter, with intermittent calls to a close friend, while other characters finish up other tasks, discuss what to wear, what to bring, etc. During the dinner, everyone is together, having entertaining, sometimes intellectual conversation, talking over one another sometimes. After the dinner, the people split back to four apartments. The surprising part was how often multiple people were speaking, with action happening on many more fronts than one. It managed to be not overwhelming, though it definitely took time to get used to.
The set was interesting, mostly moveable pieces except for a huge slanting grid indicating windows at the back. For some reason I was particularly entertained by the sheet of clear glass (plastic?) hanging as a 'mirror' during the first act, which was then used as part of a table in the second, after it was detached from the wires holding it in space. The lighting was effective, not obvious, just done well. And the actors were good. The two actors playing a lesbian couple were the same who played lesbians last year; I start to wonder if there's a reason they're the designated lesbians... I also wondered how much weight the actors will gain this week, since most of them end up nibbling through the play (carrots, dip, crackers, punch, pretzels, M&Ms, etc); there wasn't much left by the end.
Oh, also entertaining was that one of the actors reminded me incredibly of BubbleBabble, skinny, curly-headed, expressive face.... and a goatee :-).
On the whole, I enjoyed it, with lots of funny lines, and an interesting plot.
I had time for a walk into the Square yesterday, and noticed that the Harvard Lampoon building is dressed for Halloween. I also stopped in at Workbench, which is closing, and bought four dining room chairs (hooray for sales that make them less egregiously expensive!). Now it'll be less likely someone will end up on a folding chair, at least for smaller dinners :-). I carried one home then, and have to pick up the other three in the next couple of days.
It's been an odd week so far, filled with plans and (small) accomplishments, getting many things off my to-do list, yet in between the satisfactions, having many lows and feelings of being socially more isolated than I really am. I wish there were some way to force focus on the myriad good things, not let the other things push my mood down.
There's a Walt Disney Concert Hall, in L.A., which apparently has a 'cloud-like hardwood ceiling'. Looking at this picture, who would be surprised to find almost anything inside?
When writing; has too many partial stops; in the wrong places; it's got semicolon cancer.