Playing this weekend
Jan. 10th, 2005 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidSaturday night I went to the 2005 Ritalin Readings. There were seven short plays, all interesting, though some felt more complete than others. Staging was minimal; these were readings, and the actors had the scripts in hand.
The Writer and the Talker (Con Chapman)
A man walks into a bar. No, not the beginning of a bad joke. He sits next to a woman who doesn't want to be dragged into conversation, though eventually she is, some. She's a novelist, and thinks his incessant talking would keep him from writing anything serious, because he's already spent his words. It's an interesting thought, though I suspect there are, in fact, very gregarious writers out there. Nicely done, especially the writer, whose looks were quite expressive.
Bloomsbury Proposal (Carl A. Rossi)
A gay man asking a friend if she'll marry him, and his astonishment at her acceptance and complete dive into how their lives would adjust makes him realize he was just being polite. Or finding a way to express his affection that he'd never thought would be acted on. Or something. This felt a bit like part of a larger piece, since I couldn't figure out really why he'd decided to ask.
Drop-Out (John Shea)
A middle-aged man and a seventh grader, both waiting to talk to the teacher. He's nervous about being called to the teacher's desk, even all these years after dropping out, and she reassures him. And they start talking, finding out that they're not so different under the skin. Same day dreams, same lack of friends... He tells her not to drop out, not to make his mistake. This worked, though it left me wondering how the man talked with his own kid.
Holly's Plea (George Matry Masselam)
A man has taped a can of gasoline to himself, and is going to immolate himself as a protest against the war. His daughter comes to try to talk him out of it. His ex-wife comes to try to talk him out of it, and it turns out that it may be grief, not high-sounding principles, that's really motivating him, since his daughter's been killed in Iraq. This was the most intense piece, and it was weird, the dead daughter there telling him not to do it, the ex-wife telling him not to do it, but not seeing the ghost of her daughter. If she was a ghost at all, rather than a figment of his mind. And there was a very ambiguous ending, which I didn't care for.
Sit (John Shea)
A husband comes back from a business trip to find that his pregnant wife's given birth... to a dog. Hijinks ensue. Well, much discussion ensues, anyway, much of it rather silly.
Speak (John Shea)
A woman argues with her mother about her grown brother being allowed to live the last year of his life as a dog, woofing and being walked, etc. Who's right? Unclear: the mother says that if that's what he needs to do, she'll support him in his decision, while the daughter says the mother needs him to need her. This, too, felt like part of a larger piece. There's not a resolution at the end, and it's entirely unclear why the guy might've turned himself doglike. I suppose I felt more for the daughter, since she wanted to get him professional help.
Diamonds (David Valdes Greenwood)
Two gay men have made a life together for ten years. One buys a ring and proposes. The playlet shows this, along with extended monologue by the askee, describing his sister getting engaged, and the marriages of his sister and parents, how stifling they are, as compared to the happiness he has with his lover. And at the very end, he declines the proposal. I assume it was because he doesn't want marriage, in general, but it seems a bit odd that his lover of a decade wouldn't've had some idea about this beforehand...
Last night was the Loeb Ex production of Hamlet. It was a pretty good production, despite the things I didn't care for.
The set had three pointy-arched doorways, four columns with metal tubing indicating an arch vault, and sepulchers along the sides and another in the middle. There were a pair of fonts (the birdbath kind, not lettering), which had water slowly bubbling in them at times. It felt very churchy, and the costumes played into that, with many characters in vestments of some sort or another (I don't have the right terminology to describe it, but definitely churchy), though Gertrude was more in garb, and Laertes and Ophelia more modern dress. It worked, though, not clashing.
So. One of the things I didn't care for was the extreme churchiness throughout (the ghost even almost gives Hamlet communion (!)). Another was the sound, with a deep bell tolling (a) used too many times, and (b) going on for far too long when used. There was a choice to put the end of one of Hamlet's soliloquy's with music in the background, which distracted. And there were times when the words were indistinguishable, especially when Claudius was yelling. It didn't keep the plot from progressing, but it happened too much to be accidental.
The good points definitely outweighed the bad, though. Hamelet was excellent. Polonius was very funny, as were Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, plus the gravediggers. Ophelia's breakdown made sense. I still don't understand Gertrude, myself, unless she was having an affair with Claudius before the murder. And I've never understood why, if Hamlet is an adult already, why he didn't inherit his father's crown, rather than it passing to his mother's new husband.
It's playing through Saturday night, if anyone wants to go. Tickets are free for the asking at the A.R.T. box office.
The Writer and the Talker (Con Chapman)
A man walks into a bar. No, not the beginning of a bad joke. He sits next to a woman who doesn't want to be dragged into conversation, though eventually she is, some. She's a novelist, and thinks his incessant talking would keep him from writing anything serious, because he's already spent his words. It's an interesting thought, though I suspect there are, in fact, very gregarious writers out there. Nicely done, especially the writer, whose looks were quite expressive.
Bloomsbury Proposal (Carl A. Rossi)
A gay man asking a friend if she'll marry him, and his astonishment at her acceptance and complete dive into how their lives would adjust makes him realize he was just being polite. Or finding a way to express his affection that he'd never thought would be acted on. Or something. This felt a bit like part of a larger piece, since I couldn't figure out really why he'd decided to ask.
Drop-Out (John Shea)
A middle-aged man and a seventh grader, both waiting to talk to the teacher. He's nervous about being called to the teacher's desk, even all these years after dropping out, and she reassures him. And they start talking, finding out that they're not so different under the skin. Same day dreams, same lack of friends... He tells her not to drop out, not to make his mistake. This worked, though it left me wondering how the man talked with his own kid.
Holly's Plea (George Matry Masselam)
A man has taped a can of gasoline to himself, and is going to immolate himself as a protest against the war. His daughter comes to try to talk him out of it. His ex-wife comes to try to talk him out of it, and it turns out that it may be grief, not high-sounding principles, that's really motivating him, since his daughter's been killed in Iraq. This was the most intense piece, and it was weird, the dead daughter there telling him not to do it, the ex-wife telling him not to do it, but not seeing the ghost of her daughter. If she was a ghost at all, rather than a figment of his mind. And there was a very ambiguous ending, which I didn't care for.
Sit (John Shea)
A husband comes back from a business trip to find that his pregnant wife's given birth... to a dog. Hijinks ensue. Well, much discussion ensues, anyway, much of it rather silly.
Speak (John Shea)
A woman argues with her mother about her grown brother being allowed to live the last year of his life as a dog, woofing and being walked, etc. Who's right? Unclear: the mother says that if that's what he needs to do, she'll support him in his decision, while the daughter says the mother needs him to need her. This, too, felt like part of a larger piece. There's not a resolution at the end, and it's entirely unclear why the guy might've turned himself doglike. I suppose I felt more for the daughter, since she wanted to get him professional help.
Diamonds (David Valdes Greenwood)
Two gay men have made a life together for ten years. One buys a ring and proposes. The playlet shows this, along with extended monologue by the askee, describing his sister getting engaged, and the marriages of his sister and parents, how stifling they are, as compared to the happiness he has with his lover. And at the very end, he declines the proposal. I assume it was because he doesn't want marriage, in general, but it seems a bit odd that his lover of a decade wouldn't've had some idea about this beforehand...
Last night was the Loeb Ex production of Hamlet. It was a pretty good production, despite the things I didn't care for.
The set had three pointy-arched doorways, four columns with metal tubing indicating an arch vault, and sepulchers along the sides and another in the middle. There were a pair of fonts (the birdbath kind, not lettering), which had water slowly bubbling in them at times. It felt very churchy, and the costumes played into that, with many characters in vestments of some sort or another (I don't have the right terminology to describe it, but definitely churchy), though Gertrude was more in garb, and Laertes and Ophelia more modern dress. It worked, though, not clashing.
So. One of the things I didn't care for was the extreme churchiness throughout (the ghost even almost gives Hamlet communion (!)). Another was the sound, with a deep bell tolling (a) used too many times, and (b) going on for far too long when used. There was a choice to put the end of one of Hamlet's soliloquy's with music in the background, which distracted. And there were times when the words were indistinguishable, especially when Claudius was yelling. It didn't keep the plot from progressing, but it happened too much to be accidental.
The good points definitely outweighed the bad, though. Hamelet was excellent. Polonius was very funny, as were Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, plus the gravediggers. Ophelia's breakdown made sense. I still don't understand Gertrude, myself, unless she was having an affair with Claudius before the murder. And I've never understood why, if Hamlet is an adult already, why he didn't inherit his father's crown, rather than it passing to his mother's new husband.
It's playing through Saturday night, if anyone wants to go. Tickets are free for the asking at the A.R.T. box office.