Theatre and such
So I haven’t been updating this thing for one reason or another. Haven’t really had anything that felt worth saying. BUT I have seen some theatre and opera (look at me! So classy!) these past few weeks so how about some capsule reviews?
Black Watch (again): It is so good. SO GOOD. I know its like impossible to get rush tickets so pay for it. It is worth it. I can’t really articulate how good it is.
Speed-the-Plow: So I’m not really a Mamet person. And this play is a lesser Mamet. Where Glen Gary Glen Ross and Oleana ride on the bleakness of Mamet’s worldview to intense and devastating conclusions Speed the Plow just… kind of… ends. The stakes are so low, whether or not this movie or that movie will get greenlit, that it is hard to care. HOWEVER Jeremy Piven was great playing exactly the same roll he plays on entourage as was Raul Esparza. Elizabeth Moss didn’t really have anything to do and it remains to be seen whether she has any range at all (much as I love her as Peggy on Mad Men). But it was great to see her without peggy-bangs and in a bombshell outfit.
I ___ NY: a rather exciting play written by Lonnie Carter (dear Prof of mine). Definitly still a work in progress but there is so much good there that I can’t wait to see how it progresses. The collaborative approach that they are applying also reminds me a lot of the way theatre is done in South Africa, which intrigues me greatly.
Doctor Atomic: It is LOOOONG. And it has that whole opera thing of if-I-said-it-once-I should-say-it-eight-times. And it’s sort of atonal. And I’m not sure I would have had any idea what was going on if I hadn’t read the 20 pages of writer and director statements in the program. BUT the last 10 minutes of both acts were so devastatingly beautiful that I forgive it everything. It has haunted me a little bit.
Ivanov: Jesse was in a production of Checkov up at Columbia. Jesse was awesome (and vaugly frightening) though the production lacked a cohesive style.
Equus: I sat in the stage seats which meant the actors had their backs to me most of the time and I couldn’t really see their eyes. BUT both Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliff are fantastic and the six dancers who play the horses are stunning. It really is all about the horses. Beautiful tall men, in platforms in the shape of horse shoes with leather and metal masks covering their faces. Oh man. They completely capture the essence of horse. Its pretty incredible.
However, the play itself hasn’t aged that well. The idea that Alan’s madness comes from a stifling family life is very 1973. Peter Shafer is totally a romantic. Both Amadeus and Equus have older men jealous of crazy, talented, passionate young men. He believes that madness and art go together and (I am assuming) that he is a lesser artist for his sanity. But anyone who has actually dealt with severe (horse blinding) mental illness knows there is little romantic about it. Its gross and messy and dangerous and frightening. Shafer wants the audience to feel a little sad that Alan will be brought back to society and cured. But for the sake of the horses I don’t give a damn about his passion.
Black Watch (again): It is so good. SO GOOD. I know its like impossible to get rush tickets so pay for it. It is worth it. I can’t really articulate how good it is.
Speed-the-Plow: So I’m not really a Mamet person. And this play is a lesser Mamet. Where Glen Gary Glen Ross and Oleana ride on the bleakness of Mamet’s worldview to intense and devastating conclusions Speed the Plow just… kind of… ends. The stakes are so low, whether or not this movie or that movie will get greenlit, that it is hard to care. HOWEVER Jeremy Piven was great playing exactly the same roll he plays on entourage as was Raul Esparza. Elizabeth Moss didn’t really have anything to do and it remains to be seen whether she has any range at all (much as I love her as Peggy on Mad Men). But it was great to see her without peggy-bangs and in a bombshell outfit.
I ___ NY: a rather exciting play written by Lonnie Carter (dear Prof of mine). Definitly still a work in progress but there is so much good there that I can’t wait to see how it progresses. The collaborative approach that they are applying also reminds me a lot of the way theatre is done in South Africa, which intrigues me greatly.
Doctor Atomic: It is LOOOONG. And it has that whole opera thing of if-I-said-it-once-I should-say-it-eight-times. And it’s sort of atonal. And I’m not sure I would have had any idea what was going on if I hadn’t read the 20 pages of writer and director statements in the program. BUT the last 10 minutes of both acts were so devastatingly beautiful that I forgive it everything. It has haunted me a little bit.
Ivanov: Jesse was in a production of Checkov up at Columbia. Jesse was awesome (and vaugly frightening) though the production lacked a cohesive style.
Equus: I sat in the stage seats which meant the actors had their backs to me most of the time and I couldn’t really see their eyes. BUT both Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliff are fantastic and the six dancers who play the horses are stunning. It really is all about the horses. Beautiful tall men, in platforms in the shape of horse shoes with leather and metal masks covering their faces. Oh man. They completely capture the essence of horse. Its pretty incredible.
However, the play itself hasn’t aged that well. The idea that Alan’s madness comes from a stifling family life is very 1973. Peter Shafer is totally a romantic. Both Amadeus and Equus have older men jealous of crazy, talented, passionate young men. He believes that madness and art go together and (I am assuming) that he is a lesser artist for his sanity. But anyone who has actually dealt with severe (horse blinding) mental illness knows there is little romantic about it. Its gross and messy and dangerous and frightening. Shafer wants the audience to feel a little sad that Alan will be brought back to society and cured. But for the sake of the horses I don’t give a damn about his passion.
posted by Lark(e) at 2:12 PM
1 Comments:
Raul Esparza is an absolute candle in the dark. What work ethic! He's a rare find...I'm just getting warmed up!
Post a Comment
<< Home