― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 18:56 (eighteen years ago) link
I think the title of the Gorey show was "Dispirited Diversion for Christmas," but I get a little confused since the Hypocrites also adapted "The Curious Sofa" as a toy theatre piece. That also ruled.
― ng-unit, Wednesday, 4 January 2006 19:10 (eighteen years ago) link
― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 19:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― ng-unit, Wednesday, 4 January 2006 19:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 21:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 21:47 (eighteen years ago) link
the point is that theatre fought back by going beyond realism, it's that kind of theatre (devised theatre especially) that i find so vital.
I am more interested in the other reaction, personally -- of saying, "wait, film might be able to throw in more realistic details but in theatre you, personally, are really there, as are the actors and everything else." Which is to say that it seems largely hard to justify a proscenium stage, since that comes off as a poor recreation of film. But, without going into boring and painful forms of "interactive" theatre, you can still engage an audience in a more literal way.
Which is to say, most of what I think could be interesting in theatre these days come closer to "installations" or even "performance art" if that weren't so loaded with unpleasant associations.
― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― sgs (sgs), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― sgs (sgs), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:19 (eighteen years ago) link
I think I've heard of Justin Tanner, but I'm not really in the mood to watch a play about wifeswapping.
― youn, Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:29 (eighteen years ago) link
where they really do fall down compared to other devised theatre groups i have seen and loved - Lepage's Ex-Machina, The Wooster Group, Theatre de Complicite - is that they don't move so well and it's not as tight, performance-wise. also they totally wear their research on their sleeve as a sort of badge of honour "hey aren't we clever?" - really really trying hard to make it clear to the audience that they've done alot of reading for this thing. whereas with those other groups the obvious heavy research they have done to get where thay are just falls away because the performances themselves and the mechanics of the staging are generally so stunning. as i said it WAS a work in progress but i have seen works in progress from those other groups too.
also i saw a devised piece from the belgian thatre company Wayne Traub about a month ago that had obviously had alot of money thrown at it, was technically very impressive: split screens displaying alternate narratives simultaneously; hoists for the props to dissappear and reappear mid scene; gorgeous sets and constumes... and it was one of the most empty and vapid and depressing theatrical experiences ever. the critics love them.
― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:37 (eighteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:41 (eighteen years ago) link
Goat Island is fabu. DOG Theater in Chicago is heavily Goat Island-influenced and totally recommended.
― ng-unit, Wednesday, 4 January 2006 23:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― emsk ( emsk), Saturday, 18 February 2006 12:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Saturday, 18 February 2006 12:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― emsk ( emsk), Saturday, 18 February 2006 12:46 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 28 April 2006 16:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 28 April 2006 16:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 28 April 2006 16:38 (eighteen years ago) link
Bennett, along with his other stage-TV-film stuff, wrote one of my favorite film comedies of the last few decades, A Private Function w/ Michael Palin and Maggie Smith.
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 28 April 2006 16:42 (eighteen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 28 April 2006 16:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 11 September 2006 02:59 (eighteen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 11 September 2006 03:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― disappointing goth fest line-up (orion), Monday, 11 September 2006 03:04 (eighteen years ago) link
greatest American musical ever, people. or at least, the most fun.
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 11 September 2006 03:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― disappointing goth fest line-up (orion), Monday, 11 September 2006 03:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 11 September 2006 15:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Monday, 11 September 2006 16:42 (eighteen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 11 September 2006 16:50 (eighteen years ago) link
― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Monday, 11 September 2006 17:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 17:49 (eighteen years ago) link
I like going to the theatre but somehow I never actually go unless someone else suggests it. Then often I read reviews of things and wish I'd gone. That's where cinema wins in terms of easily-digestible culture, because if you miss a film in a theatre, you can watch it some other time.
― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 12 September 2006 18:16 (eighteen years ago) link
Black Watch is finally happening
also, Claire Danes in, uh, Pygmalion - http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/aa.htm
― gabbneb, Saturday, 25 August 2007 17:10 (seventeen years ago) link
Theater is basically where painting was 100 years ago at the advent of photography. It is no longer the most useful tool for documenting actual events (film does it better), but it's liberated from that responsibility as well.
― Eazy, Saturday, 25 August 2007 21:47 (seventeen years ago) link
my dad reports that a britishes production of Awake and Sing (Bronx, 1930s) replaced seltzer bottles with bottles of sparkling water. does this bode ill for the Guys & Dolls transplant coming next year?
― gabbneb, Sunday, 16 September 2007 02:14 (seventeen years ago) link
# We really don't care about theatre do we? [Started by N. (nickdastoor), last updated 22 minutes ago] 1 new answer # My faggotry knows no bounds [Started by Jesse, last updated 24 minutes ago] 69 new answers
― get bent, Sunday, 16 September 2007 02:37 (seventeen years ago) link
really good things seen recently: "John Moran and his neighbour Saori" at the aurora nova in edinburgh, Zero Visibility Corporation's "I have a secret to tell you (please) leave with me" at the tramway in glasgow - utterly incredible, probably the most moving dance piece i've ever seen. their web site is playing up and take you to the directories rather than to the site proper but you can watch a clip here, if your interested:
http://www.zerocorps.com/secret.inc.php
not so good things seen recently: The Wooster Group's new thing "La Didone". A mess.
― jed_, Sunday, 16 September 2007 02:48 (seventeen years ago) link
Two of my last three theater experiences:
I saw Kevin Spacey and Colm Meaney in Eugene O'Neill's "A Moon For The Misbegotten." It was more enjoyable than the one Eugene O'Neill play I've ever read ("The Hairy Ape") and less pure social-realist than I expected. Kevin Spacey was good but odd - I got the sense that it was a pretty liberal interpretation of the character. First act had a bit too much aw shucks humor but the second act was great.
-- Hurting 2, Monday, 4 June 2007 01:48 (3 months ago) Link
I saw Liev Schreiber in Talk Radio. He was good but I realized I really don't like Eric Bogosian's writing much.
-- Hurting 2, Sunday, 10 June 2007 14:58 (3 months ago) Link
The third and last was the musical Spring Awakening which was horrendous
― Hurting 2, Sunday, 16 September 2007 06:04 (seventeen years ago) link
i am going to mee's iphigenia 2.0 on friday. also a bunch of other stuff i don't quite remember throughout the semester (note: hidden cost of school - they don't tell you there will be all these required plays to attend adding an extra $150 to your semester)
― tehresa, Sunday, 16 September 2007 15:28 (seventeen years ago) link
anyway this is my own fault for choosing a program based in a theater department, but it's actually making me... not care about theatre and wish i could take music history classes all day long!
― tehresa, Sunday, 16 September 2007 15:30 (seventeen years ago) link
I pretty much hate theater and most performances of any kind because I get profoundly embarrassed for the performers and it makes me uncomfortable. Still, I will go to the upcoming Wooster Group's staging of Hamlet because I like Hamlet and the WG are always so interesting and multi-media embracing that it takes the pressure off me as an audience member to give my undivided attention to the people on the stage. Also, they don't even remotely suck so that takes the edge off a bit too.
― saudade, Sunday, 16 September 2007 15:40 (seventeen years ago) link
oh they don't suck, they can be amazing but i think they've settled into a technique that's suffering diminishing returns. i think the only thing that they could do now is to actually forego all that multi media stuff. the last few things they have done have all been based on acting out scenes that are happening simultaneously on a plasma screen, the source usually being a b-movie. the first time i saw it, in "House/Lights" i thought it was incredible, this time round it was an unfocussed mess. the use of technology was overblown and i didn't really feel that they knew why they were even doing it; i certainly didn't. it didn't have any of the elegance or clarity of their earlier work and, importantly, it didn't even look good. this one's based around scenes from Richard Burton's version of Hamlet, i hope it's better.
― jed_, Sunday, 16 September 2007 16:25 (seventeen years ago) link
Obviously Broadway (including the straight plays) is problematic on a lot of levels - way too expensive, caters primarily to tourist, sees itself as competing with movies or something and goes for spectacle and/or celebrity and/or brand recognition.
I think I enjoy theater the most when it's the least like film or tv - just a bare bones set with the kind of acting that radiates intensity into the audience.
― Hurting 2, Sunday, 16 September 2007 17:07 (seventeen years ago) link
jed_ i agree about La Didone! I saw it at the Royal Lycaeum in Edinburgh and thought it was like some cruelly accurate parody of what the Wooster Group does. I wondered if it was me who had changed, or them.
― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 16 September 2007 17:28 (seventeen years ago) link
I pretty much hate theater and most performances of any kind because I get profoundly embarrassed for the performers and it makes me uncomfortable.
I feel this way about many things, most recently, songs with lyrics.
― Jeff, Sunday, 16 September 2007 17:30 (seventeen years ago) link
it's great to hear this re wooster group because i keep hearing them praised as the only group 'making a difference' or being 'innovative'. people want to believe. i think this criticism is healthy.
― tehresa, Sunday, 16 September 2007 17:49 (seventeen years ago) link
tracer, i saw i there too, i wonder if we were at the same performance?!
― jed_, Sunday, 16 September 2007 17:57 (seventeen years ago) link
I get profoundly embarrassed for the performers
My thought would be that either the director didn't know what kind of performance the play required, or the actors weren't good enough to deliver. I've seen it go both ways. (It's almost never the playwright's fault, because inferior scripts rarely get as far as their first performance.)
When it's done right, no one gets embarassed.
― Aimless, Sunday, 16 September 2007 18:02 (seventeen years ago) link
also, tracer, i just wondered to what possible end the whole grand event had been mounted. i didn't think the two texts illuminated each other but even if they had overlapped more successfully what could it even mean? what was the point of putting them together?
― jed_, Sunday, 16 September 2007 18:09 (seventeen years ago) link