God is Watching! Give Him a good show!

[windelina]

I worked late to kill some time, then headed over to Pizza Luce to meet up with the rest of our theatrical crew. I got there on time, and everybody else was late! I suffered some brief angst and worry. What if they had inadvertently headed to the Lyndale Pizza Luce? But wait. lexinatrix knows better than that since she was at jklumpp's birthday party where people did exactly that.

It was traffic and parking issues of course.
And my lovely, sweet Monte parked right across the street from the restaurant, and then blindly turned away from it and walked in the wrong direction. I love him dearly, but it doesn't make him any less directionally-challenged.

Lex, Monte, James and I had a lovely pizza dinner with much laughter and stories and opinions and bs. James informed Monte that he was "Armageddon sexy", which I think is now my favorite phrase. I enjoyed giving a ton of crap to James. I like cranky people, they're so much easier to deal with sometimes cuz you know exactly where they stand - in the middly of Crankyville.

Then we walked in huddled mass over to the theatre. Damn! It was cold! We found four seats together in the middle of the house, high up. Actually, perfect seats. Go us! Well, perfect except for the teenage girls sitting behind us.

I will now rant on stupid, uneducated, rude children.
Remember how much the kids behind us at Harry Potter annoyed me? Well, those kids will probably grow up to be like the girls behind us. And there is no excuse for that! Why aren't parents teaching their kids basic etiquette? The basics of politeness? Of social niceties? Should I ever have kids, they will go to live theatre often and they will learn how to behave properly. And how to browbeat those who are not. Hey - it's my kid after all.

So, these girls proceeded to whisper and giggle and cough and shift and crack their knuckles through the first act. During some of the prime moments! I missed Hamlet's first soliloquy because I was distracted by them and by wanting to hit them!

So, at the tail end of intermission, right before the second act, I turned around and stared at all four of them and told them, "I'm going to ask you nicely. Will you please be quiet? Because I have been looking forward to this play for the last 6 weeks, and some of the most important moments in the first act I didn't get to enjoy because you were distracting me." Of course, it was delivered in a steely tone with clenched teeth and the inherent warning of violent physical compliance.

They were quiet as church mice during the second act. Heh.

Other bits of the evening:
- Monte should not be allowed to drink any sort of alcohol before a theatrical presentation that will go later than 10pm. He left at intermission because he was sleepy.
- James had a hard time getting through the show because he found the chairs uncomfortable. They are.
- The adaptation was practically a sprint through the show, and it improved many things greatly. For as much as I like HAMLET, it does drag and meander alot. By not having any real scene changes or even scene endings (actors wouldn't even leave the stage! It was very fluid), the pace was very brisk.
- The adaptation cut things (Rosencrantz & Guildenstern were noticably absent), but I think it was a very intelligent abridgement and I didn't feel like I missed anything that should have been there.
- The set design was brilliant. The stage was covered in sand, which is a nice echo to the themes of death (dust to dust) in the script. It also allowed for a lot of nice play by the actors.
- The use of color was sparing and very interesting.
- They did the show with only 10 actors. Bravo!
- The make-up and costume for the Ghost of Hamlet's Father was TERRIFIC.
- As it was Jeune Lune, the sense of play and comedy was heightened and I think it added alot of depth and reality to the script. The "speak the speech as I pronounced it to you" scene was the best I've ever seen it done. As was the Gravediggers scene.
- Claudius didn't work for me. He was a French actor with a very thick accent, and his performance seemed stilted.
- Hamlet (Steven Epp) was good, but his adopted speech pattern for the character was overdone at times. Every soliloquy started to sound the same because the minute he started soliloquizing, he would fall into the identical rhythms.
- Ophelia was spirited, which makes a nice change. And the beginning of the scene (get thee to a nunnery) was terrific. When Hamlet asks, "Where is your father?" making it clear that he knows where. And Ophelia breaks down in tears, but follows her duty and says, "At home" - it is an admission to Hamlet that she is lying to him. But the end of that scene didn't work for me. And her madness was off for me too.
- The masks and mummers were amazing. Using them as NPCs for various scenes, as scene transition devices, and set changers.
- The ending of the play was terrific. There was no Fortinbras, and they even didn't give Horatio his last line. It ended with Hamlet's "The rest is silence". And then a dissolve into the mummers sitting in a circle around a fire. Excellent.

After the show, we stopped by a bar for a few drinks. Then I got delivered home.

Here's a question: What would YOU do when accosted by a black man in a typical upscale pimp's outfit (long cream wool coat and matching fedora) who opens with "I don't have drugs or weapons and I'm wondering if you could do a brother a favor?"


Tonight, I have NOTHING I have to do. Yay. Bliss bliss bliss.

Comments

[birdfigment.livejournal.com]

What would YOU do when accosted by a black man in a typical upscale pimp's outfit (long cream wool coat and matching fedora) who opens with "I don't have drugs or weapons and I'm wondering if you could do a brother a favor?"

Look a bit confused. I think it would depend on if I was alone or not (if alone, I would probably do the typical "um-sorry-leave-me-alone" thing) and if I was in a place I felt safe or not (if not, see previous parenthetical).

Okay, I'll bite...

[lucyruthe.livejournal.com]

Here's a question: What would YOU do when accosted by a black man in a typical upscale pimp's outfit (long cream wool coat and matching fedora) who opens with "I don't have drugs or weapons and I'm wondering if you could do a brother a favor?"

What did he want? What did you do?

You can't leave that good of an inciting incident description dangling like that. I'm a theatre geek. There's a story there and I want it!!

Re: Okay, I'll bite...

[windelina.livejournal.com]

Well, no, actually - there's not much of a story there. He approached, said the above line to Lex, James & I. James said, "No." He moaned about the state of the world where nobody would do a brother a favor.

And we walked away. And discussed various replies. And exactly what it was he may have wanted.

Re: Okay, I'll bite...

[lexinatrix.livejournal.com]

"How can people be so onus," he moaned.

I was tempted to turn to him and say, "Onerous. You mean onerous," but then he would have kept talking to us.

James never gives to panhandlers. I'm willing to if they have a good rap line. I think where our dapper friend fell down was in his opening line.

"I have no weapons or drugs..." -- funny, I didn't assume you did until you said that.
"... can you do a brother a favor?" -- too vague. Just come right out and ask for what you want. You'll only get my attention for a few seconds, better make 'em count.

Again with the poor marketing approach, like the zealots you talked about at the fair.

[hedgiewan.livejournal.com]

Fie! No Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

I love the Jeune Lune, and I love Hamlet, so I was very much excited about this production, and quite concerned that I would not get a chance to see it/not be able to afford it, but now I don't feel so bad.

Re:

[windelina.livejournal.com]

Hey now! I love R&G too - but if I want a good fix, I see Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead. The Jeune Lune Hamlet was very worth seeing. And really - R&G don't move the plot along much. It's a sensible excisement. (Although I did miss my favorite line "I'm mad north by northwest")

The thursday shows are only $10. But they're only playing for another week or more. Still, if you can - I do recommend it. Really!

[hedgiewan.livejournal.com]

Hey, now. I'm attempting to rationalize, here.

Re:

[windelina.livejournal.com]

How do those sour grapes taste, then? {wink}

[hedgiewan.livejournal.com]

You don't know the half of it, Ms. I'm-not-in-the-midst-of-finals.

Hmm. I can see the IMAX film now... "hedgiewan: finals in the midst."

Dear gods, I need to go to bed.

Re:

[windelina.livejournal.com]

Hedgie in the Mist! Dianne Fossey can do studies on you!

[davidkingsley.livejournal.com]

You could have told him, "I'm sorry, but I don't have any drugs or weapons either."

On a related note, I have a friend who was waiting for a bus in downtown Minneapolis, and somebody asked him, "You got any drugs?" My friend said no, and the guy asked, "You want some?"

[mle292.livejournal.com]

Here's a question: What would YOU do when accosted by a black man in a typical upscale pimp's outfit (long cream wool coat and matching fedora) who opens with "I don't have drugs or weapons and I'm wondering if you could do a brother a favor?"

I wasn't there so I don't know body languange, tone of voice or any other clues. He may have just needed his car jumped, or needed directions. I would have asked, even if it only bought me more time to discern motive.