Content/Form

Martin Esslin in "New Form in the Theatre":

"So most forms may be, and should be, smashed. What we must remember, however, is that the new forms that take their place will also, inevitably, present new and different contents. It is a fallacy to think that there is a division between what is said and how it is said; ultimately form is content and content is form--"

Wicked!

It's really happening now. Because I'm obsessive-compulsive, I haven't really believed it was happening until I knew we could get a mid-week babysitter. But now it's really immanent: my wife and I are going to Wicked at the Orpheum.

As it happens, I'm currently reading Gregory Maguire's third Wicked book, A Lion Among Men (well, as currently as my freshman composition papers allow). I was disappointed in Son of a Witch and wasn't terribly interested in the Cowardly Lion's life, but the book jacket description made it seem interesting enough. Yackle and all.

One reason I read is to enter a world that is not my own. I don't consider this escapism for yet another reason I read is for a deeper confrontation with myself, and that confrontation often comes at the level of imagination.

Wicked!

Wicked is coming to Minneapolis in November, and my wife got us two tickets. We're thrilled.

Gregory Maguire's novel is one of my favorites. Once he had the idea, he could have written an easy book. Instead he wrote a novel rich in complexities, mysteries, and ambiguities.

We've been listening to the music for the musical for two years now. It'll be great fun seeing the stage show and knowing all the music (that's how I prefer to watch musicals live).

Twin Cities Theater

The Star Tribune reports on Travel + Leisure and CNN Headline News rating the Twin Cities #2 nationwide in theater (behind New York, of course). Gosh, in October Ian McKellen was at the Guthrie starring in King Lear (MPR), and it was also announced that Tony Kushner would debut a new play at the Guthrie in 2009 (Star Tribune).

Torrential Downpour: More Business

My recurring dreams

I have frequent dreams that I'm involved in the theater. Usually in my dreams I'm a stage actor, but sometimes I'm involved in other ways (last night I was sort of the director in a dinner theater version of King Lear; the producer/star actor disagreed with my idea that the throne should be moved from center stage to the side).

These dreams about plays have various themes. Often I would find myself cast as an actor in a play in which I didn't know the words, the blocking, or, frankly, the play. But there have been many other themes.

The thing is, I actually have only acted in two plays, the last in 1999. I don't know why I continue to have these dreams about working in theater.

Surely there's something there about playing roles, acting, putting on a show, and the tension this causes for me. But what else.

Bringing the C to the OCD

I can see why people with OCD come with the compulsions. When you're busy checking the stove and the lock by numbers divisible by three and frequently washing your hands, you have less time to spend with the pure O obsessions.

Dostoevsky is my master

In the future I may take some time to talk about why Dostoevsky is my master in all things. The ideas, the themes, the talking, the characters, the dialogical nature of it all, it all furrows into the depths of my soul and stays planted there, ready to burst into plant when the time comes.

Links

Read this NY Times article on a farm animal sanctuary.

Read "Thomas Bloor's top 10 Tales of Metamorphosis" at The Guardian.

Here's a book critic (Ron Charles) that doesn't like Harry Potter (I've never read Harry Potter and probably never will).

It's difficult to get rid of books that you actually don't need (Inside Higher Ed).

The Valve talks about The Simpsons.

The Onion always has cutting insight into our society: read these two articles.

"Study: Iraqis May Experience Sadness When Friends, Relatives Die"

This gets at so much of the way people in America talk about the suffering of this war. Always in war there is a dehumanization effect: one side doesn't treat the other side as fully human, as fully capable of human thought and feeling. It has happened in past wars (see General Westmoreland's statement that "The Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as does a Westerner. Life is plentiful. Life is cheap in the Orient"). It happens now. Let us remember what binds us: we are all human, and we all suffer. It's sad (but expected) that The Onion is the best source capable of pointing this out in a piercing way.

I'm not currently very good at talking eloquently about pacifism. Once I finish up Dostoevsky's Demons, I'll be reading some essays by John Howard Yoder (lent to me by a friend and pastor) about Christian pacifism. I want to find better words to express the deep thought and emotion I feel.

And a little lighter:

"New Sitcom Pulls Back the Envelope"

I always wonder of the stars of the conventional sitcoms feel like they're doing something important, or if they realize they're doing trash.

Naked Horseback Riding

My wife informed me of a delightful story. Daniel Radcliffe, the guy who plays Harry Potter, is starring in a new production of Equus.

He's going full frontal. And if you've read Equus, you know this play won't just feature a naked Harry Potter; it will feature a naked Harry Potter riding a guy pretending to be a horse.

Here are some links with photos that I initially found here.

The Daily Telegraph

The Sun

Evening Standard

You have to respect the guy expanding as an actor. I just hope no parents in London listen when their kids say "Mommy and Daddy, I want to go see Harry Potter!"

Hamlet and Jesus Christ Superstar (CBC's Theater Excursions)

Hamlet at the Guthrie Theater
There's a lot of buzz about this production in town. It's the last play to be performed at the current Guthrie location (it was also the first in 1963). Attending the play felt like an event (attending were Sadie and myself).

We scored beautiful seats in the rush line. $15 each for tickets listed at $45 in the third row on the side of the stage. The action was right before our eyes.

The set was awesome. I never expect a set to be much, and then I'm always awed by what they are capable of doing. The costumes, too, were spectacular. The play was set in a World War I era motif. It worked.

The first act (taking us partway through Shakespeare's 3rd act) dragged. This was not a result of the production, but the play. There's a lot of necessary plot advancement early on (and given my familiarity with this play, that's a little tedious for me), and a lot of soliloquies that are more enjoyable to read than to listen to.

The second act picked up at a high point of intensity and action, however. There were some fine acting performances throughout the performance, particularly Matthew Greer as Claudius (he was every bit the ambitious and aggravated king) and Peter Michael Goetz as Polonius (he was comic without being ridiculous, a difficult task to pull off on the stage).

The play was performed as close to uncut as I can imagine, and took over 3 hours.

The ending was spectacular, and taught me a valuable lesson about drama and interpretation. In the end, all the main characters are dead and Fortinbras, a Norwegian royal, marches in to become king of Denmark. When I teach the play, I teach this as a good thing: all the corruption, sickness, and rottenness must be purged from Denmark in a great bloodletting, and a clean, new prince comes in to restore Denmark to goodness and give it health.

This was not the interpretation presented in the Guthrie production. Fortinbras, decked out in military fatigues and acting like a general, marches into Elsinore with his soldiers among bombs falling. He goes to the top of the balcony, preening in his ambitious glory, and raises his arms as the background turns glowing red and the people shout "Long live the king!" Instead of cleaning things up, the impression is that the sickness and ambition and power of the monarchy will continue, on and on and on...

Jesus Christ Superstar at Hamline
There were general admission tickets, and we were on the waiting list, so we figured to get bad and separate seats (attending were Sadie, Jon, Vanessa, and myself). However, for some reason, the first row was virtually empty. We ended up sitting center stage in the very first row. For the second night in a row, all the action happened right before us.

The production was excellent. The set quality and creativity were better than I expected.

Judas and Jesus were excellent singers. This is particularly important with Judas, who really has to belt out some incredible songs. The actor played Judas with the necessary intensity to pull that part off, and a great singing voice to make the songs just leap out.

My one disappointment was "Herod's Song." Conceptually, it worked, but musically, it didn't.

The rock opera buzzed by in about an hour and a half, and there is no downtime as you move from song to song to song.

All in all, a great college production. The music is wonderful, the actors were well-cast and seemed to be inspired by their roles. I loved the experience of seeing this show performed.

Afterward, Sadie, Jon, Vanessa, and myself workshopped our own musical about the Chupacabre.