'Tis Pity She's a Whore

(A.C.T. 5 June–6 July 2008)
The men in this play behave in so many erroneous ways that, even if there is a subtle point to be communicated by the play, this point is lost among so many gross deficiencies of the mens' characters. The blatant violence depicted on stage was not foreign to the seventeenth century Europe. The motivation of a contemporary director, however, to make this violence the focus of his work is unclear. True, violence is prominent in contemporary motion pictures, but its attraction to modern audiences and directors is not clear either. (Schadenfreude?) Thus, in its depiction of violence, the work borders on pornographic, which distracts from the main point of the play---the point that I have failed to see.

Direction of the play suffers from poor timing. The narrative lacks pauses between the scenes; it lacks phrasing.

Furthermore, acting is unnecessarily grotesque and lacking nuance. Anthony Fusco (playing Vasques) is least guilty of the aforementioned misdemeanours.

The performance was followed by a discussion featuring two psychoanalysts---called "theatre on the couch." One of the premises was that the viewer must be shocked by or at least disapprove strongly of an incestuous relationship between siblings, and hence hold the two protagonists guilty and possibly even justly punished in the end. It is unclear, however, why incest is wrong. Interracial marriage used to be illegal, and gay love was considered repugnant---but no longer. The attitudes have evolved; enlightenment has prevailed. Removing the irrational stigma associated with incest would be welcome. (When childhood friends become lovers this is considered to be "cute"; when siblings become lovers it is not---why?)

With the moral ambiguity of incest removed, this is a play about bigots giving poor advice, weak characters following this advice, and weak people who lack other entertainment committing violence, as if to prove to themselves that they exist.

Dancin' with Gershwin

(Smuin Ballet, 1 June 2008)
A toast to youth, if not immortality; to youth with its imperfections, which are transient, with its physical attraction, which is transient, with its openness and discovery, which make it immortal. The first act lacked continuity in musical numbers or lacked pauses between the numbers. The absence of a live orchestra is probably responsible for these deficiencies. Phrasing of some dances was rushed. Dances in the second act were longer, more earnest, and transited from one into another more naturally than in the first act.