(The National Theatre, 22 May 2010)
The play lacks character---not just Russian or Ukrainian one, but any. Russian pensiveness is replaced by verbosity. Familial and friendship relationships appear shallow, hence arbitrary. Protagonists have been assigned accents (English, Scottish, Swiss) that do not help delineate the play's geographic or social divisions, if any. Instead of illustrating past concerns that remain relevant today, the production imputes present anxieties to past characters.
The play is a warning against the intoxicating, addictive simplicity of war. The play's civil war is dispensable; it could have been replaced by an election. Even though some wars are indispensable (given the prevailing institutions), the damage inflicted by all wars on witnesses and their descendants has never been fully accounted for when deciding whether to war. The distinction between desertion and voting is blurred.
23 May 2010
15 May 2010
The Habit of Art
(The National Theatre, 14 May 2010)
The tragedy of being able to speak, having nothing to say, and yet being listened to---it afflicts the play's characters and implicates its playwright. Death, the protagonist, is gradual; it bares life, but does not corrupt it---for the lives of the dying have long been appropriated by the living. Even if others---living or dead---are not what one wishes they were, they deserve credit for being what makes one wish they were what they are not.
The tragedy of being able to speak, having nothing to say, and yet being listened to---it afflicts the play's characters and implicates its playwright. Death, the protagonist, is gradual; it bares life, but does not corrupt it---for the lives of the dying have long been appropriated by the living. Even if others---living or dead---are not what one wishes they were, they deserve credit for being what makes one wish they were what they are not.
9 May 2010
"Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Truman Capote (1958)
Open-mindedness enriches routine, in Truman Capote's book. In Blake Edwards's insipid film, mindlessness exaggerates luck. Life's complexity disappoints those exhilarated by cinematic short-cuts. Yet, the disappointed rarely blame movies for their condition.
A theatre production or a movie, made and watched collectively, is designed to synchronously evoke shared emotions---typically, uplifting ones, as individuals seek company in joy and seclusion in grief. The requisite commonality degrades the production of an incapable director. A book, received in solitude, welcomes the nuance, which would wane at a séance.
A good book, too, misrepresents, as no intelligent author of good taste can bear late nights of exploring the mind of an unintelligent protagonist of poor taste. Misrepresentation advances art. Truman Capote's misrepresentations are consistent and intelligent.
Capote captures the essence of the traveller's attitude. Keep moving until you feel at home. ("I don't want to own anything until I know I've found the place where me and things belong together.") Recognise friends in strangers. ("For I was in love with her. Just as I'd once been in love with my mother's elderly coloured cook and a postman who let me follow him on his rounds and a whole family named McKendrick.") Be true to a goal. ("That's how your stories sound. As though you'd written them without knowing the end.")
A theatre production or a movie, made and watched collectively, is designed to synchronously evoke shared emotions---typically, uplifting ones, as individuals seek company in joy and seclusion in grief. The requisite commonality degrades the production of an incapable director. A book, received in solitude, welcomes the nuance, which would wane at a séance.
A good book, too, misrepresents, as no intelligent author of good taste can bear late nights of exploring the mind of an unintelligent protagonist of poor taste. Misrepresentation advances art. Truman Capote's misrepresentations are consistent and intelligent.
Capote captures the essence of the traveller's attitude. Keep moving until you feel at home. ("I don't want to own anything until I know I've found the place where me and things belong together.") Recognise friends in strangers. ("For I was in love with her. Just as I'd once been in love with my mother's elderly coloured cook and a postman who let me follow him on his rounds and a whole family named McKendrick.") Be true to a goal. ("That's how your stories sound. As though you'd written them without knowing the end.")
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