29 May 2009
"Doctor Glas" by Hjalmar Söderberg (1905)
Typically, people are messengers for evil ideas, instead of being evil themselves. In such cases, one should focus one's efforts on fighting the attraction of these ideas, instead of eradicating the messengers. This is also why a murder is unlikely to be a satisfying experience. After the act, the murderer discovers that these were the ideas that he found repugnant, not the carrier of those ideas; those ideas survive, if only in the mind of the murderer.
23 May 2009
Sunset Boulevard
(Comedy Theatre, 23 May 2009)
A successful genius rarely operates alone. For instance, a successful picture requires skilful actors, a director with a vision, a team of script-writers, a producer with a taste and confidence necessary to halt the release of the picture in order to re-shoot some scenes---and also luck. Even the product of a seemingly lone writer is a story to which the intruders into the writer's life and the editor have contributed significantly. Finally, the public sifts through the creative works and appoints only few to immortality.
This tribute musical is a remake of the non-musical movie of the same title, but unlike that movie, the musical version will not gain immortality. Nonetheless, the musical has a value, as it signals historical continuity to those in the audience who find such continuity comforting. The audience, in turn, encourages such manifestations of continuity by thanking the actors in person for recreating and handing over to the audience the characters, which the audience is free to adopt and improve upon.
The play is about a writer and an actress who have lost the confidence in themselves and the belief in the industry to which they belong. They find temporary consolation in each other's company. It is harder, however, to agree on an imaginary world than on a real one.
The direction lacks Trevor Nunn, and music and libretto lack Cole Porter. Despite the conducive plot, the action never reaches the intensity at which a song would be a natural expression of one's emotion. The leads do good jobs, but mainly by approximating the performances of their counterparts in the motion picture.
The costumes were poor. Fedoras with the rims rolled up, the male lead's off-the-rack skinny trousers and his three-button jacket were accomplices in an unintended sartorial potpourri. The lead's polo t-shirt, blue on screen, is grey on stage---a gaffe that has robbed the character of much of his depth.
A successful genius rarely operates alone. For instance, a successful picture requires skilful actors, a director with a vision, a team of script-writers, a producer with a taste and confidence necessary to halt the release of the picture in order to re-shoot some scenes---and also luck. Even the product of a seemingly lone writer is a story to which the intruders into the writer's life and the editor have contributed significantly. Finally, the public sifts through the creative works and appoints only few to immortality.
This tribute musical is a remake of the non-musical movie of the same title, but unlike that movie, the musical version will not gain immortality. Nonetheless, the musical has a value, as it signals historical continuity to those in the audience who find such continuity comforting. The audience, in turn, encourages such manifestations of continuity by thanking the actors in person for recreating and handing over to the audience the characters, which the audience is free to adopt and improve upon.
The play is about a writer and an actress who have lost the confidence in themselves and the belief in the industry to which they belong. They find temporary consolation in each other's company. It is harder, however, to agree on an imaginary world than on a real one.
The direction lacks Trevor Nunn, and music and libretto lack Cole Porter. Despite the conducive plot, the action never reaches the intensity at which a song would be a natural expression of one's emotion. The leads do good jobs, but mainly by approximating the performances of their counterparts in the motion picture.
The costumes were poor. Fedoras with the rims rolled up, the male lead's off-the-rack skinny trousers and his three-button jacket were accomplices in an unintended sartorial potpourri. The lead's polo t-shirt, blue on screen, is grey on stage---a gaffe that has robbed the character of much of his depth.
17 May 2009
The 39 Steps
(Criterion Theatre, 15 May 2009)
Wit is in expressing more with less. A metaphor is in painting a picture in a phrase. A joke is in evoking an alternative story-line in a sentence. A formula is in encoding infinite content in a finite collection of symbols.
By shedding the superfluous, with four actors and minimal props, the play expresses the essence of the human mind's escape from boredom. Richard Hannay (Robert Portal), is of singular and, fortunately and yet inevitably, handsome constitution. All women are of the same essence (Tessa Churchard) and only vary in form; hence, Mr Hannay is wise just to wait for the right form to arrive. Other men are at most of two types (these types are sometimes carelessly borrowed by women)---slim or fat---and hence are portrayed by at most two actors (Nigel Betts and Alan Perrin). Suspense, romance, class, a little humour, and music successfully plot an escape from Mr Hannay's boredom, which is nothing but the absence of a structured thought, the absence that, if left unattended, spirals into despair.
Wit is in expressing more with less. A metaphor is in painting a picture in a phrase. A joke is in evoking an alternative story-line in a sentence. A formula is in encoding infinite content in a finite collection of symbols.
By shedding the superfluous, with four actors and minimal props, the play expresses the essence of the human mind's escape from boredom. Richard Hannay (Robert Portal), is of singular and, fortunately and yet inevitably, handsome constitution. All women are of the same essence (Tessa Churchard) and only vary in form; hence, Mr Hannay is wise just to wait for the right form to arrive. Other men are at most of two types (these types are sometimes carelessly borrowed by women)---slim or fat---and hence are portrayed by at most two actors (Nigel Betts and Alan Perrin). Suspense, romance, class, a little humour, and music successfully plot an escape from Mr Hannay's boredom, which is nothing but the absence of a structured thought, the absence that, if left unattended, spirals into despair.
13 May 2009
An Inspector Calls
(Cambridge Arts Theatre, 13 May 2009)
With over-rehearsed jerks, the gaze fixed on anything but his interlocutors, and the voice directed at the audience, an inspector forces the characters to confess to the lesson of this socialist propaganda: a better collection of social contracts can be enforced by the state than by the quid-pro-quo dealings of its citizens.
With over-rehearsed jerks, the gaze fixed on anything but his interlocutors, and the voice directed at the audience, an inspector forces the characters to confess to the lesson of this socialist propaganda: a better collection of social contracts can be enforced by the state than by the quid-pro-quo dealings of its citizens.
24 April 2009
Milk (2008)
From the first shots of Donna Reed opposite James Stewart it is clear that their characters will get married; just looking at the two, one experiences why. Similarly, put Cary Grant next to Grace Kelly, and the imagination fills in the rest. In contrast, setting up a gay romance requires greater articulation. The requisite skill is displayed by Sean Penn, less so by others in the picture "Milk."
The freedom of movement is a catalyst for other freedoms. America's size---which matters only because of the open state borders---is a major cause of America's prosperity.
The freedom of movement is a catalyst for other freedoms. America's size---which matters only because of the open state borders---is a major cause of America's prosperity.
20 April 2009
The Visitor (2007)
A late-middle-aged man confesses the lack of passion for his work to yet another person and admits the drum into the circle of his musical interests.
11 April 2009
"Pigeon Feathers" by John Updike (1963)
Just as background in mathematics makes a better scientist and background in ballet makes a better ballroom dancer, the skill of writing poetry helps one build precise verse. Updike's verse has the timing, phrasing, and parsimony of good poetry. The quality of his verse, however, is not always matched by the quality of the content. The disparate stories are uneven and overall inferior to Updike's novel "Marry Me," perhaps, because the conception of a story is often motivated by money, or because Updike the author of these stories is a less experienced writer than the Updike of "Marry Me."
Some stories in the collection are not drawings in their own right, but studies for a painting. Yet what makes each story readable is Updike's respect for his characters. Also, he never sentimentalises; instead, he lets actions, however minor, speak.
"A&P" is a story about a young man's tentative discovery of who he is, about his being true to this discovery in spite of the lack of full recognition thereof.
"In Pigeon Feathers," a boy and a father both confess to being afraid of dying; a more accurate description of their fear is that of not having lived. City life is either a distraction or an escape from that condition. Religion is a distraction by means of an imaginary escape.
"Home" suggests two kinds of people who live in the country-side: women who like land, and men who like people, dislike land, and are brought into the country-side by women. "His mother had been born in the county, on a farm, and felt involved with the land but estranged from its people." "His father had come from the centre of Baltimore, and groped after people, but saw no comfort in land."
Some stories in the collection are not drawings in their own right, but studies for a painting. Yet what makes each story readable is Updike's respect for his characters. Also, he never sentimentalises; instead, he lets actions, however minor, speak.
"A&P" is a story about a young man's tentative discovery of who he is, about his being true to this discovery in spite of the lack of full recognition thereof.
"In Pigeon Feathers," a boy and a father both confess to being afraid of dying; a more accurate description of their fear is that of not having lived. City life is either a distraction or an escape from that condition. Religion is a distraction by means of an imaginary escape.
"Home" suggests two kinds of people who live in the country-side: women who like land, and men who like people, dislike land, and are brought into the country-side by women. "His mother had been born in the county, on a farm, and felt involved with the land but estranged from its people." "His father had come from the centre of Baltimore, and groped after people, but saw no comfort in land."
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