(Ленком at Dailes Teātris, 18 June 2011)
Just as Hitchcock encouraged Diane Baker in "Marnie" to extinguish her smile instead of frowning, Александр Морфов, by the second act, tempers the first act's farce and unchecked verbosity so as to intensify the tragedy, delivered in few well-chosen words and economical moves. The first act's mediocrity (powered by all but Анна Якунина), however, is probably mostly due to the script's deficiency and the method actors' desire to conserve their strengths for the second act, which all involved must have deemed more important. The cast is at greater ease inhabiting the characters in pain than in joy.
The production takes one on an emotional journey, exploring which emotion is likely to follow which, instead of an intellectual journey, describing which action leads to which outcome.
In expectation of money, the characters get so far by barter that one wonders why they needed any money in the first place.
18 June 2011
9 June 2011
Future Pass: From Asia to the World
(Abbazia di San Gregorio, 7 June 2011)
Consumerism 1.0 is materialism---a short-lived, private enjoyment from using and owning rearranged physical matter. Consumerism 2.0 is a longer-lived and often intrinsically social enjoyment derived from associating with and rearranging the elements of popular culture. Both vintages of consumerism are bolstered by fads. Vintage 2.0 advances the society's interests further than vintage 1.0 does, by bringing more durable gratification, being more social, and less passive. Scarcely mediated by material goods and hence scalable, Consumerism 2.0 creates enough demand for ideas in order to make it rewarding for most to create them.
Thus emerging popular culture, to Generation 1.0, may seem deceptively asexual. Because of Generation 2.0's earlier exposure to sexuality, its adopted symbols seem immature---but are durable. Mediated by these symbols, eternal youth will begin early and last late.
At the Exhibition, while no single work excels, the entire collection conveys a vision. Traditional art observes a gratifying aspect of reality and exaggerates it. By contrast, modern art---when it aims to profit from beauty at all---does not assume that its subjects' plausibility increases enjoyment. Thus the scarcity not only of the physical matter but also of truth is overcome.
Consumerism 1.0 is materialism---a short-lived, private enjoyment from using and owning rearranged physical matter. Consumerism 2.0 is a longer-lived and often intrinsically social enjoyment derived from associating with and rearranging the elements of popular culture. Both vintages of consumerism are bolstered by fads. Vintage 2.0 advances the society's interests further than vintage 1.0 does, by bringing more durable gratification, being more social, and less passive. Scarcely mediated by material goods and hence scalable, Consumerism 2.0 creates enough demand for ideas in order to make it rewarding for most to create them.
Thus emerging popular culture, to Generation 1.0, may seem deceptively asexual. Because of Generation 2.0's earlier exposure to sexuality, its adopted symbols seem immature---but are durable. Mediated by these symbols, eternal youth will begin early and last late.
At the Exhibition, while no single work excels, the entire collection conveys a vision. Traditional art observes a gratifying aspect of reality and exaggerates it. By contrast, modern art---when it aims to profit from beauty at all---does not assume that its subjects' plausibility increases enjoyment. Thus the scarcity not only of the physical matter but also of truth is overcome.
25 May 2011
"In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote (1966)
Crime is punished in order to preëmpt the perpetrator and deter others. (Correction is unlikely to be effective and is likely to be a poor value for money; more crimes can be averted by promoting contraception, investing in childcare in poor families and by financing college---instead of army---education for bright poor kids.) Insanity invalidates deterrence, but not preëmption. Retribution is a shorthand for deterrence and preëmption, at best.
Only the perpetrator can be punished, whereas guilt many be spread broadly. If social circumstances necessitate the crime, the perpetrator can be absolved and the society left unpunished but, possibly, redesigned or, at least, altered.
The main argument against capital punishment is its corruption of the executioners: the jury, the judges, the prosecutor, and the public. Whether a convict is better off dead or imprisoned for life, without parole, is unclear, as is unclear which of the options is cheaper, which one yields a fairer trial (the stakes are higher with capital punishment, but the opportunity for revision is greater with life imprisonment), which one will be preferred by the convict, and whether the convict can be trusted to make an informed choice (if yes, the choice must be granted). The third option, Australia, is not what it used to be. Perhaps, it can be replaced by a self-financing prison (a compact kibbutz or a monastery), in order to lift the prisoners' self esteem.
Good life adds, and concludes in death that does not subtract.
Only the perpetrator can be punished, whereas guilt many be spread broadly. If social circumstances necessitate the crime, the perpetrator can be absolved and the society left unpunished but, possibly, redesigned or, at least, altered.
The main argument against capital punishment is its corruption of the executioners: the jury, the judges, the prosecutor, and the public. Whether a convict is better off dead or imprisoned for life, without parole, is unclear, as is unclear which of the options is cheaper, which one yields a fairer trial (the stakes are higher with capital punishment, but the opportunity for revision is greater with life imprisonment), which one will be preferred by the convict, and whether the convict can be trusted to make an informed choice (if yes, the choice must be granted). The third option, Australia, is not what it used to be. Perhaps, it can be replaced by a self-financing prison (a compact kibbutz or a monastery), in order to lift the prisoners' self esteem.
Good life adds, and concludes in death that does not subtract.
21 May 2011
Cause Célèbre
(The Old Vic, 21 May 2011)
The text may have been appropriate for an all-forgiving classical opera, but for a play it is flat. The text takes no chances to be misunderstood, thereby excluding the audience from the creative process. The dialogues are literal. The two plot lines are poorly integrated and seem to exist only to present the playwright's, Terence Rattigan's, disparate thoughts.
The director, Thea Sharrock, fails to fill the void. The characters are generic. Social classes are type cast. The court-room drama is familiar.
The text may have been appropriate for an all-forgiving classical opera, but for a play it is flat. The text takes no chances to be misunderstood, thereby excluding the audience from the creative process. The dialogues are literal. The two plot lines are poorly integrated and seem to exist only to present the playwright's, Terence Rattigan's, disparate thoughts.
The director, Thea Sharrock, fails to fill the void. The characters are generic. Social classes are type cast. The court-room drama is familiar.
18 May 2011
The Pitmen Painters
(Cambridge Arts Theatre, 16 May 2011)
An artist captures private moments of beauty. An entertainer delivers whatever beauty pleases his public. A missionary seeks to impose his notion of beauty on others.
Commercial art expresses beauty that is easy to communicate. It is not the quest for money that turns an artist into an entertainer, but the withdrawal from life that money affords.
Art often attracts individuals eager to communicate but unable to do so by conventional means. That inability makes them ill-equipped to form a political force. Nor do successful artists need one.
An artist captures private moments of beauty. An entertainer delivers whatever beauty pleases his public. A missionary seeks to impose his notion of beauty on others.
Commercial art expresses beauty that is easy to communicate. It is not the quest for money that turns an artist into an entertainer, but the withdrawal from life that money affords.
Art often attracts individuals eager to communicate but unable to do so by conventional means. That inability makes them ill-equipped to form a political force. Nor do successful artists need one.
24 April 2011
"Collected Poems: 1953--1993" by John Updike (1993)
One writes a story to share a thought. One writes a novel to escape by getting lost in one's own plot. One writes a poem to relive an emotion, in slow motion, and, in a single incision with the precision of the correct word, to relieve oneself of that emotion and to pin it onto the world. Updike's service is not in the depth of individual verses, but in the fellowship of a life distributed "as is."
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
War reminds one not to accept the prevailing social hierarchy uncritically. Different hierarchies are appropriate for coping with different adversities (e.g., wars, famines, environmental catastrophes). Because one adversity cannot be said to be more just than another, one hierarchy most effective against one adversity cannot be said to be more just than another hierarchy most effective against another adversity. Justice is advanced by collectively recognising multiple adversities and ideals, and by individually acknowledging the accidental element in one's own social status.
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