I'm like a DUCK
Ah, I just love this time of year - I have four assessments due in the next week and have been a bit manic trying to finalise them all. But I've reached the stage where I really have to take a break, so: hello, lj! Have seen a few things, but been too lazy to review. Here's what I can remember:
Saw Mark Strong in the NT broadcast of A View from the Bridge (Arthur Miller). Never seen the play in any form, really enjoyed it. The play centres around Eddie, an Italian-American longshoreman, and the whole play has this lovely theme of water going through it, all tied in with blood and migration and desire, which I could appreciate without having to look very hard for it. He and his wife Beatrice have a ward, Catherine, daughter of his late sister-in-law, who they love as their own. When Eddie helps Beatrice's two male cousins smuggle themselves into America (by submarine, apparently), and Catherine falls for one of them, Roldolpho, it sets off a chain of events that... doesn't end well.
So, I'll break it down into elements. The play was fantastic, although I really didn't like using the lawyer as a framing device (at the end, Eddie ends up betraying Beatrice's cousins to the authorities thanks to his disapproval of Catherine's relationship, and seeks legal advice along the way). I think I *got* it, in the sense that it was a tragedy and he's a chorus figure, but I didn't think it added much. I thought his exposition could have quite easily been incorporated into the scenes, and it would have been less disruptive. But okay. The rest I loved - the way the characters spoke, especially, was so evocative that this may have been the first time it bothered me that the characters didn't seem "Italian" enough. I don't usually have an issue with that kind of thing - for instance, colourblind casting has never bothered me - and that wasn't even relevant here since all the protagonists were white. But it really bothered me that only a couple of them "felt" in the least Italian. Hmm, reflecting on that, maybe it's that the dialogue didn't seem to feel quite natural, even though it was nothing specific. I think maybe it was some kind of heart, or fire, that some of them were missing. Passion. Is that a horribly stereotypical expectation, or an expectation generated by the dialogue that didn't come through in the acting? I don't know.
Because I would have said that the acting in general was very good. But it was a very English kind of acting, I suppose, quite classy and restrained for the most part. Mark Strong, especially - I couldn't fault him, but on the other hand his character basically goes through the play looking stoic, and thereby appearing to mostly rely on one expression. He didn't look wooden, mind you - there was clearly a lot going on beneath the surface. But still, he only really had one expression *g*
Regarding the staging, I have to spare a word for the sound, which is something I never notice in plays, but it had such a strong effect here - a kind of disquieting throb going on through a lot of scenes that just made them unbearably tense. You know that Poe story, The Tell-Tale Heart? I imagine it would have worked something like this soundscape. Very effective. Also intercut with snippets of a requiem mass, which was a bit dramatically OTT, but worked. The stage design was very simple but effective, evocative of a boxing ring, which again works with the story, in which Eddie explicitly tries to teach Roldolpho to box just so he can have a go at him. Also the tension between the old world and the new world, between his hopes for Catherine and her own desires, between Eddie's anger/jealousy and his conscience, and so on. So yes, good.
I had more mixed feelings regarding the direction - mostly, it was unobtrusive, but there were three particularly memorable moments - one good, the other two bizarre. The scene I liked was a very tense one where all the main protagonists are seated around the edges of the stage, and what would normally have been naturalistic pacing (I assume, given the rest of the play) was slowed to half-speed - the lines were delivered normally, but with lengthy pauses between them that showcased the other actors' facial expressions, while the sound ramped up the tension amongst them. The pacing therefore highlighted both what was being said, and how people were reacting to it. Interesting and effective. Then there were the odd scenes. The first one was where the other cousin, Marco, sees Eddie boxing with Rodolpho, and shows off his own strength by lifting a chair by the bottom of one of its legs, something Eddie has been shown to be unable to do. This is a kind of foreshadowing, because Marco will eventually best Eddie by, well, killing him. Anyway, Marco lifts the chair slowly and triumphantly into the air by its leg, while the spotlight shines brightly on him, and the sound swells. He looks like Lady Liberty. Point taken. And then he just holds the pose. And holds it some more. And keeps holding it. Music goes on swelling. Meanwhile, I start checking my watch and wondering when it'll be over. This is one of those things that might have worked better in the theatre, but was just bizarre on screen. I also hated the ending, where Eddie gets into a brawl with Marco (who is understandably upset in being betrayed thanks to Eddie's rage against Roldolpho), and is stabbed and killed. This was again very stylised - they start brawling naturalistically, and then in slow motion everyone ends up in a perfectly circular huddle, holding onto each other in the middle of the boxing-ring stage. Then blood rain falls from the ceiling, soaking them all, and covering the stage half an inch deep (at which point the purpose of the low glass walls bordering the stage makes itself apparent). They stay like that forever (and ever), and then finally break apart. Eddie lies slumped on the ground, being held by his wife in tableau, while the lawyer draws patterns in the blood. The end. Take bows, soaked to the skin in stage blood, and I'm already pitying the wardrobe department. No, I don't see that that was necessary - it went on for so long and was so stylised that it just looked silly, like a football team caught in the rain. Again, maybe it was better in the theatre, but whatever.
On the whole, though, an excellent production. And if you can contemplate the name of this play without once thinking about Kim Wilde, then... well done, you ;P
I also saw Pitch Perfect 2, which was AWESOME. I wasn't going to - I enjoyed the first one but didn't love it to pieces, and the reviews had been lukewarm. But
notalwaysweak loved it, and I needed something that didn't require much in the way of deep thought, so it suited the bill. Also, I love Rebel Wilson, who will always be the chick from Bogan Pride to me.Anyway, the movie was basically 95% amazing singing and terrible jokes, and I really don't know what more one could ask for. I was thoroughly, and consistently, entertained throughout, and that happens a lot less often than you'd think. I'm also quite fond of Anna Kendrick, but was blown away by the chick who played "physically flawless" Kommissar, from the German team (Das Sound Machine), who also looked awfully familiar. When I saw the credits, I realised she played Virgillia to Hiddleston's Coriolanus, and was one of the very few actors I actually liked in it (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen). So, from Shakespeare to Pitch Perfect 2, lol. She was amazing.
Oh, and there was Mark Gatiss in the televised screening of The Vote, which was lovely to have the chance to see. The play was a bit... random, I thought, funny and entertaining, but with a lot of loose threads that didn't really seem to go anywhere or mean anything. But thoroughly enjoyable nevertheless. Except the moustache. I like my Gatisses clean-shaven *g*
evila_elf also somehow inadvertently recced Battle Creek to me, to which I would have thought no to just from the name, but I'm loving it. It's a Vince Gilligan/David Shore co-production, so you'd think it'd pick up viewers of Breaking Bad (which I still haven't seen) and House (which I clearly have). It's exactly my thing, though - horribly underfunded police station at Battle Creek receives unexpected assistance in the form of an FBI field office headed by golden boy Milt Chamberlain. It's pure culture clash hilarity, and did I mention it co-stars Kal Penn? Oh, now I remember why I cared - it was because RSL appeared in the finale, which I haven't seen yet, I'm watching from the beginning and am up to episode 4. Great show, though, loving it. Of course, it's ALREADY BEEN CANCELLED. See also: Almost Human. Sigh. Agnew and Chamberlain remind me intensely of Steve and Danno for some reason, and I swear to you that Milt Chamberlain is some weird modern-day American embodiment of Captain Carrot from the Discworld novels. I swear to you. He really is.
***
On the fic front, in a lovely surprise development, phipiosum475 also recently asked if she could borrow my setup from A Better You to write her own fic. This is a House fic I wrote in 2009 which was itself inspired by a Dollhouse episode - in it, the invention of the "neuronormalizer" enables you to get "plastic surgery for the psyche" - that is, to get your brain rewired (within limits), with interesting repercussions for the characters involved. She's adapted the concept to Sherlock, and has just started posting her own fic. I admit I am intrigued by the pairing, which is John/Moriarty. Yeah, I should hope that would require some rewiring *g*. Anyway, if you're interested, her fic is here: Monkey's Paw.
I haven't read much fic lately, but I do have to recsplix's 12 Years a Slave fic, Word of a Gentleman (Epps/Ford), which does not seem to have received anywhere near the love it deserves. Because so much yes *g*. Also, while I'm here, a belated rec for frozen_delight's incessantly, softly (Sherlock/John), which I would say is a Groundhog Day style fic, except that a) it's not comedic and b) I hated that movie (sorry). But the principle remains, and I really enjoyed the premise. Please note the warnings/absence of warnings respectively.
Saw Mark Strong in the NT broadcast of A View from the Bridge (Arthur Miller). Never seen the play in any form, really enjoyed it. The play centres around Eddie, an Italian-American longshoreman, and the whole play has this lovely theme of water going through it, all tied in with blood and migration and desire, which I could appreciate without having to look very hard for it. He and his wife Beatrice have a ward, Catherine, daughter of his late sister-in-law, who they love as their own. When Eddie helps Beatrice's two male cousins smuggle themselves into America (by submarine, apparently), and Catherine falls for one of them, Roldolpho, it sets off a chain of events that... doesn't end well.
So, I'll break it down into elements. The play was fantastic, although I really didn't like using the lawyer as a framing device (at the end, Eddie ends up betraying Beatrice's cousins to the authorities thanks to his disapproval of Catherine's relationship, and seeks legal advice along the way). I think I *got* it, in the sense that it was a tragedy and he's a chorus figure, but I didn't think it added much. I thought his exposition could have quite easily been incorporated into the scenes, and it would have been less disruptive. But okay. The rest I loved - the way the characters spoke, especially, was so evocative that this may have been the first time it bothered me that the characters didn't seem "Italian" enough. I don't usually have an issue with that kind of thing - for instance, colourblind casting has never bothered me - and that wasn't even relevant here since all the protagonists were white. But it really bothered me that only a couple of them "felt" in the least Italian. Hmm, reflecting on that, maybe it's that the dialogue didn't seem to feel quite natural, even though it was nothing specific. I think maybe it was some kind of heart, or fire, that some of them were missing. Passion. Is that a horribly stereotypical expectation, or an expectation generated by the dialogue that didn't come through in the acting? I don't know.
Because I would have said that the acting in general was very good. But it was a very English kind of acting, I suppose, quite classy and restrained for the most part. Mark Strong, especially - I couldn't fault him, but on the other hand his character basically goes through the play looking stoic, and thereby appearing to mostly rely on one expression. He didn't look wooden, mind you - there was clearly a lot going on beneath the surface. But still, he only really had one expression *g*
Regarding the staging, I have to spare a word for the sound, which is something I never notice in plays, but it had such a strong effect here - a kind of disquieting throb going on through a lot of scenes that just made them unbearably tense. You know that Poe story, The Tell-Tale Heart? I imagine it would have worked something like this soundscape. Very effective. Also intercut with snippets of a requiem mass, which was a bit dramatically OTT, but worked. The stage design was very simple but effective, evocative of a boxing ring, which again works with the story, in which Eddie explicitly tries to teach Roldolpho to box just so he can have a go at him. Also the tension between the old world and the new world, between his hopes for Catherine and her own desires, between Eddie's anger/jealousy and his conscience, and so on. So yes, good.
I had more mixed feelings regarding the direction - mostly, it was unobtrusive, but there were three particularly memorable moments - one good, the other two bizarre. The scene I liked was a very tense one where all the main protagonists are seated around the edges of the stage, and what would normally have been naturalistic pacing (I assume, given the rest of the play) was slowed to half-speed - the lines were delivered normally, but with lengthy pauses between them that showcased the other actors' facial expressions, while the sound ramped up the tension amongst them. The pacing therefore highlighted both what was being said, and how people were reacting to it. Interesting and effective. Then there were the odd scenes. The first one was where the other cousin, Marco, sees Eddie boxing with Rodolpho, and shows off his own strength by lifting a chair by the bottom of one of its legs, something Eddie has been shown to be unable to do. This is a kind of foreshadowing, because Marco will eventually best Eddie by, well, killing him. Anyway, Marco lifts the chair slowly and triumphantly into the air by its leg, while the spotlight shines brightly on him, and the sound swells. He looks like Lady Liberty. Point taken. And then he just holds the pose. And holds it some more. And keeps holding it. Music goes on swelling. Meanwhile, I start checking my watch and wondering when it'll be over. This is one of those things that might have worked better in the theatre, but was just bizarre on screen. I also hated the ending, where Eddie gets into a brawl with Marco (who is understandably upset in being betrayed thanks to Eddie's rage against Roldolpho), and is stabbed and killed. This was again very stylised - they start brawling naturalistically, and then in slow motion everyone ends up in a perfectly circular huddle, holding onto each other in the middle of the boxing-ring stage. Then blood rain falls from the ceiling, soaking them all, and covering the stage half an inch deep (at which point the purpose of the low glass walls bordering the stage makes itself apparent). They stay like that forever (and ever), and then finally break apart. Eddie lies slumped on the ground, being held by his wife in tableau, while the lawyer draws patterns in the blood. The end. Take bows, soaked to the skin in stage blood, and I'm already pitying the wardrobe department. No, I don't see that that was necessary - it went on for so long and was so stylised that it just looked silly, like a football team caught in the rain. Again, maybe it was better in the theatre, but whatever.
On the whole, though, an excellent production. And if you can contemplate the name of this play without once thinking about Kim Wilde, then... well done, you ;P
I also saw Pitch Perfect 2, which was AWESOME. I wasn't going to - I enjoyed the first one but didn't love it to pieces, and the reviews had been lukewarm. But
notalwaysweak loved it, and I needed something that didn't require much in the way of deep thought, so it suited the bill. Also, I love Rebel Wilson, who will always be the chick from Bogan Pride to me.Anyway, the movie was basically 95% amazing singing and terrible jokes, and I really don't know what more one could ask for. I was thoroughly, and consistently, entertained throughout, and that happens a lot less often than you'd think. I'm also quite fond of Anna Kendrick, but was blown away by the chick who played "physically flawless" Kommissar, from the German team (Das Sound Machine), who also looked awfully familiar. When I saw the credits, I realised she played Virgillia to Hiddleston's Coriolanus, and was one of the very few actors I actually liked in it (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen). So, from Shakespeare to Pitch Perfect 2, lol. She was amazing.Oh, and there was Mark Gatiss in the televised screening of The Vote, which was lovely to have the chance to see. The play was a bit... random, I thought, funny and entertaining, but with a lot of loose threads that didn't really seem to go anywhere or mean anything. But thoroughly enjoyable nevertheless. Except the moustache. I like my Gatisses clean-shaven *g*
evila_elf also somehow inadvertently recced Battle Creek to me, to which I would have thought no to just from the name, but I'm loving it. It's a Vince Gilligan/David Shore co-production, so you'd think it'd pick up viewers of Breaking Bad (which I still haven't seen) and House (which I clearly have). It's exactly my thing, though - horribly underfunded police station at Battle Creek receives unexpected assistance in the form of an FBI field office headed by golden boy Milt Chamberlain. It's pure culture clash hilarity, and did I mention it co-stars Kal Penn? Oh, now I remember why I cared - it was because RSL appeared in the finale, which I haven't seen yet, I'm watching from the beginning and am up to episode 4. Great show, though, loving it. Of course, it's ALREADY BEEN CANCELLED. See also: Almost Human. Sigh. Agnew and Chamberlain remind me intensely of Steve and Danno for some reason, and I swear to you that Milt Chamberlain is some weird modern-day American embodiment of Captain Carrot from the Discworld novels. I swear to you. He really is.***
On the fic front, in a lovely surprise development, phipiosum475 also recently asked if she could borrow my setup from A Better You to write her own fic. This is a House fic I wrote in 2009 which was itself inspired by a Dollhouse episode - in it, the invention of the "neuronormalizer" enables you to get "plastic surgery for the psyche" - that is, to get your brain rewired (within limits), with interesting repercussions for the characters involved. She's adapted the concept to Sherlock, and has just started posting her own fic. I admit I am intrigued by the pairing, which is John/Moriarty. Yeah, I should hope that would require some rewiring *g*. Anyway, if you're interested, her fic is here: Monkey's Paw.
I haven't read much fic lately, but I do have to rec
splix's 12 Years a Slave fic, Word of a Gentleman (Epps/Ford), which does not seem to have received anywhere near the love it deserves. Because so much yes *g*. Also, while I'm here, a belated rec for frozen_delight's incessantly, softly (Sherlock/John), which I would say is a Groundhog Day style fic, except that a) it's not comedic and b) I hated that movie (sorry). But the principle remains, and I really enjoyed the premise. Please note the warnings/absence of warnings respectively. 