August 2011
8 posts
A Winningly Ill-Humored Love
I went into the Stratford production of The Misanthrope thinking, you know, this is really a play that needs to be set in a high school. You’ve got a group of people who are essentially powerless and useless - having been deprived of any independent power by the absolutist king Louis XIV - but who are, by virtue of this very dependency, essentially equal, and who, because they are all...
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
At the other extreme from Jesus Christ Superstar - in terms of funding, exposure, and theatrical style - is the production of Richard III now playing at the Tom Patterson theatre. This has been described by many critics as overly traditional, but I don’t think they go far enough. This isn’t a traditional production; it’s, for lack of a better way of putting it, a reactionary...
Hosanna Hey-Sanna Sanna Sanna Ho!
There are actually two productions at Stratford this year where a principal character is greeted with “hosannas.” And now, having seen the other one, I finally understand what the fuss is about.
The fuss about Andrew Lloyd Webber, that is. My experience with his work has been relatively limited. I saw Cats (stupid) and Joseph (cute, but negligible) as a kid, and last year at Stratford...
Off, Off You Lendings!
The word, “Hosanna” is actually two words from biblical Hebrew and Aramaic: “hosha” (that’s Aramaic; the biblical Hebrew would be “hoshiah”) which is the imperative form of the verb “to save” or “to redeem” (i.e.: “save!” or “redeem!”) and the word “na,” which is a term indicating a request of a...
What Am I Doing Here?
I don’t mean here as in where I am physically - that’s Canada, the promised land, where I’ve already seen six productions at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival that I haven’t gotten around to writing about. I mean here as in on this blog, writing about theatre. What is the purpose of this activity?
The question comes to me because I’m still hoping to take this blog...
Doleful Matter Merrily Set Down
Belatedly finishing up the shows I saw in New York before I left town, I’m going to say a few too-brief words about an excellent production of The Winter’s Tale that was part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s celebrated residency this summer at the New York Armory on Park Avenue.
The Winter’s Tale is one of my favorite plays. I don’t have the time right now to go...
The Fantasticks
This was a problematic season at the Delacorte: in addition to All’s Well That Ends Well, we were treated to a riveting production of another “problem play” - Measure For Measure, one of my favorite plays and one that I’ve rarely seen done to my satisfaction.
The play presents numerous problems to a director and the actors in the company. Isabella is an extremely difficult...
Love's Labours Won
Assuming it’s not the title to a lost sequel to Love’s Labours Lost, I’ve always favored the theory that it’s an alternative title to All’s Well The Ends Well, Shakespeare’s highly problematic romantic comedy. There is no play in Shakespeare’s canon, that I’m aware of, where love, if that’s what is won in the end, is so plainly the product of...
