I don't have any kitty pics this week I'm afraid. Just this...
Fernando felt like seeing a movie Thursday night, since it's a long weekend for him. We rushed off to try and catch Transformers 3--his fave childhood series.
We got the right bus, so were in plenty of time. As we sauntered through the door we saw a poster for this:
Cineplex sometimes shows operas and theatre pieces from Stratford and the National Theatre.
Last year Fernando agreed to come see Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra with me, with Christopher Plummer, which was wonderful. But it's not something I'd expect him to agree to on a whim. He enjoys literature, but not necessarily when he's in the mood for transforming robot adventure.
Me: Oh it's one of those plays--playing today I guess.
F: Let's go see it."
[pausing at the doors]
M: You want to see The Cherry Orchard instead of Transformers.
F: It's Chekhov.
M: And you want to see him now, tonight.
F: What's wrong with you? It's Chekhov!
M: You want to see Chekhov instead of Transformers?
F: I've read and seen The Cherry Orchard two or three times. It's Chekhov!
M: And you want to see it again. Tonight.
F: Yes.
M: Instead of Transformers.
F: It's Chekhov!!
So we saw Chekhov, and my husband can still surprise me after 18 years.
I love plays so I've always wanted to read or see him, but I've always been putting him off because of the depression factor. Oh. My. Days. I was, like, blown back against my chair. What a play. So sad that they only do the National Theatre showings on one date (Stratford ones are sometimes on more than one day) cause I can't recommend it to you guys!
So many different emotions, so much going on, so much tension, so much intensity. Gasp!!
Zoë Wannamaker was so powerful! Oh my days my days. I couldn't remember where I'd seen her (Harry Potter, and Agatha Christie adaptations) because I was so completely immersed in her story of this woman whose childhood home and estate is threatened with foreclosure. Lady Andreyevna reminded me of Dickens' Lady Dedlock, and Gaskell's Lady Ludlow...
...aristocratic women so firmly trapped in their situations that even when an escape hatch is opened to them, you're afraid they're just going to go down with the ship. And that's where all the tension is. Like watching Holly Hunter at the end of The Piano, waiting to see if she'll free herself from her shackle in time, or just let herself drown.
The climax of the play was so harrowing, I was almost clutching my gut in pain. And during the climax of Lloyd's movie I was clapping with delight like a hyper child.
Ahhh. Art. If only my Prime Minister didn't hate you.
4 comments:
I didn't do well with The Cherry Orchard when I read it in college...too sad (I know, it's Chekhov but it's the only Chekhov I have ever read so I say this in total ignorance!) and I felt that the main character was unfairly ridiculed for her lack of financial knowledge and responsibility when the social strictures of the times fitted her for nothing of the sort.
I'm going to have to watch the whole Safety Lost movie now. I love physical comedy. It gets me everytime. (Except the 3 Stooges.)
Our fearless leader is showing his true colours now that he has his majority.
@Lora - I think you would have liked this staging, then, because she's not ridiculed at all. It felt like she wasn't letting go of her land, not because she didn't understand finance, but because of emotional reasons. A life she couldn't part with, childhood memories etc. That's why she reminded me of Lady Ludlow, who in Cranford keeps putting her estates more and more into debt for her loser son, even though she knows he's a loser, but... he's her son. Sniff sniff!
@JJJ - For me it depends on the actor. I love the Marx Brothers for example, including Harpo's physical comedy. And of course Lloyd, Chaplin and Keaton. :-)
@widder - Sigh. Ya. I can count at least 5 stories in the last month that made me >:-( He's coming fast and hard.
Post a Comment