Things of Dry Hours - Young Vic

[foxa]

Going to see this play tonight.  Know very little about it, but retweeted a rehearsal photo and Emun Elliott (gorgeous Marco from 'A View from the Bridge') liked it - so I am already well-disposed.  I kept forgetting the title    but learned that it's a line from this poem:


kitchenette building
By Gwendolyn Brooks
We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan,
Grayed in, and gray. “Dream” makes a giddy sound, not strong
Like “rent,” “feeding a wife,” “satisfying a man.”

But could a dream send up through onion fumes
Its white and violet, fight with fried potatoes
And yesterday’s garbage ripening in the hall,
Flutter, or sing an aria down these rooms

Even if we were willing to let it in,
Had time to warm it, keep it very clean,
Anticipate a message, let it begin?

We wonder. But not well! not for a minute!
Since Number Five is out of the bathroom now,
We think of lukewarm water, hope to get in it.

Gwendolyn Brooks, "kitchenette building" from Selected Poems, published by Harper & Row. Copyright © 1963 by Gwendolyn Brooks. Reprinted by consent of Brooks Permissions.

Source: Selected Poems (Harper & Row, 1963)

[dani]

Is the idea of the title that it's the things that happen in our lives' apparently barren moments that turn out to be most significant?

[foxa]

Yes, I think so. That we spend much of your life working, putting food on the table, but in those dry moments (in this case, waiting for a shared bathroom to become free) is when there is a hint of a dream.

The play: this is not lighthearted fare. It's about 2 hours 40 minutes - one interval and heavy. It's directed by an emerging director, Debbie Hannam,who won this Genesis Foundation commission. I saw a preview and although all three actors (Jude Akuwudike, Michelle Asante and Emun Elliott) are good, at least one was noticeably flubbing some lines. Mr Foxa jumped ship at the interval, but I stayed and was glad I did as I found the second act much more interesting. It's set in 1932, Birmingham Alabama - about a black communist activist, his daughter and a stranger who arrives at the door.

In the second act, there was a strong scene between Michelle Asante and Emun Elliott and there was more genuine suspense and surprise. I quite liked the set (Mr Foxa was not so sure 'Where were they? There were steps down from the front door and then they disappeared in trapdoors - is it a basement? Why did they chop wood inside', etc.) I wasn't entirely convinced by some of the staging - lots of trekking offstage and on. Mr Foxa complained that the laundress character spent too long washing one sock ('Economically how would that work? - So much soap and time on a single sock - she'll go out of business...') Elliott is super committed: limp, twitch; nudity. In a better play this would be getting raves (and maybe it will anyway.)

2-1/2 stars from me.

[dlevi]

Well I admire Foxa's fortitude, I bailed at the interval as did quite a few others. This was as dull a play as I've seen in recent years and there was some serious line flubbing going on to the point f Ms Asante saying something to the effect of "WHAT are you trying to tell me?" . I'm not sure what Ms Hannam contributed to the evening to give her this special award and production, given the deadly pace, the odd design, the cliche-ridden sound effects and well, sorry - the choice of play. Was this produced under Kwame's watch or David's.?
As far as I'm concerned it was a waste of my time and theirs.

[foxa]

Fortitude, that's me :-) (actually I do bail sometimes, but I thought I should see this one out.) I entirely get your point of view, dlevi, which matches Mr. Foxa's.

I got curious and read some reviews of the U.S. production - which were mixed, but sounded more inventive (in that production, apparently the sheets were rigged up so that they suddenly took off and flew around like whirling Klansman accompanied by Mahler at one point.)

I'm not entirely sure, but I think the way the Genesis Foundation works is that emerging directors apply for it and go through a rigorous process to be selected. Part of what they have to do is pitch a play with no more than 3 characters that they would like to direct. Here's some info on the most recent director to be awarded it: www.genesisfoundation.org.uk/news/writer-and-director-nadia-latif-is-named-genesis-fellow-at-the-young-vic/